[HPforGrownups] Grey Lady, lifespan & mixed marriage, acronyms (reformatt...

[Edblanning at aol.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 37630

Tabouli:
> Will Seamus' dad be tragically bereaved only halfway through his life?  Are 
> there 80yo mixed couples out there where the muggle spouse is stooping and 
> feeble and the wizard has to nurse him/her to what wizards would see as an 
> early grave?  Alternatively, does marrying a wizard give you access to a 
> wizard lifespan somehow?  (long life potion?)  If so, there's another good 
> reason to keep the Wizarding world secret... all the single ones would be 
> killed in the marrigeable magic-digging Muggle stampede!  Just think: the 
> wounds and ills of all your family could be healed in minutes, you could 
> keep your house totally safe from burglars by making it unplottable, get 
> rid of unwanted guests, get your spouse to do home repairs and housework 
> with a mere wave of the wand, avoid parking problems by floo or flight by 
> broomstick... 

Yes, exactly. The others are by implication the reasons given (by Hagrid, I 
think) for why wizards choose to keep magic secret from Muggles.

But this is a question that has intrigued me, too. I have a memory that JKR 
said (I think in connection with Dumbledor'es age) that wizard longevity was 
something with which Harry was not yet acquainted. What *makes* a wizard live 
longer anyway. How is the trait transmitted? Is it something which just goes 
along with having magic powers? I'm wondering if, for instance half-bloods or 
Muggle-borns share it or whether it only applies to pure-bloods. Or is it, 
for wizards too, the result of the use of some kind of potion or charm? 

This is another of the questions touched on by Pullman. His witches live for 
hundreds of years and the one in the story doesn't want to see the human with 
whom she had had a relationship in his youth as she knows he will be ashamed 
of his old age. (I'm sorry, I can't use the names, as we're listening to it 
on tape and I haven't got the foggiest how they're spelled).

It must be simply awful if you can't stop your spouse from aging. It's bad 
enough seeing one's parents become decrepit, let alone your lover.

Eloise, who has just been to witness what she could of the funeral of one of 
the most remarkable old women ever to grace the Earth.



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