9 of Ravenclaw: Gain

9 of Ravenclaw: Gain
When the card is facing you: gratitude, luxury, self-sufficiency, culmination
When the card is facing away from you: over investment in work, financial setbacks

I chose Fluffly for this card mostly for the meanings behind the card when it's facing away from you, but I think there are a lot of reasons why the other side's meanings work as well and they are kind of intertwined. We don't know very much about Fluffy. He is only present in the first book and not very often. He belongs to Hagrid but he is placed in a room on the Third Floor to guard the entrance to the hiding place of the Philosopher's Stone. We meet him first when Harry is tricked by Draco Malfoy into being in a place he wasn't supposed to be that he could easily be caught in. Harry and his friends hide in the room that Fluffy is stationed in to guard to escape Filch and punishment if he finds them. It's an overestimation on the kids' side because they assumed that they could just hide in any room in Hogwarts. They were wrong because instead of an empty room, they were met with a growl-y, slobbery Fluffy who isn't really as safe as Hagrid says he is.

Secrecy at Hogwarts is overestimated when it comes to Fluffy. It was not as hard as it should have been for Hagrid to let slip the way to get past Fluffy to a stranger (Quirrel/Voldemort) in a bar. This therefore leads to the overestimation of Fluffy's actual ability to guard. The fact that Voldemort is able to get through Fluffy so easily and be one step closer to the Philosopher's Stone is pretty scary. Not to mention that Harry, Ron, and Hermione end up also being able to get past Fluffy. Obviously it was a bit silly of someone to think that a three headed dog who gets sleepy when listening to music was a good first obstacle for someone in pursuit of the Philosopher's Stone.

Luxury is a pretty weird thing to connect Fluffy to, but I think it works. The way you get past Fluffy is by playing music for him that makes him fall asleep. Music can be considered a luxury. Self sufficiency is a little easier to connect and also has both a good side and a bad side. In order to get past Fluffy, you need to be self-sufficient, meaning you need to have the ability to play music. This applies to everyone, from Voldemort to Harry. Also Voldemort had to be self sufficient to get the information on how to get past Fluffy. He figured out a way to be unrecognizable and get Hagrid drunk enough to reveal the secret. For gratitude, I want to connect Fluffy to this by saying that Hagid loved him and cared for him. I think that also Hagrid might have been grateful to Dumbledore for letting him guard something special with one of his magical creatures.

The road so far...

So over the past about year and a bit, I have completed 29 and a half Harry Potter tarot cards. I have written posts for most of them, some I haven't posted yet. The list of the ones I've completed are on the blog, but I thought it would be cool to get a group photo.

Because there are so many, it's hard to get all of them together. So I also took this photo:

and one of each one of them in their groups:

The Major Arcana:

Gryffindor:

Hufflepuff:

 Slytherin:

Ravenclaw:

Just thought it was pretty cool. I've done a lot, but I still have 48 and a half more cards left to do. :)

5 of Ravencla: Torment

5 of Ravenclaw: Torment

Meaning of the card facing you: isolation, insecurity, worry, financial loss, poverty
Meaning of the card facing away from you: recovery from financial loss, spiritual poverty

Note: I usually do not post more than one card in a week, but as I did not do one last week, I figured I would do two this week.

Just a little background about the card itself: usually, I have the background of the card reflecting the house it belongs to in some way. this card is the opposite. Hufflepuff is supposed to be the happy, loyal, loving, sunshine and butterflies kind of house. This card is the opposite of that and to reflect that, the background is purple and red (the opposite of yellow and blue kind of) (I know it's hard to see. I'll probably upload a new picture soon) to show how opposite it is from the House's values.

Everything that we know about Nagini is through Voldemort. We hear her history and what she went through when we learn more about him and what he did in his life and what he did to her. From what I understand, Voldemort found Nagini after his first fall at the hands of Harry. When he was weak, she was there for him. In his time of isolation, loss, and poverty, Voldemort found a 'friend' in Nagini.

He worried about her a lot. She became a Horcrux when Voldemort killed Bertha Jorkins in the fourth book. He, then was still very weak. Though splitting your soul does not seem like it would make you stronger, it did. He became even more immortal. She was a source of power for him. When Voldemort realized that Harry was hunting down his Horcruxes, he immediately made sure that Nagini was secured and very close to him. He did not want to have to worry about losing another piece of his soul, but also he didn't want to lose her. Again, they had a bond and Nagini might have been the only thing that Voldemort really cared about other than himself and his power. She was an extension of him literally and figuratively and so he worried and cared for her.

Nagini was with Voldemort while he was weak, she was also stayed with him when he was strong. She was there when he gained power and started killing people and worked to made his prejudices become a reality. He was able to talk to him in parseltongue, share information that she heard, kill people for him. She stuck with him until her head was cut off with the Sword of Gryffindor by Neville that destroyed the piece of Voldemort's soul. That was actually another very important thing about her. She was the last Horcrux he made and she was the last one to be destroyed. Harry could not  have killed Voldemort without her being killed which shows again how close they were (Voldemort and Nagini).