Muggle Artifacts/resisting Imperius/Lucius Power/Veela/A & M Weasley Ages

[Catlady (Rita Prince Winston) <catlady@wicca.net>]

No: HPFGUIDX 48667

Irene:

<< Ironically it would require from Lucius better understanding of 
how muggle objects work than Arthur has. >>

Not if he sticks to very simple Muggle artifacts that even wizards 
can understand, like books, teacups, and housekeys.

Clickety Keys:

<< But we don't know that the other students /didn't/ have a voice 
telling them not to obey - only that they didn't listen to the voice 
as effectively as Harry did.>> 

I believe that the other students *didn't* have a voice telling 
them not to obey, because I believe that what Harry heard was what 
remained of Lily's voice, what remained of Lily's protection that she 
had used her last moments and last magic to wrap around him.

Kamala:

<< being from an old wizarding family still has a lot of perceived 
influence. >>

And being extremely rich appears to have a lot of *real* influence. 
Even if British wizard politicians aren't dependent on campaign 
contributions like USA Muggle politicians, we've *seen* Fudge being 
influenced by Lucius's donations to St. Mungo's --- it is possible 
for 'donations to a good cause' to actually be bribes to a person, 
such as if they fund a job earmarked for the person's close relative.

And canon, CoS the book, gives us evidence of Lucius influencing 
people (the other Governors of Hogwarts) by threatening to curse 
their families. That has always sounded strange to me: don't the 
other Governors think that, with such warning, they can adequately 
protect their families, by putting protective Charms on them, hiring 
bodyguard wizards, and so on? How did they get to be Governors of 
Hogwarts with neither enough magic power to protect their families 
themselves nor enough money to hire other wizards to do so? 

Steve bboy_mn:

<< Part of it is similar to the Vella, I suspect that there is a 
sense that if you fail to obey, you will lose the wonderful bliss 
that is consuming you. As with the Vella, you will do anything to 
make sure that that pleasure and comfort do not go away. >>

Your lovely post gives me an excuse to repeat my *suggestion* that 
Potterverse Veelas really are human, a very in-bred group of witches 
who have hereditary pale blonde coloring, the ability to transform 
into big dangerous birds, and a built-in Imperius Charm with the 
command "Desire me" aimed at all men (all heterosexual men and gay 
women?) in the vicinity. 

The young men's reaction to the Veelas was not just that they didn't 
want to do anything to end this pleasure of their company; it was 
also that they actively sought to be closer to the Veelas. We saw 
them telling ridiculous lies (brags) like "I invented a broomstick 
that can fly to Jupiter" to try to make a good impression on a Veela, 
and asking the Veela for a date.

JOdel:

<< the earliest that Hagrid could have taken over would have been 
around 1950. Which sounds a little early for Molly and Arthur to 
already be at Hogwarts. (I've always pictured them as early 
baby-boomers, born right after WWII.) >>

I think Arthur and Molly are much older than that. Remember those 
wizarding *long* lives. Dumbledore's hair was still auburn when he 
was 100 years old in the CoS flashback. I explained in 
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/41510 how that 
translates to either 60 or 50 in Muggle years. McGonagall has black 
hair in canon and was stated by JKR to be "a spritely 70", which 
translates to 40-45 in Muggle years. 

If you imagine Arthur and Molly being the equivalent of Muggle 50 
years old in 1996 (end of book 5 or beginning of book 6), that would 
make them around 70 to 100 years old in calendar years. I see Arthur, 
Molly, Minerva, Hagrid, and TMR all going to school around the same 
time... Arthur and Molly might be a little bit older than Minerva, 
who might be a little bit older than Hagrid ...

I'm a bit bugged by Draco saying that *of course* 50 years ago was 
before his father's time at Hogwarts. To me, children and young teens 
don't have enough sense of adult ages, their parents' ages in 
particular, that his father being younger than Professor McGonagall 
is *of course*. I mean, when I was young, I thought my parents were 
ancient... However, since it is therefore canon that Lucius was not 
at school with TMR, I've decided to make him have been born in 1950, 
thus *very* young for a wizard.