QuidditchSeeker/Equinox/HarryRiddle/GryffNeville/VoldSex/MuggleInvent/Animagi

[Catlady (Rita Prince Winston)]

No: HPFGUIDX 55656

Katy Cartee wrote:

<< But pretend that the picture depicted Harry reading the book 
"Pride and Prejudice" and had a caption underneath it stating "Harry, 
reading his favorite book." >>

But surely Harry's FAVORITE book is the copy of FLYING WITH THE 
CANNONS that Ron gave him!

"izaskun granda" asked:

<< why did the Slytherins use Malfoy's injured arm as an excuse not 
to play the match in    PoA? Or still better. Why didn't Wood ask for 
a few more days till his seeker was totally recovered?? >>

The Slyth-Gryff match was scheduled to be the first match of the 
season, so it could swap dates with another match without messing 
up the schedule. By swapping with the Puff-Gryff match (or the 
Claw-Gryff match), possibly no one except the Slyth and Puff players 
themselves had to know about the swap in advance, maybe not even 
their Heads of House. I am under the impression that the match that 
Harry missed was scheduled to be the last match of the season, so 
there was NO other match to swap with.

Barb psychic_serpent wrote:

<< The autumnal equinox (snip)  (Although numerous sources I looked 
up put it on September 22, not 21. >>

The solstices and equinoces don't fall on exactly the same calendar 
dates every year. Each year, the date/time is a little bit later in 
September until leap-year is puts it back again. I care so much about 
this that I've spent one hour Web searching, and found this nice 
equinox calculator: http://www.hermetic.ch/cal_sw/ve/ve.php , which 
gives September 22 and September 23 as the dates of the Autumn 
Equinoces from 1980 to 2000, even tho' I am *convinced* that I 
remember it falling on September 21 and 20.

Barb psychic_serpent wrote:

<< If she'd said ahead of time that we were going to see a Weasley 
cousin in GoF and then we discovered that we got Rita instead, I'd 
just think she'd changed her mind and decided that Rita worked 
better. >>

IIRC, she DID tell Lizo (of Newsround) ahead of time that we were 
going to see a Weasley cousin in GoF. He asked her (again on 
Newsround) where was the promised cousin, and she explained about 
having to fix the plot hole.

Audra wrote:

<< That's why the name "Riddle" sounds familiar to Harry. Riddle is a 
Muggle name, hence someone on Harry's maternal (Muggle) side of the 
family. >>

I automatically assumed, and have not yet had reason to change my 
mind, that Harry's faint familiarity with the name Tom Riddle came to 
him the same way his Parselmouth did: transplanted from Lord 
Voldemort.

"graniteworks" wrote:

<< [Neville Longbottom] doesn't really seem to have the bravery that 
Godric Gryffindor honored. >>

Read Hobbit-Guy's fic: 
http://www.thedarkarts.org/authors/hobbit_guy/SAL.html for an 
explanation of Sorting Neville

aja_1991 wrote:

<< (I can't help but think that the evil Voldemort feels and acts on 
sensations of lust in some way). >>

Lust for cruelty, certainly. And lust for power. But I believe that 
TMR/Voldemort (lost/gave up) all sexual desire and sexual organs 
when he switched to that scaley, noseless snake-man form. And that 
he switched to snake-man during his experiments in search of 
immortality, maybe as the side-effect of the successful experiment. 

>From the re-embodying diary being, he doesn't seem to have been all 
that interested in sex even when he was 16, still human, and good 
enough at charming people that he could have been quite the seducer.

Or (h'mm) maybe he only put parts of himself that were relevant to 
finding the basilisk and siccing it on Muggle-born students into the 
diary, omitting sexuality and sports and maybe some actual friend- 
ships with those few friends who knew his secret name ... that would 
explain why the TMR character seems SUCH a psychopath ...  

"silly_mr_wiggles" wrote:

<< Is it just me or does it seem a bit odd that Hagrid, a half giant 
and a wizard, has a muggle weapon like a crossbow? It seemed to me 
that the wizarding world had made its way   without muggle inventons, 
especially because Mr. Weasly was so facinated with them. >>

Muggle inventions eventually make their way to the wizarding world: 
the Hogwarts Express is copied from Muggle steam trains, Wizarding 
Wireless is copied from Muggle wireless (UK word for 'radio'). I 
suppose the knowledge of these Muggle inventions is brought to the 
wizarding world by Muggle-born wizards and witches who grew up with 
them.

<< Do you think animagi can turn into magical creatures? >>

I believe that Animagi cannot turn into magical creatures, which is 
why I do not share the widespread belief that Dumbledore is a Phoenix 
Animagus. But I'm pretty confused about what non-magical animals an 
Animagus might turn into -- for example, the first time of 
transforming into a fish seems likely to be fatal, via drowning in 
air. Even if the books advise practising beside a body of water until 
you know what form you will take, the water is either fresh or salt 
and many fish cannot survive in the wrong kind. How about turning 
into a Tyranosaurus? A moa? A passenger pigeon?