Fudge/ No Trial/ Chapter 14/ DD's Plan/ Chapter 15/ Lockhart/ Hiding Places

[Catlady (Rita Prince]

No: HPFGUIDX 189195

Shelley wrote in <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/189143>:

<< But that's exactly what is wrong with Fudge as Minister- he's unwilling to make the REALLY TOUGH decisions. Sacrificing a few Death Eaters so that Lord Thingy could not have his talented pool of thugs to regain power would have been a wise, sensible and best decision all the way around. It shows planning, forethought of preventing disaster. >>

There is another option besides 1) do nothing, 2) kill the prisoners, 3) dismiss the Dementors so that the prisoners are free to just walk out and go to Voldemort.

He should have prepared the necessary orders and logistics to replace the Dementor guards with Hit Wizards and Aurors as guards, and issued the orders and announced that Voldemort had returned to Britain and that the Dementors were going to change to being on his side and therefore he was dismissing the Dementors from Azkaban and replacing them with tough, skillful, loyal wizards. 

Then the prisoners might well have been killed while trying to escape, without it being a euphemism, and if they didn't try to escape, that would be all to the good. 

Of course, Fudge's judgment of people is so bad that he trusts Lucius Malfoy, so he might well have chosen tough, skillful, Death Eater wizards as replacement guards. I believe there are potions to improve one's memory; are there potions to improve one's judgment? He could have taken one dose of Felix Felicis, causing luck rather than judgment to make the right decision... if he had believed that making that decision was such an important day.

With Felix Felicis, Fudge might have even somehow have found that a majority of his people approved at least slightly of his decision. Without Felix, half the people want him to trust Dumbledore and believe that Voldemort is still a danger while half the people don't trust Dumbledore and believe that Voldemort is dead forever, half the people believe that the Dementors are an important weapon for the Ministry to use and the other half are varyingly distrustful of Dementors and somewhat glad to see them dismissed from government service, while somewhat fearful that the fired Dementors will take up the Dementor version of free-lance banditry.

But someone with even a little more charisma than Fudge, such as Amelia Bones or Rufus Scrimgeour or even Barty Crouch Sr (except for being dead) could have got the majority of the people to agree with his/her decision. Then some more people will decide that it is better to unite on not-the-best plan rather than to argue.

Eric Oppen wrote in <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/189158>:

<< One of the things that shocked me most was Sirius' casually mentioning that he hadn't been the only one thrown into Azkaban _sans_ trial. >>

I also found that shocking, but later we heard Dumbledore say that he himself had testified that Sirius was the Potters' Secret Keeper. That indicates that if Sirius didn't have a trial, there was at least some kind of hearing.

Those who hate Dumbledore now may discuss whether he believed his own testimony.

Alla discussed CoS Chapter 14 in <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/189166>:

<< Harry discovers that Riddle diary was stolen from him. Since it was taken from his room only a fellow Gryffindor could have done that. >>

Or by a House Elf, altho' a House Elf wouldn't have left such a mess unless ordered to do so. Or by a student using Polyjuice (or Invisibility Cloak) and coming in the door with a real Gryffindor saying the password.

Mike Crudele wrote in <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/189171>:

<< I think DD understood that LV had to resume corporeal form if he was ever going to be vanquished permanently. (snip) But that's why he brought the Philosopher's Stone to Hogwarts. I think all of those tests were designed to keep the students out, not LV (or rather the Quirrel/LV hybrid). (snip) Harry messed that up and almost got himself killed in the process. What was DD supposed to say to Harry after all that? "Good job, old boy, you mucked up everything." No, he can't deflate Harry, so he uses the incident to implant a *you're special* message to Harry. >>

New idea. Good idea.

Pippin wrote in <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/189173>:

<< But safety in numbers is a coward's safety, in the Gryffindor way of looking at things. It is either the safety of sheltering behind someone stronger, or of surviving because someone weaker or less fortunate than you was picked off instead.>>

Didn't they learn teamwork from all that Quidditch? In school matches, the Seeker might think that he wins all by himself (hmm, is having Beaters to fight the Bludgers cowardly?), but none of the other positions would get that idea. 

Alas, the arrogance of believing that oneself is indispensable and irreplaceable, and therefore not bothering about training a back-up person nor preparing a succession plan strikes me as typical Gryffindor arrogance.

Pippin wrote in <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/189178>:

<< Why not some world class experts on dark magic, and a world class expert on Voldemort, and someone who was utterly loyal to Harry and a badass fighter too? Oh wait, I've just described Snape, Lupin, Dumbledore and Sirius. >>

Which is which? If you listed them in order, they would be:

Snape: expert on Dark Magic
Lupin: expert on Voldemort
Dumbledore: utterly loyal to Harry
Sirius: bad-ass fighter

Ceridwen discussed CoS Chapter 15 in <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/189180>:

<< 2. Madam Pomfrey cautions Harry and Ron that the attacker might come back. Was this a vote of confidence for Hagrid? >>

Yes. Everyone who knew Hagrid knew he wasn't letting one of his monsters loose inside the castle. Everyone who knew Hagrid knew he couldn't keep a secret for anything. 

Nikkalmati wrote in <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/189184>:

<< I was puzzled, and I still am, about who Hagrid intended to shoot with a crossbow. Would it have done any good against the monster? >>

This is a forbidden "Me, too" post.

<< BTW how does the Basilisk tell which students are Muggleborns? >>

I believe that the Basilisk can't tell which students are Muggleborns and that the Basilisk mainly attacks targets of convenience rather than choosing whom to attack. That all the attacked students were Muggleborn, while Tom Riddle's and Lucius Malfoy's intention, was just a lucky-for-them coincidence. Like all the attack victims saw the Basilisk through something or reflected in something and therefore were petrified instead of killed was a lucky-for-them (and for Dumbledore)  coincidence.

Was Sir Nicholas Muggleborn?

Potioncat asked in <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/189185>:

<< 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? >>

Plenty of wizarding folk were plenty gullible where Lockhart was concerned. Oh, do you mean us readers? Rowling made it plenty clear that Lockhart was a big fake, so I don't suppose any readers believed any of his claims. Even the Hogwarts professor saw through the following: L said Mrs Norris is totally dead. D, who had been examining her, said she was not dead, just petrifed, L immediately said that he had been saying all along that she was petrified. How could he possibly have imagined that anyone would believe him with such QUICK self-contradiction? Is it POSSIBLE that all those witches who idolized him DID believe his latest claim even if it contradicted his claim of less than one minute ago?

Or do you mean, do we readers believe that some wizard somewhere wrestled a werewolf and won? Yeah, I do. Maybe that wizard drank a Super Strength Smoothie or Gloves Of Super Strength, and, while trying to put shackles on him, levitated a big rubber ball into the werewolf's mouth so it couldn't bite and infect him.

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? >>

I believe this really happened, including the Homorphus Charm. But the Homorphus Charm does not cure lycanthropy; it only turns the werewolf's appearance back to human for a short moment. But that short moment is long enough for his neighbors to recognize him. So they can easily kill him when the Full Moon ends, leaving him a vulnerable and exhausted human being.

Mike Crudele wrote in <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/189188>:

<< The Cup - Hmm,... I'm thinking not so good there. All LV did was give it to Bella to hide. Bella, sticking it in her vault and adding that burning, reproducing spell, did only an OK job, IMHO. Granted, it took a Gringotts goblin just to open the vault, but that doesn't seem to be such a big deterrent any more, does it? If Harry and company managed to retrieve it, I don't consider it that well protected. >>

I think the burning, reproducing spell was standard in Gringotts vault, applied by the Goblins (possibly to the vaults rather than to their changeable contents) rather than by Bella. I think LV told her to put it in her Gringotts vault, rather than she thought of that herself. I think a Gringotts vault is a pretty safe hiding place, which Our Heroes could not have even broken into, let alone got out again, if the author hadn't been pulling strings in a big way. 

<< 5. The Tiara - Sorry, no dice on this one. All LV counted on was it being hidden in a room that was semi-hard to get into and in amongst a bunch of other junk. >>

It seems he believed that he was the only person who could find or get into the Room of Rubbish, just as he was the only person who could get into the Chamber of Secrets. Unless he had some reason to believe that Salazar had created the Room of Rubbish for his Heir, that was a piece of his megalomania or narcissism.