Sorting Hat / MoM Salaries / SnapeSnapeSnape / QWC / Animagi / Shrieki Shack

[catlady_de_los_angeles]

No: HPFGUIDX 36663

Susan P. wrote:

> One other quick question - is the Sorting Hat others have mentioned
> the one on the main WB page for the movie, or is there another one 
> somewhere?            

Here are URLs of three:
http://hogwarts.7dragons.net/
http://www.harrypotterfansonline.com/SortingCap.htm
http://www.angelfire.com/tx5/worldofmagic/ 

Christi wrote:

> On a different note, I don't think that the Sorting Hat's offer to 
> put Harry in Slytherin tempted Harry much at all. I wonder if the 
> Sorting Hat gave Tom Riddle a choice? How many people have been 
> offered a choice? 

I don't know whether the hat offered anyone a choice, but it took a 
long time with some people:

PS/SS: "The hat took a long time to decide with Neville."  
"Finnigan, Seamus," the sandy-haired boy next to Harry in the line, 
sat on the stool for almost a whole minute before the hat declared 
him a Gryffindor."

I think that it was arguing with Neville, refusing to accept his 
assertion that he MUST belong in Hufflepuff not Gryffindor. I wonder 
what's up with Seamus? Probably something related to the unique 
symbol beside his name on JKR's chart. Chart URL: 
http://photos.groups.yahoo.com/group/hpforgrownups/vwp?.dir=/Harry+Pot
ter+%26+Me&.dnm=schoollist3.jpg&.src=gr&.view=t&.hires=t

Brewpub Barkeep wrote:

> I have been thinking about Harry's sorting ceremony. Harry starts 
> off by mumbling "not Slytherin", and the hat challenges him back. 
> (snip) the Hat is having some fun at Harry's expense. It depends on
> whether or not these magicked objects can have fun. We know the 
> painting can, why not the hat? Why can't the hat have a little fun
> with the students?

I agree.
But the Hat said in CoS: "But I stand by what I said before" - 
Harry's heart leapt - "you would have done well in Slytherin -" and 
Dumbledore told Harry that Harry had qualities that Slytherin valued 
in his students but "It is our choices, Harry, that show what we 
truly are, far more than our abilities" rather than telling Harry 
that the Hat was just joking him.

Athena wrote:

<< Moreover, how does the Ministry of Magic privide salaries for its
employees? Are they supported by wizardry taxes? If so, would that be
something as pedestrian as sales taxes at the Three Broomsticks and
Honeydukes? Or should we just give this a rest because the subject is
just too damned boring and doesn't drive the plot one whit? >>

I have a theory that the wizarding government has an annual income 
from the Muggle world, from which it pays all its expenses. It might 
be that Muggle governments pay 'protection money' to the wizards, 
paying them not to attack us. Less shocking possibilities are that we 
pay them to use their magic to protect us from magical monsters or 
from asteroids hitting the Earth, or that we pay them royalties on 
valuable patents that they own.

Another possibility is that wizard money DOES grow on trees -- very 
rare and very carefully guarded trees!

Eloise wrote:

> So DEs *feel* their own Mark burning or tingling or something when
> they're in the presence of another DE so that they know they're in 
> safe company. Perhaps that's why Snape suddenly clutches at his arm
> during the pyjama party: it's not just guilt, or whatever emotion 
> you want to ascribe to him at that point; Moody's presence and 
> particularly his thoughts about Snape as DE are actually affecting 
> the Mark.

IIRC someone previously speculated that Aurors had a Dark Mark 
Detector, that Fake Moody had stolen Real Moody's Dark Mark Detector 
(along with his Eye), and that that is what set off Snape's Mark. If 
it were indeed Fake Moody's Mark that set off Snape's Mark, Snape 
might have thought it was Moody's Dark Mark Detector that had done so 
... even if there were no Dark Mark Detector except in rumors spread 
by panicky Death Eaters. 

Tabouli wrote:

> Why did he study up on curses so obsessively? To me, this suggests
> a resentful, damaged child who feels powerless and has secretly
> been plotting revenge on those who damaged him (which, given his 
> mistrustful nature, could well have been his parents or guardians). 
> This also fits in with someone who bullies his students: it's not
> at *all* common for those bullied by those in authority over them
> to become bullies towards those over whom *they* have authority 
> later in life. 

*I* think his parents were almost completely uninterested in him. In 
my theory, they had a deep interest in Dark Arts and a library that 
had been accumulating for nearly a thousand years (live in the same 
house for a thousand years and books just PILE UP); they had no 
interest in children, but bore one son to carry on the family name, 
whom they promptly handed over to a nanny. When he was four, they 
fired the nanny for being too soft on him and hired a strict 
governess instead. The only times they appeared to approve of him was 
when they found him studying books of magic and learning still more 
curses. HIs home life was coldness (except that first bit with the 
nanny) but not bullying. His resentment was not directed against his 
parents, but rather against primary school classmates (who hated him 
first for lacking social skills and second for getting good grades) 
and teachers (who sided with the classmates). Elementary school 
children do a lot of physical violence (as well as verbal violence) 
against people they dislike.

I can imagine little kid Severus looking forward with nervous 
eagerness to starting Hogwarts, a new school with (mostly) new 
people, some of them his intellectual equals, and a chance to start 
over on a new foot with people who didn't hate him yet... and having 
made enemies before the Hogwarts Express had arrived!

Marina Rusalka wrote:

> I doubt [Snape] he would react favorably to an apology from Harry, 
> or from Sirius, or from anyone else he thinks has wronged him.

I think Snape would LOVE to receive apologies, would glory in it and 
Really Rub It In, saying things along the line of "Yes, you behaved 
very badly. Admit just how *very* badly you behaved. More details!"

* * * QUIDDITCH WORLD CUP * * *

Various people have mentioned at various time that Ron got to bring 
two friends to the QWC and none of the other kids got to bring even 
one friend. It has occured to me that Mr. Weasley might have got one 
extra ticket and asked his Hogwarts-age kids (the twins, Ron, and 
Ginny) to agree among themselves whom to invite, and MAYBE it was the 
twins who first shouted: "Harry, of course! Our team-mate, maybe he 
can pick up a few tricks from Lynch and Krum" and maybe it was Ginny 
who next said: "Oh, it would be nice to have Harry with us" before 
Ron said: "Wicked!" (in the book, it would be "Brilliant!") and 
MAYBE, after the kids had told their consensus to their parents, it 
was soft-hearted Molly who VOLUNTEERED to give up her ticket for 
Harry's (and Ron's) other friend. After all, later in GoF, Molly 
believed Rita Skeeter's claim that Hermione had been toying with 
Harry's affections... That would be easier if she had already thought 
that Harry fancied Hermione...

My reason for the above theory is that it eliminates parental 
favoritism to Ron, allowing him to be the only one to invite guests. 
After all, if Arthur had started out to bring TWO guests, and asked 
his kids whom to bring, once Harry had been chosen, then the twins 
would have suggested Lee Jordan for the other. 

But a side-effect is mild support for the 'missing Weasley kid' (in 
that gap of years between Charlie and Percy):  Bagman might be SUCH 
an unobservant fool that he doesn't remember that one of Arthur's 
kids was killed or lost, so he provided enough tickets for all of 
them...

Uncmark asked 
<<or is it dictated by their nature? I could picture Darco Malfoy
studying to become an anamagi and becoming a dungbeetle.>>

http://www.geocities.com/aberforths_goat/October_2000_Live_Chat_Americ
a_Online.htm
Q: Does the animal one turns into as an Animagi reflect your
personality?
A: Very well deduced, Narri! I personally would like to think that I
would transform into an otter, which is my favorite animal. Imagine 
how horrible it would be if I turned out to be a cockroach!

Thanks to http://www.geocities.com/aberforths_goat/ search tool, and 
is that OUR Narri?

Boggles wrote:

> I would be very, very wary of letting anyone by the name of Draco 
become an animagus.

First, question is, can Animagi become magical beasts or just natural 
beasts? If Animagi can only become natural beasts, no one can be a 
phoenix Animagus, griffin Animagus, or dragon Animagus.

Second, I don't agree that the Law of Names comes before the law of 
personality. 

Zoe Hooch asked:

> How does Tom Riddle know about his mother? How does he know she's
> a witch? How does he know his middle name is that of his maternal 
> grandfather?

Well, personally, I think the orphaned baby Tom lived with his 
maternal grandparents until they died, so they had some time to tell 
him things and leave him documents. I think they died when he was a 
toddler: killed by little Tommy's uncontrolled strong magic and his 
temper tantrum. I think that Tom Jr's parents were never married: Tom 
Sr may never even have known that his light o' love was a witch, but 
he didn't break up with her because she was a witch, he broke up with 
her just because she was stupid enough to expect him to *marry* just 
because he got her pregnant. The grandparents came up with that other 
story as a euphemism because they were Victorians (literally, as Tom 
was born in 1926). If only they had told Tom Jr the truth, he could 
have crusaded against premarital sex instead of against Muggles.

Elkins wrote:

> Hmmm. Lupin's reaction? Do you mean his charming "You should have
> realized if Voldemort didn't kill you, we would?" Or were you 
> thinking more of Sirius' "you should have died rather than betray 
> your friends" statement?  (snip) That line of Sirius' has never
> made me feel too good either. I mean... <Elkins squirms 
> uncomfortably> I mean, of course we all like to *believe* that 
> we'd die rather than betray our friends, don't we? But...well...
> I mean...

That line of Lupin's is (to me) just fine. It's true and all. But I 
completely agree with you about Sirius's statement. He has no right 
to assert how he WOULD die, not having done so yet. Did Heinlein have 
Lazarus Long say somewhere, no man should criticise another for not 
dying well until he has died himself? 

Besides that moral issue, there is a little nitpick of logic, similar 
to the man who offered his friend first pick of the cookies and the 
friend chose the biggest one and the man said: "That's rude! If I'd 
picked first, I would have picked the other one" and the friend said: 
"The one you would have picked is the one you got, so why are you 
complaining?" Peter should have died to save James, just as James 
would have died to save Peter. Well, James did die to save Peter, so 
why are you complaining? 

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