Errol - Jinxes/Curses - Sirius - Where profs. live

[Amy Z]

No: HPFGUIDX 19277

Vicky wrote:

> Yeah, but I always thought they were just that poor. I'm surprised 
Errol is
> still alive, the poor bird. It's a shame the Weasleys wouldn't 
accept some of
> Harry's money. If it were me, I'd take it. He'd be my friend after 
all, and all
> too willing to help out. An owl is an essential, after all.

He could give them a new owl as a thank you for their hospitality.  
It's only polite to bring a gift when you're going to stay for two 
weeks, so spinning it that way might spare their pride--and give poor 
Errol his much-earned retirement.

Michelle (welcome!) wrote:

>Do we know what the official difference between a jinx and a curse 
is? 

::misty voice::  All will be revealed when I unveil the "Spells and 
Charms/Nature of Magic" essay next week.  If I ever get off my lazy 
butt and write it, that is (yes, I am Doreen's elf <g>).

Monika wrote:

>Switching Secret-Keepers wasn't exactly irresponsible in my eyes, 
sorry. 

I agree.  Sirius's reasons were sound:  he thought he was too obvious 
a choice, and that Peter was a good bluff.  He didn't expect the 
switch to save him (Sirius) from the risk of torture; on the contrary, 
he offered himself as bait:  "Voldemort would be sure to come after 
me, would never dream they'd use a weak, talentless thing like you . . 
. " (PA 19).  Harry believes him when he says he would have died 
rather than betray Lily and James, so, so do I.  Sirius made a 
tactical error (which is no more than Lily and James did), but it 
wasn't out of cowardice or an unwillingness to shoulder the 
responsibility.

Anne wrote:

>"When Lupin had lived there, you were more likely to
>come across a specimen of some fascinating new Drak
>creature he had procured for them to study in class."

>Anyone wonder what JKR means by "lived there", ie.
>does she mean Lupin literally lived in his office?
>That just now struck me.

I have wondered this, and IIRC we kicked it around a bit during a 
discussion of whether any profs are married and whether they stay at 
Hogwarts all summer, but I would love for some thorough person to sort 
through references to "living" in offices and present a cogent theory 
for us.

You could interpret the above not as "when Lupin had lived in this 
room," but as "when Lupin had lived at Hogwarts" or even "in the 
area," i.e. before he moved far away, but it seems a stilted way to 
say it; one would be more likely to say "When Lupin taught here . . ." 
 IMO the strong implication is that Lupin lives in his office, or at 
least in a suite that includes his office.  His having tea things in 
his office hints that way too, although I keep tea things in my office 
and I'm not even English.  <g>  (I just caught the chipped mug, on 
what must be my 10th reading of this scene.  Nice detail.)

This bit from PS/SS 16 also implies that professors live where their 
offices are:

  "Where's Dumbledore's office?"
  They looked around, as if hoping to see a sign pointing them in the 
right direction.  They had never been told where Dumbledore lived, nor 
did they know anyone who had been sent to see him.

On the other hand, where exactly =does= Dumbledore live?  His office 
is just an office, and it's round, which strongly suggests that it's 
in a tower and that there's no other room on that floor.  His living 
quarters could be a floor above, or of course magically co-exist with 
the contents of his office.

OTOH, Snape does not appear to live in the same place as his office.  
In "The Egg and the Eye," he's walking the halls when he discovers 
that someone has broken into it.  Not definitive, I grant you--perhaps 
he was out for a cup of cocoa, or just a prowl, and returned to his 
office-apartment to find someone had been in there--but it does 
hint that his apartment is in one part of the castle and his office is 
in another.  Once again I keenly feel the absence of my GF (but with 
Anne and Simon generously doing research, who needs it?).

Amy Z

---------------------------------------------------------
 "=Wow!=" said Dennis, as though nobody in their wildest 
 dreams could hope for more than being thrown into a 
 storm-tossed, fathoms-deep lake and pushed out of it 
 again by a giant sea-monster.
                           -HP and the Goblet of Fire
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