Mugglenet.com's Harry Potter Should Have Died - Emerson Spartz [80]
Verdict
Lucius is an aristocrat able to pull strings at the Ministry for his evil purposes. Fenrir is a hired thug with cannibalistic tendencies. Which one is almost equal to the Dark Lord? For all his pureblood bravado, Lucius fails as a henchman. Living the glamorous life at Malfoy Manor has made him too soft. Verdict: The stinky Fenrir Greyback is the next-best villain to Voldemort.
Should Parseltongue be taught at Hogwarts?
Yes!
If Ron can learn enough Parseltongue to open the Chamber of Secrets in DH, then why shouldn’t it be taught as a magical language at Hogwarts? Kids wouldn’t find the sound of snake language so threatening if they understood the grammar and accents. What better way to show house unity than to help the other three houses understand a particularly Slytherin skill? And it could be really useful if someone were threatened again by a roving basilisk or maverick Ashwinder. Beyond the obvious extermination purposes, the Healers at St. Mungo’s could ask a snake’s permission to milk venom for antidotes. Maybe Voldemort had a few good ideas after all.
No!
It’s truly insane to think that anyone would want to take a class in Parseltongue. Harry doesn’t exactly enjoy the talent, and it just about ruins his reputation at Hogwarts—all the Hufflepuffs start hiding from him. Witches and wizards are never going to forget that Voldemort was a Parselmouth, so why would they want their kids to be like him? Making slithery sounds is creepy, and snakes are dangerous. What if someone died while practicing their homework? As for Ron, he merely mimicks Harry to open the Chamber of Secrets, and doesn’t really know what he is saying. In the Epilogue, he warns his own children not to become Slytherins or he will disown them. It’s a surefire bet he wouldn’t want them to study Parseltongue.
Verdict
Should the hissing begin in Parseltongue 101 Class? Or would parents have a hissy fit if their children spoke to snakes? Verdict: It’s time for the houses to cease squabbling, and to sincerely study Parseltongue, the whispery speech of sinuous snakes.
Do the life debts really matter?
Yes!
Every act of mercy in which somebody’s life is saved matters in the final analysis because it sets up a life debt in which the “saved” owe their “savior” a major favor. It isn’t magic like the Unbreakable Vow, but it is important. Harry saves Dudley’s soul from the Dementors in OotP, and his cousin is grateful for that in DH. Snape owes at least two life debts: one to James Potter for saving him from the werewolf, and the other to Dumbledore for sparing his life and letting him join the Order of the Phoenix. Because of all the accumulated life debt, Snape protects Harry at Hogwarts and does whatever Dumbledore asks of him. Harry in his turn keeps Sirius from killing Peter, who strangles himself instead of harming Harry and Ron in DH.
There are more subtle life debts going on, too. Dumbledore offers to help Draco and Narcissa before he dies in HBP, which may have been why in DH Draco doesn’t want to identify Harry and Hermione to his father at Malfoy Manor. Harry frees Dobby from the Malfoys, and there’s no doubt that Dobby returns the favor by saving the entire group before he dies. Life debts basically drive the whole story.
No!
Life debts aren’t magically binding at all—that’s just a lie Dumbledore tells Harry in SS because he can’t expose Snape’s secret love for Lily. As for Peter, how does he return Harry’s mercy? He goes along with the plan in GoF to trap Harry in the graveyard, kills Cedric Diggory, cuts off his own arm to help Voldemort return, and then stands by while Harry is tortured.