Chapter Discussion: Chamber of Secrets Chapter 10, The Rogue Bludger

[potioncat]

No: HPFGUIDX 189185

> Ceridwen
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> 1.  Harry submits to being Lockhart's supporting player but when the trio get the signature all it takes is Hermione gushing over Lockhart's book, Gadding with Ghouls.  Was it necessary for Harry to have put himself through the play-acting?

Potioncat:
He didn't have much choice anyway--at least in his own mind he had a purpose. Snape taunts Harry, and Lockhart uses him--isn't it great to be famous!
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> 2.  Moste Potente Potions is a musty book.  Are there other copies of this book around, perhaps in Snape's office, so advanced Potions students don't request this copy very often?  Some of the illustrations are gruesome.  Would this be a book an advanced student might need to use or is it a relic from much earlier times?

Potioncat:
Well, the word is actually moldy. I thought the book was very old, and possibly stained from potion ingredients. I wouldn't think it would be used very often. But I'd bet Barty Crouch took a look.
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> 3.  Harry, Fred and George all recognize that the rogue Bludger is attacking Harry.  Couldn't anyone else on the field see that?  Or is it that the game matters more than any individual thing going on?

Potioncat:
I don't get it either--you'd think Hooch would stop the game, or that McGonagall would do something. Snape took care of the jinxed broom, why not the rogue Bludger?
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> 6.  A Basilisk's gaze can kill.  When Dumbledore opens Colin's camera, a jet of steam hisses out.  Is this consistent, do you think, with the full effects of a Basilisk's stare?  Does the Basilisk's stare fry a person's insides, leaving a petrified shell?

Potiocat:
Well, it was a pretty cool effect. I could work it out to  make it make sense, if I really had to.
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> 7.  Harry thinks that McGonagall is just as puzzled as he is when Dumbledore said the more important question is how the Chamber is being opened.  Does Dumbledore know at this point that it would require the use of Parceltongue to open it?

Potioncat:
Well, it just struck me that we've been told there is no Chamber of Secrets, yet both DD and McG seem to believe the non-existant chamber was opened before. I'm never very clear as to what DD really thinks or believes.

Thanks for these interesting questions! I have a couple too, now that I have time to re-join HP.

8. Lockhart describes wrestling with a werewolf. Did anyone believe that story? Even before we saw what a WW Werewolf is like? So why is he so popular? 

9. And what really happened in that village? if Lockhart interviews the real wizard, and wipes his memory, did someone rid a village of a werewolf---or is this one all fiction?