teabags/tealeaves, hermione, james and lily

[Simon Branford]

No: HPFGUIDX 1480

"DO WIZARDS USE TEABAGS??? That is, I am reading Blaise's Second Chance
Chapter Seven (because I read the post on-list that said she had posted Ch
7) and Snape makes Dumbledore's cup of tea with a teabag. Even among
Muggles, a number of snobs refuse to use teabags, and wizard folk seem to
cling more to old ways than us Muggles -- maybe every cup of tea is made in
a proper teapot with loose tea that is mostly kept out of the cup by the
seive in the spout of the pot. Yeah, yeah, I seem to recall in the Canon
that Hagrid makes tea with teapots (IIRC after he smashed his teapot in his
distress over Buckbeak's execution order), but I doubted it then, too."

Yes. Lupin makes Harry a cup of tea in PoA using teabags (Ch8). This is
after the tealeaf reading incident with Professor Trelawney and he makes
some comment about Harry preferring teabags after that. His comment does
suggest that wizards would normally use tealeaves.

Just because someone uses a teapot it does not mean they have used teabags
or vice versa. It is perfectly possible to make a single cup of tea using
tealeaves, and takes no longer than making one using teabags.

I will ignore the comment you made about snobs. I use tealeaves, but will
happily drink tea made by teabags as well. There is no difference in using
tealeaves in preference to teabags to using ground coffee beans instead of
instant coffee. There are many more varieties of tea in leaf form and they
do make a better cup of tea. One of the best I have found is one that makes
quite a sweet flavoured cup of tea. I serve this to people who would
normally have sugar in their tea and they are happy to drink it without.
Thus being better for their health.

I will just add that I do not drink coffee, which is why I use leaf tea.
This meaning I can have many different varieties of the drink I love.

"As for JKR wondering why no one ever begs her not to kill off Hermione."

This would leave the story very short of important female characters. It
would also leave a big hole in the triad, especially as there would be no
one doing the bookwork. They need to get all their information from
somewhere.

"Welll.....what we know is that James was Head Boy but remember Lily was
Head Girl, which also means something!   And 'cleverest' student isn't the
same as 'best wizard'."

Hermione and Harry demonstrate this very well. Hermione is top of the year
but by her own admission Harry is the better wizard. He possesses many other
necessary attributes needed to be a great wizard.

Simon