CHAPTER DISCUSSION: COS 14 and Protecting Draco (Longish)

[Mike]

No: HPFGUIDX 189196



> > Alla' questions:
> > 1.	I am pretty sure JKR was going for comic effect with the
> > Mandrakes,

> Nikkalmati
> 
> If you think about it, it is a little distressing, but i just
> took it as amusing that they were so humanlike.  I assume they
> would be treated humainly at the proper time.

Mike:
I think Pippin said it best. Things aren't always what they seem in the WW. JKR liked to use a lot of euphemisms. The Mandrakes *partying" and "joining another's pot" and even "developing acne" could have been replacements for the Mandrakes tendency towards a cannibalistic nature or a desire to crowd out and strangle the weaker plants, as plants might do in a forest.


> > 3.	What was your first impression of Cornelius Fudge?

> Nikkalmati
> 
> he seemed like a weak-kneed bureaucrat at first, but I was
> impressed that he stuck up for DD in front of Malfoy.

Mike:
In the Potterverse, names meant everything, didn't they? Cornelius - a nice name for a pompous politician. Fudge - a pliant, sweet but unnutritious concoction. So we had a pompous yet pliant politician, a nice guy at heart, but was of little use by himself.


> > 4.	 I know it will come as no surprise to anybody but I found
> > myself if not sympathizing with Lucius Malfoy, at least
> > definitely cheering him on and hoping in vain that somebody in
> > the later books had guts to act decisively and throw Dumbledore
> > out of school for good. 

> Nikkalmati
> 
> Were you already at this point so anti-Dumbledore?  I don't think
> it would do any good to throw him out because only a worse person
> would replace him, if LM had anything to do with it.  The Board of
> Governors doesn't seem to pay much attention to the working of the
> school unless there is a crisis.  I think they let DD do whatever
> he wanted. 

Mike:
I agree, the Board of Governors for Hogwarts acted much like our Detroit Public Schools board acts - in it for themselves with little concern for what went on in the school(s) unless it reflects badly on them. I do think Dumbledore could have used a little more oversight. But I also think the Board was probably overawed at having such a famous and powerful wizard as their headmaster. They pretty much proved themselves to be spineless, both in their reaction to LM's threats and later, in OotP, when they didn't lift a finger against Fudge and Umbridge's meddling. 


 
> Nikkalmati
> 
> I don't believe that I thought for a moment that [Hagrid] was
> guilty of releasing the monster. I did think he might have done
> something wrong. 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? Wouldn't he get petrified before he could
> shoot?   Was he planning to shoot Fudge or Malfoy, if they came
> after him?

Mike:
Hagrid knew Tom Riddle framed him, and I think he knew Tom Riddle was really the one responsible for openning the chamber the first time. I figure DD at least told Order members that Riddle became Lord Voldemort, though I have no canon to support this suspicion either.

But if the above was true, then Hagrid must have thought that LV had already returned, we know he had expected it to happen sooner or later. The crossbow was his best defense against LV, he certainly couldn't fight LV with magic. He would probably be counting on his giant blood to protect him against LV's first few volleys, enough to get off a few shots anyway. 



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

Mike:
The person controlling the Basilisk does it, right? I mean, a wild Basilisk (are they found in the wild?) wouldn't care what the heritage was of their prey, I'm guessing.



> Nikkalmati
> 
> I didn't think of her because she did not seem to play a very
> large part and she was so young.  She must have been very strong
> to throw away the diary.  Why didn't Harry ever write in it after
> he saw Hagrid's story and why wasn't he ensnared in it.  Ginny
> must have feared he would be captured by the diary as she had been,
> but didn't the fact that there were no incidents for several months
> tell her Harry was not possessed by Tom?

Mike:
A couple of good points in your answer. The hint that Ginny was indeed strong enough to at least try to shed herself of the Diary/Horcrux once. It must have been possessing her for some time and she still managed to throw it into the toilet.

Was the fact that Harry had a soul peice in him a defense against possession? Or was it Harry's unique ability to love, the thing that supposedly threw out Voldemort in OotP, that protected him? My thought, a soul piece wouldn't try to possess a person that already had a matching soul piece in him/her, what would be the point. Conversely, maybe some of our speculation about why Voldemort couldn't stand to be inside Harry was true. Maybe clashing two soul bits together makes them fight each other for dominance, or maybe they try to join back together causing excrutiating pain.


-- From http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/189190
>> Pippin (on protecting Draco in HBP):

>> There isn't any way to oppose Voldemort and not create hostages to fortune. But I would rather say, if I had to, that I had lost a hostage child because I opposed Voldemort, than to say I had lost a hostage child because I didn't. <<

Mike:

Dumbledore showed me his true colors in his speech to Harry in OotP when he confessed to not caring "if numbers of nameless and faceless people and creatures were slaughtered..." And this is the dichotomy that is Albus Dumbledore. He does some things for the "greater good", like preparing Harry to die to get rid of the soul piece, sacrificing Order members to protect Snape's cover or his *plan*. Then he does other things, like protecting Draco, that can't be in any way said to be for the "greater good". 

Draco was not in his plan, Draco was not even a member of the good team. Draco was a rogue agent, acting recklessly in his attempt to carry out a murder for the bad guys. Just because DD was going to die and had no real concern for his own safety, does not give him carte blanche to expose the rest of the Hogwarts student body to this walking time bomb. I know DD was counting on Snape to keep an eye on Draco, hoping to obviate any collateral damage. But that wasn't working, was it? And DD wasn't even the one who saved the two collateral victims.

I'm siding with Alla on this one. Shouldn't the protection of the rest of his students have come before the protection of an attempting and possibly future murderer? 

Pippin, you refer to Draco as a hostage child, but doesn't allowing him to continue his quest hold the rest of the school hostage to Draco's whims? You also said that Draco doesn't have any one to come to his defense, to tell him what he's doing is wrong. Didn't Draco have Snape out there trying to talk him out of his reckless behavior and Draco refusing to listen to wisdom? Didn't Snape take a vow with Narcissa to protect Draco? Just because Draco is too stupid and headstrong to listen to Snape does not make him a virtual orphan. It makes him an ass, and one not worthy of the protection he's been afforded and is refusing, IMNSHO.

~Mike