Animagery plus Re: Chapter 16: The Goblet of Fire

[Rita Winston]

No: HPFGUIDX 4512

--- In HPforGrownups at egroups.com, "Kaitlin " wrote:

> The Beauxbatons (French for "Fine Wands," I think) group chooses to 
> sit with the Ravenclaws.  They're not too happy about being at 
> Hogwarts.  And they're still cold, too.  Meanwhile, while Ron
> tries to get the Durmstrang group to sit with the Gryffindors, they
> opt instead to sit with the Slytherins.  Remember how Malfoy 
> mentions that he wanted to go to Durmstrang, but he was sent to 
> Hogwarts instead?  I think their ideals mirror those of the Malfoy
> family.

I can't believe that an entire school could have all one personality 
(Ravenclaw for Beauxbaton, Slytherin for Durmstrang). (Besides, who 
thinks Fleur has a Ravenclaw personality?) I prefer to believe that 
the visitors sit at table with the House that their Headmaster or 
Headmistress prefers. Karkaroff, who was tried for Death Eating in 
Britain, may well have gone to Hogwarts himself, thus been a 
Slytherin. I don't think Mme. Maxime went to Hogwarts (her 
English is still so accented, and wouldn't Hagrid have seen her 
before?) but maybe her House at the French school has a sister-House 
relationship with Ravenclaw. For Durmstrang to have chosen Karkaroff 
as Headmaster AFTER he was convicted of Death Eating and released 
from Azkaban only by ratting on his co-conspirators indicates that 
Durmstrang's Board of Trustees is full of Malfoy types. 

I looked around in an English-French French-English dictionary 
and it seemed to say that baton = staff and baguette = wand. 

> our friend Viktor is "pampered" by his Professor throughout the 
> dinner.  The poor boy has a bit of a cold.  

Karkaroff is constantly cooing over Viktor as if Viktor were some 
kind of prima donna (which reminds me, my mother used to say that 
there was no word like 'prima donna' to describe males who 
behave in that arrogant, spoiled, and unreasonably demanding way, 
because the word for men who behave like that is 'men') at the same 
time that he is bullying the other boys. Viktor dislikes the fussing, 
refuses the favors, and tries to hush Karkaroff -- I think Viktor is 
embarrassed to be treated differently than his fellow students. That 
is one of the things which seem to me to indicate that Viktor does
not 
have a Slytherin personality.

> He seems to be like Durmstrang's Harry Potter—the miraculous 
> Quiddich seeker and the Headmaster's favorite boy.

Interesting comparison! Are you implying that Harry is spoiled?

> comes over to get the bouillabaisse. 

I find it astonishing that the only time that Hermione has had 
bouillabaisse is when she vacationed in France with her parents. Here 
in Southern California, many many restaurants that are not French 
restaurants serve boullabaisse and some people cook it at home. I'm 
not surprised that Harry and Ron haven't had it: Harry has never
eaten 
anywhere but Hogwarts, Privet Drive, the Burrow, and once at the Zoo 
cafe at the beginning of book 1. Ron probably can't afford to go to 
restaurants and his mother gets her new recipes from WITCH WEEKLY not 
GOURMET MAGAZINE.

Even so, I find it astonishing that Ron could be SO suspicious of a 
nice recognizable stew/soup of seafood and garlic in clear broth. 
Then the doubtless deliberately joke that, having refused the nice 
bouillabaisse, he helps himself to black pudding. What's called Black 
Pudding in Irish diners in NYC is called Blood Pudding in German 
diners in NYC - it's made of coagulated blood - I think it's 
disgusting. 

ANIMAGERY. When we were at Yahoo!, the question was Would You Want 
to be an Animagus, and people responded by volunteering what animals 
they hoped to be. As I said at the time, I WANT TO BE .....

.... a cat!  Big Surprise! But while I fantasizing, I can't decide 
between a white tiger or a black jaguar or a cougar or (my true self) 
a fluffy gray housecat with white toes and nose. I have listed them 
in order which ranges from the best at fighting and at covering long 
distances in one night under one's own power, the tiger, to the
worst, 
the housecat. I have listed them in order which ranges from the best 
at hiding in small places, mingling unobtrusively with humans, and 
spying, the housecat, to the worst, the tiger. 

At the time, I said there is another animal, the raccoon, which does 
okay at the those things I said the housecat is good at, and also has 
agile little hands, so it can work gadgets while in animal form, 
which an adventurer might find useful (once a raccoon came into my 
childhood home through the cat door, found the bathroom and bathtub, 
and dis-assembled the mechanical plug thingy from the bathtub drain).

But since then I have learned, because of the AUGUST '00 ish of 
SMITHSONIAN, of another animal, the cacomistle, who is a relative of 
the raccoon who looks kind of like a cat and is maximally cute. And 
the article said they are super-agile. That would be better than 
a raccoon.  

And then I said, who am I trying to fool? I'm not suited to be the 
hero of a story, fighting and spying and all that stuff. I am suited 
to sleeping all day on a soft cushion in a warm home and eating bowls 
of cream and dishes of kitty treats, and being scaredy. Meow. 

AND WHAT I THINK I WOULD BECOME: probably a hog. Unless hogs have to 
be brave.

AND WHAT I AM AFRAID I WOULD BECOME: somebody's dinner.