DE profs, AD out?, Dean, LM insane/abusive?, SHIPping, starting school

[Amy Z]

No: HPFGUIDX 21110

MMM wrote:

>If it has to be a female DE DADA, I would like it to be the 
outrageously evil Mrs. Lestrange.

Yeah, but everyone knows about her.  Got any suggestions as to how she 
could infiltrate the place?

It's hard to introduce evil professors in other positions because 
they're always the same person.  So if we're going to get a DE 
professor, someone will have to retire or otherwise vacate the 
position (Dumble gets kicked out, McGonagall becomes Headmistress, the 
new Transfiguration teacher is a DE?) or someone we know goes bad 
(Professor Sprout, Mata Hari of Hogwarts?).  Or someone we don't 
really know goes bad.  Professor Sinistra could start tossing students 
off the Astronomy tower.

Re: Dumbledore leaving, that parting shot by Fudge was indeed ominous, 
but we have yet to see whether he really has the influence to get 
Dumbledore kicked out.  His speech about always having given him free 
rein might just be bluster, as David suggested, but to me it suggests 
that he does have the power, whether formal or informal, to replace 
him.  (As for his getting reamed out for violating a mere "school 
rule," okay, but the rule was set by the greatest wizard of the age, 
not some hack administrator.)  OTOH, if the wizarding world is going 
to split into those lined up behind Dumbledore and Fudge, which looks 
likely, Hogwarts may end up a renegade but still functioning 
school/headquarters for anti-V activity.  I definitely can't see 
Dumbledore being out of the picture even if he's no longer Head.  (I 
wonder what he did for those 3 weeks when he was suspended in CS?  
Took a much-needed vacation, I hope?  Probably not.)

David wrote:

>Dean.  This is interesting.  I'm pretty sure he's not described as 
Black in the UK editions, but he is in the US.

Oh, wow.  This sent me poring over the books, wondering where on earth 
she says he's black.  Someone else with either edition, please help!

I wrote:

>the Defenders of Draco, are going to 
>try to shoot you down also because their theories depend upon Lucius 
being 
>an insane, abusive, most likely sexually-abusing father."

Heidi wrote:

>It all depends on how  you define insane. Obviously, he's not insane 
under
>the M'Naughton rule - he does know where he is & what is happening, 
and he
>doesn't think, in CoS, that he's handing a jelly donut to a puppy dog 
when
>he gives Riddle's diary to Ginny.

LOL!  I assume the M'Naughton rule is the legal standard?  I always 
thought it was cockeyed.  I've known lots of crazy people--I mean, 
diagnosably, inarguably severely mentally ill--and most of them were 
quite cogent most of the time.  It's the 5% of the time, or 5% of the 
insights, that are screwy that cause the trouble.  Anway, I was using 
"insane" very loosely, but yes, you could easily imagine a Lucius who 
obsessively controls his wife and/or son, is paranoid, has delusions 
of grandeur, is narcissistic (meaning clinically), or has some other 
form of mental illness that doesn't keep him from being an intelligent 
and mostly rational person.

Magda wrote:

>I don't think Draco exhibits any signs of being an abused or even
mistreated child. 

Well, he's a bully, both one-on-one and in his general attitude toward 
the world (i.e., racist).  Not all bullies are mistreated, by a long 
shot, but it to steal Heidi's apt phrase, it's a hook to hang the 
theory on.

Penny wrote:

> Am I reading "I might possibly *prefer* another pairing other than 
R/H, but I
>don't see it ever happening so I'll just favor R/H by default"?  

Nope.  You're reading "shipper can mean either 'I want this romance to 
happen' or 'I think this romance is going to happen,'" and I'm an R/H 
shipper of the latter variety.  I don't care whether they get 
together.

I am a shipper of the former variety about some other relationships.  
I don't want Harry and Ginny to get together (sorry, Jenny--does this 
mean you won't want to share my cabin on the Good Ship R/H?).  I do 
want Hagrid and Maxime to get together, if they aren't already.  Uh, 
let's see.  I don't want Molly and Arthur to get divorced, but then I 
haven't noticed anyone worrying about that one.  I don't want Percy to 
marry Penny.  I don't care if Harry dates Cho but I don't want it to 
get serious.  I don't want RL to marry anyone but AZ.  ::pauses to 
wipe off hands, get better grip on reality:

David wrote:

>There is 
>talk of little else among parents with kids of that age over that 
>time, as they balance the chance of getting their dear offspring into 
>the school they want, against the need to ensure avoiding the sink 
>school next door at all costs. Even the Dursleys had sorted out 
>Harry's future before the letters arrived.

By sending him to the sink school.  ??  I don't know the term, but I 
think I get the idea and Stonewall sounds like it.

BTW, is "Stonewall" another underground GLBT reference?  ::ducks as 
hexes fly in from all over the globe::

>On the other hand, a number of places at sought-after schools 
>mysteriously come free at the last minute over Summer - could this be 
>the Hogwarts effect as wizard children of Muggle parents are removed 
>from the system?

Some lucky kid got off the waiting list to Eton thanks to Justin . . . 
of course, he/she wasn't nearly as lucky as Justin himself.

Amy Z
who would gladly have traded in her college and grad school admissions 
for 7 years at Hogwarts

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 "I'm =not= going to be murdered," Harry said out loud.
 "That's the spirit, dear," said his mirror sleepily.
                       -HP and the Prisoner of Azkaban
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