The Marauders - Technology - The Photo Album - Ron's Birthday

[Catlady]

No: HPFGUIDX 19082

Claire wrote:
> THE MARAUDERS!!!! I hate that title that people have
> given to James,  Sirius, Peter and Lupin. It makes them sound
> like a gang! They were FRIENDS! They wouldn't refer to
> themselves as a gang!

Count me in as one of the people who LIKES to call them the Marauders.
Yes, I recognize that it's pretty clear from canon that they didn't call
themselves the Marauders and may or may not have called themselves the
Magical Mischief Makers (THE MARAUDER'S MAP An Aid To Magical Mischief
Makers), but I am SURE that they did call themselves something, and
Marauders is as plausible as anything.

I'm a USAmerican, but I was born the same year as James, Sirius, Remus,
Peter, Severus, and Lily. In those days, 'gang' meant a group of people
who hang out together -- 'gangster' referred to old movies about Al
Capone's folks during Prohibition -- the Mafia was a gang, and the
Sharks and Jets from West Side Story were gangs, and the old ladies in
the Women's Alliance at church were "Mama's gang".

They were 11 when they started at Hogwarts. When I was that age and the
next couple of years, kids loved to form 'clubs' (or sometimes 'secret
societies') with names and logos and secret handshakes, and sometimes a
clubhouse if one of the members had a treehouse or playhouse in their
house's backyard.... Groups to which the parents would refer
affectionately as 'gangs'. [Mine was a Star Trek club for girls only.]

So I am certain that they made a name for their clique, and 'Marauders'
is as likely as any. What I want to know is what name the clique that
Severus ran with (Rozier, Wilkes, Lestrange, Avery, and the future Mrs.
Lestrange) chose for themselves.

Robert Carnegie wrote:
>  Is the hot water bit in GOF? (snip) worried about the age
> of the plumbing, on his "Mysteries and puzzles" page -
> and about where it goes, too.

Hot water bit in GoF? The prefects' bathroom? I think it's GoF that
tells that the toilets flush all the way into the lake (sometimes Myrtle
gets flushed along with the water), and I feel CERTAIN that it goes
through purification [water treatment] spells on the way!

> If wizards generally avoid the Muggle world - although
> Voldemort somehow has one wizard and one Muggle
> parent (GOF may clarify) -

Seamus Finnegan also has one witch and one Muggle parent (mentioned in
SS/PS). This appears to be not uncommon -- Ron said If we hadn't
intermarried with Muggles, we would have died out. While old Archie in
GoF probably has never had any more contact with Muggles than passing
them at King's Cross on the way to Platform 9.75, and Arthur Weasley
seems not all that much better informed, I am CERTAIN that other wizards
and witches have a great deal more contact with the Muggle world --
enough to have love affairs and marriages, enough to acquire Muggle
money that they can change to wizarding money at Gringotts. And they can
have a great deal of violation of the laws of wizarding secrecy, as long
as they don't buy an ad in the DAILY PROPHET to announce what they're
doing -- anything from having their Muggle friends as guests in their
homes (a way for Muggles to be exposed to magic devices) to using magic
in assist in robbing or burglarizing Muggles...

> But don't you think that wizard Spellegraph might have used
> wires? One would write a letter, clip it onto the wire, and
> enchant it to be carried away to its destination. (snip)
>  wizard's wireless sound radio.  I presume that it comes
> in Auditory Magic and Fidelity Magic versions, while wizard
> engineers have high hopes for a new prestidigital system?

Auditory Magic, Fidelity Magic, prestigital system are cute. (That is a
good thing.) But I can't imagine WHY Spellegraph would have any use for
wires -- the quill at the receiving station is enchanted so that it
writes the same message as a hand is writing with the quill at the
sending station. Altho' there is some limitation on that old system such
that only trained operators can use the quills...

Toby wrote:
> > THE PHOTO ALBUM (snip)
> Another thing I wonder about are Harry's grandparents
> and godmother. Are these people still alive (or in the case of
> a godmother, does he have one?).

Dumbledore told McGonagall that he had to leave baby Harry with the
Dursleys because they are the only family he has left. This strongly
suggests that Lily and Petunia had no other siblings (two children in a
family isn't unusual), that Lily and Petunia's parents are dead (did
Petunia kill them in a snit of jealousy over their favoritism of Lily?),
that Lily was not the granddaughter of Mr Weasley's father nor the
half-sister of Severus Snape, and  that James's parents and relatives
were all dead, or something else that made them no longer family.

Barbara Purdom wrote:
> It is strongly implied (I wish I could remember where)
> that Ron's birthday is in May, possibly making him a
> Taurus (bullheaded--that fits) or failing that, a Gemini
> (split personality--but not as appropriate as the bull).
> It is also stated (possibly in the same place) that Ron
> is a mere eleven months older than Ginny [footnote:
> poor Molly!] putting her birthday in April, probably
> making her an Aries.

I agree that Ron has a Taurus personality, but JKR said in a chat that
his birthday is in March. I think she said March First, which is a
Pisces, which he sure doesn't act like.

I don't recall any place that said that Ginny is only 11 months younger
than Ron -- it is not all that unusual for the second child to be 11
months younger than the first (my Tim and his next brother, for
example), because many women have a phase of extreme horniness (spelling
checker wisely wanted to change that to hormones) two months after
giving birth, and don't realize that they've gotten their fertility back
already. However, it seems unlikely that that would take her by surprise
after 6 children already.
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