Changing money - French - Hermione/Ron neuroses

[Amy Z]

No: HPFGUIDX 16802

Samaporn wrote:

>First of all, it's not Muggle money, so he probably couldn't buy a 
house.

He could buy it with wizarding money.  

This makes me think of something else, though.  Drat, I just read 
somewhere a line to the effect that Harry had plenty of money in the 
wizarding world, but no Muggle money.  It could have been anywhere in 
1, 2, or 3 . . . should've stickied it when it caught my eye.

My question is, can't he change money?  The Grangers get wizard money 
for their pounds.  If the whole thing has to be kept secret from most 
Muggles, then I can see that Gringott's doesn't have a lot of Muggle 
money to distribute; perhaps it can only give out as much as it takes 
in.  Though it might have ties to Muggle banks, the way the Minister 
has ties to the Muggle PM.  Gold, after all, has currency everywhere.

But even if one can't change enough money to buy a house in Muggle 
currency, Harry should be able to get himself some Muggle pocket 
money.  It's been noted that somewhere along the line he acquires a 
watch; he has one by CoS (ch 12--it cuts into his wrist when he 
becomes Goyle) though he doesn't in PS/SS (ch 2).  He could, of 
course, have bought it with wizard money.

Following that tangent:  A lot of fanfics assume that regular watches 
and clocks are Muggle items, and even that witches and wizards don't 
use them.  I have never understood this.  The Weasleys have a couple 
of unMuggle clocks, and Dumbledore has his unMuggle watch, but 
Hogwarts does operate on your standard 24 hour clock, with students 
knowing "it's 2 o'clock, time for Potions," etc.  Harry has his watch 
to tell him when the Polyjuice Potion will run out.  Whence this idea 
that the magical world doesn't keep time?

Rambling...sorry.  Back to my point:  if you have plenty of wizard 
money, don't you then have access through exchange to plenty of Muggle 
money?

Morag wrote:
>  But why rename Tom Riddle, since Voldemort is a
> French-derived name, anyway?

Rita wrote:

>Because it has to anagram 'Je suis' rather than 'I am'?

Yup, Tom Elvis Jedusor is an anagram for "Je suis Voldemort."  Elvis! 
 I love it!

Demelza wrote:

>Well, we agree that that there is no evidence to support Hermione's 
>assertion that Ron is jealous of Harry's fame and attention he
>garner. Therefore, Hermione's assessment was incorrect.

Whoa!  That doesn't compute.  I'm trying to follow the logic:
    (1) There is no evidence to support the assertion that Demelza 
likes cats.
    (2) Demelza's best friend says Demelza likes cats.
    (3) Therefore, Demelza's best friend's assessment is incorrect.

Why wouldn't I take point 2 as evidence that Demelza likes 
cats--unless I was already inclined to mistrust the friend's 
perceptions? <g>

There are lots of assertions in the books that have no particular 
evidence, but that I still believe.  To doubt Hermione, I would 
need evidence that Ron =isn't= jealous, or evidence that her judgment 
is suspect in general.  I don't see evidence for either of these 
things.

For my part, Exhibit A supporting the idea that Ron is sometimes 
jealous of Harry is the fact that Hermione, who knows him better than 
we do, perceives that he is.  I think she is very insightful about 
people in general, and she knows Ron well; if she sees signs of 
jealousy, I reckon they're probably there.

There is supportive evidence after the fact.  "In tribute to their 
recently repaired friendship, Ron kept the bitterness in his voice to 
a minimum" (GoF, may be inaccurate quote; it's from memory).  That 
implies that he has had bitterness in his voice before, even though it 
was never commented on.

There are also stray comments like Ron enjoying being the center of 
attention for a change when Sirius "attacks."  "For the first time in 
his life, people were paying more attention to him than to Harry, and 
it was clear that Ron was rather enjoying the experience" (PoA 14).  
We know that it is Harry who people point to in the corridors--"Next 
to the tall kid with the red hair" (PS/SS 8), which supports 
Hermione's sense that when people see Ron and Harry, it's Harry who 
occupies their attention.  And, of course, we know that he sometimes 
longs to be free of the comparisons and second-best status that come 
with being 6th in a large family.  =These things don't prove Ron is 
jealous,= but they lay the kind of groundwork that makes me as a 
reader, when I hear from Hermione that he's jealous, say, "Yeah, I can 
see why he would be."

Did I write all this once already?  Brain cells starting to degrade...

Re: diagnosing Hermione or anyone else:  there's a good reason you 
have to meet several criteria in order to get any DSM-IV diagnosis:  
we =all= display various behaviors such as overwork, sadness, fear of 
social situations.  They don't translate automatically into OCD, 
depression, and anxiety disorders, respectively.  I think we could 
just as easily diagnose Harry as having some kind of mania because 
he's reckless.  By your criteria, everyone who puts a lot of emphasis 
on academics as their measure of personal success is potentially in 
danger of OCD.  Okay, but at that point the danger is so 
widespread as to be meaningless, IMO.  There is a wide range of normal 
behavior.  Nor does being a bit inflexible about =one= social issue 
equal being "over-conscientious, scrupulous, and inflexible about 
matters of morality, ethics, or values," especially at the 
developmental stage Hermione is at; there's also a good reason why DSM 
categories are for adults.  It is normal for an adolescent who is just 
discovering social injustice to take a stance that according to adult 
standards is extreme.

You fence your views around with lots of "potentials" and "possiblys," 
but you rely on the view that Hermione is currently pathological in 
order to say that Ron isn't jealous.  I still don't see any motive for 
her to be lying (yes, she has reasons to be ticked at Ron, but why 
would this make her say he's jealous?  I just don't get it), nor any 
reason to think that she is way off base.  

In my self-claimed role of third party, I will add that I think Penny 
is pathologizing Ron too.  Doesn't do anything to attain his 
ambitions, etc.  ??  What ambitions should he have, and how should he 
be working towards them?  He's 14 years old and his ambitions in life 
are to do satisfactorily in school, not be poor anymore, not join the 
Dark Side, be a good friend, and save his best friend from periodic 
attacks on his life.  What should he be doing to attain these things 
other than what we see him doing?

Amy Z
who got up at 5 a.m. to put the finishing touches on her work--got a 
problem with that?  <g>