HBP: thoughts...

[Barry Arrowsmith]

--- In the_old_crowd at yahoogroups.com, "Smythe, Boyd T {FLNA}" <boyd.t.smythe at f...> 
Space,
Where
No-one
Can
Hear
You
Scream -
"How
Long
With
These
Damn
Spoilers,
Neil?"

> 
> * Looks like we've finally got that powerful dark lord and dark war we've
> been hankering for! Thank goodness! Can't wait for the chaos of the
> marauding Dementors, acromantulas, giants and all in book 7. Hurray, chaos!

Oh, yes.
Death, destruction, mayhem. Dementors rushing around, miming "No Quarter!"
About time, says I.

> snip
> * Harry and all of his classmates suck at doing magic. 11 year old wandless
> Tom was already forcing people to "Tell the truth" and performing wandless
> magic left and right. A teenaged Severus was rewriting the potions book and
> creating his own spells. The teenaged Marauders were all animagi. Even Fred
> and George have done new magic. Meanwhile, Harry and Ron still struggle to
> do magic without speaking and Harry can't Occlumens worth a darn. Has anyone
> in his class done anything magically to be so proud of? Weak, weak, weak. 

This is a good point.
Many of the fandom have long been comfortable with the illusion that
Harry is a 'powerful' wizard. Some of us have tried to point out that this isn't
justified in the text. He's been enormously lucky, having all that protection, 
both spell induced and with  DD turning up at the right moment, and the finale
battle at Hogwarts puts his power in perspective. He wouldn't stand a chance
against Snape if Sevvy decided to snuff him, Harry's own spells are waved 
off by Snape as if they were slightly irritating flies. Even Draino looks to be
at least  the equal  of Harry -  mastering Occlumency and Unforgiveables in 
his spare time. And yet Snape is in fear and trembling of Voldy's magical power.
Magically Harry is not in the First Division.

> So this leads me to believe that either Harry is going to have to go up a
> learning curve that strains credulity, or he's going to need tons of help in
> his final engagement with LV. 

It'll be help, is my guess.
Does he know how to locate/identify/disable/destroy Horsecluckses? Or
the protective spells surrounding them? Nope.
And it's not likely that Hermy will find out how in a textbook.
Help will be needed. He needs an expert in Dark Magic.
Guess who.
But can he come to terms with it?
Ah, there's the rub.

> * Is there anything we don't know yet about why LV wanted to come back to
> Hogwarts to teach? DD assumes he was looking for another item to make a
> horcrux. Is that it? Seems hardly enough to make him curse the DADA
> position.

The Chamber. It's still there and I believe it's still important.

Kneasy