Muggle products, levitation, and werewolf cures

[N Fry]

No: HPFGUIDX 39604

Just my reactions to some of the various topics brought up lately...

Marcus wrote:
>Another might be that small, self-contained, battery-operated muggle
>devices work.  Things like flashlights (torches for the UK), watches,
>*normal cameras*, that sort of thing.
(my emphasis on cameras, not Marcus's)

In PoA, Colin Creevy uses a camera.  When he approaches Harry for the first 
time he "was clutching what looked like an ordinary Muggle camera..." (Ch 6, 
pg 96, US hardcover). It isn't a wizard camera, because he expresses his 
amazement at the fact that one of the boys in his dorm said that the 
pictures would move if he developed them in a special potion. Later, in Ch 7 
(pg 109) when Colin is taking pictures of Quidditch practice, his camera is 
only described as making a clicking noise (nothing else special about it). 
Meanwhile, in GoF (Ch 18, pg 302) the photographer from the Daily Prophet 
has "a large black camera that was smoking slightly." I can't find the page 
reference now, but I seem to remember the wizard camera later being 
described as making a popping noise and giving off puffs of colored smoke 
when pictures are taken. I may be wrong about that, though...

Steve of the Lexicon wrote:
>They can't fly, true, but they can Levitate. Wingardium Leviosa is
>taught to First Years, and there are undoubtedly even more complicated and 
>wondrous variations of this magic which accomplished witches and wizards 
>can perform.

_Quidditch_Through_the_Ages_ supports this in the chapter about the 
evolution of the flying broomstick (pg 1): "No spell yet devised enables 
wizards to fly unaided in human form. <snip details about Animagi turning 
into flying creatures> Levitation is commonplace, but our ancestors were not 
content with hovering five feet above the ground." Witches/wizards who were 
hung during the witch trials could have simply pretended to die as they 
hovered at the end of the noose.

carrie-Ann wrote:
>All this talk about Lupin has me wondering... Lockhart says that he did a 
>spell on a werewolf that turned him back into a man, and he no longer 
>transformed.  I know that Lockhart himself didn't do it, but he says that 
>all othe things he claims to have done were actually accomplished, just by 
>other people.  Does this mean that there is a cure for Lupin?

This reminds me of something I've been thinking about. In PoA, Lupin tells 
the trio, "I was a small boy when I recieved the bite. My parents tried 
everything, but *in those days there was no cure*" (ch 18, pgs 352-3). Does 
he mean that there is a cure now? In the next sentence, he comments that the 
Wolfsbane Potion is a very recent discovery. I don't think he's referring to 
it when he says "cure," but the wording seems a bit confusing to me. Maybe 
Wolfsbane can prevent people from becoming werewolves if used soon enough 
after the bite, but can't cure them if they are already werewolves (although 
it does make them safer by helping them keep their rational minds...)


~ Nik  (who finds herself paying *a lot* more attention to picky little 
details while rereadings the books, thanks to all the posts she's been 
reading since joining this group)

_________________________________________________________________
Chat with friends online, try MSN Messenger: http://messenger.msn.com