Portkey - OCD - Old Crowd - Ron - Godric's Hollow - Pigwidgeon - Dumblebee

[Catlady]

No: HPFGUIDX 16838

Joywitch - today's DAILY PROPHET - LOL.

***

Lots of people (too many to give credit by name, I'm sorry) are asking
why did Voldemort and Crouch have to use the Triwizard Cup as a Portkey,
why couldn't they use all kinds of other things. I hope no one is
offended that I mention that this question was asked before -- because I
want to repeat the answer that was worked out in that discussion:

Hermione keeps telling us "You can't Apparate at Hogwarts!" Maybe the
spells that prevent Apparation also preventing Portkeying (so the
students arrive by train and boat/carriage rather than Portkey, and
Professors go to each other's offices by Floo), but Dumbledore as both
most powerful mage AND keeper of Hogwarts's protective spells (perhaps
part of the job as Headmaster) made one Portkey as an exception.  That
is, the Triwizard Cup was already a Portkey, one programmed to take the
person who touched it (no time specification on this Portkey) to the
victory platform next to the judges' box. Therefore, young Crouch,
powerful wizard tho' he was, was NOT able to turn anything into a
Portkey and had to use the Cup because it was already a Portkey. He just
hacked into its destination programming.

Allowing V enough time to prepare his embodiment spell, and the drama of
a flock of murderous Death Eaters descending upon all the bigshots of
wizarding society (how did Lucius explain away his absence from the
audience of the Third Task?)  in their moment of celebration no doubt
were attractive side benefits.

***

I am not a psychologist and have not looked anything up in DSM-IV, but
it bothers me that bunches of people are talking about OCD even tho' we
have seen no character wash her hands a hundred times a day like Lady
Macbeth, run all the way back to the dorm room to walk to the classrooom
all over again because she lost count of her steps, or inseparably carry
an old rusty piece of iron with her even to the Ball.

***

Catherine wrote:
> "Old" Mundungus Fletcher as well as an aged Mrs Figg/Arabella Figg.
> It seems that the old crowd are at least older than the Weasley
> parents, so are clearly not contemporaries of Lupin, Sirius et al.
> I wonder what their connection with Dumbledore/orginal roles were?

Like FLORENCE's (and MARIANNE's) later post(s), I assumed that 'the old
crowd' were the people who had worked for/with Dumbledore against
Voldemort last time around, people of all different ages. There has been
speculation that that group might have named itself 'The League against
Voldemort' or 'The Order of the Phoenix'. I assume that the League is
not working under the Ministry altho' some League members ALSO work for
the Ministry: probably Moody was a member of the League and we know he
was employed as an Auror by the Ministry. The Ministry probably viewed
Dumbledore and his League as a 'loose cannon'.

***

Amy Z wrote:
> Ron too.  Doesn't do anything to attain his ambitions, etc.  ??
>  What ambitions should he have, and how should he 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?

Ron, as you pointed out, has an ambition not to be poor any more. He's
old enough to be working on that ambition. Maybe by thinking of a
profitable future career and preparing himself for it (whether by
studying to get lots of OWLs and NEWTs as PENNY suggested, maybe by
neglecting schoolwork to spend time on an internship), maybe by starting
some little business there in school that hopefully at least would
provide pocket money as well as experience (the twins did it), maybe by
playing chess for money (could he learn to be just as good at poker?),
maybe in foolish ways like gambling on lotteries and other games that
are rigged against the players.

We have also been shown repeatedly that Ron wants to have some glory of
his own. PENNY quoted Dumbledore's statement about what Ron saw in the
Mirror of Erised.  He could be doing something NOW to show off. Probably
not trying to get the best grades in the class, as Hermione has that
sewn up, and maybe not sports as he didn't get on the House Quidditch
team. Maybe another sport: he has the build for a runner. Maybe start or
join Drama Club to try to star in a school play. Try to get famous for
solving the Daily Prophet's crossword puzzle faster than anyone.
SOMETHING.

***

Clairey wrote:
> In QA the creator of the golden snitch (i forget his name) lived in
> GODRICS HOLLOW!!!
Parker wrote:
> His name was Bowman Wright.
Steve Vander Ark wrote:
> It was most likely in the mid-1300s.

I feel sure that JKR didn't intend it to be a co-incidence that the
inventor of the Snitch lived in Godric's Hollow -- I suppose she
intended Godric's Hollow to be the Potters' ancestral  home and Wright
as well as Gryffindor among their ancestors -- but it makes me wonder.
The Potters were supposed to be in hiding from Voldemort -- surely
James's ancestral home would be one of the first places Voldemort looked
-- wouldn't that be a foolish place to hide, even with a Secret Keeper?
And Sirius must have been hiding, as he was pretending to be the Secret
Keeper and the Secret Keeper was supposed to be hiding so as not to be
caught and have the secret tortured out of him, so how was Sirius able
to go check on Peter? If Peter was also hiding, would that lead anyone
to suspect that he was the Secret Keeper?

Indigo wrote:
> Which begs the question (almost by the way) -- how did Ron
> explain suddenly ending up with the owl soon to be known as
> Pigwidgeon? (snip)
>  Maybe the Weasleys knew all along because Dumbledore had
> to send an owl to them explaining how Ron's leg got broken?

He could truthfully say that the owl was a gift. Molly would probably
assume that it was a gift from Harry and not bother to ask whom it was
from, maybe not even 'did you rememer to write a thank you letter?" If
she DID ask, from whom, could he get away with saying "a friend of
Harry's who felt sorry for me losing Scabbers" instead of a name?

IIRC Molly doesn't know that Sirius is innocent because she almost
freaks out at the sight of him when he transforms from dog into self in
Harry's hospital wing room.

Neil wrote:
> Like you, I think any self-respecting Transfiguration teacher
> would want to be able to demonstrate the ultimate transfiguration
> skill to their students

If he is an illegally unregistered Animagus, he wouldn't want to
demonstrate to his students because that would destroy his secrecy in an
instant. I prefer FLORENCE's suggestion that wizards and witches who
were Animagi before the 1900s century (Novocento?) began were just
grandfathered in.

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