[HPforGrownups] Re: Pondering Arabella Figg

[Patricia Bullington-McGuire]

No: HPFGUIDX 56629

On Wed, 30 Apr 2003, theultimatesen wrote:

> Harry poker night w/ margaritas...EXCELLENT idea. 

I agree.  I wish I had thought of it myself.

> Now onto Mrs. 
> Figg. That's an excellent point about her being Harry's godmother. 
> Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but you must have both correct? You 
> can't have *just* a godmother or a godfather? 

No, you don't have to have both.  In a religious sense, a godparent is
expected to help guide the child's religious and moral upbringing, as a
supplement to the family and church.  In a secular sense, a godparent is
expected to help nurture the child and, usually, to take the place of the
parents if they die before the child is grown.  Most often, when there are
both a godmother and a godfather they are a couple who would be expected
to raise the child together after the parents' death.  But, there is
nothing that specifically requires that there be two and only two
godparents.

> I do think there is 
> something fishy going on with the Polyjuice Potion, but I really 
> don't have a clue. Polyjuice potion is definately in the mix 
> somewhere concerning A.F. I hope it's not a case of Crouch Jr. all 
> over again (evil-ness/polyjuice potion). Maybe... Mrs. Figg is using 
> this potion as a disguise? Maybe she's really not an older lady (at 
> least from what I picture) and is really someone L&J's age. She's 
> doing this for protection reasons possibly? Kind of like the Witness 
> Protection Program? LOL Just a stab in the dark. Anything's possible 
> at this point.

I think there is definitely something going on with the cabbage smell, but
I think it's premature to conclude it has to be Polyjuice Potion.  We know
that the apothecary shop in Diagon Alley also smelled of cabbage but we
don't have any reason to assume they had a pot of Polyjuice Potion
bubbling away in the back.  It would be an odd thing to keep on the fire
"just in case."  So while we know cabbagey smells are associated with one
specific potion (Polyjuice) and apothecaries in general, we don't know
that *only* Polyjuice Potion smells of cabbages.  But I think we *can* 
conclude that Mrs. Figg is using or brewing potions of some sort; we just 
don't know what sort yet.


----
Patricia Bullington-McGuire	<patricia at obscure.org>

The brilliant Cerebron, attacking the problem analytically, discovered
three distinct kinds of dragon: the mythical, the chimerical, and the
purely hypothetical.  They were all, one might say, nonexistent, but each
nonexisted in an entirely different way ... 
                -- Stanislaw Lem, "Cyberiad"