I’m in the middle of a re-read as I finally got my copy back.
One thing I’m wondering is why Chocolate Frogs are so significant. They play throughout the books, and in this one, there’s the comment early on (the end of chapter 2, I believe) that “Dumbledore doesn’t care about what they say as long as they don’t take him off the Chocolate Frog cards”. In the first book, it’s obvious - Dumbledore is the first card Harry gets, and it’s where they find out who Nicholas Flamel is. But why still so important? Is it just that they are a cheap sweet for the kids? Maybe.
But I wonder about the rest of Dumbledore’s card - that he defeated the Dark Wizard Grindewald (sp?) in 1945. I think that’s going to be significant.
I’m only at the beginning of the fourth chapter on my re-read, but I’m sure I’ll have some more comments.
Two comments: First, someone said that swans were pretty and useless. Not at all! Swans are vicious, dangerous birds. A swan can break an arm or an leg with its wing, and isn’t afraid to try. Because they are both beautiful and dangerous, they are very prominent in German heraldry/mythology. See “Lohengrin” for example. Also, the “Cinderella castle” in Bavaria is Neuschwanstein, “New Swan Castle,” after the swan on the crest of the Bavarian ruling family. If Cho’s patronus is a swan, it’s likely that she is a fierce and deadly fighter in a pinch.
Second, I read somewhere else an interesting comment about Neville. He can’t seem to remember his name without help. One of the results of having an event erased from memory is the inability to remember other things. Perhaps Neville saw something when his parents were attacked, and had his memory wiped. Because he was so young, it had a disproportionate effect on him. Voldemort destroyed Bertha breaking the memory spell that had been placed on her, but perhaps Dumbledore could get into Neville’s mind in a gentler way.
