Lots and Lots of Topics

[Rita Winston]

No: HPFGUIDX 23508

First: PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE someone save the transcript of the chat this
Sunday???? I have to go to a birthday party! Tim will get angry at me if
I don't go...

THE HOGWARTS MAGIC QUILL
buedefixe quoted JKR:
> "In Hogwarts there's a magical quill which detects 
> the birth of a magical child, and writes his or her
> name down in a large parchment book. Every year 
> Professor McGonagall checks the book, and sends owls 
> to the people who are turning 11." -Scholastic Chat, February 2000

I suppose JKR does it that way because birth is a magically powerful
moment, but it would solve a LOT of problems, including allowing
Hermione to be the youngest, if the quill instead detected the presence
of children who should be starting at Hogwarts this coming September.
Muggle-born magic children who moved to Britain (probably with their
parents) after being born is another problem it would solve.

HARRY IN BORGIN AND BURKE'S SHOP
Amber?'s chapter summary said:
>  Not wanting Draco to see him, he jumps in a black
> cabinet and hides. 

One thing that struck me at first reading and continues to strike me is
just how damn LUCKY Harry was that it wasn't a carnivorous cabinet, or
the home of a dangerous monster...  I mean, I doubt that the opal
necklace was the only cursed object in that shop!

THE UTHOR & YGRAINE THEORY OF HARRY'S PARENTAGE
Catherine wrote:
> There's just one major flaw to this argument - 
> Harry is the spitting image of James, apart from the eyes.

Tom Riddle also has a strong resemblance to Harry. Maybe he fathered
BOTH James AND Harry. Personally, I don't believe it -- I doubt that
Riddle had much interest in sex and that Voldemort had any interest in
sex (just power, cruelty, and immortality). Furthermore, it would be
messy literature for all Harry's emotionalizing about James to go to
waste. But every time I use the names Tom and Harry in the same
sentence, I wonder: where's Dick?  

"FIVE YEARS AGO"
Demelza wrote:
>  I think Bill was at Hogwarts "five years ago"
> on Gringotts business. Namely, Bill went to 
> Hogwarts to pick up the Sorceror's (Philosopher's) Stone 

I like your idea, which is totally new to me, but please explain why the
Stone was transported from Hogwarts to Gringotts maybe a year before
Harry started school, and then transported BACK from Gringotts to
Hogwarts by Hagrid just before Harry started school?

QUESTIONS FOR GOD, I MEAN JKR:
> I am working on a letter to JKR. I need to ask
> her the status of the new trading cards (how much
> input did she give and should those spells and 
> facts be considered canon). Anyone want to suggest 
> any other good questions to ask? 

In addition to all the good questions that other people suggested:

My first question is What does 'warlock' mean in the Potterverse?

Note to people in the Muggleverse: 'warlock' doesn't mean 'oathbreaker'
in the Potterverse, or Ernie MacMillan wouldn't describe himself as
descended from nine generations of witches and warlocks and Quidditch
wouldn't be called 'the noble sport of warlocks'. That genealogy sounds
as if 'warlock' was a synonym for 'wizard' but it seems terribly
redundant to have two words that mean exactly the same, so I like the
theory that 'warlock' means a Member of Parliament, I mean a
Representative to the Wizards' Council, Warlocks' Convocation,
International [Con]Federation of Wizards/Warlocks, and so on. Perkins
(Arthur's subordinate) being 'an old warlock' could mean that he was a
Representative who got voted out, so his old friends got him a civil
service job where he is protected by his friends from ever getting a bad
performance review. Also, it could be linked to 'warlock' meaning
'oathbreaker' by reference to campaign promises.

Which leads to second question: are International
Confederation/Federation of Wizards/Warlocks (Steve's Lexicon lists the
three names JKR used) different organizations or different names for the
same organization? I prefer the latter. 

FINDING A LOST, STRAYED, OR STOLEN HARRY
Andrea wrote:
> As far as how Dumbledore would know Harry's
> at the Burrow, surely there are some
> HP-universe equivalents to the basic scrying spell? 

It seems to me that there can't be any very good people-finding spells
in the Potterverse, or Sirius would have been found by MoM while hiding
in the cave behind Hogsmeade. 

THE MARAUDER'S MAP
prefectmarcus wrote:
> I have always assumed that only people who are 
> moving, pacing, jumping, struggling, etc. show up. 
> If you are simply sitting or sleeping, you don't show up.

If Snape or McGonagall or Filch or Mrs Norris was sitting still for the
purpose of lying in wait to catch students out after curfew, the
Marauders would need to know about it.

Elizabeth smurfs wrote:
> I have been wondering if, since the map could do 
> that, could its members (James and Sirius especially)
> talk to Harry if he tried?  Could they hold a 
> conversation through the map? 

There is a good story on ffnet in which that happens. I disremember the
title, but the author is Doctor Cornelius. 

DRACO MALFOY
Rachelle Elliott wrote:
> One speculation I have is that Draco will find 
> someone to unconditionally love him and break 
> away from the dark side (his parents and friends),
> foil Voldermorts plan, and save innocent lives?

In my fic, the 'someone' is Snape.

toomanyideas wrote:
> the thought that Narcissa may well have some 
> VEELA in her has crossed my mind.  But alas,
> that would make Draco NOT of PURE BLOOD. 

I think both Narcissa and Lucius might have some Veela in them (in my
fic, they are first cousins; their common grandmother is half-Veela). I
think that Veela 'blood' is still counted as 'pure wizarding blood'
because Veelas are magical beings. That would work better if the quote
was 'pure magic blood'...

VOLDEMORT CHRONOLOGY
Amy Z wrote:
> and Rita wrote:
>> Apparently 1969. If it had been in USA, (snip)
>> it was really 1968.
> Why 1969 or 1968?  

1968 because of the large number of Bad Things that happened (in USA
Muggleverse) that year.

1969 because, in October 1981 Dumbledore says:  "We've had precious
little to celebrate for eleven years." By rounding off, one could say 11
years when referring to a period that had begun in January 1970, but I
count The Bad Years (maybe someday historians will overcome their fear
enough to call it The Voldemort Years) as beginning with the first
murder or other atrocity over which The Dark Mark was posted, and it
would take more than one appearance of The Dark Mark before people got
afraid it could happen to THEM. 

THE SORTING HAT
prefectmarcus wrote:
> We know that each of the Hogwarts founders put
> something of themselves into the hat.  That, I
> believe, is the key. Imagine if you will, each 
> student being brought before the four founders.

The problem I have with this is that old Salazar Slytherin wouldn't
accept Muggle-born students into his House, but there MUST be
Muggle-born students whose personalities fit best into Slytherin House,
and it wouldn't be good for the other Houses to be forced to take those
inappropriate students... 

Which leads to

WIZARDING SECRECY
Possible out from the above: I think Slytherin objected to admitting
Muggle-born students because he thought they'd be security risks: Binns
said: "He disliked taking students of Muggle parentage, believing them
to be untrustworthy." MAYBE since the Muggle-born students had already
been informed about the wizarding world before the Sorting, he would
'make the best of a bad situation' and take them and try to educate them
into being loyal to the wizarding world...

In that same passage, Binns says: "They built this castle together, far
from prying Muggle eyes, for it was an age when magic was feared by
common people, and witches and wizards suffered much persecution."
Persecution, of which the witches and wizards were sufficiently afraid
that some emigrated to the New World in hope of getting away from it
(QTA) and eventually they made the wizarding world secret from the
Muggle world. When they teach their children that Muggle Persecution of
Witches in the Middle Ages was Useless because of the Flame-Freezing
Charm, and that the reason why magic is kept secret from Muggles is so
that Muggles won't pester them for magical help, that is just
propaganda!  

Which leads to:

Lord Eadric (SCA?) wrote:
> the world of wizards was completely separated 
> from the muggle world with the Statute of 
> Wizarding Secrecy of 1692.

That's what the textbooks say, but them wizards sure have a lot of lies
in their textbooks ... the wizarding world is NOT entirely separated
from the Muggle world, as there are witches and wizards with Muggle
parents whom they spend holidays with (e.g. Hermione) and witches and
wizards with Muggle spouses (e.g. Seamus Finneagan's mother). 

OLD STYLE DATES
> At the time of the changeover Britain, because
> of the inaccurate calendar, had fallen 11 days 
> behind the rest of Europe, so in 1752 11 days 
> were removed altogether in order to bring the
> country into line.

If each geographical region in the wizarding world stayed on the
calendar that its local Muggles had used in 1692, then in wizarding
England each day would have a  different date than in wizarding Scotland
and France, as well as different from Muggle England. This surely would
have been mentioned in reference to students going home for Christmas
holiday: if their holiday was on Old Style, Hermione could have said
something about it being kind of useless to go home two weeks after her
parents had celebrated Christmas and all her Muggle friends had already
gone back to their schools. She could have used it as her excuse in the
following: 

PoA: "Both Ron and Hermione had decided to remain at Hogwarts [for
Christmas], and though Ron said it was because he couldn't stand two
weeks with Percy, and Hermione insisted she needed to use the library,
Harry wasn't fooled; they were doing it to keep him company, and he was
very grateful."
 
Or if Hogwarts, being in Scotland, was New Style, then the Weasley
parents (living in Devon, and Arthur working in London) would celebrate
Christmas two weeks later than their school children's holiday. 

------------------------------------------------------------------
R ighteous
A ttractive
V ictorious
E ager
N atural
C lassy
L echerous
A mazing
W ise
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