Category: The North Tower

The North Tower #17: The Pensieve (1)

The North Tower #17: The Pensieve (1)

So far, the Pensieve has appeared seven times in the series: five times in GoF and two times in OotP. These seven appearances can be divided into three different groups: 1) Harry looking into the Pensieve without entering it (1 occurrence), 2) A figure forming and coming out of the Pensieve (2 occurrences), and 3) Harry being inside the Pensieve (4 occurrences, or actually 2 occurrences but 4 different scenes). I will deal with each type of appearance first on a general plan and then more in depth on each scene (which will probably be next week).

The North Tower #16: Snape vs. Time

I got some mails putting forward the following candidates for “the one who’s left forever” instead of Fudge: Lockhart, Bagman and (of course) Snape. (I also got Percy, but since he would have been about four or five at the time he was an active Death Eater and even younger when he joined Voldemort, I won’t even discuss that. :-)) Today, I want to discuss these three characters (Lockhart, Bagman and Snape) and try to shed some light over that ominous scene in GoF when Voldemort assembles his followers and leaves us readers in the dark about the identity of most of them.

The North Tower #14: House Elves (2)

Different people react very differently to the elves’ situation. The Hogwarts house elves (HHE) think that they have the greatest job in the world (according to Fred and George in GoF); they’re happy with and proud of their situation. Winky is happy serving the Crouches but unhappy being a free elf. (Note that she’s still wearing her real clothes at Hogwarts and not the Hogwarts pillowcase. She’s thus not a “true” HHE; she’s serving wizards, but she’s still free.) Dobby is unhappy being the slave of the Malfoys and happy serving the wizard kind while still being free (at Hogwarts).

The North Tower #13: The House Elves’ Enslavement (1)

The structure of the house elf storyline in Books 1-5 is as follows: In CoS, we meet Dobby for the first time and get an introduction to the concept of being a house elf and how they are treated by evil masters (the Malfoys). In GoF we see a different treatment of the house elves at Hogwarts, the different attitudes of many different people towards the elves and how Dobby and Winky – two freed elves – deal with their freedom in different ways.

The North Tower #12: Trashing a Theory

Last week I set up an exercise in literary analysis and critical thinking for you all by giving you a theory that – frankly – was total rubbish. This week’s article will thus be devoted to trashing my “wonderful” theory from last week, and I thought I’d do it by mixing my comments and arguments with those that some smart people sent me.