I imagine it as interactive - it shows more detail on the bit you look at, shows names of people you concentrate on, etc…
It still makes problems but it’s just conceivable enough that it doesn’t break the books completely.
Well, we know from Harry’s first use of the Marauder’s Map that it changes based on what you’re doing/looking for. When he was trying to figure out how to get into the secret passage, it showed a stick figure of him tapping the statue and saying “Dissendium”. I suspect that Fred and George would have very seldom looked for Ron, particularly when they knew he was asleep in bed (which is when Pettigrew’s anomalous presence would have been most obvious, and might have caused them to question Ron’s preferences–remember that Scabbers slept in Ron’s bed 
).
As for Lupin and Snape looking at the map while an extra Harry and Hermione were around…Lupin was looking for them at a specific location, Hagrid’s cabin. So the map showed him the versions of Harry and Hermione there (along with Ron–another point is that he was looking for all three of them). Once he saw that, he went after them, leaving the map behind. Snape was looking for Lupin, so that’s who the map would show him; Lupin happened to be in the presence of the earlier H & H. So, based on the presumed operation of the map, that all makes a certain measure of sense.
In Sorcerer’s Stone, Hagrid tells Harry about his magical heritage, and the accomplishments of his parents. “Head Boy and Girl in their day!” he tells Harry.
It is strongly implied that Head Boy and Girl are positions awarded to two seventh-year prefects.
I don’t know about Lily Evans, but James Potter was never a prefect. How did he ever get to be Head Boy?
I have the same question and have thought about it a great deal. Maybe someone was keeping a detector or magical scanning ability out for unauthorized portkeys so he had to do it that way? Maybe he was waiting for V. to regain his power and that was the closest opportunity? Maybe it was the only time to get Harry Potter actually alone (except he didn’t)? Maybe he enjoyed the drama of the whole thing? The last is the only one that makes any sense to me and it’s still pushing it.
As far as Snape being abusive, something disturbing occurred to me today: In the case of Neville and Harry, who I see as his main victims, they have no parents to complain about it. In the case of Hermione, she just isn’t the type to complain, more the type to write Snape off as a total s___heel and move on with her life. Same with Ron, his parents have loads of other stuff to worry about and he isn’t about to run crying over Snape. JMHO
On prefects: It seems to be strongly suggested that prefects are only chosen in 5th year and keep their positions right up till 7th year and there are only ever 2 prefects per house. This means that the role of prefectship only ever comes up every 3 years and 2 years never get the chance to be prefects. Seems a tad unfair.
In GoF, my main problem was when Harry was sending owls to Sirius.
The Ministry of Magic and the Dementors could not find Sirius, but an Owl could?
MtM
I disagree. I’ve never gotten a vibe that each house only has two prefects. My feeling is that Hogwarts has twenty-four prefects (two per House per O. W. L. year and above), including Head Boy and Head Girl. Could you point me to a passage that suggests eight is the maximum?
Come to think of it, Shalmanese, if your interpretation was correct, Harry’s Year Four would have been a year for Gryffindor to get a new set of prefects (first year that Percy is not occupying the office). Not only would Ron and Hermione never have been eligible, neither would Fred and George, and Molly Weasley would not have had any reason to chaff the twins over not being made prefects.
FWIW the book tells you the time period if you’re really super nit picky, Nearly Headless Nicks 500th death day was celebrated in book 2, and he died in 1494 hint hint.
I thought that Snape was aware that Quirrel was trying to break in to get the stone, but wasn’t aware (any more than anyone else) that Voldemort was involved. Thus, it seemed like a theft that was involved (for the gold? the immortality?) and probably didn’t warrant “taking out” Quirrel. I would think, however, that Snape would report him to Dumbledore - although maybe Snape is like Potter, in that he wants to take care of things himself.
I have a somewhat major nit to pick, but it assumes that my memory of the books is accurate, which is certainly up to debate.
Now, it seems to be strongly implied, if not flat-out stated, that Snape is or has been a double agent, working for both Dumbledore and V… Vo… Voldemort. Yet in the first book, he confronts Quirrell one in one, and presses him to determine where his loyalties lie. Further, Quirrell (and thus V-man) know that Snape was trying to save Harry during the Quidditch match. In neither of these cases is it plausible that Snape is operating so as to give the illusion of supporting Dumbledore, because in each case, the only one who knows of Snape’s actions is Quirrell.
So unless Voldemort is a complete idiot, he must know that Snape is loyal to Dumbledore. Unless, I suppose, Snape didn’t become a double agent until after book one. Anybody wanna shed some light on this?
Jeff
Actually, Voldemort’s whereabouts were spelled out pretty clearly in his “villain giving the hero his comeuppance speech” in Goblet of Fire.
[list=1]
[li]He’s disembodied for many years prior to Book 1 (Philosopher’s Stone)[/li][li]Quirrel comes to where Voldy is hiding, and he leeches off of Quirrel. His main goal for this whole year is to get the Philosopher’s Stone, to bring him back to life. At the end, he fails to get it, he leaves Quirrel, and Quirrel dies.[/li][li]Now Voldy is again disembodied - unable to act, only able to posses people/animals, without a follower to help. He’s like this through book 2 (where Malfoy stirs things up with an old book) and book 3 (where Sirius spots Wormtail and goes after him).[/li][li]After the end of book 3 things start to happen, because Wormtail comes back to help Voldy. He gives him a form he can use, gets a hold of Bertha, find out about Crouch, and launch a plot. This plot is to bring Voldy back, but it involves a live Potter (until the end), so Harry is pretty safe until the end of the tournament (from Voldy, at least). When Voldy has what he wants, Harry escapes (with willpower and not a little luck) with his life, but only just.[/li][li]Only now would Voldy have both the means and the interest in killing Harry. However, he also wants to lie low (since few people believe he’s back), and he wants to find out about that prophecy (since Harry has survived his attack twice). This means no direct action. Also, once he gets it into his mind to use Harry to get the prophecy, he’s not going to want Harry dead in the meantime.[/li][/list=1]
So it makes sense (to me) that there hasn’t been a lot of focus on killing Harry - just as an aside or extra a few times of opportunity. Now, however, all bets are off, and I expect him to be under attack immediately.
Except that Dumbledore didn’t actually tell Harry about the Longbottoms. Harry found that out while snooping in Dumbledore’s office while waiting for him in book 4. Dumbledore confirmed what Harry learned, then told him not to repeat it - which I think would be better than Harry asking around based on what he found out.
Snape may not have a lot of faith in the strength of Dumbledore’s trust in him. He must know that Dumbledore has plenty of reason not to trust him, so perhaps he didn’t want to push his luck in the absence of hard evidence. Since Snape had his eye on the DADA postion and even the students figured he had it in for Quirrell, he might have assumed that Dumbledore wouldn’t listen to him unless he had really, really good proof that Quirrell was after the Philosopher’s Stone.
Monstre, I believe I know why Crouch didn’t just transform Harry’s toothbrush or something into a portkey and be done with it in a week. Voldemort didn’t just want to use and then kill Harry - he wanted to absolutely crush all British opposition to him in one night.
I read this theory on one of those Harry related sites, I don’t remember which one though, it was a long time ago. Here’s how it goes.
Remember how the portkey took Harry back? Why should it do that? That’s not automatically in the nature of portkeys. Crouch must have programmed it to take anyone who touched it after a certain point to the village of Little Hangleton, and then to take anyone who touched it after another certain point (probably about 30 minutes after it’s first touched) back to Hogwarts. But why? Here is what I have come to believe Voldemort’s (brilliant) plan for that night was.
First, once Crouch had made sure Harry got to that portkey, he’d be used to revive Voldemort. That part had a slight problem, Diggory wasn’t supposed to come with him, but that was solved by a quick murder. Then Harry was to be used in a means of reviving Voldemort while simultaneously taking away some of the protection Harry has against V. That also succeeded.
But then things went wrong. Voldemort planned to kill Harry in front of his Death Eaters–you know, to show he could do it. But he didn’t know Harry’s wand was a brother to his own, so that got screwed up, and Harry got away, taking the portkey with him. That was the real blow to the plan.
Harry wasn’t supposed to take that portkey. Voldemort and his Death Eaters were supposed to. A sudden surprise attack on Hogwarts. Dumbledore may be a great wizard, but up against all that, by surprise, plus a mystery traitor nearby… even he would meet his downfall there. The minister of magic would die too. The students of course, wouldn’t be too much of a challenge. Considering the circumstances, most of them were probably wandless. Naturally the teachers would try to save the innocent, making them easier targets. In a few minutes time, Hogwarts would conquered. The place that remained the last uninfected bastion of hope in magical Britain during V’s former reign would be the first to go. There wouldn’t be much for hope of resisting him after that.
And of course, they’d be bringing the corpse of Harry with them on the attack. You know, just for a morale destroyer. That right there would really crush Dumbledore’s hopes.
This theory is unproven of course. I was hoping to see the Order mention something like it, but Sirius just said that Voldemort’s plans hadn’t gone so well because Harry was supposed to die, and that no one was supposed to know he was back. But, I find that hard to believe. V knows damn well that Snape works at Hogwarts, and when that mark burned black there was undeniable proof that V was back, so I don’t think it was V’s intention to remain in hiding for a whole year after his return.
I was having this argument with my husband today. He won.
Basically, while it is implied that Snape is a double agent, he can’t be, for all the reasons stated above. Of course Voldemort knows Snape is in with Dumbledore. He even seems to make a refrence to Snape in the fourth book, saying he has strayed from his side and shall be killed, or something. Snape is doing things for the Order that have something to do with his connection to Voldemort, and we don’t know what these things are, but surely he can’t be all up in the Death Eaters’ secret lair, getting friendly with all of V’s cohorts.
Excellent point about the map, Monstre. And it’s even more of an strain than you suggest, because Scabbers had been the family rat for twelve years, since well before Ron started at Hogwarts.
…Which should mean that Scabbers belonged to Fred or to George before Ron, so whenever the twins checked their positions against someone else, they should have seen “Peter Pettigrew” right close to them.
Here’s one that really bugs me about the latest book (which I finished just this afternoon).
A wizard or witch has been shown to be utterly helplese without his/her wand, but in the big fight with the Ministry with the Death Eaters, no one made a point of destroying his adversary’s wand!
Most egregiously, after Harry and Neville Petrified Dolohov and the other Death Eater, they left them both in that office with their wands! They didn’t snap the wands in half; Neville, whose own wand had just been broken, didn’t even take one of their wands for himself.
Which meant that, after they were recovered by the other Death Eaters, Dolohov was able to rejoin the fight in the room with the veiled arch.
If Harry and Neville had broken or taken the wands when they had the chance, it could have made the difference between Sirius living and dying.
Remember how theres no apparating on Hogwarts grounds? Perhaps this applies to portkeys too. And they may of made an exception for the final Task.
Teelo, Dumbledore frequently created portkeys into and out of Hogwarts in Phoenix.
He did? Honestly, I cant remember any, could you tell me when and why? :smack: