[HPforGrownups] Untackled (?) Questions

[Jenett]

No: HPFGUIDX 32509

At 9:30 AM -0800 1/1/02, Ronald Rae Yu wrote:
>Hi! I'm Ronald Yu, and I'm new here.
>
>And since I'm new, forgive me if I ask questions
>already discussed before. I've searched these already
>in HP sites but none seem to tackle them (or maybe I
>didn't search well). Well, I'm sure somebody somewhere
>have asked himself some of these before. And I'm sure
>there are other newbies here as well.

If you haven't taken a look at the FAQ essays, some of them might be 
handy here...

http://www.i2k.com/~svderark/lexicon/faq/

(Also http://www.hpfgu.org.uk/ for lots of other resources)

>
>What's the use of the first two tasks if the champion
>who reaches the Triwizard Cup first wins?

As was said, three tasks is sort of traditional. It's also worth 
noting that the three tasks test very different sets of skills. The 
first really should have tested quick thinking (but didn't, so much, 
because everyone knew in advance what they were fighting). The 
second, loyalty and the ability to work out the puzzle. The third, an 
ability to use a wide variety of charms/spells/etc in quick 
succession. (All of them tend to test bravery, mind.)

It's also explicitly in the text (in my case, I'm looking at page 551 
of the US hardcover edition) that the first two tests set up the 
entrance order for the final test. Bagman says:

"Now, the champions who are leading on points will get a head start 
into the maze." Bagman grinned at Harry and Cedric. "Then Mr. Krum 
will enter... then Miss Delacourt. But you'll all be in with a 
fighting chance, depending on how well you get past the obstacles."

Thus, the first two give you an advantage at the third one - but not 
a complete advantage, just handicap the people who'd done less well.

>Why do the Hogwarts electives have such impossible
>schedules? I mean, if you have the option of taking as
>much classes as you can, they should make the schedule
>possible to follow without time-turners.

I think it's pretty clear that most people don't choose to take more 
electives than fit into the class day. Hermione's an exception, but 
everyone else seems to be in the same basic position I know *I* was 
in high school - I had my required courses, and then I could pick one 
or two on my own, but that was about it, if I wanted to have time for 
anything else.

Hermione partly gets away with it, I think, not just because of the 
Time Turner, but because there's a fair bit of evidence she's not 
just bright, but a quite fast worker, even given how much time she 
devotes to her studies. (there're a number of references to her 
having had a very easy time completely or exceeding assignment 
lengths, for example.)

>
>Why not Snape go for DADA? What's stopping him?

This one's been discussed a bit - and quite recently on here, as 
well. You might go take a look at the archives and read those 
messages. You might go look for the thread around December 20th-22nd 
of 2001 entitled "Snape and DADA", for example.

>Why do wizards still use owls for messages? Frankly,
>phones are faster; they should at least try to adapt
>to muggle ways.

Phones also require wiring and such. It may well be that wiring 
intereferes with magic (this is a pretty standard theory in fantasy 
literature in various places.)

And, of course, using phones would mean explaining to the nice muggle 
phone company representative exactly what was going on.

There also isn't anything that makes adaptation *necessary*. New is 
not necessarily better. It's just new.

There's floo powder. Adult wizards can apparate - even faster than 
picking up the phone, unless you're trying to get into Hogwarts or 
probably a few other locations. They also have the head-in-the-fire 
thing. Phones wouldn't add anything to that - and might well add a 
level of inappropriate distraction. (Imagine how you'd feel if you 
were trying to deal with a potion, and people kept calling you up to 
chat...)

Phones are also not an umittigated success. Some people (*waves* 
leave ours off almost all of the time. Most of the communication I 
do, other than internet stuff, I'd be just as happy to do by mail as 
anything else, particularly if it were much easier to visit distant 
friends without getting on a plane/train/car.

>No one ever seems to mind or at least notice (even
>Harry) that Oct. 31 is not only Nick's deathday but
>also James's and Lily's.

I'm trying to remember if Harry actually *knows* the day they died. I 
honestly don't recall, and I'm not going to hunt for references now, 
but does anyone know if Harry's been told explicitly?

As for him not asking, I still think it's in the bounds of 
reasonableness. It sometimes takes people a long time to come to 
grips with the *details* of trauma. If all the people you might ask 
keep not wanting to talk about it, you might also not really want to 
talk about it to them, if it wasn't really *that* important to you.

A possible side example here is people whose parents were Holocaust 
survivors, particularly if most of their family didn't survive. My 
mother's family were refugees from Hitler, but trying to get 
information out of her or my grandmother (my grandfather died before 
I was born) was pretty darn near impossible for me.

My grandmother would talk to fellow refugees about it, but she had a 
very hard time talking to her own family about it. I'm told this is 
in some cases because it's very hard to explain trauma to someone who 
wasn't there, or because of the feeling that you have to reveal so 
much to set up the information that it's immensely painful to relive. 
(Never mind the tendency of people to manage to ask the questions you 
*really* don't want to think about, sometimes.)

It's quite reasonable, in my mind, that what Voldemort did produced 
some of the same sorts of reactions. You talk quietly to those who 
were there then, on some nights. And then you go about your new life, 
and don't talk about it again for months.

-Jenett
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