Chat - Ron/Wizard Small Pets - Conjunctivitis - gamekeeper - Encyclopedia

[Catlady (Rita Prince Winston)]

No: HPFGUIDX 25786

Good morning! (It's 1:51pm my time and I got up half an hour ago. How 
wonderful it is not to have children or a second job.)

As far as I know, tomorrow we are chatting in room grp*g.2176166:1 
like last week. See post #25425 on Main List for info on how to get 
there.

Saitaina wrote:

> My question is....why didn't Sirius think that Peter would 
> constantly be with Ron, as he was a pet rat and most wizards carry 
> their small pets with him  (ala Neville and Trevor)?  

Do we know that MOST wizards carry their small pets around with them? 
Neville does not strike me as a typical wizard, not even a typical 
wizard student. If most students don't carry their small pets around 
all the time, that would be a further indication of Ron's affection 
for Scabbers despite complaining all the time about him, further 
magifying Ron's betrayal by Wormtail, and also further showing Ron 
as capable of significant affection and mushiness even tho' he tries 
to hide it.

Susanna wrote:

> add the Conjunctivitus Curse he would have suggested 
> to Harry for getting past the Hungarian Horntail
> (I was going to suggest a Conjunctivitus curse, as a dragon's eyes 
> are its weakest point- GoF, p.363 UK hardcover ed.),
> which, according to what Ron tells Harry after the first task, is 
> none too pleasant.

I think Conjunctivitis Curse was simply the standard advice that 
any wizard with an OWL in (non-Hagrid) Magical Creatures would have 
given. It was what Krum did, and I assume that he was acting on the 
best advice that Karkaroff had been able to get for him. Not hurting 
the dragon (other than not destroying the eggs) wasn't one of the 
tournament rules, and it seems like everyone except Hagrid views the 
dragons as monsters, viewing injuring one to achieve a human goal in 
the same light as we view injuring the bathroom troll in self-defense 
or defense of a friend. The way the dragon wranglers handle them, 
with Stunning Spells and tying them down, not to mention putting them 
into this entirely unpleasant situation and putting their eggs at 
risk, is not a display of fondness.

Hermione Natalie (welcome!) wrote:

> Likewise, what does the games keeper mean??

He's the gamekeeper. 'Game' is wild animals that you hunt, so the 
gamekeeper is the servant who looks after the wild animals in the 
forest. 

John wrote:

> All we can hope for, m'dear, is that when she's done she really 
> does make an HP Encyclopedia. Scholastic, are you listening? 

Explain to them that they can publish it relatively cheaply on CD-rom 
-- or, better yet, find someone to give JKR a grant to pay for 
transcribing, hosting, etc, to post it on the Web.