ZZZZZZZZ (was A dastardly Voldy plan - was: Re: Lockets

[dungrollin]

Talisman:
> > No, what DD wanted was for Harry, himself, to assert that he is 
> > The Chosen One, for Harry to accept the mantle.  That's what that
> > little task was all about. That's the only thing that no one 
> > else but Harry could do.
>  
> > Pull those strings DD.
> 
Magda:
> Well, yes I agree but there's another element to Harry's getting 
> that memory away from Slughorn: for the first time Harry had to use
> subterfuge to get what he wanted from an adult rather than just
> charging in like a Gryffindor hero.  He had to use strategy, take a
> round-about way rather than the direct approach (which bombed when 
> he tried it and he didn't waste time coming up with another 
> option).
> 
> Learning guile and cunning is a useful skill for a Chosen One.  Had
> Snape been under an invisibility cloak and seen the whole thing, I
> think he'd have been both surprised and impressed.

Dungrollin:
'Cept he didn't learn subterfuge, did he, he just took a potion. 
Harry's first effort at getting the memory involved blundering in 
with not even any idea of what a horsebox *was* - it didn't even 
occur to him to ask DD after seeing the doctored memory before he 
boldly wandered up to Sluggy and asked. 

It's interesting to compare the three of them (Harry, Tom and Snape) 
and how they would go about getting such information from Slughorn. 
Tom, we know, managed to politely flatter Slughorn into divulging 
almost everything he wanted to know. I can imagine a teenage Tom 
Riddle watching Harry's first attempt from under an invisibility 
cloak, rolling his eyes and muttering "Amateur!"

Snape, on the other hand, I don't think is capable of this kind of 
flattery. It's not in his nature to get what he wants by making 
people feel good about themselves. The only time I remember 
flattering behaviour from him was at the end of PoA when he was 
after an Order of Merlin from Fudge, when he was being an obsequious 
creep. And he didn't end up getting it, anyway. 

How would Snape do it? I think he'd trick Slughorn into revealing 
what he wanted to know. It would be very cleverly done, and done in 
such a way that Sluggy probably didn't even realise what he'd given 
away. A well set-up game of magical scrabble, perhaps... It couldn't 
be too hard to ensure that Sluggy had an H and an X and a triple 
word score to put them on, and then say "Oh Sir, you're making that 
up! I've read the entire restricted section of the library and there 
is *no* such thing as a Horcrux!" And wait to be proven wrong.

Harry knows it's hopeless. He's useless at this sort of thing, and 
he's already alienated Slughorn by being an idiot and charging in 
with the first stupid idea that occurs to him. So he cheats and uses 
Felix.

Perhaps the lesson Harry's learned here (and from the HBP) is that 
if your abilities in a certain sphere are limited, you can almost 
always cheat with magic.

Dungrollin