My take on Diagon Alley, Gringotts, and How Voldemort will use the LAKE
What is going on at Diagon Alley?
It's all in the name.... Knockturn Alley.... Diagonally.
---- Quote... (how Harry messed up the pronunciation of the word)
"You must speak clearly, dear," Mrs. Weasley told Harry as George
dipped his hand into the flowerpot. "And be sure to get out at the right
grate ......
"The right what?" said Harry nervously as the fire roared and whipped
George out of sight, too.
"Well, there are an awful lot of wizard fires to choose from, you know,
but as long as you've spoken clearly -"
You know how much JKR likes to make a play on words, just to see if we are paying attention....
To me, this play on words leads me to think of directions.... where does this all lead? First you would KNOCK..... then TURN (either the doorknob, or "TURN" down the ALLEY), then go down DIAGONALLY. It's a direction. Now, where at Diagon Alley do you go DOWN? Where does this lead the story? I see this as an entryway.
Gringotts connection
----- Quote... (Hagrid about the security... sucked into a vault and not checked for ten years... also getting lost.)
"If anyone but a Gringotts goblin tried that, they'd be sucked through
the door and trapped in there," said Griphook.
"How often do you check to see if anyone's inside?" Harry asked.
"About once every ten years," said Griphook with a rather nasty grin.
...
"Why would you be mad to try and rob Gringotts?" Harry asked.
"Spells -- enchantments," said Hagrid, unfolding his newspaper as he
spoke. "They say there's dragons guardin' the highsecurity vaults. And
then yeh gotta find yer way -- Gringotts is hundreds of miles under
London, see. Deep under the Underground. Yeh'd die of hunger tryin' ter
get out, even if yeh did manage ter get yer hands on summat."
Ok... so we also know from book six that the Goblins have significantly stepped up their security practices. I only wondered WHY? I mean so people are scared to think that since the DE's and Voldemort are running around... do they think that Voldemort would go after their gold? This just does not make sense. I don't see Voldemort as being a bank robber. That is just so funny! [lol] Anyway, so I took another look at what else is there, underground, at Gringotts for us to see.
"Harry's eyes stung as the cold air rushed past them, but he kept them
wide open. Once, he thought he saw a burst of fire at the end of a
passage and twisted around to see if it was a dragon, but too late - -
they plunged even deeper, passing an underground lake where huge
stalactites and stalagmites grew from the ceiling and floor."
Is Hagrid the secret keeper to the school?
------- Quote... (when Hagrid brought up the first years in book one.... cavelike entrance.)
"No more'n four to a boat!" Hagrid called, pointing to a fleet of little
boats sitting in the water by the shore. Harry and Ron were followed
into their boat by Neville and Hermione. "Everyone in?" shouted Hagrid,
who had a boat to himself. "Right then -- FORWARD!"
And the fleet of little boats moved off all at once, gliding across the
lake, which was as smooth as glass. Everyone was silent, staring up at
the great castle overhead. It towered over them as they sailed nearer
and nearer to the cliff on which it stood.
"Heads down!" yelled Hagrid as the first boats reached the cliff; they
all bent their heads and the little boats carried them through a curtain
of ivy that hid a wide opening in the cliff face. They were carried
along a dark tunnel, which seemed to be taking them right underneath the
castle, until they reached a kind of underground harbor, where they
clambered out onto rocks and pebbles."
(First a note for later... this underground harbor... also here is another tunnel that leads into the school... what else is there that we know of that is UNDER the school? )
Now anyone that has ever read my theories from ages ago, might remember the one where I say that I believe that Hagrid's title as "keeper of the keys and grounds at Hogwarts" means that he is really the schools secret keeper. We are told that in book four, that the school is hidden... not even the other schools that came to be in the tournament know where they are. It was all prearranged. Then if you notice the first years get escorted in a special way to the castle for the first time. No one seems to be able to get there unless it's through Hagrid (or something prearranged.) ... Still, in book five, when Hagrid was visiting the giants, I believe that since they were not sure if he would be able to return from that dangerous assignment, that he must have been replaced (temporarily) by Grubbly-Plank. She too, kept to the little boats for the first years. I'm thinking that this might be the ONLY way to reach the school for the very first time... is by water
Then look at other ways of traveling long distances. Fire (floo), by water (the lake) and by air (brooms or Beaubatons carriage.) We know that in book six, there was a barrier put up by Dumbledore to keep people from flying up to the castle. Then the Ministry has the Floo bugged quite well in book five for Umbridge... so what else is left for Voldemort to try?
LAKE! Think Durmstrang's ship
Still, I have somewhere that I am taking this theory. If you notice.... HOW did the Durmstrang students arrive at the school? By way of the lake.... How do the first years arrive at the school? Via the lake.... I do see a magic that has to do with water.
(book four)
"Harry listened; a loud and oddly eerie noise was drifting toward them from out of
the darkness: a muffled rumbling and sucking sound, as though an immense
vacuum cleaner were moving along a riverbed.
"The lake!" yelled Lee Jordan, pointing down at it. "Look at the lake!"
From their position at the top of the lawns overlooking the grounds, they had a
clear view of the smooth black surface of the water - except that the surface was
suddenly not smooth at all. Some disturbance was taking place deep in the center;
great bubbles were forming on the surface, waves were now washing over the
muddy banks - and then, out in the very middle of the lake, a whirlpool appeared,
as if a giant plug had just been pulled out of the lake's floor.
What seemed to be a long, black pole began to rise slowly out of the heart of the
whirlpool. . . and then Harry saw the rigging....
"It's a mast!" he said to Ron and Hermione.
Slowly, magnificently, the ship rose out of the water, gleaming in the moonlight. It
had a strangely skeletal look about it, as though it were a resurrected wreck, and
the dim, misty lights shimmering at its portholes looked like ghostly eyes. Finally,
with a great sloshing noise, the ship emerged entirely, bobbing on the turbulent
water, and began to glide toward the bank. A few moments later, they heard the
splash of an anchor being thrown down in the shallows, and the thud of a plank
being lowered onto the bank. "
(book two)
"Trying hard to bear all this in mind, Harry took a pinch of Floo powder
and walked to the edge of the fire. He took a deep breath, scattered
the powder into the flames, and stepped forward; the fire felt like a
warm breeze; he opened his mouth and immediately swallowed a lot
of hot ash.
"D-Dia-gon Alley," he coughed.
It felt as though he was being sucked down a giant drain. He seemed
to be spinning very fast - the roaring in his ears was deafening -he
tried to keep his eyes open but the whirl of green flames made him
feel sick - something hard knocked his elbow and he tucked it in
tightly, still spinning and spinning - now it felt as though cold hands
were slapping his face - squinting through his glasses he saw a blurred
stream of fireplaces and snatched glimpses of the rooms beyond - his
bacon sandwiches were churning inside him - he closed his eyes again
wishing it would stop, and then....".
==================================
COS and Slytherin house is underwater.... or under the lake.... is it a way IN the school that Voldemort is attempting to reach the Chamber? I think about all that has been going on at Diagon Alley. Then the fact that Gringotts has been really kicking in on all of the extra security precautions. I didn't understand why Gringotts would do this unless they have more things going on there than just people leaving their valuables in their vaults. I would think that if a perons were to try to break into a vault there, then take the chance of being sucked inside and left there for ten years..... or if a person were to take the chance of getting lost in the tunnels then starving to death.... who would be that anxious to break into any vault to get something there? I don't see Voldemort having his own vault... or using one to keep a Horcrux. This leads back to the fact that he would be relying on someone else besides himself... and we all know how Voldemort likes to do things alone.... especially when it is about his Horcruxes....
book one...
"Harry's eyes stung as the cold air rushed past them, but he kept them
wide open. Once, he thought he saw a burst of fire at the end of a
passage and twisted around to see if it was a dragon, but too late - -
they plunged even deeper, passing an underground lake where huge
stalactites and stalagmites grew from the ceiling and floor."
....
Now to begin to sum this all up... I can't help but think, that Voldmort knows that the regular ways to get to the school are being watched. We have seen how he has tried to get his Deatheaters into the school in a secret way... he did this with the Vanishing cabinet. We know that he, himself, wants back into the school very badly, (In the pensieve, Tom asks to come backto teach.) He also knows how to get to the school because he was once a student himself. We are also told (by Karkaroff in the penisieve) that only Voldemort knows who his followers are. Then again, this is Karkaroff... we know that HE was not a student at Hogwarts but was a DE too. So, Voldemort's followers are from far and wide. They are not limited to former Hogwarts students or the creatures (dementors, Inferi and Giants.) If you were to form some sort of attack on the school.... why not do it in a way where the people would not see them comming? I can't help but think that there has to be some sort of reason that Diagon Alley has turned into what it has. I see it all points to Gringotts.... and as stated before, I don't think it is a Horcrux hidden there in a vault. If there is one there, why not have Voldemort send one of his Deatheaters to just go in and get the item... if that was what he was after? No there is something else.... I think about the lake, down underground... as being a possible UNDERGROUND .... water entrance. JKR describes the sucking sound as if being sucked down a drain, when she describes Harry's first experience traveling by Floo.... as well as the same type description for Karkaroff's ships entrance through the lake.
Will the mermaids and the Giant squid play a part in protecting this entrance that I believe is there?
((PS.... I know that some of this post cancels it's self out... that is the reson, I had not posted it long ago... I really needed more time to finish my research... So I do know not everything in here is correct... but at least it gives us an "IDEA" or food for thought, of what might happen in book seven.))