Language, Sex, Scabbers, Trout, and the Advanced Potions Textbook

[Catlady (Rita Prince Winston)]

Barb Fulton wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPFGU-OTChatter/message/26351 :

<< I'm reminded of when I was an exchange student in Denmark. There
were about 15 of us, living with families. One of the other Americans
offered to help her host-sister with her English homework. Well, the
American ended up doing the homework herself. The Danish girl failed
the assignment, and the teacher wrote a not that perhaps she get her
American housemate to help her with the next one! >>

I'm reminded of an anecdote I read somewhere, by a USAn man who said
that when he was young, his family had a Frenchwoman as houseguest for
a while, and she once did his French homework for him. To which the
teacher gave an F, which is how he discovered that native/fluent
speakers of any language don't bother with that grammar garbage that
grades are based on. 

Saitaina wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPFGU-OTChatter/message/26359 :

<< There's no canon proof either way but honestly I think when he got
his body back, his sexual desire and...parts came back with it.
There's no reason why the immortality spells would knock of his bits. >>

I think his experiments in pursuit of immortality, in the years
between leaving Hogwarts and going public as Lord Voldemort, included
changing his body into that snake-man body. That's why Dumbledore said
he had changed so much that few folk recognized that Lord Voldemort
used to be Tom Riddle, but in GoF the Death Eaters recognized him when
he re-emerged as snake-man. I think his experiments in pursuit of
immortality included bits of Ancient Magic. I think Ancient Magic is a
highly mythic and highly expensive as well as highly powerful form of
magic: our best example is that Lily used it to put a very powerful
protection on baby Harry, but the price was her own life -- I call
that an expensive price. 

I think an Ancient Magic immortality spell would likely be based on
the idea of getting rid of mortality by going back to the mythic time
before Death appeared. Before there was death, there was no need (in
fact, no room) for procreation -- and, alas, procreation is the reason
that sexual organs evolved (despite all the better uses of sex that
came along later). There are many stories detailing a trade-off
between endless life (or people who die come back to life the next
day) versus sex and babies and family relationships. (Even the story
of Adam and Eve, altho' they didn't have sex organs appear on their
previously Barbie-like crotches when they tasted the apple or when
they went out of the Garden, as happens in some other cultures'
stories.) Therefore, it makes sense that an Ancient Magic immortality
spell's price would be giving up sex, sexual organs, and sexual desire.

Sandra wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPFGU-OTChatter/message/26366 :

<< I wrote saying how thoroughly creepy I found it that Ron and the
other Weasleys were deceived into giving so much affection and
physical attention (hugs and stroking etc) to a rat that was in fact a
vile, unhinged man in disguise. If I was Ron I wouldn't stop washing
myself for at least a month! >>

In OoP, it seems that Molly is still in denial about it: when offering
Ron a reward for having been chosen prefect, she offered him a rat,
saying something like: "You always were fond of Scabbers".

For your other question, about how to cook trout, newspapers used to
publish a recipe about wrapping it in tinfoil with butter and garlic
and putting the tinfoil package into the dishwasher and running it
through one cycle (no soap) on High.

Sam wrote in http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPFGU-OTChatter/message/26369 :

<< Looks like a very old and battered book on advanced potion making
to me. I wondered if it was a Weasley possession. Maybe Ron made it
into NEWT potions. >>

Maybe Ron made it into NEWT Potions and Harry didn't, giving Harry a
chance for another fit of jealousy of Ron. Whether the old book is a
Weasley family hand-me-down or Ron bought it from a used book store
(because his finances are still tight), there could be notes written
in it by a previous owner that are a Useful Clue.

<< Could a Weasley be the half-blood prince? They are a pure-blood
family, but could they have polluted a ROYAL wizarding bloodline at
some point? >>

There used to be a theory that the Weasleys WERE a wizarding royal
bloodline at some point, because 'Arthur' is the name of King Arthur,
'Ginevra' is the name of Queen Gwenevere, and some say that 'Ron' was
the name of King Arthur's spear. I was never persuaded by arguments
that the other kids' names (Bill, Charlie, Percy, Fred, George) fit
into that pattern.

Siriusly Snapey Susan wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPFGU-OTChatter/message/26378 :

<< I can't quite make out the author's name. Last name seems to start
out "Bor," kind of like Borgin, but the 4th letter doesn't look like
a "g," really. >>

And Khepera replied in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPFGU-OTChatter/message/26383 with a
link to a Much Bigger and More Legible image:

<< Try this one:
http://www.mugglenet.com/viewer/?image_location=hbpadult.jpg
If that's an 'l' in the middle then it's Libalius Borage. Borage is
a herb (and it has a whole family, the Boraginaceae, named after
it), Libalius I'm not sure of. >> 

Maybe the families of Borage and Borgin and Borgia and Boring (my
impression of the name on the smaller pic of that book) are all from a
common ancestor but the names got changed over the generations by
sloppy pronunciation by illiterates or by sloppy writing on official
forms by literates.

Lillian wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPFGU-OTChatter/message/26399 :

<< According to some, Borage was the famous Nepenthe of Homer, which
when drunk steeped in wine, brought absolute forgetfulness. >>

IIRC, nepenthe is bhang, an East Indian compound of marijuana and
other stuff.