Apparating again & text changes

[alhewison]

No: HPFGUIDX 39642

To contiue the apparation discussion, on re-reading the series I've 
always thought that Hagrid must have disapparated when he leaves 
Harry at Paddington station after their Diagon Alley visit (p66 PS UK 
edition) But:

1) If it is, surely he should not be allowed to do it, as he isn't 
allowed to do magic?

2) I know that he was allowed to do magic to get Harry, but that was 
supposed to stop once he got him - and you wouldn't think he'd have 
been able to apparate if he'd had no previous experience of it (or 
had he?)

3) If Hagrid didn't disapparate what did he do? Surely Hagrid hadn't 
just walked  off the platform in the blink of Harry's eye?

In the Vanishing Glass,PS p 27 UK edition, we learn about 3 strangers 
who bow/wave/shake hands with Harry. But "the weirdest thing about 
all these people was the way they seemed to vanish the second Harry 
tried to get a closer look". This seems to be another example of 
disapparating. The wizards here, seem to be wizard-fans of Harry 
rather than part of any Harry protection scheme - as shown by Dedalus 
Diggle's reaction to Harry in PS p 55 "Did you hear that? He 
remembers me! suggesting he he a fan. 

The message that these *ordinary* wizards can apparate together with 
the fact that wizards take their apparation test at the age of 17, 
suggests to me that Apparation is a readily acquirable skill (similar 
to our driving test which British muggles can also take from the age 
of 17). Perhaps JKR invented "splinching" and other apparation 
mistakes (Charlie landing 5 miles from his destination during his 
test) to explain why apparation is not the only mode of transport - 
so that broomsticks, the Knight Bus and Ministry cars could be 
convincingly used.

Heidi on Flints:
<Oh, I hate when they do this. This is like what happened with the 
Wand Order situation - read posts from july - nov 2000 for more - if 
even the books themselves can be changed so long after publication, 
then is anything "canon"?

Am I the only one very bothered by these changes?
Heidi, who loves her fourth printing of ps very much.>

It bothers me as well. I know the books pretty well now, so if 
someone quotes something from the books I'll recognise it. This is 
why I got confused when someone quoted Ron from the US edition of CoS 
saying of Arthur and Molly "They don't need the car...they know how 
to apparate" It's not in my UK copy of CoS, nor did I find it listed 
in the Lexicon as a difference between the US and UK editions. It 
doesn't really change anything, but I now wonder if later UK editions 
of CoS have the phrase or if it is just an additional phrase for the 
US market.

Ali