Lugubrious lamps, Dementors, & HP obsession

[Tabouli]

No: HPFGUIDX 27351

Luke:
> Right, I meant I needed to regroup and reconsider my point about it 
being possible the boggart could only do psychological things, because 
you had brought up the effect on the lights (albeit for an unrelated 
reason), which would not be psychological.<

Ahaaa, but if staircases change depending on the day, and blank walls can pretend to be doors, and ceilings can imitate the sky, and painted pears can be ticklish, why can't lights get depressed when a Dementor turns up?  We Muggles should be cautious with our assumptions about the Wizarding world.  For all we know, the lamps in Lupin's classroom could be seeing horrible visions of lamp-crushing leprechauns bearing hammers and buckets of water, and are fainting away with terror...

>Cindy (who half-wonders whether Fudge's awful behavior in GoF is some 
evidence that he in fact has been Kissed)

How sentient do people think Dementors are?  We already know that they can communicate on quite a sophisticated level with Fudge, when necessary, and sense human emotions (I do wonder about the ability of Dementors posted around Hogwarts to detect someone (e.g. Sirius) flying in from miles overhead on a broom covered in an Invisibility Cloak, as Hermione implies they can in PoA: on the ground their range certainly doesn't seem to be that great.  A JKR easy out?).  All the same, nasty creatures that they seem to wizards, what do you think *their* POV is?  Maybe it's not their fault that they live off other people's sucked-out happiness.  Hey, we all have to eat.  Perhaps their Kiss is really a sign of affection, their way of relieving people of the soul, the seat of torment.  Perhaps they wanted to kiss Harry because they liked him!  Perhaps Fudge is their only friend, and they feel tortured and marginalised in the wizard world...

(err, OK, I'll stop now)

On the chairs vs benches debate:

I went to visit some friends for dinner last night, friends who like HP, without the fervour that leads people to join lists like this one.  The female of these friends started exulting about her Bujold (?) list (which I believe some people here are also on...?), and I expounded some of the topics covered here.  When I told her about the "is Ron a seer" and "is Snape a vampire" and the "which girl will Harry end up with" debates, told her about the size of the Lexicon, and the heated discussions on the number of students at Hogwarts and the gleam in Dumbledore's eyes, she thought this was one of the funniest things she'd ever heard.  Wait 'til I tell her about the raging furore over whether Hogwarts students sit on benches or chairs...

Tabouli.


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