[HPforGrownups] Two questions: Special Services Awards and Graveyards

[Amanda Geist]

No: HPFGUIDX 41667

Aldrea asked:

> The first one: Why  hasn't Harry, Hermione, or Ron won a Special
> Services to the School award yet?

CoS, UK, page 243:
  'I seem to remember telling you both that I would have to expel you if you
broke any more school rules,' said Dumbledore.
  Ron opened his mouth in horror.
  'Which goes to show that the best of us must sometimes eat our words,'
Dumbledore went on, smiling. 'You will both receive Special Awards for
Services to the School and -- let me see -- yes, I think two hundred points
apiece for Gryffindor.'

This is just Harry and Ron. I don't believe Hermione has received one, but
on occasion my brain, so cluttered up with trivia that on occasion my
children's names won't fit anymore, *does* slip up and I might be wrong.

> Two: Does anyone think Harry will be visiting his parent's graves?  I
> mean, they do have graves, don't they?  We know AK doesn't destroy
> the body- Cedric's body was still there.  So what happened to Harry's
> parents?

GoF, US, p. 365:
(speaker is Sirius) '...I set out for your parents' house straight away. And
when
I saw their house, destroyed, and their bodies....'

I seem to recall that there was another mention somewhere of their bodies as
"burned" (as in injury, not cremation), but I don't know where right
offhand. In any case, there clearly were bodies and something must have been
done with them, and I, too, have wondered when it will occur to Harry to ask
about or look into this.

It has also been the subject of discussion, albeit not recently (I don't
think), why the bodies were damaged at all, or the house. The house and
James' body damage might be due to James' putting up a fight--but Lily?
According to Harry's mental soundtrack, she didn't resist in the sense of
throwing any spells, and presumably Voldemort cast Avada Kedavra at her--but
we know that AK does not inflict any injury. So why, one wonders, were James
and Lily's bodies burned, the house destroyed, and Voldemort's own body
destroyed....? What caused all the physical damage, when the only spell we
know for certain was cast doesn't *do* that....?

--Amanda, L.O.O.N. on duty