To Hogwarts from Scotland / Immortality / Life Debt / Owls / Primary School

[Catlady (Rita Prince Winston)]

No: HPFGUIDX 29890

Hollydaze! wrote:

> As far as we know from the book, the Hogwarts Express is the only 
> way [for students to get to Hogwarts], but it seems a bit, I don't 
> know, pointless? for a student who lives in Scotland to travel to 
> London to catch a train to go back to Scotland!

> Also is there a "Diagon Alley" type place in Glasgow, Cardiff, 
> Birmingham etc because, again, it seems a long way to go to do your
> school shopping (ok wizards can get there by broom or floo powder 
> but Muggle borns can't!)

I really doubt that the wizarding folk do their land use planning 
with the convenience of Muggle-borns in mind. Maybe Dumbledore has 
persuaded wizarding families in many locations to lend their 
fireplaces for Muggle-born students to Floo to Diagon Alley for 
school shopping and Platform 9 3/4 to catch the Hogwarts Express. 

On another tentacle, there could be more than one Hogwarts Express. 
We have only seen the one that leaves from London, but there COULD 
be another that leaves from Scotland and maybe even a third leaving 
from North of England. Of course, there would have to be magical 
railway platform and a magical shopping street in each departure 
city. Have we seen any students whom we know to be from Scotland on 
the Hogwarts Express from London?

If Hogwarts is the wizarding school for Britain and Ireland (I think 
it is the magical school for just Britain and Seamus Finnegan goes to 
Hogwarts because he lives with his parents in Britain because people 
move around a lot) there could be a Hogwarts Express that leaves from 
Ireland. It's a magic train so it won't mind crossing a body of ocean 
without tracks.

Morning Glory wrote:

> Does anyone have any ideas why it was so important for Voldy to
> gain immortaility?  And why has no one else seemed to try so hard? 

We don't know that no one else has tried as hard; we don't even know 
that no one else has succeeded as well, altho' one would think that 
the wizard folk wouldn't make a big deal of Voldie being the greatest 
Dark Wizard ever if he weren't rather more powerful and accomplished 
than the run of the mill great Dark Wizard, and especially the most 
recent previous one, Grindelwald whom Dumbledore defeated in 1945. 
Maybe all great Dark Wizards try hard to gain immortality.  I don't 
know how hard Flamel tried, but he seems to me to have succeeded 
better than any Dark Wizard.   

I am Quite Bewildered as to why Voldie desires immortality so 
desperately. It doesn't seem to correlate with his demonstrated great 
desire to kill and destroy almost at random. Would it hurt anyone's 
feelings if I called Voldemort's attitude 'nihilist'?

Heather Moore wrote:

> [Debt and favor] seems to take on an almost mystical, spiritual 
> significance -   

Someone suggested that it is very real and practical to wizards: 
violate the bond of an unpaid life-debt and automatically lose all 
your magic powers, maybe die or go mad. Snape would want to repay 
that debt in order to regain his freedom of action. Pettigrew would 
want to wriggle out of doing things that violate the bond (because he 
doesn't want to die). Apparently tying Harry up and knifing him 
doesn't count as a violate of the bond. What would?

Megan wrote:

> The owls, in a way like the goblins, have special magical rules
> that apply to their way of life. 

>  Now, OBVIOUSLY, the owls used in the WW are not just any ol' owl 
> plucked from a Muggle's barn

Catlady nitpicks: Maybe they ARE. Maybe every wild owl living in the 
mountains and swooping down on the suburbs to eat pet cats is 
dreaming of becoming a post owl someday, but there aren't enough 
wizards to go around for all the owls. Maybe the wizards buying 
owls instead of going into a barn and shouting: "Does any owl here 
want a job?" are being as illogical as the Muggles who buy kittens 
instead of being begged to provide a home for kittens from a feral 
kitten born in someone's garage. Maybe there are a lot of Pigwidgeons 
flying around looking for a wizard.

Cindy Sphinx replied:

> Mmmm, I think owls can be tracked.  Sirius tells Harry, "Don't use 
> Hedwig, keep changing owls."  This must be because he is worried 
> Hedwig will draw attention, and his location could be determined if 
> Hedwig is used too often.

Monica Witt replied:

> On the other hand, there's never been any instance mentioned where 
> an owl has returned unable to deliver a letter. 

I'm pretty sure it says somewhere in one of the books that a post owl 
can deliver a letter to the addressee even if the address written on 
it is only the person's name. Ability to find the addressee is part 
of owl magic.

> I don't think it's a case of the owl being able to be tracked, as 
> much as it is that the same owl, seen coming and going to the same, 
> seemingly uninhabited place, would draw untoward attention. And 
> Hedwig is pretty noticable. 

I very much agree with Monica. I think post owls fly *between* (as is 
said of Pern dragons) -- that is, while at cruising altitude, they 
fly in another dimension, one in which they can see where the 
addressee is, but humans can't see them. But when they leave the 
alternate dimension and descend to land, then humans can see them 
(see Muggles: remember the TV news reports of numerous owls in the 
first chapter of book 1?) and notice that an imported white owl keeps 
landing in the same place day after day.

> If they didn't have some code, or compact, with humans, there 
> wouldn't be anything stopping an owl from tipping off someone, say,
> in the MoM, about Sirius' wherabouts, and getting a cushy, "house
> -owl" position or whatever sort of work owls dream about getting.

I think the post owls are presented as Beasts, not Beings: that is, 
not having enough intelligence to make a compact or follow a law 
code. Instead, they seem to want to be trusted as much as they want 
to be fed and to be thanked. Sirius's note mentioned Pigwidgeon 
really wanting the job, and there's description in GoF of Pigwidgeon 
swooping around in pride at being trusted to deliver a letter. And a
description of Hedwig getting her knickers in a twist because she 
feels so insulted by Harry having another owl carry his mail. I 
imagine this is an owl instinct.

Britta and Laura asked about wizarding primary school. Much 
discussion on this list about wizarding primary school reached no 
consensus. Surely some of their young-uns are home-schooled; some  
members believe that they all are.  There are many different theories 
of free primary school offered by MoM's department of education: That 
there is a magic school bus, something like the Knight Bus, to take 
all the kids to a big primary school in Hogsmeade. That the students 
Floo to school(s). That the students stay home and the teachers stick 
their heads up from all the students' fireplaces simultaneously. 

Me, I don't think there is an MoM department of education and I don't 
think there are free wizarding primary schools. I think that their 
primary schools are small, local (in walking distance from the 
students' homes), and private.  Families who can't afford the school 
fees and can't get scholarships home-school or possibly forge Muggle 
paperwork to send their kids to Muggle free school. I am SURE there 
are wizard-born wizard folk who are not as appalling ignorant of 
Muggle life as Mr. Weasely and old Archie.