Diets, puberty, ghosts, portraits and photos

[Tabouli]

No: HPFGUIDX 22738

Jenny:
> How will his parents really handle Dudley's weight loss?  What if Dudley brags about a new 
girlfriend or something, guessing correctly that Harry doesn't have one?  I'm just wondering how a different *looking* Dudley could affect the story...
 
Ah yes, it was me who brought this up.  To add further fuel to the cauldron fire, Harry and co will be 15 in OoP, which is well and truly time for puberty to set in for boys.  How might poor Ron cope with his voice breaking?  How might it affect spell casting?  Will the boys be reaching for the razors, only to have them turn into cream puffs c/o Gred and Forge?  Might Ron develop a crop of acne to rival Eloise Midgeon?
 
Then there's the height issue.  How about a dramatically thinner, suddenly six foot Dudley?  Also, remember that James Potter, whom Harry resembles strikingly, has been described as "tall and thin", which suggests that Harry must be due for a dramatic growth spurt before the end of the series.  What if Harry suddenly overtook Dudley and Ron in height?  Casting nightmares for the film-makers...
 
Mecki:
>Hey, you are right!! I hate "me too" posts but we will quite certainly 
see Crouch Sr. again, slightly less solid as beforre!!

The senior ghosts (house ghosts) all seem to be of quite elderly vintage: maybe that's why they're so mobile (more fully separated from their mortal coil), whereas Moaning Myrtle sticks to her toilet.  Though it could just be that she likes to skulk and sulk.  Assuming that recent ghosts hang around where they died, might we have a haunted Hagrid hut?  Now that would be interesting: Fang will have hysterics!  Somehow, I'm sure the history of the ghosts will end up being important...
 
Something else which intrigues me (and let me know if it's been covered) is the personalities of people in the paintings.  Sir Cadogan and the Fat Lady clearly have their own characters: are they two-dimensional personalities which spontaneously emerge as the painter paints, or are they the personalities of the real person whose portrait was being painted??  Probably the answer is somewhere in between, but if it's the latter, it would be very interesting to wake up all those portraits of former Heads of School in Dumbledore's office!
 
How about photographs?  As far as I recall, photos seem to be mute, as do the pictures on the swap cards in the Chocolate Frog packets.  However, the people in photos do seem to have an element of the subject's personality: remember Harry hiding outside the frame in the photo with Lockhart, and Lockhart's pictures in his office winking and grinning cheesily.
 
One more thing: what happens with the online chat?  I quail at the time it's likely to start for someone on Australian Eastern Standard Time (5am Monday morning or some such, I bet), but can someone email me offline and let me know how to join in?  Potter fix, need Potter fix...
 
Thanks!
 
Tabouli.


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