governors, examinations, punishments and then Dee's SS questions.

[Simon Branford]

No: HPFGUIDX 2578

Scott wrote: "And is a board of governors the typical way to run an English
boarding school, or an American one for that matter (I attend public
schools, in the American sense of that word...)"

Most UK schools (public or state) have a board of Governors. They are
involved with the appointment of teachers at the school and are usually a
representation of the local community and parents with children at the
school. I am not really sure exactly what they are there for!

Amanda wrote: <<<The final exam was the whole grade, and consisted of one
question, something along the lines of, "You're in Central Mexico (or
someplace) in September. What parasites should you worry about picking up
and how would you get them? Discuss.">>>

This reminds me of a Philosophy Finals Examination question that I have
heard of. The question was 'What is confidence?' and the top mark went to
the student who gave the answer 'This is.'.

Scott wrote: "So to tie this horribly OT post back into HP, and maybe Simon,
Neil (BTW, where has he been lately???) and our other UK members can help me
out, is to ask can you see the parents of people (i.e., Molly Weasley,
Neville's Grandmother, or Hermione's Mum and Dad etc.) complaining about the
behaviour of Snape? That is if they were aware of it. I understand that
mostly it would not be a great issue, but I could see complaining about
making Neville pickle toads(and after all he's been through!)."

Neil has been at busy at work recently and is also busy with the work on the
FAQ's. I am sure he will be back posting again soon.

Again, the parents of the Hogwarts children can only complain if they know
there is something wrong that they need to complain about. Being at boarding
school the children do not have much opportunity to tell parents of problems
(this is much easier and believable face to face) and when returning home
for a holiday there probably seems little point in then doing so.

The punishment of Neville is no worse, and probably can be considered
better, than the Forbidden Forest incident. Hagrid tells Draco that he must
do it and that Lucifer would be perfectly happy that he is involved in such
a punishment. This implies that the punishment fits the crime. Maybe Neville
did nothing to deserve the pickling toads task and for reason the incident
could warrant a complaint.

Now onto some SS (or more correctly PS) points and questions raised by Dee.

"I am not certain what color tawny refers to exactly!"

Orange-brown.

"The word through out this chapter is "cloaks" never robes.  Are they just
wearing cloaks, else why the term?  Of course McG mentions not a on changed
to Muggle clothing later!"

I am beginning to think that the robes are a school uniform and that the
wizards wear fairly normal clothes underneath these. The cloaks are then
worn, like coats, on top of these clothes. A lot of the wizards do jobs
that, IMO, would involve them wearing smart clothes. I would assume that a
set of robes is equivalent to a suit and tie.

"There must be enough room in that cupboard for a bed, and did they just
plop the trunk on top of it in CoS?  It never says the bed got moved!"

This is basically what I was trying to say in connection with the bit on
abuse. I think cupboard makes it sound a lot smaller than it actually is.
Maybe it is just referring to the fact that there is no window to the room.
I basically think that Harry was not half as badly treated as I first felt.
He just lacked someone showing interest and love towards him.

"*..."Majorca...*  Where is this place?"

Majorca, or Mallorca, is one of the Balearic Islands. It is too be found in
the Mediterranean sea, west of Spain and north of Algeria.

"*...MUSTACHE...*  (aside to the person who asked!)"

That was me, but on the PoU group. Of course it is spelt differently in the
UK edition.

"*...Railview Hotel, Cokeworth...*  Where is Surrey and Cokeworth in
relation to each other?"

I have been unable to find such a place in the atlas I have in my room. I
will look for more information tomorrow, when I am back in Oxford and have
more resources at my disposal.

"*..."McKinnons, the Bones, the Prewetts"...*"

There is a Susan Bones mentioned during the sorting. She gets put in
Hufflepuff.

"*...peppermint humbugs...*  What are they?"

Sweets. Or should I write candy? Interestingly my dictionary defines humbugs
as being peppermint boiled sweets, making the flavour description pointless.

"*..."mother's up the street looking at wands"...*  How can Draco get a wand
when he isn't present for it?  Of course, I can assume, his father being who
he is, perhaps he already had his wand since toddler-hood, and this was a
replacement for his mother?"

Just because she was looking at them does not mean she was buying him one.
Or maybe all Malfoy's use a certain type of wand, regardless of how good it
is for them. Or maybe they do not have as much money as people make out.

"*..."That's you done, my dear."...*  Why did Draco's robes take longer than
Harry's?  Was he more particular, or is it a "associate" thing, were the
Madam works faster than her help?  Of course, if this is the case, with his
"snooty-ness", why didn't Draco (and family) DEMAND the Madam be the only
one to wait on the dark darling?"

As the Malfoy's are important people in the wizarding world it is possible
that Draco goes to lots of parties with his parents. Due to this he may also
have been being fitted for a set of dress robes at the same time.

"Is there any connection or opposition of these trees in history, or etc?
We know the feathers are the same.  Just looking for a connection with the
wood!"

Read Yahoo message #1283. It has a description of yew, holly, oak and
willow. The information will be included in the wand FAQ - I just have to
write it first!

Simon (I hope some of the above is helpful)