Bugs

[Amy Z]

No: HPFGUIDX 16720

Penny confessed:

>Believe me, I have an intense phobia of
>palmetto bugs (large flying cockroaches

Which Lupin, for some odd reason, finds comical.  Does anyone have an 
explanation for why his moon-Boggart turns into a cockroach?  I would 
have expected something that was somehow related to its scary form, 
e.g. the moon displays a silly face (which would work well for a 
crystal ball too and therefore not spoil the red herring).

Indigo wrote:

<lots of neat thoughts on Crookshanks snipped--love the alternative 
etymology!>

>I'm not sure if Ron's phobia of Spiders came up in PoA. I can't
>remember. I do, however, know that Crookshanks leapt into Hermione's
>lap with a large spider in his mouth and watched Ron the whole time 
he
>ate it, even after Ron made it clear he was disturbed: "Does he have
>to eat that here?"
>
>To me, anyway, that implies it did come up at some point, and
>Crookshanks knew enough to use it against Ron.

I was just rereading that too, and I had a different thought:  Is 
catching and eating a spider in front of Ron Crookshanks' attempt to 
communicate to Ron that he's on his side?  "Look, I'm killing spiders 
for you . . . I'm a good guy!"  The narration says he stared 
insolently at Ron the whole while, but this may be a misinterpretation 
by Harry; after the fact, I can see it as an attempt at a meaningful 
look.

I just thought it was too coincidental that it was a =spider= he was 
eating.  It isn't to frighten Ron, because Ron isn't frightened of 
=dead= spiders, and he doesn't seem scared in this scene, just grossed 
out.

>Nobody thinks twice of a rat with human food tastes until you look 
back and discover he was a human
>in rat shape.
>
>But Crookshanks ate a spider. 

Also, rats will eat just about anything, if I'm not mistaken (my 
knowledge of rat behavior comes entirely from Charlotte's Web).  I 
wouldn't blink at a rat that liked Fudge Flies.

Anyway, maybe when Animagi are in their animal forms, they have animal 
tastes.  So eating rats, while not the most pleasant thing, wasn't as 
bad for Padfoot as it would have been for Sirius.  Dogs do eat rats, 
even though they'd prefer a nice steak.

When else do we see Scabbers eating human food?  As far as we know he 
did eat rat pellets most of the time during his 12 years with the 
Weasleys.  They might have fed him table scrapings (the cheapest way 
to feed a rat, I imagine), but that wouldn't exactly give Peter the 
food he was accustomed to as a human.  Yum, potato peels!

FWIW, I =don't= think Crookshanks is an Animagus.  Anne, your reason 
is the most brilliant I've seen (his name would've shown up on the 
Map)!  I never thought of that!  I just thought the unregistered 
animagi thing had been used enough.  A magical cat is quite 
interesting enough.

Amy Z
wondering whether Amanda's Jan survived his first 5 minutes home or if 
the black widow got him

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 "We could all have been killed--or worse, expelled."
                   -HP and the Philosopher's Stone 
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