Best of Enemies all three parts

[Catlady (Rita Prince Winston)]

--- In the_old_crowd at yahoogroups.com, Barry Arrowsmith (Kneasy) wrote
in

Kneasy wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/the_old_crowd/message/951 thru 954:

<< 5 so-called anti-Harry characters appear in book 1 >> 

Vernon, Petunia, Dudley, Draco, Quirrell, Lord Voldemort...I count 6. 

<<  And if it isn't credible, then once again all might not be what it
seems in the Potterverse of sneaky old Jo. >>

And Jo MIGHT not be AS sneaky as some fans give her credit for.

<< Hexing the broomstick. Huh. Not impressed. Classic demonstration of
a conflict of goals. Ignore Potter - just get the damn Stone. Why's he
farting around playing silly buggers with an 11 year old? >>

Presumably that was LV's doing; he, on the back of Q's head, saw
Potter and had a reflex response of being determined to smash him like
a bug.

<< A case of the 6 P's needing to be read, learned >>

What are the 6 P's?

<< And anyway, can't he do better than broom-nobbling? He's supposed
to be an expert on Dark Arts, isn't he? So why not use 'em? >>

He (if you mean Q) is supposed to be an expert on DEFENSE Against the
Dark Arts. And, as Defense against Dark Creatures appears to be just
as much of the curriculum as Defense against Dark Arts, maybe he was
hired solely for his skills with creaturess.

Btw, what makes a creature a Dark Creature? Dragons are bloody
dangerous but apparently not Dark.. Grindylows are considered Dark but
can be kept as pets by the mer-people. Are acromantulae Dark?
Basilisks -- FB says they were invented by Herpo the Dark? 

<< No plots, schemes, thefts, lies or persistent rule breaking from
the House of ill repute >>

Draco *did* manage to dress up as a Dementor and wander onto the
Quidditch pitch. It wasn't a very *clever* plot (WHY did he think
Harry would pass out at the sight of a fake Dementor just because he
passed out at the psychological effect of a real Dementor? HOW did he
plan to get away afterwards?)) but it was a plot.

<< in the film version Tom was not wearing a Slytherin badge on his
robe - it looked like Gryffindor to me. >>

IIRC it looked like Hogwarts to me -- as if the school had introduced
putting House badges on students since his time. I was annoyed but
someone led me to a publicity still of the actor in Tom costume, and
in that non-grayed-out picture it looked like green trim on his
uniform. But the accompanying publicity still of Myrtle STILL didn't
make the color of her uniform clear. Myrtle is such a vindictive,
nasty, and sneaky ghost that I think she should have been a Slytherin
in life, but she also was Muggle-born, which Salazar Slytherin had not
wanted in his House. I imagine that a Muggle-born in Slytherin House
would have even more misery than the average adolescent...

<< Like all would-be Evil Overlords Tom has yet to learn that
posturing, preening, bragging and striking poses are counter-
productive and always premature. Throughout the books it's a dead
give-away that whenever a character launches into paeans of self
praise a deus-ex-machina will turn up, he'll fall flat on his face 
and end up spitting teeth. >>

Diary!Tom had an excuse LV does not have -- he is only 16 years old.

<< Though I've never quite figured out why Ginny doesn't die too. 
If Tom turns up his toes because his life-force is destroyed by the
deadly dentition being thrust into the Diary and the life force
concerned has been extracted from Ginny.... >>

I thought Tom died because the deadly dentition crashed the computer
(the spell in the diary) that was running him as software until he got
a body (he was getting a body from Ginny's life-force).

<< There was somebody else associated with that Diary, and guess what?
This one has all the potential to be a dyed-in-the-wool, 24 carat,
deviously evil bastard of the first water.
Splendid!
A big hand please for Lucius Malfoy!

If you're of an age (or watch old films on late night TV) you might
recall a character actor from the 30s, 40s and 50s who played
wonderfully nasty but suave villains - George Sanders. That's who came
to mind when I read Lucius in the books. >>

I quote this part only to applaud it.

<< Ah, if only. Because the keyword in the preceding paragraph is
'potentially' - there are some niggling worries that Lucius may not be
as downright rotten as I for one would like him to be. Voldy calls him
'slippery' - yes, yes, sounds promising, but DD goes remarkably easy
on him after he was the proximate cause of all the mayhem in CoS.
That's worrying. Just a mild warning as to future behaviour. There's a
feeling that there's more going on than appears on the surface. Now
I'm not a vindictive type, but if I'd been in DD's place I'd [ha]ve
had him down the dungeons, hanging from chains while a cockatrice
speculatively eyed his goolies before the study door had swung shut.>>

Oh, surely Lucius Malfoy is utterly evil and incapable of repentance.
Surely Dumbledore only 'went easy' on him because that (removal from
the Board of Governors) was all the punishment that DD had the power
to administer to him. Because Lucius was so powerful in wizarding
society -- surely he never did anything so blunt as to threaten his
fellow Governors that he would curse their families; surely a mixture
of perjured witness testimony and *subtle* hints of loss of immunity
for certain past crimes or loss of a preference essential to their
career would suffice. Surely Lucius's power didn't depend only on such
slender reeds as bribed civil servants and friendly Fudge; surely
putting him in Azkaban even when he was caught in the act in the MoM
raid required a careful lining up of ducks in a row to prevent
consequences of a collapse of the wizarding stock market or street
riots by trained thug-wizards.

<< Unless.
Malfoy is not interested in Harry at all - or not directly. Let Potter
duke it out with Voldy; what's that to Lucius, particularly as Voldy
hasn't been impressive on the Potter front and could well lose? What
if Lucius's goals are more mundane than Voldy's but none-the-less
eminently desirable and achievable? Top dog after the dust has settled
perhaps - and best advanced by playing both ends against the middle.>>

Well, *natch*.

I have this vague theory that Lucius doesn't know that Voldie knows
that Lucius plans to betray and vanquish(*) Voldie when the time
arrives that Voldie seems more of a liability than an asset to
Lucius's ambitions. (To me, Lucius doesn't mind being the power behind
LV's throne but does mind e.g. LV destroying the economy that keeps
him rich.) 
(*) If Lucius believes the Prophecy, he will want to keep Harry alive
under his control for that reason.

But Voldie does know; he keeps Lucius around for the time being
because Lucius is useful AND Voldie actually feels a bit of affection
to him (possibly because of my other theory that TMR was Lucius's
godfather, possibly because working-class orphan TMR never got over
being impressed by toffs) but plans to destroy Lucius just before
Lucius turns against him.

I'm not sure which one will win, but I enjoy imagining the utter
*surprise* of whichever one loses. "But, but, but -- *I* was supposed
to betray *you*"