BC-magic&ekeltreecity-DumbleShip-JamesRelatives-Sev'sRelatives-more,look!

[Catlady (Rita Prince Winston)]

No: HPFGUIDX 79262

Serena Moonsilver wrote in 
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/78817 :

<< Yes, but B.C.E is a more modern usage, B.C. is more traditional 
and since Rowling tries to make the impression that Ollivander is 
very, very old, it seems likely that's why she used B.C. instead of 
B.C.E. >>

He *has* updated that sign since his business was founded in *counts 
on fingers* 732 AUC. (AUC is 'ab urbe condita', i.e. since the 
founding of the city [Rome], the way years were dated until the BC/AD 
system was invented. I found a webpage that says the current era 
starts with C.E. 1 on 1 January 754 AUC.)
 
Golly feetmade of clay wrote in 
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/78865 :

<< Explain the wireless and the knight bus and the HEx. They have 
knowledge of these things even if theirs work on magic. If you can 
find out a reason why they have a knight bus but can't manage to get 
a Muggle grade 10 science textbook to learn about the muggle world 
and things like electricity, I would be most grateful. >>

I have always believed that Wizarding Wireless, Knight Bus, and 
Hogwarts Express were invented by Muggleborn wizards who knew about 
the originals from their Muggle lives and knew how to make magical 
machines because that was their wizarding career. I'm inclined to 
believe that a wizard who knew both science and magic could do 
*even more powerful* magic, but it has been suggested that wizards 
would lose the ability to do magic, thus turning into Muggles, if 
started thinking like Muggles, i.e. logically as a result of studying 
science. However, as for electricity in particular, they CANNOT 
practise with it at Hogwarts or Hogmeade or Diagon Alley or 
(probably) the Burrow or any wizarding home, because electrical and 
electronic devices don't work right when exposed to too much ambient 
magic (per Hermione in GoF).	

Susan Smith Atropos Gryffin wrote in 
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/78928 :

<< I have begun to wonder if McGonnagall and Dumbledore are married. 
When Dippet stepped aside and Albus DD was promoted to headmaster, I 
beleive he (DD) then recommended a Transfiguration replacement based 
on his experience that his own wife was a superb Transfiguration 
witch. >>

I suppose Dumbledore chose McGonagall as Transfiguration Professor 
based on his experience with her as his student and possibly as a 
helper versus Grindelwald. I feel sure that Dumbledore and McGonagall 
are not married to each other because I feel absolutely certain that 
McGonagall and Hooch have been a couple, a monogamous couple, for 
many decades. I have no evidence for McG/H except that it's so 
*obvious* when I read canon. I guess those who think that McG and DD 
are married (or 'going together') assumed that the relationship got 
intimate some time after that first chapter of PS/SS, or do they 
assume that the stiff way they speak to each other is just an 
accustomed joke between them? I think DD (who may be a widower) and 
Madam Pomfrey (who could be a widow) might be 'going together', for 
which I even have Evidence: 'I haven't blushed so much since Madam 
Pomfrey admired my new earmuffs.'  

Christy asked in 
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/78965 :

<< If James' family is in fact a wizarding family >>

Surely they must be, at least on one side, as JKR said in an 
interview that James's Invisibility Cloak was an old family heirloom.

<< then how is it that Harry has no other living relatives? (snip) 
What I was wondering though is that if James' family was indeed a 
wizarding family, and what Sirius has said is true (that is, that 
wizarding families are very intermixed) shouldn't Harry be related to
somebody else? >>

In OoP, Dumbledore explained that he put Harry with Petunia because 
DD's protection spell built on Lily's sacrifice by protecting Harry 
while he was with his mother's "blood". That killed my theory that 
Petunia was Narcissa's sister, rejected by her parents for being a 
Squib, and adopted by the Evanses. In exchange, it explained why no 
relative of Harry's on his father's side would be an acceptable 
foster home. If McGonagall was James's mother or mother-in-law or 
aunt, she would have responded to 'They're the only family he has 
left' by saying the wizarding equivalent of 'what am I, chopped 
liver?' 

But if the closest relations she knew of were something like 
Andromeda, Bellatrix, and Narcissa nee Black's mother were the sister 
of James's mother, that would not cause her to suggest putting him 
with Bellatrix or Narcissa the Death Eaters, not with even Andromeda 
who was busy with a small child of her own. What would she be, his 
second cousin once removed?

Some listie has pointed out that James didn't have a brother, because 
Sirius said James's parents treated him like a second son, not like a 
third son. I personally doubt he had a sister either.

Melpomene wrote in 
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/79070 

<< Severus just *has* to be related to Phineas. >>

I agree with whoever said that Mrs. Black was probably Mr. Black's 
first cousin, so they had mostly the same ancestors. I think that 
Sirius, Bellatrix, Severus, and the man in the Pensive all had a 
resemblance, more than just black hair and strong features (altho' 
Sirius and Bellatrix were lucky enough to get the pretty version). 
Therefore, if the man in the Pensieve was Sevvie's father, I imagine 
that Sevvie's paternal grandmother was a Black. 

Susan Handel wrote in 
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/79081 :

<< what is a "biro" ? >>

It's a bic pen, regardless of brand name. (Seriously. They were 
invented by the Marquis de Bic, a Frenchman.) If you have access to 
the Web as well as e-mail, I have found www.onelook.com to be a 
wonderful resource. 

<< Secondly, Hagrid explained in SS/PS that the wizards do not let 
Muggles know of them because they would want them to fix all their 
"problems" with magic. The way I understand it, Wizards work very 
hard not to "contaminate" the Muggle world. >>

That *is* what Hagrid said, and I think he even believed it. I also 
think that is just the nicey-nice story told to wizarding children, 
while the real truth is that wizards hide from Muggles because they 
are SCARED of Muggles. When it comes to Magical History, I have more 
faith in Professor Binns's accuracy than in Hagrid's. In CoS, Binns 
said: "You all know, of course, that Hogwarts was founded over a 
thousand years ago - the precise date is uncertain - by the four 
greatest witches and wizards of the age. The four school Houses 
are named after them: Godric Gryffindor, Helga Hufflepuff, Rowena 
Ravenclaw, and Salazar Slytherin. They built this castle together, 
far from prying Muggle eyes, for it was an age when magic was feared 
by common people, and witches and wizards suffered much 
persecution." 

Let me repeat: "witches and wizards suffered much persecution." 

Sunnylove wrote in 
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/79143 :

<< One wonders if she had a wizard present, especially a healer, he 
might have been able to save her. Why would a witch die in childbirth 
anyway, is my question. >>

My theory is that she died of a broken heart. Her only will to live 
was to give life to her child and she had no will to live after that. 
Some other listie offered a theory that witches really NEED midwives 
/ accoucheurs, because of wizarding children doing uncontrolled 
unintended magic when frightened or angry? If a being-born baby is 
old enough to do that, the process of being squeezed out of the womb 
is adequate to fighten or anger him, so there would be a lot of 
uncontrolled magic around a wizarding childbirth. An argument against 
that is that Colin Creevey's Muggle mother survived to bear Dennis. A 
counter-argument is that TMR probably had much stronger magic than 
Colin.

Evangelina (whose posts I love) wrote in  
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/79164 :

<< Also, was it common knowledge among all you English-speaking folk 
that a cockatrice and a basilisk were the same animal? This is more 
than a little bit confusing. >>

When I was in elementary school in the 1960s, we did a unit in 
English class about Greek and Roman mythology and another about 
mythological animals. I am convinced that, back in those days, the 
basilisk and the cockatrice were different animals, but a year or two 
or three ago, I did a LOT Of web-searching about basilisks and 
cockatrices and all the sources that I found said they were the same. 
The way I remember it, a cockatrice comes from an egg laid by a 
rooster and incubated in the natural warmth of a dung heap. It has a 
rooster's head and a lizard body. If a cockatrice lays an egg which 
is incubated under a toad, the egg produces a basilisk, which is like 
a snake with a rooster head at one end and a toad head with a gold 
crown on the other end. One head of the basilisk can turn people into 
stone by looking at them and the other can kill a whole roomful of 
people by breathing out poison gas. I cannot remember which is the 
rooster head (which has the same deadly power on the cockatrice) and 
which is the toad head. I do notice that this is very different from 
the new information that Steve bboy_mn provided today. 

Carolina Silmariel wrote in 
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/79225 :

<< Draco can be Cancer. Jealous, inmature, loyal (to slytherin 
house), acting by the mood he has that day, not standing laughs on 
him, likes family, likes to take revenge (also a Scorpio and Virgo 
trait). Adding details, he can have Scorpio as Ascendent, Moon in 
Virgo, Mercury in Gemini and Venus in Libra. Sirius is touched by 
Saggitaurus somehow, I see Snape as a Scorpio/Virgo, Dumbledore can 
be an eagle Scorpio. >>

A few years ago, I messed around with an ephemeris and decided that 
Draco was born on June 24, 1980

Sun- 3Cn06  Sun- at 3 degrees of Cancer (counts to me as Gemini/Cancer 
cusp)
Moon 17Sc00 Moon at 17 degrees of Scorpio!!!!
Merc 24Cn31 Mercury at 24 degrees of Cancer      
Venu 19Ge05.Venus at 19 degrees of Gemini (the . is supposed to 
indicate retrograde)
Mars 21Vi17 Mars at 21 degrees of Virgo 
Jupi 5Vi02       
Satu 21Vi06     
Uran 22Sc01.    
Nept 20Sg58.  
Plut 18Li58.

I see Snape as a Scorpio like me, Sirius as an Aries, Lupin Aquarius 
or Pisces, but I think Ron is supposed to be a Taurus, not an Aries. 
I haven't checked an ephemeris for May 1 (Beltaine), 1980 to see if it 
suits him.

Entropy Mail wrote in 
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/79236 :

<< There's is a point in OoP when Sirius refers to Snape as Malfoy's 
"lapdog", which I thought at the time was interesting. We've never 
seen Snape have much of a relationship with Malfoy. >>

In OoP, Umbridge tells Snape that Lucius Malfoy has always spoken 
well of him. I felt that that confirmed my opinion that Lucius and 
Severus had some kind of friendship (maybe it started in school days, 
maybe Lucius recruited Severus into Death Eaters) even if in recent 
years it consisted only of Lucius having a few words with Severus 
when he came to Hogwarts on Board of Governors business. 

<< If anything, Malfoy should hate Snape for turning towards 
Dumbledore and away from  the DEs. >>

Apparently, Malfoy doesn't know that Snape turned toward Dumbledore. 
Malfoy avoided Azkaban back in 1981 by claiming that he'd been under 
the Imperius Curse, and probably assumes that Snape also acted 
(naming names) to save his own skin, rather than taking even more 
risk by turning spy.