[HPforGrownups] Female Death Eaters and Ron

[Jedi Knight Jo]

No: HPFGUIDX 36563

Ayla Pascal wrote:
>>I, after reading the books, thought that Ron seemed quite ripe for 
picking for the dark side. He seems quite ambitious (the mirror 
incident in the first book of him being the head boy), and yet still 
very loyal.  He doesn't listen to other people, (third book, scabbers 
incident), and in a huge family, is the only person who doesn't stand 
out.

Is it that he's the only one that doesn't stand out, or the only one who's 'normal'?  We have Bill, the 'cool' one who was head boy, Charlie the Quidditch ace with a strange dragon fixation, Percy who is, well, anal to say the least, Fred and George who are different purely because they're twins and have the humour on top, and Ginny, who is different in this family simply because she's a girl.  He seems to come from a family of strong characters, so maybe he's just been shoved into the background all his life?  Seeing himself as Quidditch captain and Head Boy may just be his desire to stand out coming through.

Elirtai:
>>Let's see. Dumbledore is the eldest (he's 150); we know wizards have
long life spans, but not how long.


How do we know he's that old?  I can't remember reading anything that says his age on it, although he must be pretty old since he was teaching at the school fifty years previously when Riddle was there (and is Hagrid in his sixties then if he was third year when that happened and it was fifty years ago?  He looks good for his age ;)).

Ayla again:
>>And I have one small question about Death Eaters.  In the fourth 
book, at the end, it almost seems like that Voldemort disregards all 
the female Death Eaters (assuming that there are any, and that 
assumption comes from Harry, who said to Draco at the beginning of 
the fourth book, about his parents being out on the field in black 
cloaks and masks, and what would he know about it).  So are there any 
female death eaters?  I couldn't find any other references to them in 
the GoF.  


Weren't the Lestranges a husband and wife pair of death eaters that were in Azkaban?  I know Voldemort refers to them as he's going round his circle in GoF and comments at one of the empty spaces that they 'should have been here'. 

I have a question too:  Why exactly does Ron have Charlie's old wand?  I know he has a lot of hand me downs, but wouldn't Charlie need his wand?  I thought a wizard kept their wand until it broke or got lost or whatever - if the wand is tuned to the wizard, surely a new one wouldn't fit that well if the old one was still working?

--Jo