[the_old_crowd] [OOP]: The Arch Room

[Monika Huebner]

On Sun, 06 Jul 2003 20:59:44 -0000, "Jim Flanagan"
<jflanagan1 at ...> wrote:


>1. On p. 721 of the UK edition, Dumbledore refers to the Arch Room 
>as "The Death Chamber."  Evidently, walking through the arch (or 
>being thrown through) must have been the means of legal execution at 
>some time in the past.

Hm, wouldn't it have been easier just to AV those who were condemned
to death than building this mysterious and complicated thing? 

There's something else I find odd about it, that is the fact that
Nearly Headless Nick (just like Lupin) seemed to know exactly what was
behind the veil. He told Harry that Sirius had "moved on" and wouldn't
come back as a ghost. What does this mean? Didn't JKR say at some
point we would learn why some people become ghosts and others not in
Book 7, but that it was those who didn't die happy were prone to
become ghosts? Sirius didn't exactly have a happy life, not even
before Azkaban, so he would have been a good candidate for coming
back. But if the arch really *was* the means of legal execution, maybe
it was there to prevent the criminals from becoming ghosts? Just a
(admittedly weird) thought.

>2. Something that puzzled me about the Arch Room was why some of 
>the "sexumvirate" seemed to hear the voices behind the black veil, 
>and some didn't.  Harry, Neville, and Ginny became entranced and had 
>to be dragged away, while Hermione and Ron did not.  Luna heard the 
>voices, but apparently did not have to be dragged away.  This is not 
>the same pattern as the ability to see Thestrals, so I wonder why 
>each person reacted in the way they did.  Any thoughts?

Interesting observation. If Neville wasn't part of the group, I'd say
maybe it's because they directly dealt with Voldemort, while Hermione,
Ron and Luna did not. But perhaps we still don't know everything about
Neville, after all, the prophecy could have applied to him as well if
Voldemort hadn't gone for Harry to mark him as his equal.

Monika
who isn't sure this makes a lot of sense...