HBP: Chapter 11 - Hermione's Helping Hand
I find it strange how upset Hermione has been at Harry's success at potions. Is it just because she is jealous that someone is doing better at a subject than her or is there another reason why she is so upset by Harry using the Prince's book?
The kids are learning how to the Aguamenti Charm this chapter. If you read carefully you will see this speel used again to try and make water.
Poor Ron, nobody pays any attention to him. First Hermione ignores him and then Slughorn. Ron mentions the incident in the Department of Mysteries when he was attacked by the brains saying he can still see the scars. Hopefully there will be no lasting problems from that run in with the brains...
Harry swaps the covers of the old potions book and the new potions book so he can keep the prince's notes. Was there anything important written on the cover that we might need later? Did anyone notice that Harry switched the books?
McLaggen said he missed last year's Quidditch tryout cause he was in the hospital wing after eating a pound of doxy eggs for a bet. (223) How much do you want to bet that it was the Weasley twins that put him up to it? They did steal several doxies from Grimmauld Place... is that all they were using them for?
Wow, Hermione cheated to get Ron on the Quidditch team. Wonder if McLaggen ever found out that Hermione Confunded him? Why was is so important to her that Ron got on the team? She has claimed several times that she doesnt care about Quidditch. We should remember that Hermione will break the rules when it comes to something (someone) she cares about. Was this the only incident in this chapter where we saw Hermione's Helping Hand?
Hagrid tells us that Aragog is very sick and will probably die soon. (yet another reference to COS) Was Aragog's illness natural? An accident? Was it planned or was Aragog murdered? How important could a giant talking spider be? Sounds like the rest of the tribe will be hard to control with their leader gone. Is that part of the plan? Poor Ron I think you'll have to face more spiders in the future...
It is mentioned that the Daily Prophet reported that all the Time-turners were smashed last summer. So are all the time-turners really gone? Does anyone still have one? From the events at the World Cup in GOF it appears that either the twins or Ginny has one. How closely are they monitored? Have we encountered anyone else using one?
We learn that no dark objects were found when the Malfoy house was searched. Is this the only place the Malfoys have to store or hide something? Do they own any other property like the Riddle mansion?
We also learn that everyone but Harry was searched before they entered the castle. Does that mean that Harry could have brought something dangerous into the castle without anyone's knowledge? Very suspicious...
If Snape is teaching Defense Against the Dark Arts instead of Potions why is Harry's detention to sort out materials to be used in Potions? Is Snape making potions for his own purposes? For someone else? What types of potions would Snape be making? And what ever happened to all the potions Slughorn left out in the open in Potions class?