HBP: Chapter 7 - The Slug Club

What's with the slugs? They're everywhere in these books and they usually don't mean anything good.

There is a lot of speculation in this chapter that Draco has joined the Death Eaters but remember it is just speculation. Harry is convinced that Draco has willingly joined Voldemort but that is just his opinion (although most readers will automatically go along with what Harry believes). We know that Draco is on a mission that we think was given to him by Voldemort and it appears that he has accepted his job willingly but could you really say no to Voldemort and hope to live? Also I can only imagine Lucius' reaction if his only son didn't join the Death Eaters. For some reason I only see the image of Lucius beating on Dobby in CS as the only possible reaction he could have if Draco did anything he did not approve of.

Is it important that Neville was one of Ollivander's last customers? Neville says Ollivander vanished the day after he bought his wand. So where is Ollivander? Did he leave town willingly or did the Death Eaters kidnap him? What would they want with a wand maker?

Ginny acts more and more like the twins in every book. Should we be scared. It is mentioned several times that she is quite talented at the Bat-Bogey Hex. Where did she learn this spell and how did she get so good at it?

I want to know at what point Draco realized that Harry was in the Slytherin compartment on the train. Draco is very observant (which is shown by the fact that he is the only Slytherin to realize that Harry had snuck into the compartment) so I would guess it was when Harry's shoe was briefly visible when he first entered. If that is true then anything he says after I would suspect would be altered knowing that Harry was listening. So how much of what Draco said is true or exaggerated to impress the other Slytherins or bait Harry. We do know Draco likes to talk big but he rarely acts on his words.

At first I was surprised by Draco's attack on Harry on the train. Actually I was just surprised that he actually fought with actions instead of just words (still Harry was paralyzed first so he couldn't fight back). But the more I thought about it I felt that it was an oddy appropriate response from Draco. At the end of both GoF and OotP Harry and his friends had done spells on Draco and his friends, transforming them in some kind of slug-like form and then leaving them on the train (one year it was in the aisle and the other in the baggage rack and who knows when they were found). So it was oddly appropriate that Draco left Harry on the train trapped like a turtle and with a broken nose. Revenge is a bitch isn't it Harry? Harry bullies Draco as much (if not even a little more) than Draco bullies him and with how obsessed Harry is with Draco's every action in this book who can blame Draco for fighting back.