names/Lucius Diary/Meg's Hurricane Spell/Animagi/Swords/Bathrooms

[Catlady (Rita Prince Winston)]

No: HPFGUIDX 45830

Kudos to Richard GulPlum for fighting the good fight for canonical 
Hogwarts uniforms!

Freya wrote:

<< But anyway I wonder why JKR has made some of the character names 
so obvious, like Hooch, Sprout, Albus... (Albus! He didn't always 
have white hair!). Like their names would be their destiny or 
something. Aaargh! I find that annoying. >>

Is Hooch an obvious name? Please explain it to me. 

"Albus" could be named not from his white hair but from his purity, 
or after Albion (an old named for the island of Britain, based on 
the sight of the "white cliffs of Dover".)

Having so many appropriate names ("appropriate", "obvious", same 
difference) seems to please rather than annoy most Potterfans. I 
can't believe that a wizard's name controls his/her destiny, so it 
must somehow be part of the magic of the wizarding world that a 
wizard's destiny controls his/her name. One listie has suggested a 
logical (rather than magical) way for the destiny to control the 
name, which is that there is a Naming Spell -- I would rather 
believe that it Just Happens, as all that magic floating around in 
the environment causes all kinds of "co-incidences". What I don't 
understand, either way, is why the wizarding folk haven't yet 
NOTICED how meaningful the names are, and e.g. figured out that young 
Hogwarts student Remus Lupin was a werewolf as soon as the readers 
did. The other thing I don't understand is how all this destiny stuff 
gets along with JKR's preaching of free will. 

Frankie wrote:

<< "Here Lord Voldemort plainly states he has had no contact with 
Lucius from the time of his demise to the time of his rebirth. While 
he rubs Lucius's face in it for running from the Mark, he does not 
say anything about diary." >>

The MAGIC DISHWASHER folks, who believe that everything Voldemort 
said in that scene was deliberate disinformation to deceive Harry's 
side, might take Voldemort's plain statement as *proof* that the 
opposite is true?

Meg incanted:

<< "Frederick, Georges, Isidore and Camille, make these walls as 
strong as steel." >>

That sounds more like "Sunshine, daisies, butter mellow, Turn this 
stupid, fat rat yellow." than like "Lumos!" or even "Waddiwasi!" <g> 

Marianne wrote:

<< Does a wizard's Animagus form not only reflect traits of the 
human, but must it also fit logically into the geographic area in 
which the wizard resides? (snip) For that matter, what about other 
magical creatures? Why not a dragon or a kelpie? >>

I suspect that it is impossible for an Animagus's animal form to be a 
magical animal, making it impossible for Dumbledore to be a phoenix 
Animagus.

Georgette Tan wrote:

<< I'm trying to remember if the books mentioned wizards being able 
to choose their animal forms... or if it gets predetermined based on 
their character. >>

It's not mentioned in the books, but JKR confirmed in interviews 
that the animal forms of Animagi are predetermined based on their 
personality. I gave the quotes and the URLs for the entire 
interviews in 
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/45616 

I have still more questions about Animagery: I want to know, what 
happens if a person who has become an Animagus goes over the whole 
training again, from scratch, will heesh get another animal form? Can 
a person who is a werewolf become an Animagus? with an animal form 
other than wolf? Can a werewolf who is an Animagus with an animal 
form other than wolf avoid turning into a wolf monster at Full Moon 
by turning into hiser animal before the moment?

Steve bboy_mn wrote:

<< If the transfomation to an animagus, a true animagus, was 
somewhat random, that is, you can't pick it, it's determined by your 
personallity, then how did the Mauraders know that they would 
transform into animals that were useful? If they had all turned into 
rats, or say a rat, a squirrel, and a rabbit, (or pick three small 
furry animals of your own) they would have undergone a very dangerous 
and illegal tranformation only to find the they had become animals 
that weren't capable of handling a werewolf. Being able to control 
Lupin as well as keep him company while he was a werewolf was the 
whole point of doing it. >>

No. The original plan of becoming Animagi was only to be able to keep 
Moony company in the Shrieking Shack: "They couldn't keep me company 
as humans, so they kept me company as animals," said Lupin. "A 
werewolf is only a danger to people." If they were three mousies, 
they could have kept him company because, as long as the werewolf 
didn't go crazy from scenting humans, the werewolf kept enough of his 
mind to remember that *these* mousies are friends not food.

It was only after they had learned Animagery and found out that 
"Sirius and James transformed into such large animals, they were able 
to keep a werewolf in check" that they realized that "highly exciting 
possibilities were open to us now that we could all transform. Soon 
we were leaving the Shrieking Shack and roaming the school grounds 
and the village by night."  

Melody wrote:

<< What kind of sword would an 11th century knight carry and 
generally have in his possession? (snip) In the previews of the 
MTMNBM part II, we see Harry thrusting about a Musketeer-esque sword. 
Very pretty, very honorable, but this type of sword did not come
around till the 16th - 17th century, right?  >>

Maybe Godric had a magic sword that shape-shifted to match the 
nearest Gryffindor's expectation of what a sword should be?

Ellen the Beekeeper wrote:

<< As I have pointed out before, Moaning Myrtle's bathroom certainly 
hasn't been around since the 11th century, so who put the snake on 
the faucet? Heck- Who installed the trick sink? >>

I don't share your certainty... I have the OPPOSITE certainty! I 
believe that Potterverse wizarding folk have had late twentieth 
century indoor plumbing and Renaissance 'replica' castles since back 
before Atlantis sank. They didn't need to know any plumbing, 
hydraulics, metallurgy, stonecarving, or architecture because they 
made their bathrooms and castles by MAGIC! However, Muggles who 
visted wizards and saw the nice things the wizards had, had to invent 
all that technology in order to imitate the wizarding goodies. There 
is a long history of Muggles trying to imitate wizarding plumbing: 
Minoan, Classical Roman, etc.

The wizarding folk teach their children a lot of self-enhancing 
falsehoods. For example, they teach their children that the reason to 
keep magic secret from Muggles is to avoid being pestered by Muggles 
wanting favors (and Hagrid, not having completed his education, still 
believes that), when in reality the wizarding folk went into hiding 
because they were scared of the Muggles attacking them.

Another example is that they teach their children that Muggles use 
technology to imitate what wizards do by magic. Technology probably 
*started* that way, Muggles trying to figure out how to make 
bathrooms and castles and swords like the wizards had ... this may 
have remained true up to the Steam Age, with Muggles inventing 
horseless carriages to imitate the horseless carriages that carry 
students from Hogsmeade Station to Hogwarts, inventing railroads to 
imitate wizarding self-propelled wagons, gaslight to imitate the 
magical self-lighting candles on the wall of wizarding houses ... but 
by then the discovery and invention of science and technology had 
become self-propelling themselves, and with Electricity, Muggles went 
on to invent things that the wizarding folk copy. The Wizarding 
Wireless Network is obviously an imitation of Muggle radio, because 
it's named after "wireles", the British Muggle name for radio. The 
wizarding folk would have no other reason to name it "wireless", 
because they didn't have a preceeding technology named "wire" (the 
telegraph).