conjuring things - Remus - Blaise - Green Eyes - Harry-Tom - Warlock -

[Catlady]

No: HPFGUIDX 18820

Catherine wrote:
> I have wondered for a while now how the more senior
> wizards are able to conjure things from their wands. (snip)
> It isn't specifically a charm, as it isn't bewitching a specific item.

Some people have asserted that Dumbledore is merely summoning food,
chairs, and purple sleeping bags from some storage place. That would be
a form of Summoning, as you suggested, which is a Charm. I like to think
that powerful wizards like Dumbledore can create food, chairs, and
purple sleeping bags ex nihilo. It could be argued that creating things
ex nihilo is Transfiguration (changing Nothing or Vacuum Energy or Air
into Something). Perhaps it is a whole nother kind of spell, perhaps
called Creation, which is too advanced to be taught in school. IIRC JKR
said in a chat that the Weasleys can't solve their poverty by conjuring
up clothes & stuff because magically produced stuff doesn't last.

Amy Z wrote:
> Snape usually calls Dumbledore "Headmaster," (snip) we
> don't learn Lupin's first name until Sirius uses it near the end
> of PA (ch 18)

I'm pretty sure that Snape called Dumbledore 'Albus' after Dumbledore
called him to heel when he was snapping at Karkaroff in the room where
the unexpectedly FOUR champions gathered. I'm pretty sure that Remus's
suitcase was labeled Professor Remus J. Lupin when the kids first saw
him 'asleep' on the train.

Morag wrote:
> it is not usual to refer to girls in the same way.(snip) I think
> Snape is being marginally ruder, though it is a kind of standoff,
> in that neither is prepared to adjust their own usage to the other's.

Very long ago when I was young, girls calling each other by surname only
was kind of a girl jock thing ("Everybody shut up or get out of the
room! Cook, this means you!").

I believe that Dumbledore first-names his staff and wants them to all
first-name each other in an attempt to enforce friendship, collegiality,
and something like equality among the staff, that Lupin first-names
Severus because he is following Albus's instructions and trying to be
friendly, and Snape refuses to first-name Remus because he is firmly
rejecting the offer of friendliness.

Parker wrote:
> 1.  Why was Remus on the train?
> 5.  Why wasn't Remus applauded by everyone when he was
> introduced as the new DADA teacher?

He looked shabby (and also tired and worn out), so they formed a low
estimate of his abilities.

After enough re-readings, I suddenly realised that Dumbledore had asked
Remus to ride the Hogwarts Express and guard Harry from the Dementors.
Remus found out somehow that Harry was travelling with the Weasleys who
are always late, so he could be sure that if he got in the last
carriage, by the time that the Weasley party arrived, that would be the
closest to empty of the carriages, which they would take, and he could
pretend to be asleep the whole time to avoid embarrassing them by having
an adult to babysit them.

Caius Marcius wrote:
> Well, he pretty much lost total control in Chapter 20, after
> transforming back into a wolf.

Come to think on it, he turned into a wolf and ran off into the woods
... he DIDN'T turn into a wolf and turn to Ron manacled beside him and
bite his throat out ... that might be quite a high degree of
self-control considering what is said about werewolves' irresistible
compulsion to attack humans....

Blaise wrote:
> Has JKR said anywhere, e.g. in a chat/interview, how
> old Minerva McGonagall is?

Blaise! It is so nice to see you back! I had a Classics remark (about
Eris and the Kallisti apple) to put in the latest chapter of my
snapefic, so I assigned it to Blaise Zabini because he has the same name
as you and you're a classicist.

JKR said in a chat that Dumbledore is 150 and McGonagall 'is a sprightly
seventy'. If she meant 70 at the time of the chat, Minnie could have
been born 1930 and her schooldays could have overlapped with Tom Riddle
(born 1926)'s.

Milz wrote:
> Harry's green eyes could also be explained by gene expression.

When magic is involved, a person can have naturally green eyes without
any of the genes having been in their ancestry.

Caius Marcius wrote:
> And of course an enterprising young man,  such as Harry or
> Tom, never lack for ways of just sneaking in surreptitiously.

I keep wondering whether there is a character named Dick.

Jenny from Ravenclaw wrote:
> I looked up both 'wizard' and 'warlock' and found nearly
> identical definitions. When I looked up 'hag', 'witch' was
> part of the definition.

IIRC, the narration includes a reference to hags not being very good at
disguising themselves as humans and to a hag in the Leaky Cauldron
eating a plate of raw liver. From this, I deduce that in the
Potterverse, 'hag' is a type of non-human Being, while 'witch' is a
female human with magic. I haven't been able to find anything in the
text that suggests a different between 'wizard' and 'warlock', so, based
on references to Warlocks' Convention in History of Magic, I invented a
theory that 'warlock' is like 'congressmen' or 'member of parliament':
an elected representative to a wizarding representative legislature.

Parker wrote:
> 2.  What kinds of creatures did Kettleburn cover?  (Charlie
> Weasley is studying dragons in Romania--is this a clue?)

Dumbledore's announcement of Kettleburn's retirement said he wanted 'to
spend more time with his remaining limbs'.
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