Comments on: Flight of the Fat Lady

By: Adele

Adele — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 01:33:38 +0000

Erin, this isn’t really the point of what you said, but I thought I’d go off on this tangent

Never really does it say that Snape’s not a good teacher in general. He must be, because it’s very doubtful that Dumbledore, or the School Governors, would keep him around if he was a bully AND a terrible teacher. The only reason, I think, that he’s portrayed as inept is because we’re seeing it through Harry’s eyes, a very biased source.

By: Erin

Erin — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 01:30:03 +0000

As mean and evil as Snape acts, I don’t think he’s keen on having students attacked by a werewolf. That alone is enough for him to make the Wolfsbane potion correctly. Plus with Dumbledore knowing he’s making it… there’s no way he’d mess that up. He may hate Lupin, but he’s not going to take it out on the students. He’s a good teacher in that way. (It almost pains me to write that.)

By: May

May — Sat, 08 Oct 2011 04:28:41 +0000

Oops, sorry for double-posting. I just realized he DOES turn into a werewolf even after drinking the potion; it’s just that he doesn’t ‘lose his mind’ and go into a rampage. Still, a breather year for Lupin. ;)

By: May

May — Sat, 08 Oct 2011 04:26:33 +0000

Snape could have been horrible to Lupin behind his back (letting slip he’s a werewolf, giving students hints about his true nature), but at least, he has the decency not to sabotage the Wolfsbane Potion in a year of concocting it. And I agree with what Casey said – given Snape’s intent to protect Harry against all costs, he has no choice but to ensure Lupin doesn’t morph into werewolf form while he was teaching at Hogwarts, that’s why he didn’t sabotage the potion. It must have a been a pretty relaxing year for Lupin – a year of remaining in human form all throughout.

By: Amanda

Amanda — Sat, 03 Sep 2011 18:51:50 +0000

@John; I also immidiatley thought of the “monster under the bed” when reading that boggarts like the space underneath the beds. Seeing that they turn into anything you’re scared of, and small children are often scared of some kind of monster, I don’t see it as such a big leap :) Perhaps the stories of monsters under the beds originally come from cases with boggarts? It’s a shame we know so little about these creatures/whatever they are – for example, would they be visible to Muggles? Maybe only Muggle children? Who knows.

By: Joe

Joe — Fri, 01 Jul 2011 18:04:38 +0000

I think that Sirius lived in the Forbidden Forest ever since he slipped past the dementors on his way to Hogwarts, and since they weren’t alowed on the grounds, they had no way of knowing he was there, so he simply could have just left the forest as a dog and slipped into the castle.

By: Lewis

Lewis — Wed, 29 Jun 2011 23:52:39 +0000

I’m on same terms with you that Harry wouldn’t have belived anything Sirius had wrote. But you think he would try…

I mean in subsequent books he clearly cares deeply about Harry, he cares about what his Godson thinks of him.

With the kneazles, it is actually quite funny. About 5 minutes after I posted the above coment, I went through one of your links to JKR’s website and started exploring. It turns out she says what Crookshanks is about a dozen times.

Shame on me for only ever reading the books :(

By: John Kearns

John Kearns — Tue, 28 Jun 2011 11:44:41 +0000

Lewis, the deal with Crookshanks is that he’s not just a cat, he’s a Kneazle – it’s a magical sort of cat that is much smarter. The same is true of Mrs. Norris and Mrs. Figg’s cats. There’s a description of them in Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.

In terms of Sirius not corresponding with Harry, all of his actions point to his having a higher priority – seeking revenge on Pettigrew. If you think about what Harry thinks of Sirius, it’s hard for me to imagine Sirius could have put anything in writing that would have changed his mind. Harry had to see Sirius transform Pettigrew into a rat and confront him about murdering James and Lily; only then did Sirius have any hope of being taken seriously.

By: Lewis

Lewis — Tue, 28 Jun 2011 11:12:23 +0000

A question I have is why doesn’t Sirius try to correspond with Harry during this year. Clearly he would not want Harry to think him a murderer and their are plenty of ways he could have written to him.

He could do simple math (I asuume) and would realise that Harry would at least be at school at this time, he could even assume that he was in Gryffindor because both his parents were. Next, he had Crookshanks halping him (what is that cat’s story anyway? maybe he’s an unnamed animagus, in either case he;s too smart to be a regular cat), and he could have told Padfoot that Harry slept in the same dorm as the rat that Sirius was after.

So why not get Crookshanks to deliver a letter to Harry, it would have saved both of them a lot of anguish.

By: Casey

Casey — Wed, 08 Jun 2011 21:31:23 +0000

Irene, I tend to switch between the two. At first I read it as “dada” but then go back and read it as “dee-ay-dee-ay” just cause I’m weird that way =P

John, I never thought boggarts being the monster under the bed was a great leap, myself. When I read that in the book, I immediately thought to myself that that must be what the monster under the bed was for children. At least in this universe, anyway.

And I don’t think Dumbledore would have to force Snape to make the potion. Because if he didn’t, they’d have a very unstable werewolf walking around the school. Snape knows about the passage to the Shrieking Shack, and would have been afraid Lupin would either use it to get back to Hogwarts and potentially hurt the students, or could very well escape into Hogsmeade. These could both happen if Lupin didn’t take the potion. So, seeing as how he has to live with Dumbledore’s choice to bring Lupin in as a teacher, he has no other choice but to make the potion for him. I also think Snape meant to tip off some students (possibly just Hermione) about werewolves by doing that creature in the class that day. Of course, you’re right, it has the potential to save Lupin the embarrassment of teaching the class about a werewolf, but I don’t think that was his intent. Besides, I think a part of Lupin would love to teach the class about werewolves, because then he could teach them the sad part about being a werewolf, giving them a little bit of lee-way for being such sad creatures. Whereas Snape would love to make them all out to be blood-thirsty evil beasts.