Re-reading

[manawydan]

No: HPFGUIDX 76417

I re-read PS/SS this weekend and picked up on a couple of points which
hadn't stuck in my mind before - wondered what others thought about them?

1. Snape's worst memory

Chapter 16. It's a sunny day, and the exams are over. HRH go looking for
Dumbledore and don't find him.

Snape appears

"Good afternoon", he said smoothly
They stared at him.
"You shouldn't be inside on a day like this" he said, with an odd, twisted
smile.
"We were-" Harry began, without any idea what he was going to say.
"You want to be more careful", said Snape. "Hanging around like this...

Especially from the odd, twisted smile, I wonder if Severus was thinking
about another sunny day after the end of an exam?

2. Dead Weasleys

Chapter 12. It snows

"The lake froze solid and the Weasley twins were punished for bewitching
several snowballs so that they followed Quirrell around, bouncing off the
back of his turban"

Ouch. Voldemort's reaction to being snowballed isn't recorded, but I suspect
he wasn't unduly happy about it. Does he hold grudges? If so, Greg and Forge
had better look out, especially now they're out in the big wide world on
their own...

3. Big Hogwarts? Big Hufflepuff?

Chapter 7. The sorting process. Of the students whose house is given here, 3
are listed for Hufflepuff (Abbott, Bones, Finch-Fletchley), 3 for Ravenclaw
(Boot, Brocklehurst, Turpin), 3 for Slytherin (Bulstrode, Malfoy, Zabini),
and 6 for Gryffindor (Brown, Finnegan, Granger, Longbottom, Potter,
Weasley).

It's not conclusive, but it sounds as if JKR is trying to emphasise that the
houses are roughly equal (though the Gryffs are highlighted because that's
where Our Heroes end up, of course). If there were 3 smaller houses and Big
Hufflepuff, then I think the numbers would have been different (maybe even
to the extent that Harry would have asked why so many students got sorted
into that house)

:Later in the same chapter

"Percy directed the girls through one dooe to their dormitory and the boys
through another"

The singular is used in both cases. Unless there is a case for saying that
there is more than one Gryffindor common room (unlikely I'd have thought),
the quote doesn't support there being "hidden Griffindors" that would make
up the numbers you'd need for Big Hogwarts.

4. Wand Cores

Chapter 5. Ollivander talks about production techniques

"We use unicorn hairs, phoenix tail feathers and the heartstrings of
dragons"

It doesn't sound like he has any problems with sourcing phoenix feathers for
wands...

Cheers

Ffred

O Benryn wleth hyd Luch Reon
Cymru yn unfryd gerhyd Wrion
Gwret dy Cymry yghymeiri