wednesday_tea @ June 26 2004, 05:30:01 UTC

I think Blaise killed her. But I also think he is the head boy. I mean someone has to be it, and he's the weirdest one, so.

The "enimy" thing is really creepy. ://

sistermagpie @ June 26 2004, 05:33:49 UTC

Or perhaps Blaise considers the Head Boy the enimy and saw there was something wrong with him from the beginning.

jiffy_spiffy @ Deleted Deleted

Deleted

yamapea @ June 26 2004, 05:44:58 UTC

Yea, especially because his comment seems rather suspicious of the Head Boy. But... I'm beginning to feel like a hufflepuff with my paranoia.

jiffy_spiffy @ June 26 2004, 05:57:35 UTC

Sorry for the deleted comment, LJ decided to strike out instead of link. Er, I tried to link to this as proof that he was referring to the Head Boy rather than Lisa. Why would he consider the Head Boy an "eminy" though? ..

I know. I feel distinctly Hufflepuff-y too. ... .. It's great! ;)

yamapea @ June 26 2004, 06:10:15 UTC

That's okay. LJ has been having a spot of fun with everyone using it over the past two days. What a lovely time for it to do so. :P

It seems strange that it would consider the Head Boy its eminy and not Draco, when it had [presumably] done so much to Draco.. Unless dear Draco is the Head Boy? Hahh.

jiffy_spiffy @ June 26 2004, 07:35:00 UTC

Haha - well, it did go and rip up all of Draco's clothes, didn't ... er, it? Blaise, I mean. Hmm, maybe Blaise just doesn't like a lot of people.

Although ... this obviously tells us that Blaise knew something was up with the HB. And really, I think he musthave murdered Lisa. I can't think of any other reason - he's obviously important due the sheer number of times he's been brought up and we've been speculating on who he might be.

wednesday_tea @ June 26 2004, 05:59:28 UTC Goddamn LJ ate my comment.

True. That certainly would throw his (or her, no idea really) comment to Lisa's entry into a less sinister light.

Still, I can't shake the feeling that he was being somewhat ironic in that comment. That probably stems from the fact that excessive punctuation is used as a joke most of the time on the internet, but I suppose that is Blaise's style of "speech", as it were.

And I suppose that Dumbledore would have to be insane to make Blaise, of all people, Head Boy. At the same time, though, even the teachers don't seem to know where he is, saying to Lisa "he must be around somewhere". Blaise is certainly reclusive, to say the least, and that description seems to fit the head boy to a tee. Assuming he's a boy, that is. Still, that almost seems too obvious. Or maybe I, too, am being Hufflepuffian. :)

And, totally off-topic, looking back through Blaise's memories (in particular, where Draco posted pictures of dead rabbits) makes me marvel at how much they've all grown up. Gosh. :))

a_player @ June 26 2004, 07:47:45 UTC

Wait, I should clarify.

Or perhaps Blaise considers the Head Boy the enimy

hermione_like @ June 26 2004, 06:21:48 UTC

I noticed that too actually. Earlier today, I was going through Blaise's and Lisa's memories, trying to see what they saved. This is driving me crazy lol. Something is going on with Blaise, but I can't seem to wrap my mind around it. Blaise labels that entry under "enimy" and, in the post, wonders what the Head Boy is up to. However, I almost wonder if Blaise meant that Lisa was the enemy because she was questioning who the Head Boy was. But other than that, I can't see why Blaise would be after Lisa. Other than the her most recent entry wondering about the HB, has she ever mentioned him since he sent her the Hanukkah note? Because that's the last entry about the HB that she saved.

Another thing about Blaise are his/her recent comments to Draco in this entry. That second comment sounds like Blaise is angry because Draco accused the house elves of doing something they didn't do--as if Blaise was the one to shred his dressing gown and wants credit for it. Has anything else of Draco's been damaged that he blamed on the house elves? I want to say there was but I can't remember when it was or find the posts.

It also strikes me as weird that Dumbledore met with the Head Boy (reported by Lisa), and then Harry was the only one with a wand during the attack. Assuming Harry is the Head Boy, did Dumbledore know something was going to happen? And if so, why not hand all the wands back a little earlier? Harry had to have gotten his wand somehow. Hermione reported that the doors were locked--Harry couldn't have run out to get his wand and run back without anyone noticing.

Based on what we do know, though, I don't think Harry is the HB, but even if Blaise isn't, it's still possible he killed Lisa since, as we know, no one knows what he/she looks like.

jacay @ June 26 2004, 06:37:02 UTC

Woah, Harry as the Head Boy and getting his wand back because of that is REALLY INTERESTING. But, there is the fact that Lupin told Harry here, in the second paragraph, to keep his wand. That makes me think that Harry probably just kept it.

But, if the Head Boy was untrustworthy (as Blaise apparently thought, judging by the starred comment above) then perhaps he got his wand back from Dumbledore and killed Lisa with it.

hermione_like @ June 26 2004, 06:45:14 UTC

Ah, ok. I didn't see that Lupin told him to keep his wand.

Of course, now we have to ask *why* does Blaise find the Head Boy untrustworthy? What does Blaise know and how? And again, why would Dumbledore give him his wand back before everyone else? Lisa didn't get hers back. Unless, the reason is because the Head Boy did something to Dumbledore and that's why no one knows where he is.

Actually, it's interesting that Blaise gets angry at Draco about the house elves in that one entry of Draco's. Wasn't it a house elf outside of Dumbledore's office who wouldn't let Lisa in? Hmm...

Anonymous @ June 26 2004, 06:58:32 UTC

Maybe the Head Boy wasn't a student? Maybe that was why he never went out in public, because his classmates wouldn't recognize him. @_@;; (Although it seems that no one knows how Blaise looks exactly). But if he wasn't a student, Blaise might have noticed it and suspected something was awry, if only because Blaise seems to be sort of an observer.

But why would Dumbledore make him Head Boy? O_o

jiffy_spiffy @ June 26 2004, 07:36:34 UTC

Woah, Harry as the Head Boy and getting his wand back because of that is REALLY INTERESTING. But, there is the fact that Lupin told Harry here, in the second paragraph, to keep his wand. That makes me think that Harry probably just kept it

And Harry said he wasn't Head Boy - I think in the post that Draco made for him? I just read it before - he was talking to Seamus about it.

susan_voight @ June 26 2004, 17:38:46 UTC

Harry's flat-out denial of being Head Boy: comment.

jacay @ June 26 2004, 17:49:45 UTC

I don't know if this has anything to do with anything, but in that comment Harry says he can't make his letters that big. In Draco's last entry, in the seventh paragraph, he mentions Ernie's big handwriting. I think this is due largely to the fact that it's an exam probably based on length, but Ernie can write big, and he's been a candidate for Head Boy for a while, and he was the one who saw Lisa's murderer. For some reason it seems to make sense that the Head Boy would be looking out for the Head Girl.

The more I think about this, the more it doesn't make sense, but I thought I would just mention it.

jiffy_spiffy @ June 27 2004, 02:52:49 UTC

Thanks for the link, I couldn't find it :)

Anonymous @ June 26 2004, 06:44:43 UTC

Maybe Harry didn't hand his wand, because Remus told him never to lose sight of it. Did he post about being wandless like other people? I don't remember.

(Just tossing some ideas here.)

black_dog @ June 26 2004, 10:51:24 UTC

I was reading through Lisa's entries, thinking about the Head Boy thing and looking for possible motives for her murder, and conjured up another more-or-less Extravagant Nraged Theory (tm). I haven't really followed the Head Boy discussions in a while, so forgive me if something like this has already been kicked around.

I was noticing the way the Head Boy manifests himself -- as written notes on parchment, mostly to Lisa. And I couldn't help thinking of Diary!Tom in CoS. True, I think there's one incident where other people get notes from the Head Boy -- right after the post-curfew drinking trip at Halloween. But Lisa was physically with them all night, and they were all drunk and might not have noticed the notes getting passed. Mostly, the Head Boy seems to speak directly to Lisa. (Are there other exceptions I'm forgetting?)

So is the Head Boy, maybe, some mysterious entity from the bowels of Hogwarts that is manifesting itself to and through Lisa, mostly through a book or parchment? Could he even be another incarnation of Tom Riddle, himself? Head Boy would certainly be a role Tom would love to inhabit.

Why would someone like Lisa be susceptible to this sort of possession? I mean, she's very different from the vulnerable, 11-year-old Ginny in CoS. But Lisa also has a lonely and melancholy side, and her posts last summer, about the swimming pool and about people liking her for Morgan's sake, suggest an insecurity, a fear of invisibility, perhaps a vulnerability to the seduction of being the focus of someone's attention. And her "favorite" object is a note, too -- so she responds, maybe, to something intimate about personal written notes.

Also, last summer, wasn't she getting dizzy and faint when reading her spell books? Ordinary exam-stress? Or Sign of Incipient Possession?

Zabini, as someone presumably very familiar with the odd things that lurk in the Hogwarts basements (and occasionally appearing to be having conversations with them) would be a logical person to suspect what was going on, suspect the nature of the Head Boy, and consider him an "enimy." He might even be moved to do something overt, like tearing up books and parchments he suspected of hosting the Head Boy. Or abusing Malfoys he thought might be somehow behind the whole thing.

What about Lisa's murder? Well, in CoS, Tom was ready to sacrifice Ginny once she'd done her job and helped him fully materialize. Maybe he no longer needed her, or felt he would no longer need her once he expected Voldemort to take over. Maybe she intuited or would be able to figure out too much about him once they were fully independent of each other.

Holes in the theory? Hahaha, one or two, maybe. It was actually Minerva, in her Head Girl letter to Lisa last summer, who mentioned that the Head Boy wanted to remain anonymous. Could Minerva really be in on a scheme like this? I doubt it, but perhaps she was only repeating something Dumbledore told her to say.

The big hole or question is, of course, Dumbledore's role, since Dumbledore seems to be an active participant in the whole Head Boy thing. Note, though, that Dumbledore wasn't "meeting" with the Head Boy yesterday -- he had "gone off" with the Head Boy, much to the agitation of a House Elf (and House Elves, just like Zabini, probably know the darker side of Hogwarts pretty well.) So perhaps Dumbledore had an ulterior motive for allowing the Head Boy to be conjured, but things got out of hand and the Head Boy finally made off with him?

Anyway. This Silly NrAged Theory is brought to you by someone who is very sad that soon, there may be no more Silly NrAged Theories. One for old times' sake! Any thoughts?

arisato @ June 26 2004, 14:53:01 UTC

What about Lisa's murder? Well, in CoS, Tom was ready to sacrifice Ginny once she'd done her job and helped him fully materialize. Maybe he no longer needed her, or felt he would no longer need her once he expected Voldemort to take over.

UH. ... UHHHH. Wouldn't Tom sort of look like a student, were he actually brought back? And have they said N_A will end, soon? I'd hate to see it go.

black_dog @ June 26 2004, 19:57:29 UTC

Wouldn't Tom sort of look like a student

I definitely think so. I mean, I'm not totally wedded to the idea that it's Tom specifically, just that it may be a case like CoS!Tom. There must be all kinds of things lurking in the bowels of Hogwarts. But it's happened once, so something similar might happen again. And I'm thinking that a logical explanation of Lisa's murder would make it the culmination of some sort of odd and disturbing relationship -- like the connection she's been having with the Head Boy.

arisato @ June 26 2004, 20:22:02 UTC

I was thinking something along the same lines as you; the Head Boy seems detatched from everybody but Lisa, and I was bantering with a friend of mine how it would be funny if Lisa were the Head Boy and Head Girl, all at once, which would fulfil Blaise's statement of "Head Person".

But if you think about it, everybody testifies that Lisa was killed by somebody in student's robes, but nobody can recall exactly who it was? After spending seven years with these people, one would think they'd know their classmates by sight, and yet nobody can put a finger on who exactly the killer was. Pretty shifty.

jacay @ June 26 2004, 20:38:32 UTC

Maybe it was a younger student. Wasn't Lisa with a bunch of third-years? Also, who all testified that Lisa was killed by someone in student robes? I thought Ernie was the only one who saw, and he, being in Hufflepuff, might not recognize someone from another house. But I don't think the players would have someone we don't even know kill Lisa. I mean, okay, maybe, but these journals don't deal with anyone younger at all except some people in Ginny's year.

Also, to black dog, did we ever figure out what the ghost in the dungeons was all about?

black_dog @ June 26 2004, 20:57:08 UTC

Hmmm. Are you suggesting that the ghost in the dungeon might be reincarnated as Head Boy? I think Snape at one point suggested that the ghost was one of the younger students killed in last June's attack, but I don't remember if they really established this or went anywhere further with it. I guess I'm a little skeptical about the younger-student connection, only because I wonder if a younger student could cast an effective Avada Kedavra, much less have a motive for killing Lisa. Surely there are scarier ghouls down in the basement? But who knows? It's definitely an interesting theory.

jacay @ June 26 2004, 21:19:20 UTC

I don't think the ghost of one of the younger students is Head Boy, although a ghost could be HB, but I was thinking more that one of the ghosts could have killed her and no one would have recognized it. But that's a little unlikely.

You don't happen to remember whether Dumbledore told the students to hand in their wands before or after his meeting with the HB, do you? Wasn't that on the 18th that they met?

black_dog @ June 26 2004, 21:25:32 UTC

I'm not totally sure. I think some of this is only indirect. Someone (I don't remember who) posted initially about having to turn their wands in before exams. But I think there was, later, a second incident, that Hermione mentioned, where Dumbledore unexpectedly delayed giving them back their wands so that they could be "weighed and polished." So the confiscation for exams was routine, but the further delay in returning them -- which left everybody wandless at dinner during the attack -- was suspicous. I don't think the timing of that second delay is totally clear, but it probably was fairly last-minute, which would make it later than Dumbledore's "going off" with the Head Boy. Interesting.

jacay @ June 26 2004, 21:42:24 UTC

Ha, yes, exactly. Obviously the HB is a little shady, and I immediately thought Polyjuice!!! Perhaps the HB led Dumbledore into a trap and Dumbledore came back and delayed the return of the wands.

Speaking of turning into someone else, that Perkins character didn't use Polyjuice, did he? Maybe he's like Tonks and he's a Metamorphmagus. That would explain why he was able to hide for so long. That could also make it possible for him to impersonate Dumbledore for so long.

black_dog @ June 26 2004, 22:07:37 UTC

It's really embarassing that I don't remember this from canon, but how did fake-Moody maintain his appearance for an entire year in GoF? Was he drinking Polyjuice every hour, or was there some other magical process going on. I just don't remember!

jacay @ June 26 2004, 22:31:25 UTC

I'm pretty sure it was just Polyjuice. He drank out of a flask all the time.

susan_voight @ June 27 2004, 02:43:57 UTC Everything I could find about wands

This is everything I could find about the wands, though I might be missing some comments.

On 27 May, 7th years were told to report to Great Hall on the Monday (31 May). I don't think we've seen what-for. Was this the announcement about wands?

19 June, Ernie posted: "N.E.W.T.s start Monday, I've got a written Astronomy exam first thing. Also, WHY DO WE HAVE TO TURN IN OUR WANDS FOR INSPECTION, DO THEY REALLY NOT TRUST US? JUST BECAUSE SOME KIDS CHEATED WHY DO THE REST OF US HAVE TO SUFFER? Honestly! I'm not going to cheat! Who wants to earn their N.E.W.T.s by cheating anyway, wouldn't you feel like a fake for the rest of your life?"

19 June, Lupin said that "I have just instructed Harry to never let his wand out of his sight in the hopes that he will never be caught offguard."

21 June, Neville mentioned, before NEWTs start, that "I kind of wish we were taking the practical portion first, since that's what makes me most nervous, but that's not what the powers-that-be decided. (It'll be odd, too, spending the next couple days without my wand. Rather like being a Muggle, I expect. I keep reaching for it all the time, and being surprised that it's not there.)"

23 June mid-day, Pansy said: "I stopped by Madame Pomfrey's this morning for some treatment since our wands still have not been returned and because I had to see her anyway".

23 June, just before the attack, Draco said: "Now I've to go fetch my wand and have dinner with Pansy."

post-attack, Hermione said: "Only the teaching staff was armed, since on Monday we students all turned in our wands to be examined for cheating charms and other dishonest enhancements. Every year during exams there's a lot of rumours about what surefire cheating method to try this year and who's done what to try and get an O on what exam, and I suppose it was irresponsible of me now, but I wasn't concerned about turning mine into the teachers at all! . . . Dumbledore is our headmaster and I typically view his word as gold, so it frankly did not even strike me as odd for him to request us to allow our wands to be examined, weighed, and polished before practical exams. Some people were vaguely annoyed, but like me, most people just accepted it and moved forth to take their exams. Tuesday was free (I spent it outside), and exams yesterday went smoothly. When we heard we'd be getting our wands back at dinner, we were all looking forward to it, but also didn't think much of it."

So it's not clear to me if they knew when they were getting them back, besides "before practicals," and whether there was a delay or not--Hermione's post could be read either way, it seems to me.

jacay @ June 26 2004, 17:00:01 UTC

Zabini, as someone presumably very familiar with the odd things that lurk in the Hogwarts basements (and occasionally appearing to be having conversations with them) would be a logical person to suspect what was going on, suspect the nature of the Head Boy, and consider him an "enimy." He might even be moved to do something overt, like tearing up books and parchments he suspected of hosting the Head Boy. Or abusing Malfoys he thought might be somehow behind the whole thing.

But who says that Blaise is Lisa's ally? You seem to be saying that he's concerned for Lisa's sake, but are he and Lisa even friends? Maybe he considers the Head Boy an enemy because the Head Boy helps and likes Lisa. I really like your theory, but I can't imagine why Dumbledore would lie to Minerva about the Head Boy, knowing his true nature.

There are two people, from what I know, who have not been seen: Blaise and the Head Boy. Blaise, however, considers the HB an enemy, and unless he just titled that memory "enimy" to throw people off so that they wouldn't think he was the HB, then we can logically conclude that Blaise isn't the HB. Blaise and the HB are the only two people who might not be immediately recognized, therefore, they are the only students who could be Lisa's killer. Her killer, of course, could have been a DE in student's robes (or even Riddle, I guess). Anyway, the HB has always been really, really nice to Lisa (see this for proof). Why would Blaise consider him an enemy? Why would he be suspicious for Lisa's sake, if the HB seems so nice to her? He seems more the type to be friendly with ghosts and whatnot. I don't think he would call the HB an enemy because the HB possessed Lisa, unless Blaise actually likes Lisa. Does he? I wish I knew more about NA, man.

This is only addressing a small part of your theory, of course. I don't know about the rest of it. Sorry to get off topic. :D

Anonymous @ June 26 2004, 19:37:03 UTC

but blaise's dislike of the head boy may have nothing whatsoever to do with lisa. it may see the head boy as the "enimy" merely because of who or what he is.

and i don't think it has to be either blaise or the head boy that killed lisa. ernie doesn't say he didn't recognize the killer because he'd never seen him before. it's because he wasn't paying attention to him until he was gone...i mean, he doesn't even remember his hair color.

black_dog @ June 26 2004, 20:24:02 UTC

These are fair points, but I think they can be answered at least tentatively. Again, I'd be a fool to take my own theory too seriously, but I sort of want to explore where the evidence might lead.

I guess the reason I think Zabini has positive feelings about Lisa is that s/he commented in Lisa's journal, very shortly after the Head Boy first appeared, with something that could be taken as a warning or expression of skepticism about the Head Boy. (See the post that yamapea linked to in her comment opening this thread.) Why would Zabini go out of the way to post in Lisa's journal this way? And yeah, it's not really a direct warning, more an expression of indignation, but the context, I think, makes it a kind of warning. This single post is, I think, about all the evidence we've got on how Zabini might feel about Lisa. But it leans toward him/her feeling protective of Lisa.

I'm more directly skeptical, though, about your argument that the Head Boy is friendly to Lisa. You suggest he's been "really really nice" to Lisa, but if this is a case of CoS-like possession, then the entity doing the possessing would certainly go out of his way to seem seductive, attractive, deeply concerned about Lisa. There's another note (can't find the link) where the Head Boy apologizes to Lisa for not preventing her from seeing Pettigrew (when the rat ran through the halls holding Voldemort's wand in his teeth.) There's something almost a little creepy about that kind of solicitude. And Lisa, on the whole, seems more disturbed and irritated by the mystery of the Head Boy than grateful for any help he provides. Not to mention her irritation at his point-taking from time to time.

So I guess I don't really think the Head Boy is simply "friendly" with Lisa -- he would have all sorts of reasons for wanting to appear that way, but he still comes off as a little creepy, so I think it's more ambiguous and disturbing than that. Also, to the extent that the Head Boy is trying to appear as a friend -- well, that would kind of explain Zabini's indignation and warning about him. There's no need to "expose" someone as an enemy if they aren't pretending to be your friend.

I guess it's true that either Zabini or the Head Boy would have been unfamiliar to Ernie, and might be equally suspicious candidates for the murderer on that basis. But who's more likely to kill Lisa? An odd but otherwise harmless eccentric from the Slytherin basement, or a mysterious entity who's had a creepy connection with her all year? It's not an air-tight argument, I admit, but it's suggestive.

I can't imagine why Dumbledore would lie to Minerva about the Head Boy, knowing his true nature.

Well, again, Dumbledore's role in everything is sort of the #1 mystery here. There are certainly pointers in NA to an evil-Dumbledore theory, and he might be abusing Minerva's trust. I guess I prefer to think that D has an ulterior motive, that he'll risk his students for the greater good, trying to lure creepy forces out of hiding so he can arrange for their destruction. But as usual, I really have no idea at all!

conversant @ June 27 2004, 17:36:21 UTC

I wish I had time to read all the speculation to see if this has been talked out, but I have been chewing over the issue of Dumbledore in NA. He is very close to a non-entity in the game because he does not keep a journal and he rarely acts off-stage in ways that get reported. He is a *very* distant headmaster.

However, I keep coming back to the fact that one of the founding principles of NA is that it be canonical in its basis. (I'm not wrong about that, am I?) I think this rules out an out-and-out evil Dumbledore. However, it does not rule out a detached, distracted, distant portrayal of him, because although he appears more often in the books than he has in NA, he does not meddle on a daily basis in the lives of the students -- and if we were to view the material of canon from any other student's pov than Harry's (an iffy proposition when talking about canon, I know), then he'd seem very absent, indeed.

Also fair game for this RP would be a Dumbledore, who is either fallible and has made a tragic mistake in appointing this head boy, or a Dumbledore, who takes a radical view of Fate and its means of working through the daily ephemera of cause and effect so that he might not act to prevent a terrible thing he anticipates because any preventive action might instead hasten or worsen the dreaded outcome. Such a headmaster might appoint a head boy he knows to be dangerous because to do otherwise might be worse -- or, in any case, because it is necessary to the workings of Fate (or, of course, the plot) that he do so. Such a headmaster might also agree to a private meeting with the head boy even if the result might be his own death or incapacitation on the eve of the terrible event.

Just thoughts.

Oh, I like your theory about a Riddle-style possession as a possible explanation for the head boy. I'm certainly in the camp of those questioning whether the 'student' who killed Lisa is necessarily a student. Draco's statement describes a man who looks like Perkins who then changes his shape and looks younger. This person needn't be either of the people he looked like to Draco and Pansy. He could be Rita Skeeter (didn't she have a diary for a minute or two this spring?) or Lockhart or Nagini or Mr. Perks... He could have been impersonating Dumbledore for years. He could be another form that Peter Pettigrew is now capable of adopting.

As usual, the possibilities are legion, and we are going to have to wait for the players to show us which of the possibilities they've selected.

But, guy. I do love to speculate!

black_dog @ June 28 2004, 01:45:08 UTC

I keep coming back to the fact that one of the founding principles of NA is that it be canonical in its basis.

Interesting. I didn't know what the ground rules were, in this sense. I've certainly had the impression that NA poked a lot of fun at Dumbledore, made him seem quite arbitrary and irrational from time to time, if not something more sinister. Of course, this could just be the students' impression, from the peanut gallery so to speak, or I guess it could even be the players' genuine interpretation of canon!Dumbledore.

a Dumbledore, who is either fallible and has made a tragic mistake in appointing this head boy, or a Dumbledore, who takes a radical view of Fate and its means of working through the daily ephemera of cause and effect

Yes! I think this is very close to my own sense of canon!Dumbledore. Maybe he has less of a positive sense of Fate, and more just a healthy sense of the complexity of cause and effect and the futility of much intentional action. Also, there's the bit about being 150 years old -- he's likely to have seen it all, to be immune from the sort of narcissistic identification with younger people that determine our own tendency to resist unhappy outcomes or see them as uniquely tragic. He just rolls with it, because the worst things and the best things you could name have all happened before. Someone once asked Francois Mitterand what the most useful trait was for a statesman to have, and M said: "indifference." Dumbledore is, I think, a statesman.

I'm certainly in the camp of those questioning whether the 'student' who killed Lisa is necessarily a student. Draco's statement describes a man who looks like Perkins who then changes his shape and looks younger.

Do you think that Perkins/Wilkes and the Head Boy might be the same? Interesting! I see some possible objections, here, in that Perkins was routinely visible at the Ministry where he worked with Arthur, while the Head Boy was at least an intermittent presence (in whatever form) at Hogwarts. The Head Boy also seems more articulate than Perkins, if you look at Perkins' odd and nearly autistic-sounding comment in Percy's guestbook. But it's worth thinking through.

I had one other thought on Wilkes, based on the idea that all clues are there for a reason. When he's researching Wilkes for History of Magic, PS notes that Wilkes "was fond of gambling and whittling." Do you suppose he made some sort of wager with Dumbledore? Maybe Dumbledore took himself out of the contest in exchange for a similar handicapping by Wilkes that proved fatal to the attack?

Who knows? I'm with you on all counts: Possibilities Legion. Wait for Players. Love to Speculate. :)

sistermagpie @ June 28 2004, 14:33:28 UTC

PS notes that Wilkes "was fond of gambling and whittling."

Narcissa says he was strange, but could be quite charming when he wanted to be. Seems like that could be significant.

I figure it this was an attack long in the making (and speaking of non-canon, how great to see the DEs seemingly working efficiently) there could have been many pieces in place on Lucius' chessboard. The head boy could be one, Perkins another. It makes sense to have someone in the school and someone at the Ministry. The players have said the wards at the school weren't down, yet people could still get in.

sistermagpie @ June 26 2004, 18:14:21 UTC

You are not the only one who has been having serious Tom Riddle-CoS thoughts about the Head Boy. Or at least that he's some kind of entity.

I mean, in terms of who the Head Boy is it seems pretty clear it can't be anybody with a journal. Nobody we know would have any reason for lying about being HB-and how indeed does the Head Boy seem to witness things where a lot of people are there without anyone noticing him-just as Ernie sort of saw him and then he was gone?

It really seems to me like this has something to do with Dumbledore--who once before appointed a Head Boy who was, ya know, evil. (Even Percy is often under suspicion of evil-in fact he may have been working with a DE for a while now without knowing it.) It seems odd Minerva would even agree to something like letting him remain anonymous, especially now. So it seems like Dumbledore appointed him, and Dumbledore said he would be anonymous. Could Dumbledore be the one possessed? Or somehow under someone else's power? Or just duped? Because ps recently said how he couldn't get in to see him, and then he had "gone off" with Head Boy and the house elf was agitated...not to mention that the House Elf was still calling the person the "Head Boy." Does he not have a name beyond that? Because he's supposed to be someone from 7th year. Seems if he was a real person the House Elf could just as easily have called him by his name. But having the House Elf be agitated and saying that makes it seem like the House Elf was sort of thinking, "Dumbledore went off with something that scares me but he told me it was the Head Boy so it's okay." Or that Dumbledore just told the House Elf he was going off with the Head Boy and never came back and the Elf didn't see the boy.

Dumbledore did exist last year, because remember Draco had to see him at one point (after the outing, I think). I wonder if the Head Boy could actually have been someone from the Ministry--like after the attack Dumbledore thought it was better to have someone or something in that position only we now know the Ministry was infiltrated by DEs. Plus if Wilkes can transform into someone else perhaps other people could too. Was Voldemort's wand in Dumbledore's office?

Of course there's no proof it *was* the Head Boy who killed Lisa, it just seems that way since he's been the boy she's almost been haunted by all year. It does seem like other people have occasionally gotten notes...didn't everyone get notes after the fight in the library and the night on the town? If Lisa was possessed she could certainly have done that as well, but she could just as easily have taken points from them as head girl. (Maybe she'd feel conflicted about that when they went to out to the pub, but not in the library, would she?) It seems to me more like Lisa's been marked and vulnerable all year through her connection to the Head Boy and we just missed the signs he could be dangerous as well as mysterious.

Still, I love the whole theme of Lisa with notes, with the one she kept from Morgan. Ginny's most treasured posession was a page from the diary too, wasn't it?

black_dog @ June 26 2004, 20:46:34 UTC

Could Dumbledore be the one possessed?

Well, I guess the real fascination of any possession-story is the psychological vulnerability of the person being possessed. Which is why I'm so focused on Lisa here, because there's so much suggestive stuff in her own feelings and insecurities and anxieties. I guess it could be Dumbledore, but since Dumbledore is a cipher as a character that just seems less satisfying as a story.

You're right, of course, that Dumbledore is somehow at the center of the incident, though, since he's the one who "appointed" the Head Boy and encouraged the anonymity. Minerva's role is odd, but Dumbledore may simply have been playing on her trust and respect for him. If Dumbledore is the master-manipulator here, he may also have sensed that Lisa was a particularly suitable host for whatever thing he was trying to raise up, for all the reasons I tossed out in the previous post.

I like your other arguments for why the Head Boy probably isn't a real person -- especially the House Elf business. The more I think of it, the creepier that whole scene seems to me, with the House-Elf's "agitation" sort of the centrally disturbing thing about it.

Of course there's no proof it *was* the Head Boy who killed Lisa, it just seems that way since he's been the boy she's almost been haunted by all year.

You're right that literary closure is the main reason for thinking the Head Boy killed Lisa. But really, who else would have had a motive for killing Lisa specifically? It doesn't seem like a random murder at all, based on Ernie's description. It seem logical to look for someone who had a wierd and uncanny relationship with her, and who perhaps needed to break that link with her in a definitive way.

The "haunting" you mention is what really sort of intrigued me when I was looking for motivations for her killer. The Head Boy really does seem to exist very tightly inside Lisa's world, to have privileged knowledge of things that Lisa knows, and to act out some conflicts Lisa might be feeling (the point-taking thing after the drinking trip, for example.) It also occurs to me that some of Lisa's creepy dreams lately -- of stalking someone, of waving a sword and killing Morgan -- might also reflect the more full, independent awakening of the Head Boy, since dreams are so often a sign of possession in the HP world.

Interesting point about Ginny's diary page during Love Your Neighbor week. Could that have been intended to clue us in about the possible similarity between Ginny's diary and Lisa's notes?

sistermagpie @ June 26 2004, 23:06:13 UTC

Well, even if Lisa wasn't possessed I'd say her vulnerabilities come into play. I was thinking about the HB saying he was sorry he couldn't prevent her from seeing Peter...that could have some interesting implications. If he was her alter ego he could be apologizing for not being in control when she saw the rat. Or perhaps he was helping Peter escape so apologized for not orchestrating it in a way that avoided her.

But now, if she's possessed then why did this entity become real just at this point? He seemed to have been a person standing there with a wand capable of throwing a curse, so how would he suddenly get a body at that moment? I guess a stalker situation is just as interesting to me, where whoever or whatever the HB was somebody finally saw him right be Lisa's side the whole time, you know? Like her shadow. Maybe he killed her because he was jealous of Morgan.:-)

But even there it doesn't mean he's a person person. It's just always been such a wonderfully weird thing, this Head Boy that nobody knows. At first it was kind of funny but when it went on it was more than funny, it was an ongoing story. It makes sense it would eventually lead up to something like this. And as you say, why kill her, specifically? At first it seemed like it was just a random curse thrown, probably because she was keeping the younger students in check. But this seems much more personal. Was the HB part of getting people into Hogwarts or did he just sieze a moment to do something to Lisa? If Blaise thought he was a bad guy early on I'm inclined to think he was.

I would love to think Ginny's favorite object was a clue. Not a big thing for us but sort of a theme like Draco's sleep issues throughout the year. Notes have been proven to have power in this universe, and it just does seem to have eerie echoes to CoS with notes and a Head Boy who wasn't what he seemed. Even the content of the notes seems creepy, the way it's apologetic and polite in ways that are just weird.

caithion @ June 26 2004, 16:27:16 UTC

Woah, interesting. So Blaise thinks of the Head Boy as an enemy. And he's been striking out at Draco. Could Draco be HB? I can't remember if there's proof he isn't and I'm too tired to check at the moment.

Anonymous @ June 26 2004, 16:54:34 UTC

While I've noticed HB's writing does have some letters similar to Draco's, in the comments to Draco, Blaise seemed more...obsessed? with Draco. He seemed angry that Draco thought it was the house elves and didn't notice Blaise. And keep in mind, Blaise has a link to Draco's journal on his journal, although that could be positive or negative. :S
I couldn't ever really tell from their interactions if Draco hated Lisa or just pretend hated. Sometimes he seemed playful, but I suck at interpreting things, so yeah. I find it hard to tell whether Draco would deem her important enough to tease like that, or even have the patience for it if he did.

mimulus_arbutus @ June 26 2004, 19:07:03 UTC

even if draco is HB (which is doubtful, since he was removed from his position as prefect last year) he couldn't have killed lisa, because he wasn't in the great hall at the time of the attack.

caithion @ June 27 2004, 02:09:03 UTC

Very true. But I have a hard time believing the HB killed Lisa. The tone of his notes just didn't lead me to thinking he would be capable of killing her.

mimulus_arbutus @ June 27 2004, 23:44:59 UTC

i agree, it does seem strange that he would save her from pettigrew once just to turn around and kill her during the attack. i was just showing that it is improbable that draco was either HB or the killer (especially since ernie didn't recognize the murderer).