COS Chapter Twelve: "The Polyjuice Potion"

[for-diddled.livejournal.com]

* Sincere apologies for the lack of postage over the past few weeks; suffice to say that, whilst I’d be happy to log on regularly, RL seems to have other ideas.

 

* Slytherin are so evil that even the thought of being there is enough to make Harry feel sick. These books are such a good argument for tolerance, don’t you think?

* “Harry was just thinking that all he needed was for Dumbledore’s pet bird to die while he was alone in the office with it” just makes him sound so self-centred. Never mind about the dead bird, or Dumbledore losing his beloved pet, I might get in trouble for it! Even though I’d have no motive in killing it and it was pretty obviously sick before I came in.

* Fawkes is usually very pretty, just in case we were worrying that Harry might end up having his life saved by something ugly.

* Given what we now know about Dumbledore’s views on personal loyalty, the emphasis on the word “faithful” looks rather sinister.

* Any guesses on why exactly Hagrid needs to carry the rooster around with him in the castle?

* That’s right, Harry, don’t tell DD about that mysterious voice you heard! Heaven forbid that you might actually help him solve the mystery before anybody is seriously hurt.

* I think it’s rather sweet that Crabbe and Goyle are staying behind with Malfoy. They really do seem to care about each other. (Well, until the abomination that is DH, that is.)

* Harry’s glad that most people are leaving, despite the fact that this’ll narrow down the potential list of suspects and make it more likely that they’ll be caught.

* “[Harry] was tired of people skirting around him in the corridors, as though he were about to sprout fangs or spit poison; tired of all the muttering, pointing and hissing as he passed.” I wonder if that’s what the Slytherins feel like all the time?

* I have to admit, F&G’s heir of Slytherin routine is pretty amusing. But since it’s so different to their usual brand of “humour”, I think I can like it without feeling too guilty.

* I wonder why Fred, George and Ginny have decided to stay? Is it because the fine Mr. Weasley had to pay means they can’t afford to take them, and they’re too proud to admit the real reason?

* I’m sure that the teachers of Hogwarts appreciate Percy staying behind to help them, even if Harry doesn’t.

*How rude of the Dursleys to send him a toothpick like that, especially when Harry gave them an expensive luxury hamper bursting to the brim with Honeyduke’s finest chocolate. Or nothing. I forget which.

* BTW, it seems odd to go to all the trouble of sending Harry such a silly little present. Unless DD sent Hedwig to keep bothering them until they sent something…

* Ron gives Harry a book about Ron’s favourite Quidditch team, rather than something Harry would be expected to be interested in.

* I hope Mrs. Weasley gave her real children presents which were at least as good as the ones she gave Harry.

* F&G have bewitched Percy’s Prefect Badge to make it say “Pinhead”. Oh, the hilarity!

* Crabbe and Goyle eat four helpings of pudding. Harry and Ron, who aren’t greedy pigs, limit themselves to three.

* Hermione’s telling the Slytherins that Millicent Bulstrode came back would backfire spectacularly once they realised that Millicent had not in fact returned, and that they had, therefore, been tricked.

* It’s a shame that nobody’s written a HP/Hercule Poirot crossover fic, in which Poirot investigates the Polyjuice incident. He’d probably solve the mystery within half an hour, and then work out who’s petrifying all those students for good measure.

* Ron and Hermione are prepared to knock out two of Draco’s friends based on extremely flimsy evidence. Remember this is HBP, when they refuse to believe that Draco’s up to something, despite having much better evidence than they do here.

* At least Harry and Ron didn’t strip Crabbe and Goyle. Be grateful for small mercies, I suppose.

* Millicent Bulstrode is “no pixie”, apparently, which seems like a polite way of saying “fat”. Outside of fandom, are there any pretty Slytherin girls, or are they all fat and ugly?

* You’d have thought it wouldn’t have been beyond the Trio to change into their new clothes before taking the Polyjuice Potion.

* Ever since reading Draco Dormiens, I’ve always imagined Harry surreptitiously checking to see whether Goyle is bigger than he is.

* And now they’ve got to find the Slytherin common room. Gee, guys, would it have been impossible to find that out before you took the Potion? Even if you don’t arouse suspicion by not knowing where it is, you’ll waste valuable time trying to find it.

* All this makes Ron’s quip about Goyle being dumb look rather silly.

* I don’t know why, but I’ve always thought that this Ravenclaw girl was Penelope Clearwater. Perhaps she’s just been meeting Percy in one of the disused dungeons.

* Whoever she is, her reply to Harry and Ron is rather rude. Is that what the Slytherins are treated like all the time? It’s a shame Harry and Ron never consider this, and maybe get a bit of sympathy for the Slytherins.

* The Slytherin password is “Pureblood”, just to remind us that they’re all racists, and, therefore, evil. Never mind that Slytherin’s most famous alumni, Tom Riddle and Severus Snape, were both halfbloods, and in Tom’s case, there was no way to know whether he was a muggleborn, pureblood or half-blood.

* The Slytherin common-room doesn’t look particularly luxurious, which seems odd for a supposed bastion of aristocratic privilege. Perhaps it’s like that to try and inculcate some humility into the children, like the fag system in old British public schools.

* I think it’s rather sweet of Mr. Malfoy to send his son newspaper clippings like that. “Here, Draco, let’s both laugh together at these guys!” I still think it odd that such an evil bully as Draco apparently is wouldn’t make greater use of it to humiliate Ron. Maybe he’s not so bad after all.

* Mrs. Weasley has threatened to set the family ghoul on reporters, apparently not realising that that sort of action is extremely bad publicity.

* Draco’s theory about DD hushing up the attacks is probably correct; at any rate, nobody seems to refer to them much in later books.

* Do racists normally go on about how much they hate [insert ethnicity here] as much as Draco’s doing in this scene? It just comes across as really false and over-the-top, at least to me. Perhaps he’s twigged that there’s something wrong with “Crabbe” and “Goyle”, and is deliberately acting oddly in order to see if they notice.

* Draco wishes that Hermione would get killed by the monster. Knowing what she’s going to become in later books, I can’t help but wonder whether that might not be for the best after all.

* For all Harry and Ron’s jokes about C&G being thick, they seem to be arousing Draco’s suspicions by being slower on the uptake.

* Harry and Ron are “hoping against hope that Malfoy hadn’t noticed anything.” I wouldn’t count on it, guys; he seems like a good Potions student, so he probably remembers what Snape said about the Polyjuice Potion; Harry and Ron were the least convincing Crabbe and Goyle imaginable; a boy who can notice Harry’s foot slipping out of the invisibility cloak for a split second would almost certainly notice his best friends changing into somebody else before his eyes; and the real Crabbe and Goyle would tell him that they weren’t there. He probably knows what happened, and feels really annoyed that DD doesn’t do anything about it.

* What’s the point of Cat!Hermione? It doesn’t advance the plot, it doesn’t contribute to characterisation, and it doesn’t add to the atmosphere of the story. Perhaps it’s to stop people questioning her plan by making them feel sorry for her.

* “Madam Pomfrey never asks too many questions…” Given what goes on in Hogwarts, maybe it’s time she started.

 

Comments

[condwiramurs.livejournal.com]

Arg omg yes. Word. WTF she CHOSE to die? Sorry, no. Sometimes people just DIE, Dumbledore, because their body simply cannot work anymore. It's not necessarily a CHOICE.

Not to mention the ickiness of implying that the series' Incarnation of Ultimate Evil psychopathic villain's evilness is really his mother's fault for being "weak." Blame it all on the supposedly weak-willed woman, yeah, there's a new strategy that no-one in history has ever thought of.

Except the whole original sin, apple in the garden thing. And the whole women-are-the-devil thing. And... and...

Sorry, feeling ranty today.

In defense of Lily (not that I often find myself in this position) it's not clear that she did in fact know that they were targeted because of a Prophecy supposedly naming Harry as the one to defeat Voldie. It's not made explicit that DD ever told the Potters exactly why they had to hide, beyond the fact that Voldemort was targeting them for *some* reason. Given that they were Order members and had, supposedly, somehow already personally defied him thrice, it's not that unlikely that Voldie would put them on his hit list. They may have just supposed that Voldie finally got to their names, but DD luckily got the info in time to warn them.

On the other hand, they might have known and Lily was just being stupid in a moment of desperation. Which is rather understandable. Doesn't make her really match the proud heroine we were led to expect, but for a 21-year-old faced with a psychopath who's killed her husband and clearly wants to kill her baby, it's not unsurprising.

No excuse for either of them not having their WANDS on them at all times, however. Or not having a bloody escape route planned. Don't they know how to APPARATE? Or fly brooms?

[lynn-waterfall.livejournal.com]

For whatever it's worth, Hagrid didn't know that Voldemort had been targeting Harry, even ten years later:

"You-Know-Who killed 'em. An' then -- an' this is the real myst'ry of the thing -- he tried to kill you, too. Wanted ter make a clean job of it, I suppose, or maybe he just liked killin' by then. But he couldn't do it.

Not that Hagrid is someone that you'd tell secrets to, so it doesn't surprise me that he wouldn't've known back in 1981, but it strikes me as odd that Hagrid still didn't know later. I would kind of have expected that to have been part of the whole Harry Potter legend, but apparently it wasn't.

That doesn't really tell us much about what Lily and James knew, but it's kinda interesting. I'm not sure we've discussed that before... does that make sense with the theory that Dumbledore deliberately fostered the idea that Harry defeated Voldemort, etc.?

[borg-princess.livejournal.com]

that make sense with the theory that Dumbledore deliberately fostered the idea that Harry defeated Voldemort, etc.?

a) I said that somewhere on this page...um...yeah, not combing through all the comments, lol, but I do totally believe that. Because how else would anyone have known? The baby disappeared into the Muggle world, most people didn't know he was still alive and off living with the Dursleys (except for the couple who shook Harry's hand or something as a kid), and anyway, how would they leap to the notion that the baby did anything when there are two dead adult wizards as well?

Sirius was off on his mission of revenge and Hagrid was playing the stork, so that leaves Dumbles to spread the news and deliberately create the myth of the Chosen One. I suppose he felt it would be handy so that Harry had some credibility when he turned up as an ignorant kid completely out of his depth, so that people would be in awe and naturally look to him when war came.

Also, having been mistreated for years, he'd have no love of the Muggle world and develop a strong bond to the WW, making him easy to mold into the weapon Dumbles needed, to turn the kid into a mindlessly loyal soldier dedicated to the WW because his only alternative was a miserable abusive home situation.

(and Dumbles is somehow a hero to millions of readers. IDEK. Sadly, Evanna Lynch, who I otherwise think is adorable, worships him and said she has Dumbledore murals on her bedroom walls. UGH)

b) I'm sure Dumbles deliberately let Snape go with that prophecy. Come on, he has no qualms about memory charms on his own students, why wouldn't he have been cool with obliviating a young DE who meant nothing to him? Clearly, he wanted that prophecy to reach Voldy's ears to set in motion a self-fulfilling prophecy. Shame that a family would have to be destroyed, but that's the price you pay for ending a war.

*iz cynical*

[condwiramurs.livejournal.com]

There's really no way to accept the version of events given to us in canon as even *close* to the truth without accepting that DD either inexplicably failed to take a simple and obvious step towards making sure the young DE couldn't do any damage, and thus is monumentally stupid, or deliberately let the partial prophecy loose, and thus is a manipulative rat who doesn't care about collateral damage. He KNEW that Snape had overheard some of the prophecy, Aberforth (we are supposed to believe) CAUGHT him and had him in hand...yet the young DE is able to walk away with his memory of the event totally intact, with no binding upon him preventing him from speaking (magical, extortion, etc.)? WTF?

If you factor in the conflicting accounts in canon and a bit of basic logic (Trelawney was not aware of events while she was in trance, her trance was not interrupted until the prophecy was completely given, and she claims to have heard something at the door and that a "pushing, thrusting young man" eavesdropped), then what it starts to look like is deliberate manipulation. Because Severus reported *half* the prophecy - the *first* half - and had no reason whatsoever to conceal the other half if he knew it. He likely had ample motivation to reveal all he knew, and quickly. Yet how can he have heard only part one if Trelawney is being honest? And no reason clear for her to lie about this, especially since others were there who could be asked. Thus it looks like Snape heard all the prophecy, was caught at the end of it, and was shortly thereafter released with *half* the prophecy in his memory. Enough to interest Voldie and goad him into making a move, but not enough, one would think, to avoid doing something stupid.

So who's the likely candidate for a spot of memory manipulation, given the three others present?

All together now....

[oryx_leucoryx]

And note that whenever it was that Twinkly found out Severus was actually a DE, he did not bother sharing this with the Order. More evidence he was expecting something to come out of the escaped prophecy.

[karentheunicorn.livejournal.com]

And note that whenever it was that Twinkly found out Severus was actually a DE, he did not bother sharing this with the Order. More evidence he was expecting something to come out of the escaped prophecy.

Yea. Because later at some point Dumbledore tells the wizimungawhatever (court-council) that Snape had switched sides - I think it was in Karkaroff's hearing he made comment about he had already given evidence about Severus.

I sort of wonder, did Snape have a trial because I think, wasn't it crouch who said Snape has been cleared by this council, that he was vouched for by Dumbledore...and Karkaroff complains that Severus is a death eater and that is when Dumbledore stands up and talks about giving evidence for Severus.

I wonder when exactly he gave the evidence and at what point he told the wizard ministry council Wiziwhatever that Severus was a spy for them.

I can't remember when Karkaroff was caught, was it before or after Voldie's defeat - I'm thinking it was after but I can't remember for sure.

So who knew Severus was a DE for sure during the time he was DE - because I think I remember that some DE did not really know about other DE, that Voldie expected them to be secret and he was the only one who knew for sure who every DE was.

Dumbledore manipulations

[karentheunicorn.livejournal.com]

If you factor in the conflicting accounts in canon and a bit of basic logic (Trelawney was not aware of events while she was in trance, her trance was not interrupted until the prophecy was completely given, and she claims to have heard something at the door and that a "pushing, thrusting young man" eavesdropped), then what it starts to look like is deliberate manipulation. Because Severus reported *half* the prophecy - the *first* half - and had no reason whatsoever to conceal the other half if he knew it. He likely had ample motivation to reveal all he knew, and quickly. Yet how can he have heard only part one if Trelawney is being honest? And no reason clear for her to lie about this, especially since others were there who could be asked. Thus it looks like Snape heard all the prophecy, was caught at the end of it, and was shortly thereafter released with *half* the prophecy in his memory. Enough to interest Voldie and goad him into making a move, but not enough, one would think, to avoid doing something stupid.

I have for a long time wondered how Trelawney knew Severus was there if she was giving the prophecy. I'm assuming the door being closed, Severus was obviously on the outside. So, it makes you wonder what really happened.

Alberforth had to come up the stairs, found Severus and yanked him up from the doorway. You would imagine the owner of the place would have not liked to see some customer listening in at a doorway so they must have had a bit of a disagreement on what was going on.

Alberforth might not have known what was going on inside the room but it makes sense he would have asked Severus what the heck he was doing.

And thats where you have to stop and question the rest of the story. For Trelawany to be able to describe Severus as a 'pushing, trusting young man' - wouldn't she have had to see him?

The thing is, Alberforth might have interupted Severus while he was listening to the prophecy - so I can see how Severus might not have heard all the prophecy. But at that point, what happens next. Does Alberforth enter the room with Severus, pulling him inside to point out that someone was listening to what was going on inside.

And being that Alberforth is DD's brother - wouldn't he know right away who was more than likely in the room? I'm assuming the rooms have numbers or something so I'd think he would have told Albus, use room 3 for your interview, etc.

So all things considered, you can imagine he would have wanted Dumbledore to know someone was listening in and since we know Trelawaney saw Severus enough to describe him in a certain way it seems clear he was pulled into the room and his presence was made aware to Dumbledore.

So, Dumbledore seemily knows or suspects Severus of being a Death Eater - and in that he just lets Severus go?

What general in an army, in the middle of a war would let a suspected enemy just walk away after lisening in at a top secret meeting?

Either Dumbledore IS the most brilliant wizard of modern time, or the dumbest, or HE actually did want Severus to take the prophecy back to Voldemort because Voldie knowing the prophecy would tempt Voldie into doing something stupid.

And Dumbledore is the one who made comments about doing things for the greater good.

So why would he care if Lily/James were killed if the greater good was served by Voldemort being defeated?

Also notice how when Harry finds out Severus was the one he never even considers other possibilities other than Severus being to blame, the whole time he's blaming Snape for his parents being killed he never questioning Dumbledore on why he would let Severus go on that initial moment. He has no problem questioning Dumbledore on hiring Severus but he never really asks the question why would you let him go to Voldemort wiht the prohecy back then?

Re: Dumbledore manipulations

[oryx_leucoryx]

Sybil knows Severus was listening because after she completed the prophecy and came out of trance she saw Aberforth holding Severus, standing inside the room. And Severus was making some stupid excuse about having made a wrong turn or something. I suppose she heard Aberforth complaining that Severus had been eavesdropping.

[borg-princess.livejournal.com]

No worries about the rant, I feel the same way as well. *squish*

Another annoying thing is how Dumbles values Lily's way of dying as more worthy than Merope's when afaik, Lily had NO IDEA that the way she died was going to have some magical love shield that would defend Harry. When I was younger and still had faith in JKR's plot-building abilities, I thought Lily had cast some sort of enchantment or tapped into some instinctive sort of magic. But as we see in DH, it was just helpless shrieking. That there was a magical protective thing was pure chance, she didn't set out to cast anything. So I really don't see anything to praise her for.

Harry...I'd have more respect for him dying for everyone if it wasn't for the fact that he got to cheat death. I mean, wtf kind of writing is that- how does his sacrifice protect everyone when he gets to come back to life and there wasn't any sacrifice at all? Technically, what got sacrificed was Voldy's soul, I think? The Horcrux in his scar? So he sacrificed a fragment of someone else's soul, the same guy who was trying to kill everyone, and that protected them from him? I don't get it...

Yeah, I just laugh when people talk about how brave Harry is in choosing to come back to life- I'm sure there are tons of other people who would also choose to live if they got the chance! Harry died once and saw there was nothing to be afraid of, it was all peaceful and serene and awesome, lots of validation from his fave mentor, like, what's so horrible about dying? If it was like in Buffy, where it seemed like she'd end up in some demon dimension suffering horribly forever, that'd be brave, but Harry has to choose between heaven and going back to live happily ever after with Ginny. HMM, DILEMMA. Either option is great! And forsaking the former option doesn't mean it's closed to him forever, he just gets to put it off til later! So...the hero thing? Not seeing it.

/rant.

Re: Lily and the prophecy. Okay, I'm ashamed of myself, I for some reason assumed she would know about it, 'coz why else were they in hiding? You're right, though, DD might not have share that info with them. In which case her pleaing is actually kind of...yeah. If she thought Voldy was there to kill her and she's trying to be like, 'Kill me if you have to but not Harry', then that's cool. Although it'd've sucked if Harry just starved to death or something, with nobody to feed him.

Anyway, I reread that passage again and...I'm not sure now. I still think Lily's an idiot- Voldy hears her screaming from upstairs, like, jeez, shut your mouth and hide. Also, WHY NOT BREAK A WINDOW AND JUMP OUT, if for some reason, you can't apparate- and she keeps saying 'not Harry, kill me instead' so it sounds like she knows he's there for Harry in particular. Otherwise why that phrasing? INSTEAD, as though trading her life for his, which suggests she doesn't think he's there for her... y/n? Am I reading too much into this?

Also, the house seems pretty large if there's an upstairs- why did she hold onto him and then futilely drop him in his crib? Why not hide him under the sink or in a cupboard? Surely 'out of sight, out of mind' would be best with Harry?

No excuse for either of them not having their WANDS on them at all times, however. Or not having a bloody escape route planned. Don't they know how to APPARATE? Or fly brooms?

WORD. James sprinting out to 'hold him off' without a wand...just...he may as well have turned into a stag and tried to gore Voldy with his antlers or something!

[condwiramurs.livejournal.com]

I don't believe Harry actually *died* at all. He was in a place that shared a border with death, and not conscious to the outside world. But the train led "onwards," and we know of no magic that can bring someone back who has truly crossed over. It is supposed to be impossible.

We do know that the blood shared between Harry and Voldie was what enabled him to return...just as Voldie's horcruxes enabled him to return from a not-quite-deathly state. So we have an example of a state near but not quite the same as death that one *can* return from, with a process similar to the blood (a physical anchor for the soul in both cases), and a supposedly unbreakable law that magic cannot return a truly dead person to life.

Also, we have never seen an AK kill TWO people at once - separate TWO souls from their body/ies. Only one separation, and the spell goes no farther. But it does contain energy that can cause damage if deflected or not fully absorbed (the house in Godric's Hollow). There were two souls, effectively, in Harry at that time. One we are meant to believe was destroyed or sent beyond (the other horcruxes had their soul bits destroyed; it's unclear if Baby!Mort was the soul bit or a representation of the soul bit still left in Voldie - and all of this did take place in Harry's head in some way, so it could be there as a representation alone; Voldie also collapsed and so may have been there in reality). The other soul goes to the limbo place and then returns, due to a physical anchor, or (alternatively) dreams the whole thing up while unconscious.

My reading of the scene is that the AK either sent the bit of Voldie from the scar across the veil or destroyed it, while the backlash of the spell (working with a smaller soul bit in a makeshift container, not a full body-soul connection) knocked Harry unconscious, perhaps into a coma that he could have chosen not to wake from, but to actually die. But instead he chose to wake up, and not die.

So yeah, WTF with the sacrifice-that-was-not.

The only other thing I could buy is that *magically* the intent to die, carried out with no attempt to save oneself, is somewhat powerful even if the actual death is reversed by circumstances beyond the person's control. That is, if the *gesture* is made in full, the person actually gives themself beyond any hope of rescue under normal circumstances, and is rescued from a situation that only allows it due to some extremely unusual thing (like the blood connection) that the person was unaware of as a means of rescue. Not sure I buy it yet, but maybe.

[sharaz-jek.livejournal.com]

From a Doylist perspective it's possible she was misunderstanding how Jesus' crucifixion was supposed to work. According to the theology, Jesus physically died, but being God was able to come back, and whether or not it counts as an honest intention to die when you're omnipotent and can just resurrect yourself is another question* - but the point is Jesus is supposed to have died, not just gone into a coma and come back because Satan piggybacked off Mary's sacrifice.

*This is why I'm not much of a fan of crucifixion/resurrection symbolism, because Jesus knew exactly what he was doing and knew he would come back. Fictional heroes who sacrifice themselves don't.

[majorjune.livejournal.com]

Why not hide him under the sink or in a cupboard? Surely 'out of sight, out of mind' would be best with Harry?

Except Harry's 15 months old, I doubt that he'd have kept quiet even if hidden, unless some charm was put on him to silence him.

But why not do a transfiguration charm on him, turn him into a mute object like, say, a lamp?

[sharaz-jek.livejournal.com]

Human transfiguration is difficult enough when turning into a living animal with a functioning brain. I wouldn't want to risk it.

[borg-princess.livejournal.com]

Can't remember for sure atm, but his mother's grabbed him and running around madly and screaming her head off and then being hit with a green light and fallen down...and Harry's still calm and quiet and thinking it's a game. So I don't think him being quiet would've been too much of a problem...

[sharaz-jek.livejournal.com]

And Tom Riddle's the one described as odd as a child?

[borg-princess.livejournal.com]

LMAO, POINT!

But you know how subjective it is, if Tom turned out to be the Chosen One, they'd've said how nice and quiet and easygoing he was, no trouble at all, etc. But when you know he became the Dark Lord, it's all about how suspicious and odd he was, how you just knew he was hatching evil plans and it wasn't natural for a child to be so aloof that way.

[majorjune.livejournal.com]

his mother's grabbed him and running around madly and screaming her head off and then being hit with a green light and fallen down...and Harry's still calm and quiet and thinking it's a game. So I don't think him being quiet would've been too much of a problem...

Whether Harry would have remained quiet or not -- and I really don't believe a 15-month old child would remain quiet for long -- bottom line is that if Harry was only hidden and not disguised, Voldemort only needed to kill the parents and then do an "Accio Potter child!" spell... ;-)

[for-diddled.livejournal.com]

"Harry...I'd have more respect for him dying for everyone if it wasn't for the fact that he got to cheat death. I mean, wtf kind of writing is that- how does his sacrifice protect everyone when he gets to come back to life and there wasn't any sacrifice at all? Technically, what got sacrificed was Voldy's soul, I think? The Horcrux in his scar? So he sacrificed a fragment of someone else's soul, the same guy who was trying to kill everyone, and that protected them from him? I don't get it..."

To be fair, Harry didn't know he'd come back when he went off to die, so I can still admire this decision of his (pretty much the only one I can...), even though, in the end, he ended up surviving.

[condwiramurs.livejournal.com]

That, saving Draco from the Room of Requirement in DH, and befriending Ron on the train are about the only decisions of Harry's I can think of well. I'd think more of befriending Hermione if it wasn't made clear that it was because of her *lying.*

[karentheunicorn.livejournal.com]

No excuse for either of them not having their WANDS on them at all times, however. Or not having a bloody escape route planned. Don't they know how to APPARATE? Or fly brooms?


I think that falls under the same logic as is used in Horror Movies - Teenagers will always end up at a out of the way location where some serial killer will suck out their intelligence on how to escape.

or it the failing of JKR's Dramatic Author Narative story. The actual backstory is not being as Dramatic when we actually get to read How it really went. We heard about the attack on Lily and James previously in the books, but actually reading it they come out as a little bit lame.

I always wondered why they chose that area to live/hide/whatever - If it had been me I would have considered going out of the UK, changing my name and attempting to live as a non-magical family. They moved into a known area for magical people. It almost seems like they were living in there own home but surely they moved to a new location but I can't remember exactly now about the house or location.

[for-diddled.livejournal.com]

Wasn't the house owned by Dumbledore? I think he says somewhere that he offered it to them as a place to live in, since Lord V would obviously be able to find out where their normal house was.

[condwiramurs.livejournal.com]

Even though Voldie could also have tracked down Dumble's house/s. But that logic also fails to take into accont the fidelius - people knew where the Black house was before the fidelus, but afterward it hid that knowledge from them. So any house would have done.

[oryx_leucoryx]

Well, Dumbly's King Cross speech implies it was the ancestral home of the Peverell-Potter line.

[karentheunicorn.livejournal.com]

Wasn't the house owned by Dumbledore?

I bet the bastard charged them RENT!

He probably took the security deposit because the houes got blown up.

I'm sorry my brain doesn't work right and I'm giggling because now I have this funny mental image of Dumbledore trying to convience James and Lily that he had a great place for them to live and that the rent is cheap.

[condwiramurs.livejournal.com]

Does he have a bridge in Manhattan to sell them too? *g*