Special thanks to Lily Luna for her willingness to guest-blog for Chapter 22 of our Half-Blood Prince Read-Through! She’ll be returning for “Flight of the Prince” as well. Enjoy! ~ Travis
I am honored to be asked to assist with the HBP read-through.
In Chapter 22, Slughorn extracts a bottle of valuable venom from the dead Aragog and Harry in turn extracts a bottle of valuable memory from him. Thus both spinners are milked of something evil. Harry gets the memory through a combination of drinking lucky potion, luring Slughorn with the promise of the venom, getting Slughorn drunk, appealing to his love of Lily and affection for Harry, and promising him that giving Harry the memory will cancel out the damage done by discussing horcruxes with Voldemort.
The set up for the chapter is a tear-stained note from Hagrid asking Harry, Ron, and Hermione to come help him bury Aragog that evening. Harry is the only one who sees that Hagrid is really asking for their comfort and support, not for them to mourn Aragog, but he reluctantly agrees with Ron and Hermione not to go. Hagrid’s tears are a reminder of Narcissa’s tears in the Spinner’s End chapter and also foreshadow everyone’s grief over Dumbledore’s death.
Hermione suggests that Harry take advantage of most of the class being off taking their apparition tests to try again to get the memory from Slughorn. Harry says “fifty-seventh time lucky, you think” and Ron has one of his brilliant inspirations to suggest Harry try using his lucky potion. Ron often seems like the dumbest of the three, but perhaps once a book has an inspired idea or makes a really important contribution. In Sorcerer’s Stone he beats McGonagall’s giant chess set. In Chamber of Secrets he figures out that the entrance to the Chamber is in Moaning Myrtle’s bathroom (after seeing Hermione’s note about pipes), and in Deathly Hallows he comes up with the idea of descending into the Chamber of Secrets to harvest basilisk fangs to stab the horcruxes.
Harry agrees to try the lucky potion that evening if he isn’t successful during Potions class. In Potions we learn that Draco, like Harry, is young for his year, which emphasizes just how young he was when Voldemort made him a Death Eater. Harry notices that all of Draco’s swagger is gone and assumes that means his mission is not going well. While that is true, I suspect Draco is already becoming disillusioned with being a Death Eater and, perhaps, is horrified that he almost killed Katie Bell and Ron with his attempts to kill Dumbledore.
Harry makes an Elixir to Induce Euphoria for Slughorn (sunshine yellow, which reminds me of the clothes the Lovegoods wear to the wedding in Deathly Hallows and of Harry’s eyebrow when he asked Luna to Slughorn’s party). The choice of Elixir seems on a continuum with the Felix Felicis Harry takes later, since a lucky (or happy) day and euphoria might go hand-in-hand.
Hermione becomes the only one of the three legally allowed to apparate during the series. Ron’s splinched half-an-eyebrow foreshadows the much worse injury he suffers escaping from the Ministry in Deathly Hallows.
Felix Felicis turns out to be a very strong confidence-boosting potion, which lights Harry’s path a little at a time. Harry immediately alarms Ron and Hermione by telling them he’s going down to Hagrid’s. This scene is really funny as Ron wonders whether Harry didn’t drink “Essence of Insanity” by mistake. Ironically, Ron’s line has an element of truth to it. Consider Felix’ effects on Harry: he strides through the castle brimming with confidence, knowing what he does is right, he meets no one leaving the castle, he throws open the front door, saunters over to the greenhouses, persuades Slughorn to come on down to Hagrid’s, easily pulls off the refilling charm, remorselessly tells Slughorn how his parents died, that his mother was only protecting him, etc. His boundless-self confidence and certitude in his own rightness are useful for the purpose of getting the memory but are not very attractive qualities in a person over the long-term. We wouldn’t really like a person who acted like that. And really, aren’t those Voldemort’s qualities, super-self-confidence, remorselessness, and no doubts as to his actions? And what is Voldemort in the end? Insane. Thus Essence of Insanity unfortunately is a fitting description for Felix Felicis.
At Aragog’s wake, Slughorn refers to Ron as “Rupert.” I’ve seen comments (I forget where) that this was a mistake on Rowling’s part, that she used Grint’s name by accident because she was too busy thinking about the movies. To the contrary, I think this was a deliberate joke by Rowling, in line with the other instances of Slughorn getting Ron’s name wrong, like calling him Ralph (Fiennes?) on his birthday.
Hagrid and Slughorn sing a song, “Odo the Hero,” about a “dying wizard.” Hagrid sings a final verse immediately after referring to Lily and James:
And Odo the hero, they bore him back home
To the place that he’d known as a lad,
They laid him to rest with his hat inside out
And his wand snapped in two, which was sad.
In one sense this foreshadows Harry’s visit to his parents’ graves in Godric’s Hollow in Deathly Hallows. However, the song also can be read as a composite of other heroes in the series, especially Dumbledore (who is actually slowly dying at the moment), Harry, and Snape. Dumbledore revisits his childhood home in his mind in the cave; Harry bears him back to Hogsmeade; and Hagrid carries him in his arms to a grave at Hogwarts, the place he knew as a lad of 11+. Seemingly dead Harry is borne in Hagrid’s arms back to Hogwarts castle at the end of Deathly Hallows. Snape earlier in this book returned to his childhood home at Spinner’s End and dies in the Shrieking Shack, the place where he was almost killed as a youth, in Deathly Hallows. If we read “hat inside out” to mean a head inside out, Snape’s head is almost literally turned inside out when he releases his cloud of memories and Harry’s head is figuratively inverted when it becomes a misty meeting place for him and Dumbledore’s soul in King’s Cross. Lucius’ wand is snapped in two during the aerial chase by Harry’s wand, signifying the death of Lucius’ status with the Death Eaters. Harry’s wand in turn is snapped in two in Godric’s Hollow, signifying the low point of Deathly Hallows and the near death of Harry’s faith in Dumbledore. Eventually his faith is restored and his wand is repaired (like I suspect Hagrid’s wand once was) by the Elder Wand.
I’ve left some items untouched for others to comment on. I welcome your comments on what I’ve written as well.
Arabella Figg on 
revgeorge on 
LauraB on 
Perelandra on 
david on 
SPT on 
jensenly on 
Tom on 
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{ 47 comments… read them below or add one }
People just don’t seem to be able to remember the Weasley’s names. Maybe that is why Molly knits them jumpers with their initials on.
I like how you picked up on Ron’s words in this chapter. Ron’s not really the brightest one in the box most of the time, but in this chapter, he’s particualrly apt. And he does have these moments. Plus the foreshadowing of Ron’s splinching in Deathly Hallows. You’re right about that.
I like your explanation of Ron using “essence of insanity” phrase, though it’s not his favorite one. I remember reading somewhere that Ron’s “you’re mental” (though not in this chapter, but throughout the series) is really a Rowling nod to C. S. Lewis in his “the universe is mental.” I don’t exactyl remember where I read this, but if I had to guess, it was probably in one of John Granger’s works. Anyway, more work in Harry Potter analysis should be devoted to Ron.
You’re right on when you analyze the “Odo the Hero” lines. More work should also be done on those. And yeah, Rupert is a joke from Jo. She’s a funny lady.
Anyway, great job!
Demarest, John writes about it in the essay, “The Deathly Hallows Epigraphs,” which appears in Hog’s Head Conversations: Essays on Harry Potter, which will be released in a few weeks
Aha, I think he posted that one on his website. I read the whole thing and I think I printed it out from the website. And as a side note, I was wondering when Hog’s Head Conversations would be published. I eagerly await that and Harry Potter’s Bookshelf.
“Harry Potter Should Have Died,” Muggletnet.com’s new bok is alright, but it’s not quite an in-depth analysis. It’s mostly amusing with some viewpoints, that are well thought out, but need to be lengthened into actual essays. It does create talkings points, though. I mention this because John Granger was asking about this book on his website a while back.
I like that Felix seems to have a peripheral effect on facilitating the breakups of Ron/Lavender and Ginny/Dean. We are finally taking steps in the right direction here.
The foreshadowing of Ron’s splinching in DH is almost missed. By letting the reader think that leaving behind “half an eyebrow” is very minor, we are lulled into thinking apparating isn’t all that dangerous. Poor Ron finds out this is not the case six months later.
Nice assessment of the chapter Lily Luna!
Well, JKR kind of sets up the splinching into three different episodes. We get first Susan Bone’s splinching which is quite unnerving. Then the humorous one of Ron’s eyebrow. Then his wound in DH. So, first comes something nerve wracking. Then comes something humorous. Then comes something terrifying. Interesting way of presenting splinching to us.
On another note, does this chapter answer the questions we had before on Felix Felicis, whether or not it actually does something? I think it does.
The Deathly Hallows Lectures, pp. 180-1 also has something about Ron’s use of the word “mental” as a pointer to a non-materialist philosophy.
I wonder, why Odo for the hero’s name? It could be a reference to the medieval Bishop Odo, or even to Odo Proudfoot from The Lord of the Rings. Interestingly, an Auror named Proudfoot is mentioned in chapter 8—
Harry: “But what are you doing here, anyway?”
Tonks: “I’m stationed in Hogsmeade now, to give the school extra protection.”
Harry: “Is it just you who’s stationed up here, or—?”
Tonks: “No, Proudfoot, Savage, and Dawlish are here too.”
I’ve never been much for seeing Tolkien influences in Harry Potter, but this volume did have an unusually large number of hobbit names in it, as was noted several years ago on alt.fan.harry-potter.
Steve, I’m not one for seeing much Tolkien influence in Rowling either – meaning, I don’t think you can find much derivation from LOTR in HP. I do think at a much more foundational level, they have a similar fairy-tale philosophy, and come from the same tradition of fantasy.
If I can plug the book yet again, Amy Sturgis’s essay in Hog’s Head Conversations is an excellent contribution to this discussion.
We have the ballad of “Odo the Hero.” Perhaps it just translates as “Ode to the Hero.” Does this seem like a silly remark? I just love the word, “Ode.”
Wow, this analysis was amazing.
I’m wondering now about the splinching mentioned in book 4. It seems like they were even worse off than Ron in DH!
Another puzzling aspect of apparating: Why aren’t the students taught how to fix splinching as part of their lessons? The teachers quickly put Susan Bones back together again with “a great bang and a puff of purple smoke”. You’d think that would be an important thing to know, especially when dealing with novice apparators.
Jensenly – that makes me think about Harry’s comment at the beginning of DH about how he was never taught how to heal a simple cut in all his years at Hogwarts. One wonders why these basic healing practicalities, as well as housekeeping spells and basic survival methods (how to obtain/keep food, for example), were never taught in school. I mean, some of that you can expect to learn from parents – IF you live with wizards – but even then you can’t practice at home until you’re of age.
Question about apparition – does anyone know if you have to be within a certain distance of your destination to apparate? For instance when Voldemort is called back from Grindewald’s prison, he has to fly until he’s close enough to apparate. Why is that?
Maybe Jo was a fan of Deep Space 9 & the security chief, Odo.
I’ve always wondered about the purpose of the Felix Felicis episode. I completely sympathize with Lily’s reading of Harry’s character traits during this moment as unsavory. But, he does accomplish his mission, and doesn’t really suffer any consequence for it.
In one sense it is harmless fun, and practical to boot. But, it’s one more moment in his character development that unnerves me because it’s hard for me to find its place in the longer arc of that development. For a postmodernist like me, it’s hard to fix a coherent character sketch from this.
I suppose that’s the difficulty in writing a hero like Harry. In one sense, she’s created a character that has an innate goodness tempered with humanity. Elements of that are difficult to justify without resorting to “He’s just good.”
Glad to see lots of comments so far. Thanks, everyone.
I swear I never saw John Granger’s essay (at least I don’t think I did) before I wrote this. Was that on something I discussed or on Ron’s “are you mental?”
I agree that it’s a shocking gap in their magical education not to have been taught more about healing (aside from what they learn in Potions) and magical home-ec.
The farther away you are from your destination and the larger size you are, the harder it is to apparate. As Snape tells Harry in the first Occlumency lesson, time and distance matter in magic. I suppose it uses some sort of magical energy to transport your cells from one place to another, so the bigger you are and the farther you have to go, the more “energy” is needed. Generally they seem to be able to apparate within England/Scotland, but the Continent is too far. Ron is taller than Hermione and Harry, so that may in part be why he has a harder time.
There is a fourth splinching: Ron mentions that when he was escaping from the snatchers after he leaves Hermione and Harry he splinches himself again, losing a fingernail. Hermione sneers at this loss compared to what they went through in Godric’s Hollow.
Oh, revgeorge, you are a man of mine own heart with the DS9 reference…
Didn’t Gilderoy Lockhart write a book on home-care. Doesn’t Mrs. Weasley have it? Maybe that’s why they don’t know simple healing and cleaning charms. I blame Lockhart.
You’re right, Lily Luna. We need to know more about the physics of apparating. Maybe Ron’s size in comparison to Hermione and Harry is why there may be more of a probability in him splinching himself. Maybe not.
Demarest, Lockhart wrote a Guide to Household Pests. I guess it takes one to know one!
Ron specifically says it’s harder to apparate when you’re bigger and that Charlie (who’s more muscley) needed two tries to pass his apparition test.
Amanda, just picked up on your reference to the splinching in Goblet of Fire – good catch.
What’s also paid off in this chapter is the resolution to Hermione’s & Harry’s argument about how to get the memory from Slughorn. Hermione’s quite sure it’s something in Harry & his ability to appeal to Slughorn. Harry’s quite sure he’s already exhausted that avenue & that he needs some magical edge, a potion or charm.
And they both end up being right!
Dave wrote: “I completely sympathize with Lily’s reading of Harry’s character traits during this moment as unsavory.”
Hmm, I never quite felt that way about this moment. That is to say, I didn’t really think Harry was out of character so much here or doing something unsavory. Certainly he’s pressing Slughorn & one could say manipulating him. But he’s not forcing anything out of Slughorn. Harry is offering him a choice. One could say that a manipulator like Slughorn is himself being manipulated but not for selfish reasons as Slughorn does but as part of the fight to stop Voldemort.
I guess it goes back to what we started talking about back in “Lord Voldemort’s Request,” about examining the good guys just as much as the bad guys.
Not to quibble, but I wouldn’t describe how Harry acts in this chapter as “character traits” since he’s acting under the influence of a potion. The potion seems to bring out his inner Voldemort, but as revgeorge says, he’s acting from good intentions, not bad.
Reflecting on this in another way, Felix seems to engender two types of confidence: 1) a confidence in one’s own abilities to do something which, if not taken to excess, is a good thing — example, being able to do the refilling charm; and 2) confidence that external factors will go your way, which is more of the Voldemort side — example, Harry striding through the castle because he knows he’ll meet no one tonight. Then we get to the question of how Felix knows to send Harry to Hagrid’s by way of the greenhouses. It’s possible that what it really is doing is gathering information together that Harry knows without realizing he knows it. Harry certainly knows that Slughorn loves his creature comforts and that he needs to earn money to buy them (hence Slughorn asks for a pay rise as Dumbledore and Harry are leaving at the beginning of the book). Harry probably also knows that acromantula venom is valuable because hard to collect (I’m fairly sure it says that in Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, but I don’t have my copy handy to check) and he may also know but without having thought consciously about it that Hagrid has other valuable items like unicorn hair in his cabin. He probably also has knowledge of what third years study and that about now they’d need a plant picked at dusk. So maybe Felix is just gathering together these deep, buried memories/stores of knowledge from within Harry’s brain, and bringing them to the fore to create a plan of action.
With regard to Odo the Hero. According to Wikipedia, there were many medieval Odos and the fictional ones mentioned by others above. In addition, a character named Odo was the founder of an anarchist movement in Ursula K. LeGuin’s 1975 science-fiction novel, “The Dispossessed.”
However, most interesting of all, Odo is a genus of spiders in the Zoridae family! Spiders in this family hunt without webs, just like the acromantulas. So this song is very fittingly sung at Aragog’s funeral (though Ron would venture to disagree!).
Lily Luna, this what the text has to say… on page one of the A-Z index
FANTASTIC BEASTS and where to find them By NEWT SCAMANDER
M.O.M. Classification: XXXXX Note: XXXXX class. (Known wizard killer / impossible to train or domesticate Fantastic Beasts)
Acromantula
The Acromantula is a monstrous eight-eyed spider capable of human speech. It originated in Borneo, where it inhabits dense jungle. Its distinctive features include the thick black hair that covers its body; its legspan, which may reach up to fifteen feet; its pincers, which produce a distinctive clicking sound when the Acromantula is excited or angry; and a poisonous secretion. The Acromantula is carnivorous and prefers large prey. It spins domeshaped webs upon the ground. The female is bigger than the male and may lay up to one hundred eggs at a time. Soft and white, these are as large as beach balls. The young hatch in six to eight weeks. Acromantula eggs are defined as Class A Non-Tradeable Goods by the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures, meaning that severe penalties are
attached to their importation or sale. This beast is believed to be wizard-bred, possibly intended to guard wizard dwellings or treasure, as is often the case with magically created monsters.1 Despite its near-human intelligence,
1. Beasts capable of human speech are rarely self-taught; an exception is the Jarvey. The Ban on Experimental Breeding did not come into effect until this century, long after the first recorded sighting of an Acromantula in 1794. The Acromantula is untrainable and highly dangerous to wizard and Muggle alike.
Rumours that a colony of Acromantula has been established in Scotland are unconfirmed.
(Hand Written Inscription:By H.P. unconfirmed crossed-over “confirmed by Harry Potter and Ron Weasley”}
Ok, so no mention of it’s venom being valuable. But Harry might still have known that from Potions at some point. They do use webs, but seems like they also catch their prey with their pincers, like when they grabbed Harry and Ron in COS.
Lily Luna, don’t they catch them with their front two legs? I thought it said the creature carrying him took off on six legs…
Unicorn tail hair core in wands
I wonder what a wand would cost in galleons if one silky tail hair of a unicorn used within its core goes for about 10 galleons each. I did find out that Ron, Cedric, Neville, and Draco all have wands made with a unicorn tail hair core inside it. As described: Ron’s second wand is made of willow with a unicorn tail core. Cedric‘s wand is said to be pleasantly springy with a “fine” male unicorn tail hair core. Neville also has one too; his second wand is constructed of cherry and a core of unicorn tail hair. Lastly, Draco his wand is of hawthorn wood with its core of a male unicorn tail hair.
Hermione foreshadows the creepiest moment in DH, where Bellatrix turns her over to Greyback at Malfoy Manor. The trio is discussing the werewolf’s attack on the Montgomery sisters’ little brother. Hermione’s exclamation that “It’s all about stopping Voldemort, isn’t it?” states her motivation very clearly for sticking with Harry during the negredo of DH, and throughout the series, for that matter. As a Muggle-born, her prospects are as bleak as Harry’s if Voldemort is not defeated.
Harry tripping–isn’t that what he is doing?–on Felix Felicis is quite hilarious. I hope that JKR someday gives us a complete version of Odo the Hero. It seems a caricature of bad poetry to me– “And his wand snapped in two, which was sad.”
When Ron was three he was a particular target of a prank from his brother Fred having transfigured his (Ron’s) teddy bear into a giant spider, sparking his arachnophobia, (meaning deathly afraid of spiders), from CoS. As in real life; Jo Rowling and Rupert Grent both have confessed to being very afraid of spiders.
Items that stick out in this chapter
Aragog has eight legs and eight eyes
“Silky scane of unicorn white, very strong for binding” along with the descriptive phrase of “long silvery strand of memories” in this chapter.
Deacondon, I hadn’t thought about the discussion of the Montgomery sisters’ little brother foreshadowing the threat to Hermione in DH – excellent point. It also foreshadows Greyback’s comment on the Astronomy tower about how he wouldn’t want to miss a trip to Hogwarts, “Not when there are throats to be ripped out. . . . Delicious, delicious.” Of course, Bill is attacked, but almost lost in the story is that Greyback also attacks Harry after Harry returns to the hallway where the fighting is (before Harry can defend himself, Grayback is upon him). Someone else stuns Greyback before he can actually harm Harry and with a tremendous effort, Harry pushes Greyback off of him. I’ve heard that they show this in the movie and since I think they cut Bill, I wonder if they show Harry with injuries instead; we’ll find out in a few weeks.
We’ve talked about Hermione in DH, but Greyback also almost attacks Lavender Brown, who is saved from him by Hermione (nice tie up there). Sadly, Greyback probably did savage others in the Battle of Hogwarts in DH, but we never find out whom.
R.Ross, I’ve always found it interesting that the core of Draco’s wand is unicorn hair (like Cedric’s, Neville’s, and Ron’s, all of whom he has insulted and/or bullied) and not dragon heartstring.
Amanda, you are right. In Chamber of Secrets, “Harry saw that what had hold of him was marching on six immensely long , hairy legs, the front two clutching him tightly below a pair of shining black pincers.” And again in the third task in Goblet of Fire, Harry “was lifted into the air in its front legs; struggling madly, he tried to kick it; his leg connected with the pincers and next moment he was in excrucutiating pain. . . . Harry raised his wand as the spider opened its pincers once more and shouted “Expelliarmus!” So it does lift him with its front legs and the (razor-sharp) pincers are separate and trying to kill him (yikes!). Kind of astonishing they would allow such lethal XXXXXXX creatures in the third task. The contestants could easily be killed before they could send up red sparks and get help, especially since it took the two of them acting together to stun the spider.
Great post and insigtful comments, Lily Luna (as usual). On to another part of your post. You write:
“Harry notices that all of Draco’s swagger is gone and assumes that means his mission is not going well. While that is true, I suspect Draco is already becoming disillusioned with being a Death Eater and, perhaps, is horrified that he almost killed Katie Bell and Ron with his attempts to kill Dumbledore.”
I agree. We need to pay particular attention to Draco in HBP. His course in the book sets up the Malfoy Manor decision in DH, when Draco protects Harry by denying he recognizes him, despite their years of hatred. I felt pity for Draco in HBP. A product of his parents’ sick obsessions, he was raised to be thoroughly arrogant and unpleasant (yet could never please his father, who seemed to disdain him). In avenging his father by doing what he thinks is right in HBP, he finds his fantasies crumbling and realitiy overwhelming him.
I forgot to mention that this was a great post, Lily Luna. Sorry I haven’t been able to comment more on it. But by the time I got to it, so many people had already made great comments.
Thank you, Arabella. I think the Room of Hidden Things scene in Deathly Hallows is also open to an interpretation less obvious than what appears on the surface. Crabbe and Goyle are clearly the leaders in their plan to capture Harry and bring him to Voldemort. While Draco is annoyed at Harry for taking his wand, I suspect that he goes along with Crabbe and Goyle in order to keep them from going too far. He shouts at them several times not to kill Harry and picks up on the importance of the diadem. While he talks as if he’s trying to protect the diadem for Voldemort, he may be trying to protect it for Harry (he’s trying to keep it from getting buried). He doesn’t dare help Harry or his friends overtly because of the risk of retaliation against his parents, but in addition to this scene and the one at Malfoy Manor, he also helps Neville et al. by keeping his mouth shut about how Neville and the others are communicating. Malfoy shows in his conversation atop the Astronomy Tower that he knows all about communicating with enchanted coins and that the DA used them, yet Neville tells Harry in DH that the Carrows never rumbled to how they were communicating.
Arabella, agree with your comments on Draco. It’s nice to see Draco become something more than simply a cardboard adversary or foil to Harry. I think this is where Jo shines a great deal of the time, the ability to make minor characters or even adversarial characters come to life.
Thank you, revgeorge. You can still comment.
For example, I never said anything about Slughorn calling Harry “Parry Otter” or the interesting phrasing of: “Harry looked steadily into Slughorn’s tear-filled eyes. The Potions Master seemed unable to look away.”
Anyone? Anyone?
The eye thing sounds like something John should comment on.
But I think it shows that Slughorn despite all his failings & his typical Slytherin traits really did love & admire Lily. Perhaps a bit of foreshadowing here too. How one potions master is so enraptured by Lily’s eyes & because of those eyes is drawn to do the right thing in the fight against evil. Foreshadowing the revelations in The Prince’s Tale how another potions master is reminded of Lily’s eyes & drawn to do the right thing in the fight against evil.
I have to disagree with this “2) confidence that external factors will go your way, which is more of the Voldemort side — example,” I would not equate the support of nature or being confident in being blessed with Voldemort. Voldemort takes all the credit all the time for everything and anything. Having confidence in your luck is not a Voldemort trait. Voldemort believes he is superior not lucky.
OK, Lily Luna, I’ll take your bait. Boosted by Felix, was Harry’s attempting Legilimancy on Slughorn? The only time he’d had any success with this skill was when he was previously “supercharged”–enraged by Snape in their L/O lessons. Perhaps the euphoria of the Felix draught, like rage, had a similar effect. Apparently Harry wasn’t successful, or it would have been part of the sequence.
Actually, I was just taken by the shift from “Slughorn” to “Potions Master.” I saw it as a hint that both Potions Masters, Slughorn and Snape, like to look into Harry’s eyes and see Lily, i.e., a hint as to Snape’s motivation, and also a foreshadowing of Snape’s death. So basically what revgeorge said.
Parry Otter I saw as maybe Rowling impishly fueling the shipping debates to get people to wonder if Hermione’s otter Patronus implies she likes Harry vs. Ron. Also “Parry” reminded me of Aunt Muriel calling Harry “Barry” instead of “Barney” at the wedding in DH. Also Parry is a term in dueling/fighting for deflecting blows.
I didn’t see Harry as trying to perform legilimency. When he does it in OOTP it’s only because he used Protego against Snape. Protego makes spells rebound on the caster, so since Snape was casting the Legilimens spell on Harry it reversed when Harry used Protego.
Oops, should have looked that up in OotP, Lily Luna. Actually, I don’t think Harry ever really looked into peoples’ eyes as anything deeper than eyes. He not only didn’t get the good teaching he should have had (what was Dumbledore thinking?!!?) and therefore lacked the skills, but I think attempting Legilimency simply didn’t occur to him.
I was doing some research about Horcruxes for the upcoming HBP chapter, and came apon this quote by Jo I know it’s a bit off-topic-off-chapter but I just wanted everyone to see this ….
Interview by JUAN CRUZ – Edimburgo – 08/02/2008
Spanish language newspaper El Pais
translation into English
JC Q: The fantasy in literature completes people.
JKR A: Yes, that’s right. Humans need fantasy and magic. We have a need for mystery. Sir Frank Frasier (in The Golden Bow) says that in religion the man depends on God, but in magic the man depends on himself, which allows us to measure the capacity of man and magic becomes an ideal existence. Magic carries a human existence, in Book 6 the Prime Minister says to the Minister of Magic “You can do magic! Surely you can sort out anything!” and the minister answers: “Yes, the trouble is, the other side can do magic too.” We need magic and I defend it at all cause. Magic is a very important part of literature and that’s why it’s always going to be there.
sorry came upon
As long as we’re going off-topic, maybe what Harry needed to help him build his powers of focus and concentration was this:
http://www.nypost.com/seven/06302009/entertainment/health/jedi_mind_trick_do_you_can_176770.htm
Hmm. I have a version of this. A cat. She looks at me and I do anything she wants.
It appears no one ever addressed Amanda’s question. She wrote: “Question about apparition – does anyone know if you have to be within a certain distance of your destination to apparate? For instance when Voldemort is called back from Grindewald’s prison, he has to fly until he’s close enough to apparate. Why is that?”
This has got to be all about plot requirement. Because flying to get close enough to apparate makes no sense. It seems fine to impose an apparition limit; it can only get one so far, or whatever. But why not apparate as far as possible, then apparate again, and again, until you’re at your destination? It seems a lot faster than flying until you’re close enough to apparate.
I’m inclined to think JKR just needed enough narrative time to get Harry and the others out of the Malfoy Manor, and that served the purpose.
Any other ideas?
Travis, I did respond to Amanda’s question in my June 28, 12:16 am response, however you raise a good point about plot requirements and why not just do serial apparitions.
It’s possible serial apparition increases the risk of splinching (like Ron escaping the Ministry). Also, it may be hard to focus on destination if you’re not sure of where you are going for the intermediate stages, although Hermione et al get away with general apparition (e.g. “a beach in Cornwall,” “the Forest of Dean,” etc.) in DH.
Lily Luna, I must have been so tired I missed it! Good points.
I’m reminded, as I had to search for the date and time of your comment: What happened to my numbered comments? I have to go looking for that in the options…