Only Child - Lily - cat,rat,dog - JKR's PA - wizarding HIV - Harry/Cho/Cedric

[Catlady]

No: HPFGUIDX 13227

Btw, I LOVED Randy's Sirius character sketch!

Whoever recently pointed out that we are not shown any spouses or
children for Hogwarts professors also pointed out that it seems like
many characters are only children. I think, with that wizarding long
lifespan and slower aging, that witches probably stay fertile into their
60s, thus could have two or three only children -- that is, the one
child isn't born until the previous child has grown up and left home.

***
Persephone asked: "Did the books say what Lily's (or Lilly?) maiden name
was?  I've heard Evens,"

Hi, Persephone, good to see you post! The books don't say what Lily's
(single L) maiden name was, but someone asked in one of JKR's on-line
chats, and she said "Evans".

***
Marcius Caius Coriolanus mentioned the cat, the rat, and Lovell our dog
rhyme and quoted someone saying: "I can't remember where I read about
this bit of graffiti,"

I would be willing to bet an entire dollar that he read it in THE
DAUGHTER OF TIME by Josephine Tey, the book clearing Richard III's name
disguised as a modern detective novel.

***
Nick used the following sig: "(the groups direct link to Fiddy, PA for
JKR)."

Does that mean that you found her address that you had lost? Snail mail
or e-mail?

***
Joanne Collins asked:
> So do you think HIV/AIDS would be a concern in the wizarding
> world, or one of those muggle problems?

I personally believe that the wizarding folk not only have easy and
reliable contraceptive charms (and conception / healthy pregnancy / easy
childbirth charms), they also have easy and reliable anti-STD charms.
Just remember to cast the right pair of charms and no need to bother
with condoms, spermicides, side-effects of contraceptive hormones (the
Pill, Norplant, etc)!

I can argue for their great skill with sex appeal, fertility,
anti-fertility, anti-impotence spells, as those are the things that
magic was, historically, first invented for -- invented before chipped
stone tools, I am sure.

I can't use the same argument to argue for anti-STD spells, as it seems
that no one even thought of trying to prevent catching STDs until early
modern times. And if they had general anti-coming-down-with-a-disease
spells, why did all the students catch a rheum in CoS and have to be
treated with Pepper-Up Potion? However, CURING diseases is something
that mages have been working on for a lo-oo-oong time.

***
Gwen wrote:
> How many people have had the experience of a bad break-up,
> only to see one's ex with someone new soon afterward (before
> getting over the old relationship)? How many people were sainted
> enough NOT to feel some hostility and exaggerate the inadequacy
> of the new flame--whether it's a comment on looks, personality,
> or fashion sense?

Being turned down by someone on whom one has a crush is not the same as
a bad breakup. I've had experience of both. For the former, see my reply
to the next paragraph. For the latter -- I suppose you would consider it
commenting on the inadequacy of the new flame when one worries that the
new flame is so pretty and so nice and doesn't know what the man is
really like and he's going to abuse her like he did me?

Katie Kearns wrote:
> But I have a question for you: if the genders of everyone were
> switched --  Harry-ette is thinking mean thoughts about
> Cedric-ette because she's going to the dance with Mr. Cho
> .... would you consider the scene homoerotic? ;)

Oh, yes. That one's easier for me to see because, being female, I am
much more familiar with being in Harriet's position than in Harry's.
There have sure been plenty of times in my life when some madly
attractive man/boy turned me down and then spent the party with some
gorgeous (and often charming, intelligent, talented, and kind)
woman/girl holding his hand or sitting on his lap... And plenty of times
that I've spent the party surreptitiously staring at them, at least as
much for aesthetic pleasure of appreciating both their beauty as for the
masochism of whipping my heart with what I was deprived of having (him)
and what I was deprived of being (her). If the girl who won out isn't
pretty, I'm more likely to find some other man/boy to ogle...

I'm accustomed to explaining to people that appreciating beauty is not
always sexual. I tell them: "I like to look at beautiful men, beautiful
sunsets, beautiful flowers, and beautiful women -- are you trying to
tell me that I am a repressed sunset-philiac?" However, just because it
isn't sexual doesn't mean it isn't erotic. Oh, God, I've been wondering
how to explain what the difference is and somehow it has gotten past my
bedtime and I have to go to work tomorrow!!!
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