Chapter 23: The Yule Ball

[Rita Winston]

No: HPFGUIDX 6764

--- In HPforGrownups at egroups.com, John Walton <john at w...> wrote:

> It appears that the majority of Gryffindor (and all its male fourth
> years) have remained at Hogwarts. Any theories as to why they all
> stay this year?

Most of the kids *want* to stay over the holidays because they *want* 
to go to the Yule Ball. Some who might NOT want to go to the Yule 
Ball for fear of being wallflowers or having people laugh at their 
bad dancing may have been forced to attend by their well-intended 
parents or guardians. Neville might be in that situation, altho' we 
have no evidence of him not wanting to go tread on Ginny's feet.

> Fleur goes with Roger Davies (H?)

Roger is Ravenclaw's Quidditch captain.

> * Ron WANTS to go with Hermione

Ron THINKS he wants to go with Fleur.

> Serious question, though -- does Hermione's newfound appearance 
> change our opinion of her?

It just makes me jealous of her -- not all of us have the ability to 
change our appearance like that. Altho' Viktor did have the good 
taste to fancy her BEFORE she changed her appearance. In the US 
edition, she used an entire jar of Hair-So-Sleek and I wondered 
whether that was supposed to be a magic or Muggle product. The UK 
edition says 'liberal quantities of Sleekeezy's Hair Potion", which 
answers that question. So, if it's magic, why can't she just 
CHARM her hair once a week or so instead of having to mess with 
Hair Potion every day? 

> Ron has issues with the fact that Herm-own-ninny is "fraternizing 
> with the enemy". His hypocrisy is underlined when Hermione points
> out that he has a Krum model on his bedside ((But how does 
> Her-my-oh-knee know this? 

She was with him at the Quidditch World Cup when he bought the 
model. Anyway, doesn't she go into the boys' room (discreetly wearing 
a pink dressing gown over her pajamas) every Christmas morning to 
watch them unwrap their prezzies? That's an error on the WB store 
shopping bags, incidentally, which show them unwrapping prezzies in 
the Great Hall.

> so ominous that Snape delights in un-bushing (to coin a phrase)
> several pairs of students furthering their interpersonal relations.

I feel pretty sure that he was exploding the rosebushes out of bad 
temper and taking points from the students out of bad temper, rather 
than acting on chaperone duty. I wondered whether he was authorized 
to damage innocent rosebushes (as in his line to H and R about having 
damaged an old and valuable Whomping Willow by crashing a car into 
it!) and whether Dumbledore  made him repair the rosebushes he had 
broken. Magic should be able to repair / replace them faster than 
Muggle horticulture.