Common rooms - Lethifold - real-life Patronus - Outsider Hermione? - pronouncing

[Amy Z]

No: HPFGUIDX 29044

Re: common rooms, passwords--

Remind me if we've discussed this recently, but why do you suppose there 
=is= so much secrecy about others' common rooms?  Clearly they are not 
intended even to know where they are, much less to enter them.  Is this just 
a spoof on the rivalry that tends to grow up between houses/colleges/dorms 
at school/university?  Or is it going to turn out to have a Deep Dark Secret 
behind it?  Or something else entirely?

Pippin wrote:

>The description of the Lethifold is startlingly similar to the description 
>of the unicorn killer in SS/PS

<snip>

>If Malfoy thought he was facing a lethifold, his panic becomes alot more 
>understandable, IMO.

Good catch, though I'm already pretty sympathetic to Malfoy on this point 
even without the lethifold possibility.  Seeing someone drinking blood from 
a dead animal's throat is pretty scary, plus he may understand (better than 
Harry) that no one who did that to a unicorn would be up to any good.

David wrote:

>My thought was rather that the act of writing might have the effect of the 
>Patronus.

It works for me.  Work of any meaningful kind seems to drive away Dementors. 
  But then I've only ever been attacked by one or two at a time.

Bexis wrote:

>Hermione undertakes to learn everything there is to know about being a 
>witch, in the hope that by getting the top marks she will become an 
>insider.  So far that hasn't happened.  Hermoine becomes miserable when all 
>that book learning fails to make born wizards and witches like her.

Really?  I don't see this in Hermione's character.  She has a remarkable 
poise in the face of peer disapproval--in fact, I see her S.P.E.W. 
activities not as a form of release but as proof that she doesn't care 
whether she is popular.  She is unfazed by Draco's hatred of her (when she 
slaps him it's in defense of Hagrid, not herself); if she were sensitive 
about being an outsider, wouldn't the charge of "mudblood" be particularly 
hard for her to take?  She is angry at Rita Skeeter but not hurt by her.  
The only time in the books that I can recall her being wounded by a peer's 
opinion of her is when she runs off crying at Ron's "it's no wonder no one 
can stand her . . . she's a nightmare" (whether this is true or not we don't 
know--she might just be hurt by his nastiness, or it might be that he has 
touched a nerve).  In any case, being upset in that situation seems 
straightforward enough and unrelated to the issue of being at home or not in 
the wizarding world per se.

Are there incidents you're thinking of that I've forgotten?

I have my own thoughts about Hermione's motivations for being such a 
diligent student (a.k.a. know-it-all <g>) but they aren't very 
canon-supportable either so I will desist.

CMC wrote:

>Voldemort with the "t" pronounced would mess up the rhyme scheme on
half of my filks

Not to mention the scansion on a line from one of my personal favorites, the 
Death Eaters' Anthem:

V-O-L-D-E-M-O-R-silent-T!

(viewable at http://home.att.net/~coriolan/voldemort.htm#The Death Eaters' 
Anthem, BTW, but I warn everyone not to take a sip of a WB-associated soft 
drink before reading it)

I wonder about the first O, myself.  Jim Dale says it almost like a short 
"u"; I say it almost with a long "o," as in the French word, well, "vol."  
Time to go hunt up an old radio interview.

BTW, since we are all free to disagree with JKR <g>, the link to the 
pronunciation poll is
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/polls.

Amy Z

---------------------------------------------------------------
   "Don't you call me an idiot!" said Neville.  "I don't think
you should be breaking any more rules!  And you were the one
who told me to stand up to people!"
   "Yes, but not to =us=," said Ron in exasperation.
                             -HP and the Philosopher's Stone
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