Trailer trials, ghosts, Gilderoy, elves, actors & the paternal Hagrid

[Tabouli]

No: HPFGUIDX 21662

Now I've quit my job I don't have access to a system fast enough to view the new trailer!!  Gahhh!  That, my home computer won't run it on the slowest settings of any of the available video-running whatchacallems.  Is there no hope?  Will I have to bribe someone with a faster modem, or is there some crafty way of persuading a 33600 modem to whir fast enough to let me at it?

Rita:
>Why are the other ghosts and the poltergeist scared of the Bloody Baron? 

This is something I've been dying to know since Book 1.  It's interesting to know what frightened ghosts are actually frightened *of*... after all, sticks and stones will no longer hurt their bones, they're dead already!  Must be something sinisterly psychological.  Humiliation, intimidation, etc?  Was Nearly Headless Nick afraid of the mythical "rough crowd" in the Shrieking Shack because he thought they might add inverted snobbery insult to his already ignominiously inadequate injury?

hfakhro:
> Gilderoy Lockhart, however, was 
immaculate in sweeping robes of turquoise, his golden hair shining 
under a perfectly positioned turquoise hat with gold trimming.

> The second thing this passage tells us is that she is 
more sensible than Molly Weasley and Hermione, in not falling for the 
charms of Lockhart (and they are two of the most sensible characters 
in the books!)

Alas that Lockhart won't be appearing again (JKR called him a one joke character): on rereading CoS, I really started to wonder about his history.  Now assuming he went to Hogwarts, what house do you think *he* was in?  Slytherin, surely!  And how old is the git?  (Steve?)  Might he have been at school with Snape and the Marauders, a meek, mousy individual until Memory Charms and Platinum Potion changed his life?

Amy:
> Dobby, once released, is much more powerful than a wizard.  All he has to do is point a finger 
and LM slinks off.  This may be raw magical power or just authority--perhaps the taboo against contradicting the wish of one's ex-house-elf is so strong that even LM won't break it.  

You know, the powers of those house-elves do intrigue me.  If their wandless magical might is so magnificent, how did they come to be enslaved in the first place?  A general lack of brains to temper their powers, leading to a symbiotic relationship with witches and wizards?  And are the other humanoids, such as goblins, giants, hags, Veela, etc. similarly powerful?  Certainly the half-trained Hagrid doesn't seem to have an extra dose of giant juice in his spells, though the fact that Veela hair can be used in wands suggests that Fleur might harbour a volume of Veela vim...

Saitaina:
> what 11 year old uses enough hairspray and gel to make his hair resistant to a tornado?

For the record, my little brother was well and truly onto the mousse by the age of 11.  Gave his hair a sort of wood shaving consistency, slices of hair that quivered in the wind.

Me, I think immaculate hair rather suits Malfoy's smooth, snooty persona, though were I to add my whinge quota I wish it looked less obviously peroxided against his roots and brown eyes (futile wish, but every time I see the actor it irks me, much as Dominique Swain's brown roots in Lolita annoyed me.  For God's sake, surely the budget would have stretched to a couple of touchups!).  Of the trio, the boy playing Harry is the one who sits least well with my mental image.  His face is a bit too round and silken (especially in the last scene in trailer 1), his hair too sleek (yes, I agree they should have dyed it black and messed it up more!)... I imagined him skinnier and scruffier than Daniel Radcliffe as he looks in excerpts to date: I pictured him as a green-eyed, boyhood version of my friend Andrew in Adelaide, who truly is skinny with glasses and springy, unruly black hair (albeit with blue eyes).  I told him he should get green contacts and try out for the role of James Potter!

Emma Watson is remarkably close to how I imagined Hermione, which seems to surprise everyone, who mostly declared her too pretty for the role.  However, I think at age 11 a girl whose strongest identifying feature is her know-all braininess is likely to have rendered her looks more or less irrelevant to her classmates unless some change draws attention to them (see the Yule Ball).  A friend of mine who had a very abusive childhood and bad self-esteem spent her year at a residential college being resident loser.  She walked around half hunched over with ratty hair sounding desperate and fragile and apologetic and utterly uncool, and when she unleashed herself at the annual ball in a dashing, revealing red dress to have a conventionally stunning figure, perfect skin and deep blue eyes everyone's heads were positively swivelling in shock and disbelief.  Similarly, the "beautiful popular girls" people were muttering about a few weeks ago often aren't that spectacular if you scrutinise them closely, people just assume they are because of their social status and confident body language.  The gulf between good looks and attractiveness is deeper than Hollywood would have us believe...

Eric:
> (wonder how Hagrid would do with a baby?  My own guess is that after a few all-nighters with a crying child,
he'd have a new name---Hagridden) 

Then again, look at Hagrid's patient tenderness with Norbert!  Can't find my copy of PS at the moment, but I seem to remember him rising every couple of hours to dose the little monster with chicken blood and whiskey and clucking indulgently at his foibles.  I'm sure he'd have melted at the feisty screams of infant Harry at 4 in the morning.  Hagrid thrives on creatures that are troublesome and destructive and difficult to look after.  He'd adore a two year old boy who toddled about putting forks in electric sockets and eating spiders!  Not that I'm saying he'd have been a good foster father, mind you: Harry would have probably been eaten by one of his pets or poisoned by his cooking before he reached the age of 3.  I just think the trials of raising a baby would have been the least of Hagrid's worries...

The alliterative

Tabouli



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