Pockets, Death, S/L etc., Patronus, OoP, DADA, Passwords, Children's book

[Amy Z]

No: HPFGUIDX 25143

Gwen wrote:

>What I want to know is, how the heck can the Invisibility Cloak fit >in 
>Lupin's pocket? It's large enough to fit over three teenagers. >Even 
>granted that it's made of very thin material, as I envision it, >cloaks are 
>large. That's some deep pocket.

Ah, I can't resist sartorial threads <pauses for groans.  Thank you,  
thankyouverymuch>.  This isn't the only mention of pretty large things 
fitting into pockets, though I can't remember any specific examples other 
than wands.  I always imagine that robes have big internal pockets, like the 
inside breast pockets of overcoats except even bigger.

Barb wrote:

>Dumbledore says that no spell can  bring someone back or even protect    
>against the Avada Kedavra curse.


This implies that because the latter is false, we can doubt his word on the 
former.  But Dumbledore doesn't say anything about AK.  Moody does, even 
while acknowledging that the exception is sitting in front of him, but 
anyway who trusts him?  IMO, if there is one sure thing about the next 3 
books, it is that no one will come back from the dead.  However, JKR can 
always pull the old (and in my view, frequently cheap) trick of someone not 
really dying but everyone (including us) believing he/she has for a few 
chapters.

She could also weasel out of Dumbledore's statement by coming up with 
something other than a spell, as you pointed out, and it's the kind of thing 
she would do.  However, when D. made that statement it wasn't even about a 
spell.  It's not as if someone asked him, "Did a spell bring them back?" and 
he said "No spell can bring the dead back to life."  Sirius asked "Diggory 
came back to life?" and the context was P.I., not a spell.  So Dumbledore's 
statement seems to have been a general principle, not one about spells 
alone.

And as long as I'm praying for JKR to step carefully around literary 
cliches, I'd like to second 4FR's opinion that men do not need a woman to 
fight over in order to hate each other.  IMHO, Sirius's prank is a much more 
interesting reason for Snape to hate him; so is James's personality.  People 
do fall out over love, but I'm kind of sick of seeing it, myself.

Koinonia, if you found a Snape Didn't Give a Fig About Lily club (with a 
clever acronym of course), I'll pay my 2 Sickles and join up.

Cindy wrote:

>There can be serious doubt that Black knows how to generate a >Patronus 
>under the best of circumstances.  The only magic we've seen >him do 
>involves Transfiguration (animagus, conjuring manacles, >causing Pettigrew 
>to reveal himself).  Perhaps Black is a clever >wizard, but he's not the 
>greatest at DADA, which is Lupin's >expertise.

Conjuring a Patronus might be something that many wizards never master.  I 
don't doubt that Sirius is a great wizard, whether DADA is his special forte 
or not, but he's been locked up since about age 21.  Maybe he never learned 
it at all.

Suzanne wrote re: OoP:

>I also ocassionally wonder if the title is one big red herring...
    hehehehheheh.

Awww, JKR would throw us red herrings with glee, but she wouldn't do that to 
a "cute little boy" who was the one who extracted the title from her, would 
she?  However, she's changed titles in midstream at least twice, so OoP 
might be something different by the time it emerges.

Cindy wrote:

>True, we don't know if Snape wants the DADA job.  He has been resentful 
>toward all of the DADA teachers, particularly Lockhart.

His reasons are as varied as the reasons DADA teachers flop, though. 
Quirrell, he hates because he's on to him (and we don't see any sign of it 
early in the book, before this reason kicks in).  Lockhart, well, everyone 
hates Lockhart; he's incompetent, overbearing, and conceited.  Lupin, we 
know the personal reasons, plus there's the werewolf issue.  Moody, Snape is 
afraid of; he knows Moody hates him for having been a DE and would've sent 
him to Azkaban if he'd had his way.

It's clear that Snape thinks he could do a better job than 2 or 3 of these 
guys--in the case of Quirrell and Lockhart, he's right--but I don't think 
his dislike of the various DADA teachers can be put down to a simple case of 
envy.

>7.  Who sets the passwords to the common rooms?  Do you think the
 > choice of passwords is important? Significant?

I agree with Marianne that the Head of House is a likely person, but it is 
rather disturbing to think that Snape would propose "pure-blood."

I had a bunch of thoughts about the children's book thing but it was mostly 
on Pullman and Lord of the Flies, so I took it to OT.

Amy Z

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Dudley thought for a moment.  It looked like hard work.
                     -HP and the Philosopher's Stone
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