Pre-Hogwarts - SCHABB - RL's fate - QWC/Krum

[Amy Z]

No: HPFGUIDX 26609

Catherine wrote:

> "Sticking up for Longbottom?" said Pansy Parkinson, a hard-faced
> Slytherin girl.  "Never thought you'd like fat little crybabies,
> Parvati."

> It's the "never" which does indicate that they knew oneanother prior
> to Hogwarts.  Whether this is indicative of wizarding primary school
> I don't know - it does seem, however, more likely than unlikely that
> some of the children should know oneanother before Hogwarts, because
> surely their parents socialise?

Aha, good example, thanks; it does sound as if they have known each 
other more than a few weeks.  I'm not a disbeliever in the 
wizarding-primary-schools theory, but a few mentions like this can 
easily be explained by the smallness of the wizarding world.  A lot of 
the kids could know each other before Hogwarts without having gone to 
school together.

I'm betting this is a piece of background info that we will learn only 
when JKR releases the dreamed-of Annotated HP Notebooks.

Penny wrote:

> She may be a know-it-all.  She may be a show-off even.  But, that is 
*not* the
> same thing as being a braggart.  According to my dictionary, a 
braggart
> is someone given to loud, *empty* boasting.  First off, Hermione is
> legitimately accomplished & brainy, so even if she was boasting, it
> wouldn't be "empty" (without merit).  Second, we don't hear her 
loudly
> proclaiming her good marks & such, particularly not in comparison to 
or
> at the expense of others.

I grant you her boasting is not empty--call her a boaster, then, not a 
braggart.  But we *do* hear her loudly proclaiming her good marks from 
time to time, sorry as I am to say so.

"'You'll lose all the points I got from Professor McGonagall for 
knowing about Switching Spells.'"  (PS/SS 9)

and then there's the very irritating (though hilarious)

"Trying to answer a question with Hermione next to him, bobbing up and 
down on the balls of her feet with her hand in the air, was very 
off-putting, but Harry had a go."  PA 7

Raising one's hand whenever one knows the answer is good--bouncing up 
and down while someone else has already been called on and is trying 
to answer is obnoxious.  Again, I love Hermione, and I am so much like 
her it's scary, but this is definitely beyond being a smart, 
self-confident kid.

Cindy wrote:

> Lupin's problem isn't
> that people criticize him or dislike him.  It is that people assume
> he is expendable.

I was going to respond, but Luke said everything that was on my mind 
perfectly.

The death that will "half-crucify" JKR in OoP is NOT Lupin, unless we 
allow for the wereghost possibility, because she has said that he will 
play a role in book 7:

"Mircea reports: 'I wrote a letter to J.K asking here some questions 
about future books she only answered 1 question which was will Lupin 
make a return. She said yes! J.K said she's pretty much sure she will 
put him in the  5th book but she definetly said he's gonna play a big 
role in the 7th book.'" 
http://www.angelfire.com/stars2/harrypotterland/news.html (thanks, 
Heidi, for the link!)

Cindy wrote:

> Can't we allow for the
> possibility that some characters can never be killed off?  Like, to
> use your Star Trek example, the main trio in Star Trek?

Ah, not to give anything away, but have you seen the ST movies?

I often wish that more shows *would* kill beloved characters so that 
we would live in a bit more fear and doubt during the cliffhangers, 
and also so that we would feel more of the reality of evil.  ST:The 
Next Generation tried to do this with Tasha Yar, but I could never 
stand her so her dying had zero impact on me.  Scratch that--it had an 
impact:  I was relieved I wasn't going to have to see that awful 
Denise Crosby again.  (In this I was disappointed--thanks to the magic 
of time travel, she did appear in a couple more episodes.)

Cindy also wrote:

> Was anyone else troubled by this ending to the World Cup Match?

Yes, and I also wondered if it said anything about Viktor's character 
that would play out later.  It served a plot purpose--the winning of a 
very long-shot bet by F&G--but JKR could have constructed any number 
of long shots rather than this one if that's all she needed.

Amy Z
who will don black if Remus dies (Don Black--Sirius's little brother?)

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 All peoples are members of the same body, created
 from one essence.  If fate brings suffering to
 one member, the others cannot stay at rest.
                 -Saadi, 13th-century Persian poet
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