Vernon as Molly's cousin/RE:Impossible timetable/Sirius' Eyes

[Núria Obradors Pi]

No: HPFGUIDX 38393

David wrote:
>Can we take the time-honoured approach of finding an irrelevant
character who has not been
>named, and equating him with VD? Yes, indeed we can. Molly Weasley's
cousin
>who is an accountant, of whom they never speak, simply leaps off the
page.

Interesting Theory. Very interesting.

David:
>What could cause young Vernon Dursley to become so embittered? It's
clear.
>Rejection, that's what. *We*, through Harry's POV, see the kind,
tolerant,
>welcoming Weasleys. But Vernon has suffered from their dark side. As so
often
>happens with liberal-minded people, the Weasleys love Muggles from a
distance,
>but have no intention of letting one anywhere near their family. When
Mrs
>Dursley Sr (nee Weasley - well, no, but possibly nee the same as Molly)
married
>a Muggle and gave birth to a Muggle son, their wrath knew no bounds.
They cut
>her off without a knut. In turn, she brought young Vernon up to have
nothing
>to do with magic in any form. She sent him to Smeltings where a regime
of cold
>baths and knobbly sticks could guarantee to knock any magical thought
out of
>his head. She groomed him for that most unmagical of all professions,
>accountancy.

Could be, but I don't like the theory of Molly Weasley's Family cutting
off Vernon's parents. How about this other speculation: *Mr* Dursley
marries muggle Mrs Dursley and keeps his wizarding skills in secret
until after Vernon and Marge are born (we don't know who's the eldest -
they even could be twins). When she knows her husband's true identity,
she freaks and leaves him. He dies soon afterwards, and the kids are
raised well apart from the wizarding community. Molly's family regrets
that Vernon's family turned their backs on the wizarding side of the
family.
Of course this is crazy speculation *and* when Molly says a cousin we
don't know if she's refering to a first cousin or a second cousin. I
always refer to my second cousins simply as my cousins, and only use the
"second" to clarify the perplexed mind who doesn't recall my parents
having so many brothers!
*******

Katherine wrote:
>The simplest way out is that she might be able to get by on a few
>hours of sleep, but that causes even more doubt that she'd be at all
>the feasts and ceremonies, much less dance the two step with a
>partner who has a wooden leg.

That would be assuming she has a normal, daylight life? If she ends up
her class late, she probably gets up at noon and has all her time
schedule moved to fit her working shift.

Katherine:
>So let's say she does sleep for a decent amount of time, and her last
>class leaves at 2.
>It's possible that she (...) casts a spell to aid
>with clearing up, but while the spell is a possibility, it's early in
>the morning,

Early morning? :-) This brings me back to the first paragraph. What is
late and early is completely relative. For me, 2 a.m. is "late night",
and "early morning" might be 5 am, for instance. I know though that in
England and the US they usually do everything at times that are too
early for us argentinians. We can discuss times-for-doing-things in OT
chatter if you like, but I'll only say here that in my country is
completely normal -and usual- to go to bed at midnight and getting up at
6 or 7 the next morning.

Katherine:
>In a third possibility, however, one that doesn't require her to
>travel, she might merely sleep in the Astronomy tower. This is might
>be a bit drafty in the winter, but who knows, maybe the tower is
>spelled to be warmer.

I've always assumed all teachers slept in the Hogwarts castle, at least
on weekdays. At least we know the heads of houses do so, Maybe that's
what I assumed it, but again, we haven't canon evidence as whether the
other teachers stay or not in the castle for the night. :-p

Katherine:
> Then she teaches her lessons starting at
>about 11 or 12 and running to 2, and goes through it all over again.

Perhaps she could start a bit earlier, especially since, in England, is
dark by 4 pm in winter (though I do believe astronomy takes place always
after dinner). And let's not forget weather and moon phases are very
conditioning to the visibility of the sky.

Katherine:
>Now, the question is, how do the STUDENTS manage?
>I don't think there are that
>many assignments on Astronomy, (I'm pretty certain one was mentioned,
>but that might have been Divination-star charts and so on.) but they,
>can't use the sleeping schedule Sinistra does. You really have to
>wonder what the ones that leave at 2 do.

And Mike Wiltse wrote:
>You could probably fit them all into 21 slots (3 a day) if
>you crammed enough into doubles, Harry has at least 3 doubles , CoMC,
>Potions, Herbology, (was astrology double?)

I like to think that older students get the later astronomy slots, so
little kids can get a better sleep (and yes, we do get to see HRH doing
astronomy assignments). About what Mike says, I wonder the same thing.
We've seen Gryffindors paired with Hufflepuffs and Slytherins but not
with Ravenclaws, so could they be paired with them in Astronomy?

Katherine:
>On a final note, do you think Divination students have to keep up the
>Astronomy classes? Divination does cover Astrology, and while these
>are not the same thing, they might be close enough by wizard
>standards. What do you think?

This is another interesting point, as so far we've seen only subjects
being added, not substracted of the timetables. And, for example, I
think many on this list will agree with me that it's unlikely that the
kids *still* have flying lessons in books 3 and 4 (there's no canon
evidence endorsing or refuting this).

Mike Wiltse wrote:
> 7 Teachers (Trelawney never eats at the table, and Binns doesnt need
>to eat) that I know of. But if you read the above carefully, Is she
>reading off the names on both sides of Dumbledore or only one side?
>I think its only 1 because mrs hooch isnt mentioned
> Either way with 28 classes slots a week (not all are filled) with
>double classes in a single slot to make more room I think it would
>all fit.
And Bernadette M. Crumb added:
> it wouldn't surprise me to find there are other
>instructors who have not yet been named. Who teaches Muggle
>Studies? I don't recall seeing a name attached to that
>instructor. Who teaches Ancient Runes? Until we see Harry
>having to interact with these people, they'll probably not be
>identified. Also, who can say that there's not more elective
>classes for the more senior students that haven't actually been

The "more teachers than we know" theory is the only one that I can think
of, too. Olly in another post clarified that a double class is (at least
in Scotland) the one that last twice the normal slot, though yes,
pairing houses helps make more room. Bernadette is right in pointing
that neither the MS nor the AR teacher's names are given in canon. And I
think I agree with her that we won't get to see those teachers unless
they have to interact with Harry. However, if HRH still have the same
teachers we've know so far in the books to come, the "other teachers"
might be assigned not to years but to specific classes. Or they all have
timeturners, blimey.
****

Athena:
>I just think that the gap in the Weasley Family as well as other clues
>(Arthur's discussion of the Dark Mark at the QWC) lead to the potential
of a
>missing child (Or children) which could make Ron a Seventh Son. And
then -
>there's lots of ancient legends regarding the clairvoyant powers of
Seventh
>Sons. It's an easy conclusion to think that JKR has been building us up
for
>this plot twist. I think it's likely and I think it would work to
alleviate
>the Mirror of Erised need of Ron to distinguish himself from his older
>siblings.

This 7thchild!Ron theory is really funny to me - In my country, it is
believed that the seventh son of a family becomes a werewolf, while a
seventh daughter becomes a witch!
****

Athena wrote:
>Now Sirius Black on
>the other hand...that's a character that I'm quite taken with. Yummmm.

Ooooh, a Sirius Black Fan! Isn't it funny that in an era dominated by
image there are so many of us who have a crush on a literary character
who -unlike HRH, Draco or Snape- doesn't have a movie-canon image to be
related to? By the way =Calling out for Sirius's girlfriends out there!=
IIRC Black's eye colour is NOT mentioned in the books - or is it and I
just failed miserably to notice it?

Nuri