JK's writings/photos: Was: Snape/Karkaroff / How Many Students? / Weasley Clock

[Catlady (Rita Prince Winston)]

No: HPFGUIDX 46450

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., "jastrangfeld" <msbonsai at m...> wrote:

> Well we can see a page or two, but not everyone.  But I was 
> actually going to ask you something else.  I have heard it
> mentioned that JK refuses to say what the symbols mean.  (Snip)
> So I guess that leaves that mysterious middle column . . . any 
> thoughts?

Many people on the list have tried to figure out a code in which it 
would indicate pure-blood, half-blood, or muggle-born. There has also 
been a suggestion that it shows who will side with Dumbledore and 
who with Voldemort, but I have not heard any suggestion what each 
symbol would mean.
> 
> Very interesting.  I note that picture has a cat . . . is it 
> supposed  to be Crookshanks?  

It can't be Crookshanks. First, Percy's badge says P for Prefect, 
not HB for Head Boy, so it is Book 1 or Book 2, and Crookshanks 
wasn't there until Book 3. Second, the cat in the picture is black. 
I don't know WHO it could be ... there's nothing in canon about any 
of the Weasleys HAVING a cat, altho' in CoS one of the boys says that 
Ginny loves cats. I could fantasize that it is Millicent Bulstrode's 
cat (known from the polyjuice chapter to be black), gone visiting.  

> (I have a bone to pick with Crookshanks . . . if he's supposed to
> be fashioned after Persians and Himilayans . . . 
> they don't normally stick their bottlebrush tails straight into the 
> air, as it's too heavy with the fur and abnormal for them . . .
> (can you tell I raise Himmies?))

I think he's supposed to be a British Shorthair, a "breed" which 
fills the same social role as American Shorthair (i.e. being a just 
plain cat, moggy, or alley-cat), but looks quite different. I read in 
a cat book that the Blitz much reduced the population of cats in 
London (for all I know, they were eaten by starving people) so after 
the War it was decided to replace the population by breeding the 
survivors with Persian cats. Persians because British Shorthairs 
were already known (according to the book) for their "cobby" build 
and flat faces, but not why blotch tabby is apparently more common 
among them than tiger tabby. Surely tiger tabby is the original 
pattern from before cats were domesticated?! 

I don't know WHY Brits like their cats to look like heavyweight 
boxers (or British bulldogs?), with their big fat heavy bones and 
ugly smashed-in faces (oops, I shouldn't say that to a fancier of 
Persians and Himalayans!). Does it say something about the English 
personality?