Comments on: The Midnight Duel

By: Daziy

Daziy — Wed, 21 Mar 2012 01:52:44 +0000

I like the idea of The Fat Lady being a ‘spy’ for Dumbledore.. And I agree, it’s really odd if no other student had ever ventured to the 3rd floor corridor, especially the twins.. Even if they didn’t think it’s important enough for them to explore, wouldn’t the corridor can be seen in the Marauder’s Map? and, if it can, but they think it’s just another corridor, wouldn’t Fluffy has his(or her?) own spot?

By: willie

willie — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 18:30:21 +0000

Re Fat Lady being a snitch (albeit, for the good guys), Can’t find it right now but I remember in another book where Harry was under the invisibility cloak and waited for someone to enter before leaving the common room . Harry may have be onto her ways.

By: May

May — Sun, 04 Sep 2011 12:56:05 +0000

Palantiriel, I’ve often wondered about that Pansy-Parvati stuff too. It does seem like Pansy already knows Parvati well enough, considering that she was on a first-name basis with the latter. Weirdly enough, because doesn’t Pansy call other Gryffindors by their surnames?

Funny how Neville leaves with only a broken wrist after his flying mishap… and I thought he just fell over twenty feet. Seriously, that’s pretty high. But I suppose, aren’t wizards more resilient than Muggles?

By: Jenny

Jenny — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 17:13:40 +0000

I’m not sure if this has been asked or answered elsewhere on this site, but I’ve been wondering what happened to the first-years’ (or any other years’, come to that) flying lessons after this chapter. True, we only see things from Harry’s point of view, and he becomes part of the Gryffindor team right away, but flying lessons aren’t ever mentioned again that I’ve noticed – only Quidditch practice and matches. So is it only those who make it onto a Quidditch team who do any kind of sport at Hogwarts? Flying lessons just seem to disappear off the radar once Harry makes the team. Maybe I haven’t read this book thoroughly enough, but I’ve never worked out or heard an answer to this one. From what you say in your synopsis right at the top John, it sounds like the first-years maybe aren’t allowed any more lessons after this because of what happened with Harry and Draco – is that right?

By: Amy

Amy — Wed, 17 Aug 2011 20:30:32 +0000

In regards to the door to the third floor corridor being too easy to open. Well we know that Dumbledore likes to let Harry discover things for himself. We also know that Dumbledore doesn’t need a cloak to become invisible. In my mind, Dumbledore lifted the enchantments on the door that night so Harry et al could get through and spark Harry’s curiosity. How did Dumbledore know that they were out that night? Well Roonil Wazlib answered that question. The Fat Lady left her portrait to inform Dumbledore Harry had taken a midnight stroll. Once they had left Fluffy, Dumbledore then reinstalled the enchantments. When it comes to the trio going through the trapdoor, Quirrell broke the enchantments on the door but didn’t know how to reinstall them so just casts the simple door locking spell leaving the trio capable of getting through.

I also would bet that Dumbledore visited Hagrid the day before Harry and Ron in the previous chapter and took the newspaper cutting about the break in. He showed it to Hagrid (saying something like ‘if it wasn’t for you it would have been stolen, thank you’ etc) and ‘accidentally’ left it on Hagrid’s table. Whilst he was there he suggested that Hagrid invite Harry for tea. The next morning Harry receives the invite, visits Hagrid and sees the newspaper cutting. Just as Dumbledore had planned. He then makes it possible for Harry to see Fluffy and connect the dots. I think it would be fascinating to read the series from Dumbledore’s point of view.

As a side note, I’m just watching J. K. Rowling on “Who Do You Think You Are?” and I’m tearing up a little along with her.

By: Ida

Ida — Sun, 07 Aug 2011 19:25:28 +0000

I love the fact that we see the brave Parvarti, who deserves to be in Gryffindor in this chapter. Most of the time I tend to think of her as just Lavenders gigglish side-kick.

By: Casey

Casey — Fri, 27 May 2011 14:59:14 +0000

HentaiTenshi,

I believe a lot of what holds Hermione back from trying to keep Harry under control is her extremely deep loyalty and respect toward him. Sure, she could probably out-duel him, or talk him into staying put if she really wanted to, but she also wants him to know that she will always stand by him, no matter what the cost. I think she knows that he’s going to do what he feels he needs to do, no matter what anyone says, and she isn’t about to abandon him when she could help and be there for him when he needs her. It all comes down to her connection with Harry and Ron, and that even though her common sense tells her otherwise, she’s ready to jump into any battle and face any danger alongside them. It’s really a huge part of what makes her a Gryffindor, wouldn’t you think?

By: Emma

Emma — Fri, 01 Apr 2011 09:26:33 +0000

Someone, I don’t remember who had written a blog rant about this particular chapter, right at the beginning considering both Ron and Draco’s comments on flying – Draco, who has been flying for years and was narrowly missed by a Helicoptor and Ron who almost hit someone in a Hang glider.
They argued that comments like these make the books shallow and not make sense, I wish i’d found this sight for them because you find the nuances of the book so well but the Author of that book had brought that section to my attention and I replied with; The book is written from Harry’s point of view, he grew up with muggles and knows what those two things are, since we don’t get a look at the situation in which the two were bragging about this feats, I just assumed Harry would have filled in the blanks from s description, especially from Draco because with Mr Weasley’s muggle obssession it’s quite possible that Ron would know and could even be considered a precursor to finding out about his muggle obession and if Draco actually did know what the Helicoptor was it begs the question; How? Curiosity rather than full on hate or Mr Malfoy teaching him to know his enemies?

By: gingercat222

gingercat222 — Wed, 05 Jan 2011 16:28:32 +0000

I agree that Hermione is a very smart witch, but, to be fair, there are times when she needs to open her mind a bit and listen to Harry! Think about DH and Harry’s looking into Voldy’s mind!! She should have thought about what he was seeing instead of trying to stop him from seeing.

By: HentaiTenshi

HentaiTenshi — Tue, 04 Jan 2011 18:50:03 +0000

Ah Andrea… You made a little sad there. You’re right. When it comes to Hermione, she’s usually right. If Harry had listened to her Sirius would still be alive. He was my favorite character besides Snape at the time. I think they never listen to Hermione cuz y’know… MEN. Hermione has those finely honed instincts and she thinks things through a lot more than they do. To me she’s one of the most dangerous characters out the because she’s powerful and she’s SMART. Not just in the book sense that everyone assumes. Honestly, if she wasn’t so afraid of Harry half the time she would have had him well under control and a LOT of things would have turned out different.