Foreshadowings - Gender balance - Snape

[Amy Z]

No: HPFGUIDX 14717

Suzanne wrote:

>I imagine a moment, a crucial moment,
>when some dark malevolent being snatches up a wand so as to perform
>the "Avada Kedavra".... Only to have it turn into a rubber chicken.

Yes!  It's hard to imagine how this could play out without turning 
into farce, but I also think those fake wands are important.

If not, Lord Randemort should put a scene like the above into his 
spoof.  (that's a fanfic ref...see "Hairy Potter" at fanfiction.net)

>4.)  Back to that forest-- there is a Ford Anglia in there somewhere,
>and it has a mind of its own. It MUST return!! It has too! And
>whatever happened to Sirius's flying motorcycle? It has to be
>somewhere, right?

Wow, a new ship:  FFA/FM!  They were made for each other...  And this 
is one ship where we can actually ask the character whether it's true 
or not.  Fess up, Neil--have you been carrying on with Sirius's bike?

Suzanne, I love your list of foreshadowings!  JKR has sure given 
herself plenty to work with--wonder which ones will be picked up?

Jen said:

>I think sinistra is male, actually - jk rowling has stated that the
>gender allotment among Hogwarts professors is fifty-fifty, and they
>are ten, not counting those in mugglestudies and ancient rune that we
>know nothing about, and dumbledore, as being the headmaster.

Mmm...but I do count Dumbledore.  He's not a teacher, but he's 
Headmaster, for heaven's sake; he also gets a lot of ink, is beloved 
and highly respected by Harry and the readers, and is the most 
powerful figure in the books.  

Also, every DADA teacher (so far) has been male.

I sympathize with JKR, who bristled a little at the suggestion that 
she doesn't have enough women/girls, because, as she said, there are 
other characters to come, but for her to say the staff is 50/50 is a 
bit beside the point.  Look at the most important characters, amongst 
students, staff, and elsewhere; they are almost all male.  Going by 
pure screen time, Hogwarts is a man's world.  Trelawney helped right 
the balance, as did Rita, but please--these are our female role 
models?  (Maybe Trelawney will be redeemed when we learn about the 1st 
True Prophecy.)

Doreen wrote:

>As for Snape, in CoS, chapter five, it says:
>"Maybe he's left," said Harry, "because he missed out on the Defense 
Against
>the Dark Arts job again!"

>I think there is another reference, too

When Harry first asks Percy who Snape is, at the opening feast in 
PS/SS.  Percy says no wonder Quirrell's nervous--Snape wants his job. 
 But this, like all the evidence we have of Snape's DADA desires, is a 
student rumor.  When I was a kid, we always had lots of these rumors 
about teachers, esp. the ones no one liked:  who was sleeping with 
whom, who'd had a nervous breakdown, who had been left at the altar 
like Miss Havisham and never recovered.  These rumors probably had 
zero basis in fact and were 20 years old--they just got passed down 
from one student generation to another.

>Is it November yet? 

We have longer to wait than that to hear more about Fudge . . . the 
book won't be out 'til 2002 sometime.  *Sigh*  Breathe slowly, this 
air has to last a long time...

Amy Z

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 "And on Wednesday, I think I'll come off worst in a fight."
 "Aaah, I was going to have a fight.  Okay, I'll lose a bet."
 "Yeah, you'll be betting I'll win my fight. . . ."
                               --HP and the Goblet of Fire
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