Question: Why does Mrs. Weasley buy some dress robes for Harry and get old ones for Ron? If she's buying clothes for Harry (a famous child) over someone from her own family, couldn't that give Ron the impression that she cares more for Harry than her own family?
Answer: I agree with what Cubs Fan said, and I want to point out that Mrs. Weasley knows what Harry's life with the Dursleys is like. She probably wanted to buy him dress robes because he is treated badly at home. Ron almost never gets new clothes because his family is poor. Harry almost never gets them because the Dursleys choose to make him wear Dudley's old clothes. They deliberately spoil Dudley and neglect Harry.
Question: In the first chapter, Voldemort wouldn't let Peter find another wizard for the ritual because he didn't trust Peter to not run away. But why not send Barty Crouch Junior, whom he does trust, to find someone? Then he could have been revived sooner, as Peter said.
Answer: Because Crouch was a notorious dark wizard who was supposed to be locked up in Azkaban. Crouch had to be free to take over the life of Professor Moody. Even if they could find another person, Voldemort still wanted Harry for the ritual.
Answer: Barty Crouch Jr was already looking for Harry and trying to get to Hogwarts.
Question: Where were the Durmstrang and Beauxbaton students during lessons? I never saw them in any and surely they weren't excused from their final year of education?
Answer: The Durmstrang and Beauxbaton students slept inside their respective vehicles while at Hogwarts. The Durmstrangs arrived by ship and the Beauxbatons on the flying carriage, which in the book was the size of a house. In the movie, they probably would have enlarged the interior with an extendable charm (like the Weasley's tent at the Quidditch World Cup. As most of the visiting students likely didn't speak English well, classes would be probably be taught separately, inside their living quarters or a designated space within the Hogwarts castle.
I thought there was one line in the books about the Beauxbatons students rooming with the Ravenclaws and the Durmstrang students with the Slytherins-or were those just their table assignments for meals?
I'd say it was only for meals and maybe the common rooms. The Hogwarts house dorms had a limited number of beds. There may have been some unassigned ones but not enough for all the Beauxbatons and Durmstrang students.
Question: Why wasn't Mrs Weasley at the Quidditch World Cup?
Question: Why did Mrs Weasley believe that stuff Skeeter wrote about Harry and Hermione? She knows Hermione and knows what kind of person Skeeter is.
Answer: Molly should have known it wasn't true, but her over-protectiveness regarding Harry may have affected her logic. She may also have been affected by Ron and Hermione's ongoing rift (over Viktor Krum) and knows that girls that age can be fickle and illogical when it comes to romance. Although her emotions got the better of her, Molly eventually realises that Rita Skeeter's stories were fake.
Question: Voldemort asks the Death Eaters why they never came to his aid during the past thirteen years. But wasn't Lucius Malfoy working for him when he gave Ginny the horcrux diary in "Chamber of Secrets"?
Answer: Voldemort believes that his most loyal followers are in Azkaban, those that denied him or believed him dead are the ones still free. The followers that showed up that night either didn't look for him due to believing him dead, believing he lacked any true power, or due to them playing the innocents that were mind controlled into following him. Lucius was not working for Voldemort when he gave Ginny the journal, he wasn't even aware of what the journal truly was. Dumbledore stated to Harry that he believed that he was simply trying to get rid of a dark magic item that he had lying around and he gave it to Ginny due to his hatred of the Weasley's, specifically of Arthur. Dumbledore states that if Lucius had known what the journal truly was that he never would have given it to Ginny.
Question: When Voldemort said that one death eater is too cowardly to return and will pay, is he talking about Karkaroff? Also, was Snape the one who Voldemort thought had left him forever and will be killed of course? If so, why didn't Voldemort kill him the first chance he got?
Answer: Most surmise that "one, too cowardly to return...he will pay" is Karkaroff, and "one, who I believe has left me forever...he will be killed, of course" is Severus. Voldemort did not end up killing Severus because that night he returns to Voldemort, as per Dumbledore's instructions, and explains that he's always been loyal to Voldemort by spying on Dumbledore to be privy to useful information.
Question: If Ron didn't like the robes he was given for the Christmas ball ,why did he not himself or find a teacher that could use a magical spell to make them look more up to date?
Answer: In the book, Ron did use a spell to alter the robe's look somewhat by removing the lace, but magic could only do so much to change the appearance. A teacher might have been able to do more, but it is unlikely they would replace what a parent had selected for their child without permission, no matter how hideous or ridiculous it looked.
Question: Sirius says that Snape already knew a lot of curses when they started at Hogwarts. How could Snape have been practising outside of school if he was underage?
Answer: It was never said he was actually practising. Like Hermione, he learned much about magic by extensive reading. Snape, unlike Hermione, was born into a wizard family and could also learn much by observing others. Also, J.K. Rowling later explained that wizard children could not always be monitored if they used magic or not, because the adults in the same household would also be casting charms and spells. The "trace" put on under-aged wizards could not specifically identify individuals while they were in their homes.
Question: Why does Voldemort say that Barty Jr.'s loyalty has never faltered? At his trial, Barty Jr. got upset and tried to deny that he helped torture the Longbottoms.
Question: Alastor Moody has searched Snape's office, supposedly because Dumbledore instructed him to. Snape says "'I refuse to believe that he gave you orders to search my office!'" So why did Snape allow him to search it, and why did he not ask Dumbledore about it?
Answer: Moody is known as a wizard you do not mess with, he has the nickname "Mad" for a reason. We also don't know that Snape didn't ask Dumbledore about this, especially since we know from later books they were very privately working together in a way not mentioned in earlier books. It's possible he did and it may have made them a little suspicious, but obviously not enough to assume Moody is not who he says he is yet.
Question: Why couldn't the ministry just book the Quidditch world cup to be held in Hogsmeade or something? Due to what Harry and Arthur are saying on pages 66-67 about trying to get there without the muggles noticing? I remember Hermione saying that Hogsmeade is the only non muggle place in Britain so you can't get a much better place.
Answer: It's doubtful that Hogsmeade has the room for a full Quidditch pitch and thousands of campsites, especially without disrupting what's already going on there.
Question: Why are Fred and George so certain that people will pay for fake wands? Even if they lied and said that they were real, people already have their own wands?
Question: How come Harry Potter doesn't see the re-incarnation of the Cruciatus curse Voldermort used on a DeathEater that occured right after Cedric's death? Shouldn't it have came out of Voldermort's wand in some form?
Answer: He does hear them. The screams he hears are the screams of pain from the Cruciatus Curse.
Question: In the first chapter Frank Bryce overhears Wormtail and Voldemort's plans about killing Harry. Voldemort tells Wormtail "Come Wormtail, one more death and our path to Harry Potter is clear." A couple pages later it is mentioned again... "One more murder...my faithful servant at Hogwarts...Harry Potter is as good as mine." Whose murder/death are they talking about?
Question: Is it common public knowledge, in the wizarding world, that Professor Snape used to be a Death Eater? It seems that a lot of parents might complain about him being allowed to teach at Hogwarts.
Answer: It is, but many Death Eaters used the "I was being controlled" defense and ended up getting away with their crimes.
Question: Given the Triwizard tasks are the Main Events and huge spectator stands are erected to watch them... why are two of the tasks set up so as to be largely invisible to any spectators? If I'm from Durmstrang and I've failed to get selected, I spend a year at Hogwarts for the purposes of watching a classmate disappear underwater for an hour and, months later, go into a maze. It would be like camping out at a Super Bowl stadium for a year to watch three matches, two of which are held in the dark.
Answer: The students were there for more than just to watch the competition. It was a year-long cultural and educational experience centered around the TriWizard Tournament. Dumbledore's true intent in reviving the competition, however, was to bring international wizarding students to Hogwarts as a means to build lasting friendships and alliances to help fight Voldemort. This was an ancient competition, which had been banned because it was so dangerous. It originally wasn't designed as a spectator sport but as an extreme test of courage and ability. There are many types of competitions that people follow where they cannot watch/see the entire event, such as car and bike rallies, equestrian cross-country jumping, marathons, etc.
Question: Was Madame Maxime really half giant? Because when Hagrid says this to her in the book she is offended and says that she is just big boned. So is that true? Is she really big boned or was she lying?
Answer: She was half-giant, but Madame Maxine was extremely self-conscious about her heritage and denied it. Apart from feeling out-of-place due to her height, she knew giants were feared and considered lower-status denizens in the wizard world. They were generally dangerous, unpredictable, and not particularly intelligent.
Question: Why does Hermione think Crouch is very lucky no one knows about him firing Winky (which she defines as being mean to elves)? A smart person like Hermione should know they'd care more about the dark mark than Winky being fired. I know how Hermione is with elves and I know it's weird to just fire her to Hermione (who did not know the whole story), But why does she think Winky being fired not getting out is lucky for Crouch when Voldemort's sign has just been shown for the first time in 13 years?
Answer: Hermione is saying that Crouch is a bad person for treating his house elf like that and that people would think the same if they knew it. She's not saying that the Dark Mark doesn't matter.
Question: Why did Sirius take Winky being fired so seriously?
Answer: The reason the Crouches gave for her being fired was for something that was a relatively minor offense, not normally warranting dismissal. Sirius suspects that Winky was actually fired for having done something more serious and that the Crouch family was covering it up. He was correct because Winky was fired because she had failed to keep Barty Crouch, Jr. (who was kept hidden under an invisibility cloak) under her control while at the Quidditch World Cup. Barty got away from her and was the one who cast the Dark Mark in the night sky with Harry's stolen wand.
Answer: Keep in mind that when his parents died, Harry was left a moderately large inheritance. If memory serves, Mrs. Weasley mentions stopping at his Gringotts vault to get some money on his behalf for school supplies. So while Ron's dress robes may be a little shabby and secondhand, given how tight his family's expenses are, Harry's are nicer because his wealth allows him more wiggle room. Who Molly cares about more, or Ron's inference thereof, has got nothing to do with it.
Cubs Fan ★