WhyTheHowlersWeren'tHowlingTheFirstYear/ Rowdy Mandrakes/Chamber's Entrance

[aldrea279]

No: HPFGUIDX 39539

PrefectMarcus asked:
> (1) Why didn't anybody receive a Howler during Harry's first year?  
> Harry was unacquainted with them until Ron got one the second 
year.  
> They seem pretty common after that.

They don't seem all that common, do they?  Perhaps my memory fails me
(and it probably does), but I know Ron got one in CoS he STOLE and 
CRASHED his parents car, and Neville got one in PoA because of him 
accidentally HELPING a convicted murderer...but I can't recall any 
others.  And the Howler seems to be a very very serious butt-chewing, 
and reserved only for very very serious things(such as the two 
mentioned above).  I don't know if any other students at Hogwarts 
have engaged in such life-threatening-because-of-stupid-choices, 
embarrassing, worth-Dumbledore-writing-a-letter-to-the-parents-
things...And so, there wouldn't be any other Howlers being sent to 
Hogwarts.  I don't see this as being strange...just that there aren't 
that many serious troublemakers at Hogwarts.

> (4) If the maturing mandrakes threw a loud raucous party in 
> Greenhouse #3, who would be alive to tell the tale?

Well, that's easy.  I'm guessing the glass is sound-proof.  That's 
pretty logical, I'd say, even though there's no cannon to prove it.  
You're raising Madrakes who can scream and render unconcious/kill all 
those who hear it- sound proof glass just seems like a must.  The 
thing I've always found disturbing about the Mandrakes is the fact 
that they had to *chop them up* to use them for the Basilisk 
treatments.  That just always sort of chilled me.  
 
 
> (6) If the Weasley clock has a "Mortal Peril" reading, why hasn't 
> Molly Weasley noticed all the times Ron has been there?  Ginny 
would 
> also have been there everytime she was controlling the Basilisk.

I have often wondered when the darned clock would come into play!  
But I think someone very well answered that Ron wasn't in mortal 
peril all THAT often, and that when he was Molly probably was busy 
elsewheres.

 
> (9) Why is the entrance to a 1000+ year-old chamber hidden behind a 
> modern bathroom fixture?  I don't think the Picts enjoyed indoor 
> plumbing around the time of Alfred the Great.

Ever think that it wasn't always a bathroom?   There's probably some 
pretty strong magic guarding it, and maybe that kept it so that it 
was atleast partially accessable.  Also, I don't think old Slytherin 
would be sliding down a slimy tunnel every time he wanted to visit 
his Chamber(and besides, that entrance doesn't seem to be easy to get 
up).  I'm betting there used to be another entrance for humans, and 
perhaps that has been closed.  But the Basilisks private entrance 
wasn't, and Tom Riddle obviously atleast discovered it. You do have a 
point about how it was still accessable when that modern bathroom got 
put there... but I think you'll have to ask those other Slytherin's 
Heirs that went to Hogwarts before Riddle and see if they know 
anything about it.  

~Aldrea