Harry Potter 3 Musings

11) There exists Riddle House in the real world as well.

The Riddle House in Palm Beach County, Florida, was originally a funeral parlor. The Victorian house was dismantled and rebuilt in Yesteryear Village at the South Florida fair grounds. In the 1920’s the house became privately owned by Karl Riddle.

The Terror

Joseph, one of Riddle’s former employees, committed suicide by hanging himself in the attic of the house. Joseph, for whatever reason, hated men, and displays this hatred by attacking men who enter the attic. One man had a lid flung at his head, and men are now no longer allowed in the attic. Other places in the house are haunted as well, with furniture being frequently moved.

(borrowed from Listverse)

The Riddle house just as in the fourth book has a stories around it, haunted with untimely deaths from the past and subject of various gossips. Fact meets fiction in this case.

12) The Elder wand is a wand the most powerful that is respected and feared by all. It is known to have a mind of its own. It is passed down from the master and there is death, breakdown of the powerful entities connected with it. Would it accept The Dark lord as its master?? Doubtful to me. The person who wishes to posses it must accept death as a friend. And since the Dark lord has the fear of death he does not meet the criteria as suggested. But since the wand has a mind and can think for itself. I don’t know even if the wand was passed down to the Dark Lord if the wand would give over all of its powers to Him, considering that DL would not die and had created his safeguards against death. This would count against him. Dumbledore sees the wand for what it actually is.

13) Tom Riddle in his childhood had to experience the Great Depression, the 2 world wars and the aftermath of the war. This could have been a major factor in turning him towards the dark side. HP did not have to face economic misery as a whole as compared to him. HP also develops friends something that the DL deems unnecessary. Both though having similarities have their differences something that finally has  a say in making them who they really are.

14) Technology in its most advanced form is magic. If we actually think about it then it holds true. What we deem marvel now could be technological progress in the future. 50 years ago many of the things seen right now would have been deemed as science fiction and as a byproduct of our imagination. So when we use a highly advanced form of technology we actually add a little magic in our lives.

15)The wand chooses the wizard as stated by Ollivander. In the absence of a proper wand the wizard has the character development affected and the magic cant be expressed properly as well. Eg Ron grows tremendously when he is given his own wand  and emerges as a key wizard. The transformation for Neville too is too important once he obtains his wand. He is depicted as being fearless, independent unlike the earlier view we obtained from the HP1.

16) When asked by Harry Potter as to what he saw about himself in the Mirror of Erised Albus stated that he saw himself holding socks. This was made up but he could not hide his viewpoint quite well. Socks are clothes that represent freedom to an elf who otherwise is a slave to his master. Dumbledore too views himself as a slave to his guilt. He too seeks a confirmation that would prove himself to be innocent and thus obtain himself freedom from the guilt that has haunted him for a long time in the past and in the present.

11) Albus got Harry’s cloak from the  top of the Astronomy tower and gave it back to HP. Albus I think knew about hagrid’s dragon thus he lifted the protective enchantments that otherwise would not have allowed  Weasley to come to Hogwarts to take Norbert away.

17) In Rosmerta’s Pub the hooded stranger knows about the weakness of Hagrid to raise a dragon , thus he possess a dragon egg that is exchanged for information . This was possible as Prof. Quirrell followed both HP and RH right from the cottage onwards and overheard Hagrid’s love for dragons.

18) It is ironic that Harry Potter examines the planet of Jupiter in his Astronomy class and meets the man with 2 faces (Janus the Roman god was privy to such a term) in Quirrell.

19) The dream about the turban by Harry I think might be the Horcrux in him trying to influence him to follow slytherin. Thus lead him to a darker path. Notice how the dream turns to nightmare when it is unsuccessful to influence Harry in to following the darker path. Being a novice Harry is unable to recall the dream later and continues his sleep as though nothing happened.

Harry Potter 2. Some Musings.....

6) People are scared to speak of his name in the Wizarding World. They refer to him as “You know who” on a regular basis. This fear is based on the fact that the mere mention of his name could result in the presence of the Dark Lord amidst them. Harry being unaccustomed to the wizarding world is not rooted in the psyche, myths, superstitions that surround it. He thus fails to understand this aspect and insists on calling the Dark Lord by his name. This is in quite contrast to Dumbledore who despite the knowledge calls him as such as he is fearless and extremely powerful when compared to others. This has  a base rooted in the spiritual world. Exorcists who are involved in exorcism  are also loathe to calling out the names of the spirits they have pulled out. They would not like it or prefer it to do so as they believe that it would result in a connection with them and the spirit and result in contact, something they seek to avoid. The Dark lord is can also be considered as a spirit like in character. He can draw parallels between the spirit. Similar to a spirit that can posses a human body he too can possess Harry, torment him, use his memories against him, break down his defences, acquire control over his body movements and contort his features against Harry’s will as observed in the Ministry of Magic. Its only love that allows Harry a defence barrier against him. But in the real world many people who do get attacked by the spirit suffer from it and it increases gradually, finally there is a possibility that the possessed may never be normal again.

7) Azkaban is located in the middle of the North Sea is highly doubtful as both the cold and the warm currents meet there. For a dog (Sirius) to swim successfully to the shores of Britain implies that it might be located not in the middle but somewhere closer to the British Coast. But of course Fudge never felt himself obliged to present the complete picture to the Muggle PM. Did he?? Rather he viewed Muggle PM with contempt as a child who had to be indulged to set about the matter in the Muggle World.

8) Peter Pettigrew transfigure in the form of mouse and stayed with the Weasleys right from the time of death of James Potter till the 3^rd book. Personally speaking I feel that Peter was imprisoned during his stay with the Weasleys. Imagine a human wizard living with a wizarding family as a mouse for a decade. It was as good as Azkaban for Peter. Wonder why the Twins Fred and George never noticed who Peter was in the Map when Ron was with them at Hogwarts. This might imply the concern they had for their brother was minimal.

9) Harry has tough time noticing the Planet Venus during his Astronomy Exam. He fails to notice it properly for his exam this could also be a metaphor for men in general who fails to notice the divine feminity or are blind to it due to dogma. Venus is a planet that has association with feminity. Thus the association is well served.  Though Mars shines Bright always when there is battle to come. Something that Harry never misses out as it is drawn to his attention by others.

10) Enervate means to weaken and when used as a spell it instead is a spell that tends to energise and revitalise the user. This is a paradox. I mean why use this word as a spell why not something else. This is not the only paradox in his first year the class is told to remember the forgetfulness potion. Another Paradox.

Incase you enjoyed it read the previous musings at  

http://hp7analysis.blogspot.in/2014/02/harry-potter-1-some-musings.html

Harry Potter 1. Some Musings.....

1) In the first book of the Harry Potter Series, Albus Dumbledore tells that he has a scar above the left knee that is a perfect map of the London Underground. While we can dismiss it as been coincidence it is very unusual if one considers the history of the London Underground Map.

The London underground maps the Metro rail system and is inaccurate except for 2 details.  The distances in the map are wrong, the routes are full of twists and turns unlike the depiction of the map. Besides the map is not to scale and misleads on the directions as well. Only accurate information that can be obtained from the map is if the station is a junction and if the station is to the north or south of River Thames. (The London Underground.)

The map was created by Harry Beck in 1931 doodled in his spare time. So the incredible thing is how did Dumbledore’s scar end up as the map by Beck?? Did Dumbledore confound him??? Or even hilariously allow harry access to his scar?? (was kidding on that… :o) )

2) The Minister of Magic is a very powerful position in the wizarding world.  Seeking to keep the existence of wizards  a secret the Minister is armed with an array of frightening powers. He is the Head of the Executive, assigned with subordinates to help him in his various tasks, also deals with the Muggle PM as a subordinate on a need to know basis (thus ensuring his supremacy). He can also influence the Daily Prophet to not report the news he deems unworthy as seen sometimes. But people tend to forget that he also has a say at the Judicial hearings in determining the guilt of the convict and can single handedly influence the outcome as observed in the case of Harry Potter. The lack of distinction among the Judicial and Executive role is seen to boost the power of the Minister of Magic. Unlike the PM off the Muggle World (Great Britain) who is overwhelmed with responsibility, the Minister of Magic is powerful position who can seek the aid of his subordinates to oversee any task. Besides he is not the Prime among the Ministers but THE Minister of Magic.

3) Gringott’s Bank eerily reminds me of the same manner of functioning of the Central Banks as in 1914. It’s single most important task is to preserve the value of the currency quite similar to the Yesteryear Central Banks. Presently Fiat based currencies are used, however in the yesteryears Gold Standard was used where the currencies were pegged to the gold to keep inflation at bay and preserve the value of the currency. But in the wizarding world, Gold, Silver and Bronze nuggets are used. This will protect the value of the currency and keep inflation at minimum. This practice of use of Gold as currency existed for  millennia and continues till the present in the Wizarding World.  While the Gold Standard had its Busts and Booms , such a scenario is not reported at all in the Wizarding world.  Most of the gold did not circulate but lay buried in the form of ingot in the Central Bank’s underground vaults a la Gringotts. While in the 1914 this was the reserve for the banking system that determined the supply of money, credit and even anchor for the economy. The Wizarding World had the supply of money limited to the supply and the reserves of Gold, silver,Bronze and other metals that the bank may deem fit. There was no doubt that the Gringotts Bank functioned as the central Bank in the Wizarding World. However this practice by the Gringotts would safeguard the wealthy at the expense of the poor. So it is hardly surprising that the Weasleys find Hogwarts Education to be very expensive. But the other unreported aspect is that the muggle money based on fiat gets regularly devalued  vis-à-vis  the Galleons just as there were no safeguards for fiat currencies against inflation. Since Hermione’s parents were well to do dentists neither she nor they did dwell on that fact.

4) There was no doubt the Prof. Quirrell , the man with the 2 faces ( a term reserved for Janus) followed Hagrid when he went to fetch Harry under the instructions of Prof Dumbledore. Quirrell's Behaviour and talk later only serves to confirm this, while we tend to push it away from our consideration on the revelation that he and not snape is the villain of the book.

5) Whenever there is the mention of Pig Snout Harry is surrounded by people who are always eating. In the first book Pig snout is the password used to gain access to the Tower where he befriends Hermione. In the 5th book he asks Tonks during dinner to imitate Dudley wherein she gets a pig snout.