Sympathy for the Divination Prof - Buckbeak/Malfoy - 2 for Amy Z - Quidditch - Wizard Ages - 2 for Pam - Diagon Alley

[Catlady]

No: HPFGUIDX 10887

PoA is paperback in Britain, which can be ordered from amazon.co.uk.

SYMPATHY FOR TRELAWNEY
Anake wrote: Does anyone else on this list feel a bit sorry for Prof.
Trelawny? First of all, I can get some hint on how hard it must be to be
a teacher. I'm just glad that Trelawny has at least two of her students
who like and appreciate her.

I don't really think that Trelawney has caught on that Ron and Harry are
mocking her, and she made a good recovery from Hermione walking out. The
only time I felt sorry for ol' Sybil was when she came to Xmas dinner
and said 'Where is dear Professor Lupin?" and that he had fled when she
offered to read the crystal ball for him -- I felt that the poor old bat
was in romantic pursuit of dear Remus and he was fleeing her romantic
overtures every bit as much as he was fleeing discovery of his secret.
Thus, I could identify with her....

BUCKBEAK/MALFOY (the very latest ship!)
Donna Rae wrote: Malfoy and Buckbeak - This episode really started to
annoy me the third time through the books. (snip) Why couldn't she heal
Malfoy when Buckbeak wounded him?  (snip)  We all know that Malfoy was
pretending, but why couldn't the teachers see that?

Someone already pointed out Lucius Malfoy's power.  I imagine some sort
of scenario in which 1) all the teachers knew that Draco Malfoy was
pretending, but Snape backed up Draco anyway, out of fondness for Draco
or service to Lucius or dislike of Hagrid, and the other teachers feel
they can't go against Draco's own House Master without a diagnosis from
Madam Pomfrey, and 2) Snape backed up Lucius's demand that Draco is not
to be professionally seen at all by Madam Pomfrey, but only by an
expensive specialist hired by Lucius (who says whatever the Malfoys want
him to say).

AMY Z WROTE:
Amy Z -- who really does NOT believe that HP is a Christian allegory

The Christian story is so deeply embedded in the story telling and
thought patterns of Western Civilisation that a newly written story can
come out as a Christian Allegory even tho' the author had no such
intention, but merely was inspired to use some of the emotionally
powerful archetypes from older literature.

Amy Z -- In those moments at the end of PoA that Harry is seriously on
the verge of killing Sirius:  how would he have done it?  Is there some
curse he already knows that will kill someone?

He could have levitated a heavy object and dropped it on Sirius's head,
like the club on the troll in SS.  He probably wasn't thinking clearly
enough to transfigure part of Sirius's aorta into tissue paper, that
would instantly become wet, tear, and result in death by massive
hemorrhage.

GRYFFINDOR QUIDDITCH
Dinah asked: But Sirius was Beater, right?

I don't recall ANYTHING in canon about Sirius and Quidditch.  Some
fanfic has him as Beater.  Some fanfic has him talented but too
undisciplined to play on a team sport. I wish someone had asked JKR
about Sirius and Quidditch in one of the on-line chats.

WIZARDING AGES
Becky wrote: Someone put in an earlier post today that Dumbledore was
150 years old - is this true, I don't remember reading it?

JKR said that Dumbledore is 150 and McGonagall is 'a sprightly 70' in an
on-line chat. She said wizards have longer lifespans than Muggles, but
Harry doesn't know that yet. Dumbledore doesn't look 150 -- he had
auburn hair 'fifty years ago' when he was 100 -- and McGonagall doesn't
look 70 -- her black hair might not be the result of hair dye. IE, part
of the wizarding folk's longer lifespan is that they age slower. Which
could in turn mean that witches have menopause later, and therefore
could have four or five children and space them far enough apart to
raise each one almost like an only child.

However, I feel that 150 is quite old even for a wizard, partly because
in GoF Harry keeps noticing Dumbledore looking old. That could show
Harry's new sensitivity, Dumbledore's stress from Voldemort's return, or
Dumbledore really is looking older. The latter could be due to normal
aging, or perhaps he had been sharing Flamel's Elixir of Life and is now
showing the signs of getting along without it. If Dumbledore lived
longer and/or remained vigourous longer than normal wizards, it could be
due to good genes (like that Muggle woman in France who lived to 123),
or due to his great magic power, or due to sharing the Elixir.

Does anyone have opinions whether wizarding folk's longer lives are a
side effect of having wizarding ability, or caused by magic medical care
and anti-aging spells?

PAM WROTE:
Pam Hugonnet  wrote: I guess I've come up with this theory because
McGonagal doesn't seem very cat-like to me; I figured that a cat was her
choice, not her destiny.

Perhaps I am merely gullible, but I've never had any trouble seeing
McGonagall as a cat. I assume she keeps her feline sensuality and
playfulness behind closed doors (with her life-long partner Madam Hooch)
and shows feline dignity and sharp claws everywhere else.

Pam Hugonnet wrote: Harry does resemble James, but they are different in
one fundamental way: James was tall (it's one of his more referred to
characteristics, right along with the untidy hair) and Harry is very
short.

I expect that, with Harry's resemblance to James, that James was short
at Harry's age and Harry will have a growth spurt and become tall at the
same age James did. I also wonder whether Harry had already started
growing tall by the end of PoA, when he could mistake himself for James.
Being tall is SUPPOSED to be a disadvantage for a Seeker, but it doesn't
seem to have stopped Cedric any. I like the Mirror of Erised scene
showing Harry's parents in the Marshall Field's Xmas show pictures that
someone recently posted the URL for at about.com ... because it is a
defense against my brain's romantic tendency to see James as not-skinny.

DIAGON ALLEY
Storm Snuffles MacGoo wrote: has anyone else wondered how Hermione got
to Diagon Alley the first time - to buy her books and all that? She
didn't have Hagrid to lead her, nor a wand to open the back wall of the
Leaky Cauldron .....

I assume that one job of the barman and/or wait staff of the Leaky
Cauldron is to lead Muggle-born new students to the back wall and open
it for them. Tom would insist on seeing the Hogwarts letter first, so it
wouldn't do any good for us to borrow an 11 year old and try to pass
himer off as a Muggle-born new student...
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