Bubbles and Memory Supplement

MORE ABOUT BEETLES AND THE PURGE & DOWSE ANAGRAM

by Bob Rozak

The rest of the "beetle" bit in its entirety

I've already mentioned the PS/SS beetle references -- and yes, there's only three. On to CoS, Chapter 1:

...Underage wizards weren't allowed to use magic outside of school. Harry hadn't told the Dursleys this; he knew it was only their terror that he might turn them all into dung beetles that stopped them from locking him in the cupboard under the stairs...

Okay, so maybe you see nothing in conjunction with Hagrid or Rita. I see four things:

1.) Reference to someone not allowed to use magic.
2.) Reference to someone keeping a secret.
3.) Reference to someone's prejudice and the consequences.
4.) To top it off, a reference to "beetle" in conjunction with Transfiguration.

Hagrid wasn't allowed to use magic, he had been keeping a secret (and so had Rita) because he feared the consequences of others' prejudice against his giant blood, and Rita is a Beetle Animagus.

"Beetle" next pops up in Knockturn Alley, keeping its mark on Hagrid in a place full of untrustworthy characters (CoS Chapter 4):

"Not lost are you, my dear?" said a voice in his ear, making him jump.

An aged witch stood in front of him, holding a tray of what looked horribly like whole human fingernails. She leered at him, showing mossy teeth. Harry backed away.

"I'm fine, thanks," he said. "I'm just-"

"HARRY! What d'yeh think yer doin' down there?"

Harry's heart leapt. So did the witch. A load of fingernails cascaded down over her feet and she cursed as the massive form of Hagrid, the Hogwarts gamekeeper, came striding toward them, beetle-black eyes flashing over his great bristling beard.

"Hagrid!" Harry croaked in relief. "I was lost- Floo Powder-"

Hagrid seized Harry by the scruff of the neck and pulled him away from the witch, knocking the tray right out of her hands.

This one's a bit harder notice. Aside from the beetle bit continuing to mark Hagrid as its target and the scene taking place in an untrustworthy place- and in the presence of an untrustworthy witch- the thing that's emphasized most here are the fingernails. In fact, JKR presents them to us on a tray. They're a clue.

It's not just an untrustworthy witch, but an untrustworthy witch with fingernails. (Anyone got it yet?)

JKR rarely ever describes the way people's fingernails look. In fact, we only know what three people's nails look like.

Professor Sprout (CoS Chapter 6):
"...her fingernails would have made Aunt Petunia faint."

Fenrir Greyback: (HBP Chapter 27):
"... His filthy hands had long yellowish nails."

And of course, Rita Skeeter, who's fingernails are described repeatedly:



JKR is obviously trying to make a statement with Rita's nails: This is a witch who'll sink her claws into you. Hence the length of her nails and their color- crimson. And didn't that "shocking pink" get your attention?

Back in Knockturn Alley Harry and Hagrid (who would both go on to receive the "Skeeter treatment" in GoF) both had a warning neatly presented to them on a tray- by an untrustworthy witch who was, much like Rita, trying to take advantage of Harry's apparent naivete.

Next appearance of the beetle (CoS Chapter 6):

Professor McGonagall's classes were always hard work, but today was especially difficult. Everything Harry had learned seemed to have leaked out during the summer. He was supposed to be turning a beetle into a button, but all he managed to do was give his beetle a lot of exercise as it scuttled over the desktop avoiding his wand.

Ron was having far worse problems. He had patched up his wand with some borrowed Spellotape, but it seemed to be damaged beyond repair. It kept crackling and sparking at odd moments, and every time Ron tried to transfigure his beetle it engulfed him in thick gray smoke that smelled of rotten eggs. Unable to see what he was doing, Ron accidentally squashed his beetle with his elbow and had to ask for a new one.

Here we are obviously presented with a scenario that makes a strong association between beetles and Transfiguration, but I see three more things that hinted at what Rita was going to do and how she did it:

1.) Reference to information being leaked out.
2.) Reference to a beetle being elusive.
3.) Reference to a beetle being unseen- under cover, if you will.

Not to mention the whole thing smells rotten. The word beetle disappears until PoA, Chapter 1, where it emerges in one of the notes Ron sent to Harry:

Harry- this is a Pocket Sneakoscope. If there's someone untrustworthy around, it's supposed to light up and spin. Bill says its rubbish sold for wizard tourists and isn't reliable, because it kept lighting up at dinner last night. But he didn't realize Fred and George had put beetles in his soup.

Bye-

Ron

It was probably Scabbers at the dinner table and not Fred and George's prank that made the Sneakoscope go off, but Ron didn't know that. He seems to think the Sneakoscope went off because of the beetles. Not only does this hint at untrustworthy beetles, but I see two more references that offer clues:

1.) The description Bill gives also fits well for the Daily Prophet.
2.) The slang expression "in the soup" means "in trouble," "having difficulties," or "in an unfortunate situation." Like our poor Hagrid after that article came out.


The beetle bit appears next in PoA Chapter 6. It's a familiar scene: Hagrid is miserably upset after an unfortunate occurrence- someone has made him look bad. He weeps and pities himself, and Harry, Ron and Hermione show up and comfort him. The beetle makes its mark on Hagrid again:

Tears leaked out of the corners of Hagrid's beetle-black eyes.

It's a scene that will be repeated in GoF, Chapter 24, Rita Skeeter's Scoop. There's also that "leaked out" reference again.

Next we come to GoF, where the beetle running bit finally begins to reveal what it's been playing at, but not before reminding us who its target is one last time, when the word "beetle" makes its first of 19 appearances in this book (GoF, Chapter 18): "Hagrid's beetle-black eyes looked very anxious under his wild eyebrows."

GoF Chapter 23 is the scene where Hagrid reveals he is a half-giant during the Yule Ball while Rita listens in with Harry and Ron, disguised as a beetle crawling on the stone reindeer.

GoF Chapter 24 is the familiar scene where Hagrid is miserable and weeping again, after Rita's article on him was published: "Two fat tears leaked out of Hagrid's beetle-black eyes..."

GoF Chapter 26 is the second task when Rita is mistaken for a water beetle.

I love this next scene, from GoF Chapter 27, after Rita has written the Article, Harry Potter's Secret Heartache, and Harry, Ron and Hermione are discussing Rita during Potions class:


...Hermione gave them a sarcastic smile and a wave, and she, Harry, and Ron started unpacking the ingredients they would need for their Wit-Sharpening Potion.

"There's something funny, though," said Hermione ten minutes later, holding her pestle suspended over a bowl of scarab beetles. "How could Rita Skeeter have known...?"

"Known what?" said Ron quickly. "You haven't been mixing up Love Potions, have you?"

"Don't be stupid," Hermione snapped, starting to pound up her beetles again. "No, it's just... How did she know Victor asked me to visit him over the summer?"

It's hilarious that the answer to Hermione's question is literally right under her nose- especially they're working on a Wit-Sharpening Potion. The class goes on and Snape reads Rita's article aloud to embarrass Harry, then makes Harry move to the front of the room so that he can continue taunting him about his recent press quietly:

Determined not to look at Snape, Harry resumed the mashing of his scarab beetles, imagining each one to have Snape's face.


Snape continues trying to provoke Harry:

"You might be laboring under the delusion that the entire wizarding world is impressed with you," Snape went on, so quietly that no one else could hear him (Harry continued to pound his scarab beetles, even though he had already reduced them to a fine powder), "but I don't care how many times your picture appears in the papers. To me you are nothing but a nasty little boy who considers rules to be beneath him."

Harry tipped the powdered beetles into his cauldron...

This taunting by Snape was a direct result of Rita's article, but Harry has no idea that he is symbolically taking his anger out on the right person.

Next, in GoF Chapter 28, Hermione receives hate-mail as a result of Rita's "Heartache" article and has her hands drenched in undiluted bubotuber pus and has to go to the hospital wing. She returns just in time for the end of Hagrid's Care of Magical Creatures class, and before he even asks her what happened to her hands, his eyes are again give the beetle-black clue to offer us the connection.

GoF Chapter 37 gives the final mention of Hagrid's beetle-black eyes for this book- just after we find out he finally made up with Madame Maxime.

In this chapter Hermione also reveals she's caught Rita and reviews the clues that helped her figure it out. That concludes that part of the beetle bit storyline, but we know there's more to come on Rita- and personally I don't think her one-line mention in HBP was it.



The beetle bit and the Neville theory

After GoF, the beetle bit slows down almost to a halt- but not completely. In fact, the few references of the word seem to want to intertwine with the Neville theory.


In OotP, Chapter 6, Doxies are described as having "shiny beetlelike wings" during the insect-like infestation at Grimmauld Place. They use one of Lockhart's books, Gilderoy Lockhart's Guide to Household Pests, for information on how to handle the Doxies.

First connection to the closed ward- Lockhart.

In OotP Chapter 13, Bowtruckles are described as having "a funny, flat barklike face in which a pair of beetle-brown eyes glittered."

Second connection to the closed ward- Agnes. "Barklike face"- you get it.


OotP Chapter 25 is entitled The Beetle at Bay. The word "beetle" is not used in the chapter itself.

"Bay" has lots of meanings: a body if water, a reddish-brown color, an animal of reddish-brown color, a part of a building, or:

bay: v- to bark at, to bark with prolonged tones, to pursue with barking,

bay- n- 1 : a baying of dogs
2 : the position of one unable to retreat and forced to face danger
3 : the position of one checked


Lastly in OotP Chapter 35 we come to Neville:

Neville's legs were still flying in every direction, they would not support him and then, out of nowhere, a man lunged at them. Both fell backward, Neville's legs waving wildly like an overturned beetle's, Harry with his left arm held up in the air to try and save the small glass ball from being smashed.

Superb imagery, especially since the man who they're struggling with is Lucius, and it seems the beetle and bubble bits come together here. Harry and Neville are trying to protect a bubble/memory from man who wants it badly.

The "beetle" reference here, along with the others in this book, seem to be hinting at Rita in the closed ward. I suspect that the "more to come" on Rita just might be a very revealing article on the Janus Thickey ward- and it looks like Neville's going to be helpless to do anything about it, and he won't like it one bit. Surely Rita would pad her story by including Neville's dramatic tragedy, citing emotions Neville never mentions, similarly to what she did to Harry in GoF?

Rita's deal with Hermione is up, its been over a year and Rita is free to write again, but Hermione wouldn't like it if she treated Neville the same way she did Harry- so Rita's got a way around it. She gets to write an overly dramatic story while seeming to help the situation by exposing it.

Only one final beetle reference in HBP during Chapter 11. Once again Hagrid's upset and Harry, Ron and Hermione are comforting him.

"It's... him..." gulped Hagrid, his beetle-black eyes streaming as he mopped his face with his apron. "It's... Aragog... I think he's dyin'... He got ill over the summer an' he's not getting' better...."

Someone ill who doesn't seem to be improving.

Instead of tears being "leaked out" this time, they're "streaming." As this was the running bit designed to show and teach us how to use them, "streaming" has a significance, especially at the very end of the bit. This from Merriam Webster Online Dictionary:

Main Entry: stream·ing
Pronunciation: 'strE-mi[ng]
Function: noun
1 : an act or instance of flowing; specifically : CYCLOSIS
2 British: TRACKING



Purge And Dowse Ltd anagram

This is another piece of evidence which suggests that Snape will make an appearance at St. Mungo’s. From the outside, St. Mungo’s looks like a run down department store, called Purge and Dowse Ltd.

“Purge and Dowse Ltd” is the way JKR has printed the name of the store in the book, however there are no anagrams that make sense using those exact letters. (One can always come up with a bunch of jumbled, meaningless words for almost anything, but it’s the ones that have relevant meaning we’re looking for, right?)

However, by expanding the abbreviation “Ltd” into it’s proper form, “limited,” you do get something interesting, especially in conjunction with JasonD’s discovery of the Legilimency/windows connection.

Purge and Dowse Limited = Deep guilt drowns, aid me.

Interesting things that point to this being a non-accidental anagram:

1.)The anagram expresses an “ailment” – guilt (and obvious remorse), while the front for the hospital offers a “cure.”

“Purge and Dowse” (purge and douse) alludes to reconciliation and forgiveness; to being reborn (think religiously about Confession and Baptism).

2.)The suggestion of water at both ends of the anagram (Dowse/douse, drown)

3.)Purge and Dowse is the cover for the hospital, but to get inside you must walk through the large window— this suggests Legilimency and Snape, coming right back to this theory.




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