Dursleys - "empty" Harry - Fleur - Textbooks - Tom Riddle

[Catlady (Rita Prince Winston)]

No: HPFGUIDX 28431

Rowena Grunnion-Ffitch wrote:

> Why Live With The Dursleys
> Frankly this has been puzzling me ever from the first book on.
> *Why* does Harry keep going back to those horrible people? (snip)
> By PoA Harry has learned of at least two alternatives to the 
> Dursleys. He could stay with the Weasleys who like him and might 
> even be persuaded to accept a little something for room and board 
> *or* he could spend his summers at the Leaky Cauldron, (he's got
> the money). 

I think Harry stays with the Dursleys because Dumbledore has so 
ordered. IIRC there is something at the end of GoF about the Weasleys 
wanted to take him home for the summer but Dumbledore forbade them to 
do so. Arthur and Molly wouldn't disobey Dumbledore, even if Harry 
would.

Tabouli wrote:

> the sneering academic said that HP was popular because Harry was
> an "empty" character, with no real personality or knowledge, into 
> whom children could project themselves.  

If Harry's so "empty", why is so IMPOSSIBLE for me to project myself 
into him? He's a Gryffindor and I'm a coward. He's sports-mad and I 
was surprised to hear that the World Series was going on. I'm 
book-mad and he isn't. And on, and on...

Jenny from Ravenclaw wrote:

> If I was part Veela, I'd be aloof a good deal of the time too. 

I think Veela magic can be turned on and off at will -- the full 
Veelas at the World Cup turned it on for their dance routine and 
turned it full on when they "focussed like a laser beam" on the 
referee.

Lisa Inman wrote:

> 1. If you were writing a wizarding textbook, what would yours be
> called, and what would your pen name be?  (You can write several; 
> check, Lockhart did.)

There's one in my fanfic called Bound, Gagged, Chained, and Caged: A 
Compendium of Confinement, by Thaiïs Nott and Lockhart Chaney

> 3. How do you think the choosing process works at Hogwarts? 

I think that in most cases there is no choosing process, as "everyone 
knows" what the classics in the field are. Dumbledore's preface to 
FANTASTIC BEASTS says: "No wizarding household is complete without a 
copy of FANTASTIC BEASTS". Of course, the preceding sentence says: 
"FANTASTIC BEASTS has been an approved textbook at Hogwarts School 
ever since its [first] publication" (52 editions ago!), which implies 
that there is some kind of approving process.

John Walton wrote:

> How To Hex Friends And Petrify People, by Vilius Dastardo

LOL, but I still delight in your invention of TIME FOR EVERY PURPOSE 
(by Byrd Seegerpete, was it?)

Donna bookraptor wrote:

> maybe with all his talent and popularity with the teachers (except 
> Dumbledore), maybe he wasn't as liked by the students?

>From CoS: the letters of his name rearranged themselves: I AM LORD 
VOLDEMORT "You see?" he whispered. "It was a name I was already using 
at Hogwarts, to my most intimate friends only, of course."

He had "most intimate friends" at Hogwarts. I assume that at least 
one of them was a Malfoy. Draco says it wasn't Lucius: (paraphrase) 
"It was fifty years ago, of course it was before his time." Except 
for that, wizarding lifespans being what they are, there's no reason 
why Lucius Malfoy couldn't have been Tom Riddle's classmate, 66 years 
old in CoS.

> 4. Wizards seem to write their books based on field experience. 
> Are there fields in which one doesn't need experience to compile a
> textbook?

History of Magic: I doubt Bathilda Bagshot lived through it all by 
Elixir of Life, or even visited it all with a superduper Time Turner. 
Magical Theory: the author wouldn't be named Waffling if he knew what 
he was talking about.