[HPforGrownups] Untackled (?) Questions

[Jennifer Boggess Ramon]

No: HPFGUIDX 32512

At 9:30 AM -0800 1/1/02, Ronald Rae Yu wrote:
>
>How did Myrtle die if she wears glasses (Colin was
>petrified using the camera)?

She was crying at the time.  Speaking as a person who wears glasses, 
when you're crying, you have to periodically remove the glasses and 
clean them off or you can't see anything.  Given her history of ill 
luck, she must have been cleaning them when she opened the stall door 
to tell off the boy who was talking in her bathroom.

>How did ghosts take their clothes and glasses with
>them when they died?

Morphic resonance.  They expect to appear clothed and accessorized, 
and their visible forms are composed completely of their self-images.

>In book 3, Quidditch Final, Lee comments on the beater
>work of George Weasley. How could he have known it was
>HIM (not Fred)? I mean, flying at top speed and
>everything, he recognized George.

Either Lee really knows the twins that well (maybe one of them wears 
his hair slightly shorter than the other), or perhaps the Quiddich 
robes have their names on the backs like the Irish World Cup team's 
robes do.

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

Their point totals from the first two tasks determine their handicap 
on the third task - who gets a head start.

>Why not use Veritaserum or the Pensieve as evidences
>for Harry's account at the end of book 4? And to clear
>Sirius as well.

They never used it on Sirius because he never got a trial.  No one 
will take the idea of his innocence seriously enough to try it on him 
now.  (Although, now that he and Snape are 'on the same team,' it 
wouldn't suprise me if Snape demands that Sirius submit to it 
privately to convince him.)

>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.

One would imagine that it's not recommended that students take more 
than two or three electives, and that the schedule would not be 
arranged in such a way as to make it easy to do so.  There appear to 
be only four classes per day (maybe as few as three); it would be 
very difficult, even if their schedule is in alternating blocks, to 
have more than eight classes, and Hermione seems to be taking ten or 
more.

>And since you have options of electives they should
>not be scheduled by house (Care of Magical Creatures
>with the Slytherins).

I would have thought that the electives would be open-enrollment, 
rather than divided by house; it might be that no Hufflepuffs or 
Ravenclaws signed up for CoMC.

>With Arithmancy and Divination taking place
>simultaneously, is Hermione the only Gryffindor (in
>her year) in Arithmancy? Everyone else is in
>Divination.

Given how common math phobia is, she may well be the only Gryffindor 
in her year taking it.  I have images of her in a room full of 
Ravenclaws.

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

I don't think he really wants it; I think he just thinks all the DADA 
teachers so far are complete incompetents.

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

Well, if Hermione is correct, they wouldn't work at Hogwarts anyway. 
Presumably the same is true of other loci of magical energy - the 
other two schools, Azkaban, the Ministry offices, and perhaps even 
dwellings like the Burrow and the never-seen Malfoy manor.  Besides, 
the owls serve as a replacement for the postal service; the 
face-in-the-fire rick seems to be used when an emergency phone call 
would be necessary.

99% of all non-Muggle-born wizards seem to be far too proud to pay 
any attention at all to Muggle ways of doing things, anyway.

>Quirrell could have just said 'Accio, Philosopher's
>Stone!' when he wanted it out of Harry's pocket.

Good one - perhaps the Stone, being a Powerful Magical Artifact (TM), 
can't be Accio'd?  (OTOH, perhaps Quirrell isn't any good that that 
particular spell - he didn't strike me as being terribly competent.)

>Why are there 4-5 quidditch players in Fred and
>George's batch (them, Alicia, and Angelina, and likely
>but not positively, Katie)? Is their year really that
>good?

Why not?

>What's the big fuss in not being able to apparate or
>disapparate within Hogwarts? One could make a portkey
>anytime and portkey himself in or out of the grounds.

I got the impression that the Triwizard trophy was a special case, 
that originally it ported the winner from the center of the maze 
(where Harry and Cedric leave) to the entrance (where Harry lands 
with Cedric's body) and that an exception to Hogwarts' normal "rules" 
had been made for it - all Moody/Crouch had to do was modify an 
existing permitted spell.

>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.

It's the wizarding world; these things happen.  Harry's birthday is 
on Lammas Eve, too.

>Where are the dead bodies of James and Lily?

We're never explicitly told, but they're probably buried in Godric's Hollow.

>If house elves don't want pay the Weasleys could get
>one anytime. Why don't they? Molly wants one.

House-elves are almost always attached to impressive manors (or, 
presumably, insitutions, like Hogwarts).  One would have to be 
looking for a master for her to pick one up.  I got the impression 
from the scene in which Crouch dismisses Winky that it's not a common 
occurrence.

>If you live in Hogsmeade it would make perfect sense
>NOT to take the Hogwarts Express to Hogwarts. Do all
>students need to ride it to school?

Probably not if you live in Hogsmeade itself, no.

>If Voldie couldn't kill Harry with his wand he could
>have done so anytime with a gun or something.

What?  The Greand High Evil Muggle-Hating Wizard use a Muggle way of 
killing someone?  How gauche!  Now, if there's a properly enchanted 
sword or bow and arrow out there somewhere, then perhaps Harry has 
cause to worry . . .

>Do Quaffles move on their own? There's at least one
>instance when it fell, but in the World Cup it
>rocketed upwards when it was released.

_Quiddich Through the Ages_ says that the quaffle has some 
enchantments on it to make it easier to grip and to keep it from 
falling normally if fumbled.  I wouldn't be suprised if there were 
some "cinematic" enchantments on it at the World Cup for a dramatic 
start.  But normally they're not self-propelled.

>Why could they talk to paintings and not to photos? It
>is more likely to be the other way around, since
>photos are based on real people.

Because the people in the photos are alive and doing something else. 
I suspect teh paintings don't become fully interactive until the 
subject dies - they're sort of two-dimensional ghosts.

-- 
  - Boggles, aka J. C. B. Ramon			boggles at earthlink.net
=== Personal Growth Geek Code v0.4 ===
GG++ !T A-- M++s--- g+ B- C- P++++ a- b- h+ her++ E+ N n++ i f+
c++ S%++++&&># D R++ xc++ xm+ xi+ yd++ ys++(-) rt+ ro+ rp++++ rjk<+
ow+++ ofn+ oft++ op++ esk-- ey+ ek+++ pl++ pf++ pe++ U!