Women's Institute / Percy's Insecurity /

[catlady_de_los_angeles]

No: HPFGUIDX 34659

Joanne wrote:

> And don't forget the Salem Witches' Institute that had a banner at
> the World Cup, though that name seems more like a research
> institution than a high school.

I am CONVINCED that Salem Witches' Institute is a pun on Women's 
Institute. The Women's Institute is not a school, not a research 
institute, not a prison for female felons like the California 
Institution for Women in Tehachapi. It is a club for housewives that 
at one time was common in rural England (I don't know at all about 
Scotland). I can't really think of a USA equivalent: Eastern Star and 
the women's auxiliary of the Grange are different by their connection 
to men's clubs, and the Women's Alliances of the various churches are 
different by being denominational. John Walton's grandmother was 
involved with Women's Institute, maybe he can explain it better. 

Eileen Lucky Kari wrote:

> You didn't adress my example of Percy, did you? :-) Would you say
> his insecurity comes from anywhere?

If our theories about the ages of Bill, Charlie, and Percy are 
correct, when Percy goes to his first year at Hogwarts, it is the 
first time in his life that he is living without any brothers around, 
and, to make things worse, Bill and Charlie had been out of school 
long enough that they were becoming legendary characters. Teachers 
and older students probably made remarks about expecting Percy to 
accomplish as much as his brothers Bill the Head Boy and Charlie the 
Quidditch Captain.

Zarleycat Marianne wrote:

> Don't you all think it interesting that most Snape fans can't seem 
> to cut Sirius any slack, and most Sirius fans only want to give
> Snape enough rope with which to hang him?

I've never understood this, as I like both of them *and* Remus. But I 
*intensely* dislike Karkaroff: it's not his weak chin hidden under 
goatee and yellow teeth (Snape is said to have the latter as well, 
and btw I imagine Snape as having a goatee), it's his vast air of 
self-satisfaction, which then vanishes into panic the moment "Moody" 
appears. Imagining poor Severus having a 'relationship' with *that* 
is even worse than imaging him having a 'relationship' with Filch 
(for which Pippin presented the evidence in a post IIRC back in 2000).