Wizarding Schools and other stuff from Digest 1201

[Elbereth]

No: HPFGUIDX 25470

vheggie at yahoo.com wrote, re my poinderings on wizarding schools:
>There's no reason to believe there are only three - it's not called 
>the 'European Cup' after all.  It may be that these are the three 
>oldest, or the three most prestigious schools.
>After all, only Oxford and Cambridge universities compete in the 
>annual university boat race, but there are a lot more than two 
>universities in the UK!

Excellent point.  (But aren't Oxford and Cambridge two of the oldest in the
UK?)

Let me try approaching it from another angle, then:

We know that most countries have a sufficiently large magical population to
field a national quidditch team.  Given the enthusiasm of the Irish side,
as an example, I would assume that Seamus Finnigan would not be attending
Hogwarts if there were an Irish school he could go to.  This leads me to
the thought that there is only one school for the British Isles.

We also know that Victor Krum plays for Bulgaria.  I have got the
impression (as a person interested in names and their origins) that people
tend to play for their own national teams, rather than being traded far and
abroad, as happens in the Muggle world of sports. <g>  I would assume then
that Krum is in fact Bulgarian.  But he goes to school at Durmstrang, which
this learned assembly has placed somewhere in Scandinavia (or thereabouts).
 Would Krum attend such a distant school if there were one closer to
Bulgaria?  I think not.  Would he not be more likely on the Finland
National Team (for instance) if he were from the area of his school?  I
think so.

So ... where's my atlas? ...  this suggests strongly to me that there are
only three schools for all of Europe, from Ireland in the west to Bulgaria
on the Black Sea, from France (and almost certainly neighbouring Spain) in
the south to Norway in the north.

I think this rings true because I get the impression of a much smaller
wizarding population than that of the Muggles.  Of course, with Apparating
and broomsticks and floo powder and flying carpets availbale to them, the
magical population would never have been as isolated as Muggle villages
were before the Industrial Revolution -- I get the impression that travel
over great distances is a bit easier if you're not a Muggle.  ;-]

Okay, having said all that, I will admit that Europe is *geographically* a
small continent.  Much smaller than for instance, Canada -- but having a
far higher population (Muggle).  I would be comfortable with the idea of
only one wizarding school for all of Canada, because the vast distances
would be far less important than the smaller population base (last I
checked, we only have about 25 million people here).  So maybe a place like
China would have several schools within its borders?  Again, by population,
would there actually be more than one school in South America?  Don't know ...

Apologies, though -- generalizations and averages are always a potential pain.

Luke wrote:
>There's something else that should be on this list of potential 
>places and I can't remember it.

How about the tropical island with the colourful owl-substitutes, where
Sirius was hanging out?   ];->

Monika wrote:
>Hm, if this isn't obvious, it's hard to explain. ;-) I'd say that tragic
>characters just appeal to me. When he told Harry his story in the
>Shrieking Shack, I just thought: How could they do this to him?
>His over-bright eyes made me forget his filthy hair and robes...

Ooh, ya.  He's described as handsome and laughing in Lily & James' wedding
pictures.  But more appealing to me is the devotion he shows Harry.  (Mum
has my GoF right now, but there's a line in which Ron marvels over Sirius
lying low and living on rats, and how that means he must really like Harry.
 Although, come to think of it, Sirius might also be getting some strange
vengeful satisfaction out of crunching ratbones ...)   ;-]

Sirius has a sense of humour, a genuine caring about his friends, a
selflessness in their defense.  He can laugh at himself ("call me
Snuffles").  One thoughtless teenage mistake doesn't make a man evil, it
simply means he was a teenager.  (Apologies to the teens on the list, but I
recall thinking more about the moment and less about the consequences when
I was that age.)

Add me to the list of Sirius' defenders.  To me, he is only slightly less
dead sexy than Lupin -- and part of that is that Lupin does a better job of
being a father figure to Harry.



Edis wrote:
>If I remember righly, when the Muggle Prime Minister has to be 
>briefed about Sirius Black there is a reference indicatimg  that the 
>MoM in Britain is responsible to some International Wizarding body.
>
>Maybe we will hear more of this?

Ooh, well spotted!  I'm just re-reading PoA now (my favourite so far,
because of Lupin, of course!) and I have that passage handy.  What it
actually says is:

"Fudge has been criticised by some members of the International Federation
of Warlocks for infroming the Muggle Prime Minister of the crisis."

It's iffy -- Fudge could be part of the Federation, or not.  I don't think
we've been given, yet, a clear indication of what a "warlock" is in JKR's
universe.

frantyck at yahoo.com wrote:
>Three schools per continent doesn't sound quite right: there are 
>fifty times as many people in Asia as there are in England. You'd 
>never fit all those pupils into three schools.

Hmmm ... true.  But we don't know what sort of percentage of any given
population is magical.  Another favourite series of mine is Randall
Garrett's Lord Darcy books (a magical twist on the whodoneit), and in that
universe, certain people are more likely to be magical -- the Celtic
peoples being far more likely to produce magic users than the Anglo-Saxons,
for instance.

Now, I realize we haven't seen anything of the sort in JKR's books.  But
then, it's not something the kids would notice, is it?  Are there areas in
JKR's world where witches and wizards are more common? Are there some areas
where they have been forced out or hunted to extinction by the Muggles, at
some point in history?  Or can we reasonably assume a standard percentage
of the overall population worldwide to be magical?  Rhetorical questions ...

>What I'd love to hear about is the way in which African, Chinese, 
>Indian and Japanese magical traditions differ from European ones. I 
>heard mention somewhere in the books (or was it in fanfic) about 
>flying carpets being exotic magical items, and those Egyptian wizards 
>did extreme things to the tombs. English witches and wizards *are* 
>Englishmen and women, no doubt about that, so other magical people 
>must have very independent magical traditions and culture.

We get some hints of these cultural differences when we meet the students
of Beaux Batons and Durmstrang, certainly.  I'm not so sure, though, that
the *magic* is different.  They probably all say "lumos" when they want to
do that effect!  They live differently, eat and dress differently, but
their magic appears (at least) to be uniformly European.  But you're right,
I would love to get a peek inside a Far East school ...  ;-]

>Then there's the whole question of international wizarding politics. 
>And -- why is it that magical people don't feel a sense of 
>stewardship towards Muggles in unfortunate parts of the world? The 
>health of one affects the health of the other, surely?

Possibly.  But there is very little of that widespread among Muggles in the
wealthier nations.  I submit that it is Human nature to "look after our own
first".  Muggles have their own alien (to the magical population) ways of
coping and dealing.  Perhaps there is a feeling that Muggles should look
after their own? 

Leslie wrote:
>What about to Lupins house, where ever that is?  At the end of GoF,
>Dumbledore asks Sirius to lie low there for awhile.  We know from another
>interview that lupin will be back in this book (I think).  Maybe Harry will
>go there for a little bit of the summer.

Oh, that sounds like fun!  I wonder, will we meet Lupin's parents (as I
can't imagine someone in his situation buying a house!) -- it would afford
an interesting glimpse into usual (and unusual) wizarding attitudes towards
werewolves ...


Allison asked:
>3) Does anyone think Flitwick really knows anything about Entrancing 
>Enchantments, apart from a purely academic standpoint?  I'm just 
>curious - I have a hard time reconciling my mental image of Flitwick 
>to a "sly old dog."

Oh, I don't know ...  Flitwick's a cutey.  <bweg>  Honestly, I think
Lockhart was just being Lockhart.  But I bet Flitwick could be quite
charming *ahem* with the ladies ...  ;-]

>4) Hermione is a Very Smart Witch.  Why on earth, then, does she like 
>*Lockhart*? 

Because she's got teenaged hormones?  As I recall, I followed a guy who
didn't like me all the way to Italy at about her age ...  He's charming, he
smiles at her, he's famous, he's apparently good looking.  She's dazzled.
Which of us has not been dazzled?  ;-]

>5) Harry says "There wasn't the faintest trace of writing on any of 
>them, not even... 'dentist, half-past three.'"  A logistical 
>question: How does one visit the dentist while at Hogwarts?  Is Madam 
>Pomfrey trained in dental charms?

Harry (like Hermione) is likely to make Muggle references, being new to the
wizarding world.  A notation about a dental appointment is a normal thing
to find in a diary/daytimer/calendar.  Having said that, however, we *know*
Madam Pomfrey does magical dental work, because she fixed Hermione's teeth
in GoF.

>6) Ginny, it seems, did give Harry the Valentine.  Did she do so 
>because she liked him, or did she do it under the influence of 
>Riddle, for some reason no one can fathom because we aren't quite 
>that evil?

See above reference to teenaged hormones.  We know she likes Harry, JKR has
told us so.  I thought that, regardless of the outcome or the poetry, she
was being very brave in her attempts to express her affection to Harry.

>7) Harry never thinks of Riddle as "Tom," but always "Riddle," even 
>before he (Harry) realizes who he (Riddle) really is.  Is JKR setting 
>the reader up for Riddle's real identity by not having Harry think of 
>him in more familiar terms?  (In the diary, Riddle calls Harry "Harry 
>Potter," and either "Harry" or "Harry Potter" during their 
>confrontation at the end of the chapter.)

Hmmmm ...  "Harry Potter" is sort of like "Charlie Brown", you have to say
the whole name because he's famous.  <g>  I had an old-school teacher in
high school who would call the boys only by their surnames, the girls only
by title-plus-surname:  Jones, or Miss Smith.  It leads, after a while, to
thinking of the boys by their surnames, especially if you're not on a
(sorry) first name basis with them.

As a perfect example, there's Sirius Black:  the kids refer to him as
"Black" in PoA, but call him "Sirius" in GoF.

>8) Harry never gets to see how Hagrid is captured and Aragog 
>escapes.  Guesses?

Spiders are faster than half-giants?  ;-]

>9) Fudge - secretly evil or just a moron?

I'd like to share with you a motto which has served me well my whole life:
"Never attribute to evil intent that which can be adequately explained by
stupidity."

Fudge is a politician.  He likes the status quo, he likes his power just as
it is thank you very much.  He doesn't want anything disrupting it, doesn't
want to share the limelight with Dumbledore, doesn't want to allow the
possibility of Voldemort's return because it would change *his* world --
Fudge's is a very egocentric view, IMHO.

I would be shocked if he turned out to be an evil genius.  Mind you, JKR is
good at broadsiding me!  But I'd be willing to put money on "Stupidity" on
Fudge's part. 

>10) Lucius does a really terrible job of covering up his real 
>feelings regarding blood purity.  Why?  Perhaps he's more in contact 
>with Voldie than we're aware of?  Is he counting on Riddle's ability 
>to control Ginny permanently?  Does he assume it's safe, with 
>Dumbledore temporarily out of commission?  How can he underestimate 
>Dumbledore that much?

I think most people underestinmate Dumbledore.  Especially, perhaps, people
who have never attended Hogwarts, or those who attended before he became
Headmaster.  Did Lucis Malfoy attend Hogwarts?  I can't recall.  But he did
want Draco to go to Durmstrang ...

>11) This marks the second time Dumbledore has known Harry was there 
>even though Harry was wearing an Invisibility Cloak.  How?  Perhaps 
>there's more to Dumbledore's half-moon glasses than meets the eye?  
>This also opens up a possible glasses connection - we know Harry's 
>glasses/eyes are important - what about Dumbledore's?

I think that, while the glasses *may* be the method, it's just another
example of Dumbledore being far more aware and powerful than we know yet
...  ;-]

>12) Why do people think the Heir of *Slytherin* is someone from 
>another House?  First Harry, then Hagrid.  Am I the only one who 
>thinks this makes no sense?

Stealth.  He's so powerful he fooled the Hat.  (Seriously, though: Harry
could have gone to Slytherin, and all of us can *see* he's pure Gryffindor!
 And while all the Weasleys have been in Gryffindor, the Patil twins are in
different houses.  Blood doesn't seem to mean as much as attitude -- and
attitude can evolve, or be corrupted.)

>13) Out of respect for Hagrid, Aragog claims he never harmed a soul.  
>Yet he "cannot deny them [his children] fresh meat," and would 
>willingly feed Hagrid's friends, who sought the spiders out to help 
>Hagrid, to his children.  How does he justify this?

That which you do on your own, for yourself, is not always something you'd
extend to others.  Aragog's honour of Hagrid prevents him, himself, from
eating Humans; OTOH, his children are meat eaters, and they haven't
promised Hagrid any such thing.  Besides, Aragog's respect for Hagrid
doesn't need to automatically extend to anyone but Hagrid.  Besides, Aragog
is a spider -- he doesn't think like Humans!  ;-]

>15) Pointless Silly Question: Which would you prefer: having to speak 
>in limericks for the rest of your life, or never being able to stop 
>reading?

Ambiguous question!  Misleading!
Is it only that book you'd be reading?
Annoying your friends
Among possible ends
Makes the limerick option worth heeding!

>All right, I'll shut up now and go study for physics.

Best of luck with the Physics, Allison!  ;-]

Indyfans at aol.com wrote:
>I hope sometime in the series Sirius and Lupin find true happiness.

I'd be willing to sign up to help ...  ;-9

BlueEyedTigress