OotP Chapter 18 - Dumbledore's Army

[quartertofive]

After a Charms lesson rife with paranoia and some animal abuse, theres finally some good news - the Quidditch team is to be reformed. Hermione however isn't paying attention, but trying to be the voice of caution, worried by Sirius' abundant approval

Comments

[cadesama]

Hermione sure is quick to turn on Sirius. He's a bit careless with his own safety, and suddenly his advice is totally untrustworthy. And thinking that he's "become" reckless? Hermione, if he's reckless now what was he before -- you know, when he swapped the Potters' Secret Keeper, tried to kill Pettigrew, attacked the Fat Lady, and endangered Ron twice to get to Wormtail?

"What was this weird connection between them, which Dumbledore had never been able to explain satisfactorily?" -- Even by the end of OotP, I don't think it's truly been explained. We know that it's like Legilimency, but that they don't need eye contact, or even a spell. We know Harry has gained some of Voldemort, but we don't know how much, and we don't know if that aspect is two-way like the Legilimency side of it. We don't know if the original failed curse is the magic bridging them, or if it just made a path, which their own magic fills in. The connection is apparently unique in comparison to all other known magic.

The Room of Requirement would have to be an absolutely amazing piece of magic for it to create anew all of the items that appear in it. So, I generally assume that it draws together things that are preexisting in the castle. Hogwarts is vast enough that it probably has a number of storage rooms of obsolete or broken furniture -- which explains the chamber pots and the elf sized bed (actually, that might be pulled from a house elf dormitory of some sort). The books Harry uses in the DA might be pulled from the library. I'm a bit curious as to who in Hogwarts (aside from elves) would even need a cure for butterbeer, though. Flitwick, perhaps?

Along with having a name for the group, a cover story probably would have been a good idea. What the use of talking about it in short hand to confuse people, if they can still figure out what you're saying from context? Obviously, most of the talking they would be doing would only be about when to meet, but it would be good to have an alibi in case someone gets interested.

It's interesting that the twins actually try to behave when Harry wants them to. Partially, I suppose it's just that they see how important the DA is. But I think a lot is that they actually respect Harry. He probably would have been able to get them to fall in line as a prefect. Of course, it could be that they follow his orders because they choose to, and if he was officially enshrined as an authority by the adults, they would be just as resistant to him as they are to everyone else.