Colin's camera -

[bboy_mn]

No: HPFGUIDX 42440

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--- In HPforGrownups at y..., "rosie" <crana at n...> wrote:

>>> Fyre Wood said:<<<
"Wait a second?! I thought that cameras, bugging devices, and all 
those electric things wouldn't work on the Hogwarts' Campus, as
mentioned in the GoF by Hermione when she explains bugging to Harry
and Ron.

 Plot hole? a Flint? Or does Creepy Colin Creevy use one that doesn't
 run on that sort of thing and is disposable? Or perhaps is the camera
 a Polariod?"
>>> end Fyre Wood <<<

>> Rosie replied:<<
I just thought of that myself. Even a disposable or Polaroid camera
usually takes batteries. You have to go back a number of years before
cameras didn't use electricity, don't you?. I can't really see Colin
clutching a home-made pinhole camera either...

Um. Um. Maybe one of his friends "magicked" it for him so it will now
run on magic not batteries (the same guy who suggested he develop it
in a special potion?).

Amanda pointed out that Mr Creevy would likely give his son a cheapo
camera meaning an old mechanical one, but you can get battery-powered,
flash cameras pretty cheap here, so why bother?

--- bboy_mn interjects: ---

RE: battery powered flash cameras.
Most cheap cameras are purely mechanical; that is, the only thing the
battery does is makes the flash go off. So even modern cheap cameras
that have some small amount of electronics in them are still basically
old fashioned mechanical shutter box cameras; mechanic shutter, fixed
exposure, fixed aperture, fixed focus. I don't recall Colin's camera
ever flashing, I remember is 'clicked' a lot, but I don't remember
flash; can someone clarify this?

So your basic cheap camera would work fine in a highly magical
environment like Hogwarts. Although, if a person needed flash, then
that part would have to be enchanted.

-----------

>> Rosie continues:<<
On a related-sort-of note, you know where Mr Weasley (I think)
describes the security around the QWC in GOF, and says "there are some
places Muggles can't penetrate", making reference to Diagon Alley...
what does he mean by this?

He clearly can't mean they physically cannot enter at all, as Mr & Mrs
Weasley do. They can't enter without the help from a witch or wizard,
perhaps? Ideas?

--- bboy_mn responds: ---
Muggles can't 'penetrate' the cash vault at your local bank, but that
doesn't mean they can't get in.

Diagon Alley exists in an alternate physical reality. To my knowledge
there are only two/three ways to get into Diagon Alley. 1.) to find a
 pub that can't be seen by muggles (Leaky Cauldron) and somehow get
inside it, and somehow get past Tom the proprietor, somehow get into
the back courtyard, somehow know which bricks to tap, and somehow have
enough magic that tapping those bricks opens the archway to Diagon
Alley. 2./3.) apparate/portkey into that magical physical space. 

I think it's safe to say that getting into the cash vault at your
local bank would be easier. 

Hermione, being a witch, brings here parents into Diagon Alley,
because she can see the Leaky Cauldron and knows how to open the
archway. Muggles aren't forbidden from being there, but the odds of
any muggles getting there without the direct help of a magic person is
almost impossible, so in that sense, muggles can't 'penetrate' the
'security' of Diagon Alley.

Note that even the magical Knight Bus stopped in the muggle street out
in front of the Leaky Cauldron.

Now the Quidditch World Cup took place in a Scottish moor which was a
camp ground owned and run by a muggle which while it took extreme and
unusual precaution to hide from the muggles, still existed in muggle
space.

Hogwarts and Hogsmead (and the Leaky Cauldron) exist in normal, or
mostly or partly in normal muggle physical reality/space but are
protected by various enchantments to keep muggles away. Personally, I
believe that Hogwarts and Hogsmead exist in both muggle physical
reality/space and magical physical reality/space; sort of on the edge,
existing in both places. So those places have a 'gateway' into them
that allows you to enter from muggle space. While you can get into
Hogwarts and Hogsmead by walking in from muggle space, you can't walk
into the Forbidden Forest from muggle space. The Forbidden Forest is a
part of Hogwarts/Hogsmead that exists only in magical space (my opinion).

MY GREAT THEORY-
I believe that the archway behind the Leaky Cauldron, that leads into
Diagon Alley is not an archway at all but a magical transportation
device. It is a portal or portway in the same sense as a portkey. I
don't think that Diagon Alley actually exists in London. I don't think
it is a secret space hidden behind the Leaky Cauldron. ALthough, the
Leaky Cauldron is in London. At best Diagon Alley exists in a separate
unique reality of it's own and the archway is a transportation device
that takes you between these alternate realities.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it.
---------end bboy_mn-----------------

....big edit for length.....

 
> _________________________
> 
> Bboy_mn wrote:(in a pervious message)
> "I know I'm not suppose to post really short messages, but I was
> wondering if anyone was willing to speculate about Molly's real name?
> 
> If Molly is a nickname, the what proper name is it typically a nickname
> for?"
> 

To which Rosie replied:
> Believe it or not (over in the UK at least) Molly comes from Mary as
the most common origin of that nickname (and Polly as well). It seems
to be a nickname that can come from many names though, like Millie. My
sister's name is Amelia, she's called Millie, it's also short for
Millicent, and a girl who went missing here was called Amanda,
nicknamed Millie.
> 
> Molly works in the same way I think, but if you trace it back I
believe it does come from Mary for the most part. Nowadays kids might
be given that as a name just by itself but I don't think this was so
common in the past.
> 
> Rosie

bboy_mn responds:
Thank for the 'Molly' info.

Completely unrelated to anything; my mother's name was Berniece and
many people called her 'Bee' which isn't too far off, but a lot of
people called her 'Bill' or 'Billy'; go figure.

bboy_mn