Draco at Seminar, and in Jail - Religion - Muggle-born Slytherins - Still Lycanthropy -

[Catlady]

No: HPFGUIDX 17799

Laila Golden Faile wrote:
> About ten minutes into the lesson,  the door opens and
> everyone turns around to stare at the late-comer, in sauntered Draco.

Arriving late on purpose to draw attention to his entrance sounds so
authentically Draco!

Joywitch M. Curmudgeon wrote in the DAILY PROPHET:
> According to Lavender Brown, Ms. Spice's press agent, the
> singing star is "terrified and upset" about the incident.

Dear Editor, I am sure that mine is only one of a flood of letters
condemning Magical Spice's lack of judgment. *Draco Malfoy* can come in
through my bathroom window any time!

Little Alex wrote:
> But Taoist/Buddhist isn't exactly what's happening.  It's more
> like, believing in the gods/saints without believing in the religion
> itself, or  not treating it as a religion.  I think most people
wouldn't
> call themselves Taoist or Buddhist, but they will tell you which
> specific saints/gods they worship and which rules they observe.
> And even if they believe in the Buddha, most don't believe in
> Buddhism. Am I making sense?

Lots of sense. I have long believed that the natural state of human
beings is to have 'the way we live, the way we do things' rather than
having 'religion'. Maybe even the word 'religion' only arouse when
people starting travelling enough to meet people with different
religions (travelling -- back in the Neolithic).

But I was wondering about emigrants because I was wondering in the
context of Cho Chang. If she were Nga "Angie" Nguyen or Truc "Tracy"
Tran, I would have immediately assumed she was Buddhist, which is what
most of my Vietnamese co-workers say they are.

Which reminds me, Joanne [Loan] Tran came to work the other day with a
very funny story about having heard her brother watching a video that
made loud, strange noises, so she asked him what all the racket was, so
he handed her the cassette and told her to find out for herself, so she
popped it into her VCR but didn't watch it yet. And the next day her
sister and little niece came over and the niece wanted to watch "Lion
King" (and for some reason she thought it was already in Joanne's VCR)
so she turned on the VCR ... and saw the middle of a porn video. She
shouted a complaint that this wasn't "Lion King", and everyone rushed
into Joanne's room, and saw what was on Joanne's VCR, and Joanne's
mother angrily scolded her, telling her that she was going to go to the
eighth Buddhist hell....  I guess you hadda be there: the reason it's so
funny is that Joanne is SUCH a cute innocent young girl, being blamed
for her brother's video...

Catherine wrote:
> I was wondering recently how muggle-born children who were
> sorted  into Slytherin would be treated by their peers.  I came to the

> conclusion that as Slytherin valued pure bloods, that it was unlikely
> that there would be any muggle borns in his house.  On the other
>  hand, Voldemort himself was sorted into Slytherin, and he isn't
> pureblood, so this doesn't really follow, unless his ancestry
> overcame muggle blood.  So, does Slytherin value other things
> (cunning, ambition, pure evil) above blood?

TMR was 1/2 Muggle 1/2 Wizarding: a Halfblood. It has never occurred to
me that DEs wanted Halfblood wizards and witches killed or exiled to
Muggledom, more that they should be admitted into the wizarding
community with theoretically equal legal rights but be mocked for their
ancestry and excluded from the best jobs and stuff.

Salazar's argument was that Muggle-born students were a security risk
who might tell other Muggles about wizards and witches (the wizarding
folk kept themselves secret from Muggles BECAUSE THEY ARE SCARED OF
BEING ATTACKED BY MUGGLES, there are things in QTA and FB, such as
Abraham Peasegood was one of the many wizards who emigrated to the North
American colonies in hope of avoiding the discrimination against magic
that was afoot in Europe). That might have led him to make a distinction
between Halfbloods who were raised in the wizarding world (Seamus) and
those who were raised as Muggles.

I wonder whether the Sorting Hat would ever put a Muggle-born into
Slytherin House -- yes, if it judges by the Song's criteria, no, if it
tries to choose the same students that Salazar would have chosen. I
wonder if the people in Slytherin House are always Pureblood Bigots, or
if they go through fads in their dislikes. I can imagine a Muggle-born
being Sorted into Slytherin House during one of their racial purity
fits, being ostracized or something by the other kids, and the Head of
House has to lecture the leaders among the other kids: "Did the Sorting
Hat make a mistake? Are you claiming that you know better than the
Founders' hat? If old Slytherin wouldn't ever choose a Muggle-born, then
she must not *be* Muggle-born. If she wasn't adopted or switched at
birth, maybe she's a great wizard's bastard."

Celeste Chang wrote:
>  I think JKR said in an interview regarding the Lupin/Moon
> thing was that, "The moon wasn't up when he entered the
>  Shrieking Shack." So that would mean that while he was in
> the Shack,  the moon was about to rise, but when he came
> out, the moon rose.

Yes, I read some interview where she said that. But the point is, he
DIDN'T transform when the moon rose: he transformed when the already
risen moon came out from behind a cloud and the moonlight touched him.
"A cloud shifted. There were suddenly dim shadows on the ground. Their
party was bathed in moonlight."

First of all, this was in June in the Northern Hemisphere, when the Full
Moon rises before the sun sets, and Lupin entered the Shack well after
sunset: sunset was when HHR heard the axe blow of Buckbeak's execution
and starting walking back to the castle, after which they made an
unplanned detour to the Shack. So the moon WAS up yet when he entered
the Shrieking Shack but he hadn't transformed.

Second, even if the moon hadn't risen yet when Lupin entered the Shack
(just as holidays happen on the convenient day of the week rather than
according to the year of the action), it rose while he was in the Shack,
so why didn't he transform while he was in the Shack? As someone already
said, if he only transforms when outdoors, he wouldn't need Wolfsbane
Potion, he could just stay inside that one night each month.

Third, even if the moon hadn't risen yet while Lupin was in the Shack,
it had already risen behind clouds during their walk outdoors. Several
people from Britain have pointed out that if Lupin doesn't transform if
the Full Moon is covered by clouds, then there are more months that he
doesn't transform than that he does.

Someone quoted a bunch of references to moonlight in which it didn't
touch Lupin before the one where it touched him and he transformed, but
I haven't found those quotes in the book yet.
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