My wilder HBP suspicions (non-spoilery, of course) - just revised!

[pharnabazus]

Well, I thought that my last hope of posting HBP predictions and arguments disappeared when my computer gave up on me yesterday, although I knew, of course, that it was already too late, since all sorts of spoilers are (now) already out

Comments

[lizardlaugh]

Hey you! Long time no see :) I lost your YM when Yahoo deleted my Harry/Tonks group along with my Yahoo ID. I am wizardlaugh on YM now... I'd love to chat with you after the book is released (or before provided you are going spoiler free as well

[pharnabazus]

Actually, there "are" a number of suspicious things about Tonks, starting with the fact that Kreacher doesn't obey her orders, whereas he ought to, regardless of whether she's on the tapestry - after all, "Sirius" isn't. It may be as Sirius says, of course...

[galadrion]

Ah, but Sirius had been on the tapestry - from my understanding, Tonks never was placed on it: Andromeda was blasted off of it when she married Ted. So it may well be that Ted and Nymphadora were never recognized by the family, and Kreacher would have legitimate grounds for not obeying.

Also, assuming that Tonks is an imposter for the sake of argument - you realize that you just added a hefty load of evidence against Narcissa being the imposter? Unless she gave Kreacher a standing order to "disobey" her as Tonks, which would tend to throw suspicion on "Tonks" of being an imposter, which would of course lend credence to the theory that she couldn't have actually done so on the grounds of it being such a transparently stupid act... or am I just getting too Machievellian in my plots again? ;)

[impinc]

I don't think he said that Narcissa was an imposter? I think what he said was that Narcissa might be impersonating other people.

[pharnabazus]

Yes, I wasn't saying that Narcissa was Tonks - intriguing though that idea is! I was just saying that Narcissa might be impersonating other people, if I'm right about her - and that (just possibly) there might be more to Tonks than there seems to be at first sight. But no, I don't "think" that Tonks is a traitor.

For a slightly wilder theory, could Narcissa have been in the graveyard circle in book four, in place of her husband, if she's better at hiding her thoughts than he is? Is that why Snape acted so surprised when Harry related that Lucius was there, as if he'd had reason to think he was somewhere else? Umm, no! No, that's too far-fetched, even for me! :-)

[narcissam]

What the heck? Why are you up?

[sonetka]

Tonks bothers me. The thing is, I like her (I know, it seems like most don't) so I feel vaguely protective of her, but damn, that metamorphmagus talent isn't there for nothing. Narcissa having the talent and impersonating her - or anyone - would be fascinating; I almost want to see it happen, despite the havoc that will ensue :).

One thing, though - if Narcissa is a metamorphmagus, how come it hasn't come up before? Could she have hidden it from her sisters and cousins her whole life? You'd think Sirius, or Tonks (or Andromeda, offstage) would have mentioned it at least in passing, if nothing else than to let Harry know that meeting Narcissa in another form was possible - after the Mad-Eye Moody/Barty Crouch caper of the previous year, you'd think they'd be especially wary of any potential enemy who had a talent like that.

Narcissa is the oldest sister, probably - older than Lucius too, I think

[pharnabazus]

Well, there are several possible answers to this. Firstly, this is the sort of talent that is "most" useful if no one else even suspects you have it. If you want to keep it secret, and can keep it secret, you probably do. It's the same as with Animagi, only more so - and after all, only "seven" Animagi bothered to register themselves in the whole of the twentieth century

Re: Narcissa is the oldest sister, probably - older than Lucius too, I think

[jodel_from_aol]

Well there were clearly two Black brothers in the previous generation, and it is more likely that the elder would inherit the estate while the younger got the townhouse.

Somehow I doubt that being female knocks you out of the position of being the primary heir in the wizarding world.

Andromeda needs to be at least Lucius's age to reasonably have a 22-year old daughter at the opening of OotP, and that's only by assuming a marriage directly out of Hogwarts and a child within the year. If Narcissa is the eldest, she *must* be older than Lucius.

Re: Narcissa is the oldest sister, probably - older than Lucius too, I think

[pharnabazus]

Yes, exactly - and I think that Narcissa's father probably "was" the elder of the brothers, and got the older house in the country. Certainly Sirius' grandfather seems to have been rather richer than Sirius' father. It's the grandfather who had the money to buy an Order of Merlin, first class.

And by this reckoning, even if they practice partiple inheritance, Narcissa would have got the country house and core estate from her father - not only as the eldest of his three daughters, but also as the only one of them not in disgrace: one of her siblings married to a Muggle-born wizard, and the other with a lifelong sentence in Azkaban.

[sollersuk]

I have to watch my feelings about Tonks - the mutating hair colours are so reminiscent of "my daughter the theologian". However, having said that, she's pretty scary in a lot of ways!

[pharnabazus]

And yes, I'm going spoiler-free as well!