A few random puzzles

[Megan]

No: HPFGUIDX 28013

Cindy wrote:
> Here are a few things that came to mind:
> 
> 1.  In PS/SS, Vernon insults Dumbledore, and Hagrid tries to turn 
> Dudley into a pig, giving him a pig tail that has to be surgically 
> removed.  But why?  If Vernon is the problem, why hex an innocent 
> boy?  

I got the distinct impression Hagrid's "magic" was rather impromptu
and irrational.  I don't think there was much thought process to whom
he was cursing--just pointed to the nearest person and cursed away!

><snip>
> 3.  In the Pensieve, Bertha Jorkins appears and delivers the famous 
> lines that have us all so baffled:  "He put a hex on me, Professor 
> Dumbledore, and I was only teasing him, sir, I only said I'd seen him 
> kissing Florence behind the greenhouses last Thursday . . . "  "But 
> why, Bertha," said Dumbledore sadly, looking up at the now silently 
> revolving girl, "why did you have to follow him in the first place."
> 
> For this Bertha Jorkins stuff to be important to make it into the 
> Pensieve and for Dumbledore to still be sad about it, the "kissing" 
> has to be more than garden-variety kissing.  So I wonder if Bertha 
> saw Snape, who is half-dementor, administering the Kiss to someone.  
> Or maybe he is a vampire, and what Bertha mistakes for a kiss is 
> really a bite.

I know this has been hypothesized upon countless times, but perhaps
Dumbledore was sad recalling the memory because he knew Bertha was
dead??  It always struck me as just a harmless memory of a classic
"moment" from one of his students (as a teacher).  Nothing more.
Sometimes I feel like we are way too L.O.O.N.ey into things & create
mountains out of molehills--but never mind that, it's great fun! :-D

-Megan, whose molehills are always mountainous