alleged elitism / Lockhart / female nemesis / Muggle Owl Post

[catlady_de_los_angeles]

No: HPFGUIDX 41348

Rosie quoted Richard Adams:

<, sparing him the horror of attending a comprehensive, which are 
thereby classed alongside coathangers and used socks as the sort of 
second-best that no one really wants. >>

and replied:

<< I think it was more to do with it being a school where people 
flushed your head down the toilet rather than it being a 
comprehensive that Harry didn't like... >>

Personally, I read that part of canon as the objection to Stonewall 
Comprehensive being that it involved continuing to live with the 
Dursleys. If Hogwarts hadn't been an option, Harry might well have 
preferred juvie. (I have been told that it is standard in Britain to 
*tell* the incoming secondary school students that they will have 
their heads flushed in the toilet as a hazing.)

Porphyria devilishly advocated:

<< Wizards have their own bizarre sport, which Muggles know nothing 
of. This contributes to the image of wizards as having an elite, 
rarified society that does not brook outsiders very easily. >>

I don't want to think about what that implies about American 
football. (A very boring sport  which I have often thought has one 
virtue: it brings fans together across lines of social class and of 
race.)

<< I don't recall any male characters going around the school saying 
"oh, that Lockhart really knows his stuff, he's seen everything." >>

Justin Finch-Fletchley: "That Lockhart's something, isn't he?" said 
Justin happily as they began fiIling their plant pots with dragon 
dung compost. "Awfully brave chap. Have you read his books? Id have 
died of fear if Id been cornered in a telephone booth by a werewolf, 
but he stayed cool and - zap - just fantastic.

"My name was down for Eton, you know. I can't tell you how glad I am 
I came here instead. Of course, Mother was slightly disappointed, but 
since I made her read Lockhart's books I think she's begun to see how 
useful it'll be to have a fully trained wizard in the family . . . ."

(Laura, I see you already said both the things I said there.)

Porphyria wrote of Lockhart:

<< (and unlike the Veela he does it without magic >>

Do we KNOW that?

Felinia wrote:

<< Let's get a female nemesis in there. >>

I predict it will be the DeadSexy!Mrs. Lestrange

Heather wrote:

<< How do the Dursleys communicate with Harry at Hogwarts? (snip) 
The only explanation I can possibly come up with is that maybe 
there's an exchange office somewhere that transfers muggle mail with 
wizarding addresses over to owls and vice versa, but I somehow can't 
see that. >>

I think that IS the method; in fact, I can literally SEE it: The 
muggle puts letter and/or gift to the wizard into a sealed, addressed 
envelope, then puts that envelope and some Muggle money into a bigger 
envelope. The bigger envelope is addressed to an accomodation address 
in one of the shops next door to the Leaky Cauldron and mailed via 
Muggle post. There is someone, either an employee of the Owl Post 
Office in Diagon Alley or an employee of the Leaky Cauldron, who 
once a day picks all the mail from the accomodation address and 
carries it to the Diagon Alley Owl Post office, where an employee 
(maybe the same one) opens all the outer envelopes, and gives each 
inner envelope to a post owl if there was enough money enclosed. At 
intervals, the accumulated Muggle money is taken to Gringotts for 
converting to wizard money.