Weasley cousin/ShriekingTunnel/Wands,wands,wands/Patronus/Slide/St Mungo

[Catlady (Rita Prince Winston)]

No: HPFGUIDX 79383

Uncle Mark wrote in 
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/79305:

<< I read in a JKR interview that she had planned to introduce a 
Weasley Cousin (snip) My guess for a Weasley cousin is a student who 
we are told has two wizard parents and lives near Ottery St. 
Catchpole.... Luna Lovegood! >>

These interviews: 
http://www.the-leaky-cauldron.org/quickquotes/articles/2000/0800-ew-je
nsen.html
<<I had to pull a character. There you go: "the phantom character of 
Harry Potter." She was a Weasley cousin [related to Ron Weasley, 
Harry's best friend]. She served the same function that Rita Skeeter 
[a sleazy investigative journalist] now serves. Rita was always going 
to be in the book, but I built her up, because I needed a kind of 
conduit for information outside the school. Originally, this girl 
fulfilled this purpose.>>

http://www.the-leaky-cauldron.org/quickquotes/articles/2000/1000-schol
astic-chat.htm
<-<Q: You said Ron's cousin was taken out of Book 4, and you 
developed Rita Skeeter more after that. Do you still think that it 
would have been more fun to keep her? Can you tell me anything about 
what she was going to be like?

JKR: Well, maybe I will use her in another book, so I don't want to 
talk about her too much. I had never "killed" a character before (in 
either sense) until Goblet of Fire, so that made writing the book a 
little more stressful!">->

You may be right. The purpose of the Weasley cousin was to transmit 
information from inside the school to the outside, and Luna could 
have done so by writing letters to her father that he then printed in 
THE QUIBBLER, altho' there would have had to be more people who 
believe what they read in The QUIBBLER in that alternate Potterverse 
than in the OoP Potterverse. 

Steve bboy_mn wrote in 
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/79316 :

<< Prongs/James being much larger, had to enter the room as a man, 
and then transform. As far as getting out of the Shack for their 
adventures, (snip) the wolf, rat, and the dog wait in the forest for 
James to join them as a stag. ...and the adventure begins. >>

I suppose that, once the kids decided that they weren't going to hang 
around inside the Shrieking Shack all night, James would have only 
had to go far enough along the tunnel to be off the Hogwarts grounds, 
and then he could Apparate to their meeting place in the Forbidden 
Forest, never going inside the Shack at all. Who thinks that 
unregistered Animagi would be too law-biding to Apparate without a 
license?

Marianne kiricat Zarleycat wrote in 
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/79329 :

<< Perhaps there's a black market on Knockturn Alley where, for a 
price, one can purchase wands that have been lost or stolen. >>

In CoS, on Diagon Alley, the kids find Percy reading 'Prefects Who 
Gained Power' "in a tiny junk shop full of broken wands, lopsided 
brass scales, and old cloaks covered in potion stains". Therefore, 
one doesn't need Knockturn Alley to buy used wands.  

Relatedly, Laura jwcpgh wrote in 
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/79347 :

<< So if the wand Sirius used in the MoM battle wasn't the one he got 
from Ollivander's back when he started school, then it wouldn't have 
been the proper fit. >>

I don't believe there is only one wand to fit each wizard (except 
maybe a very hard-to-fit wizard like Harry, and probably Ollivander 
could make another wand to fit him, now that he knows what wand Harry 
needs). I imagine that most wizard kids go into Ollivander and there 
are 20 wands (among the 200 in the front room) that would fit them
, and each of those wands would also fit 1000 other people. Like my 
feet and my shoe size.

Fred Uloth wrote in 
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/79339 :

<< He already knows what core, length, and wood type he needs..so he 
could order it from    Olivander without a problem....except that 
Olivander would probably say something like "Yew wood, 9 inches, 
unicorn hair core, great for transfiguration...I sold one just like 
it to that Sirius Black fellow... >>

I don't think that the shoe size, resonant frequency, or whatever it 
is that the wand has that does or doesn't suit the wizard, can be 
predicted just from wood type, length, core. Remember, Ollivander's 
little speech included 'each wand is unique, just as each unicorn, 
phoenix, or dragon is unique'. I suppose that all unicorn's hairs 
would work for a particular wizard's willow, unicorn hair, ten 
inches ... and possibly a particular phoenix's feather would work 
for him if tamed with white pine and eight inches. I also suspect 
that not all pieces of the same kind of wood are the same -- trees 
are individuals, too. 

Joj mom31 wrote in 
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/79342 :

<< Cho's swan patronus. (snip) Was it to show us that Cho is a 
powerful witch or was it just a personality match? (Swans are 
beautiful from afar, but not very friendly and even a little
dangerous up close). Was Hermione's otter a clue like Sirius's code 
name "snuffles" (snuffed out)? >>

John Granger, who wrote a book about Alchemy and the Rowling oeuvre, 
said in his Nimbus 2003 talk that the swan appears at that point in 
OoP because the swan is a traditional alchemical symbol (whose 
meaning I forget, sorry), and assigning it as Cho's Patronus was just 
a way to stick a swan in.

What having a swan for Patronus means within the wizarding world 
depends on what the relation between Patronus form and Animagus form 
is. I had thought they were different: your Animagus form reflects 
your personality and your Patronus form reflects what makes you feel 
safe or loved or valuable. Thus, Harry's stag Patronus is because 
thinking of his father dying to save him makes him feel loved and 
protected, and thinking of how popular and admimred his father was 
makes him feel valuable, and the stag represents his father.

But Hermione's otter Patronus is a clue that they might be the same, 
so that Harry's Animagus form would be a stag if he became an 
Animagus. I don't see Harry's personality being represented by a stag 
-- he's more of a leader in OoP (DA) and more competitive or angry, 
but Snape's Pensieve reminds us that he's still not like his father, 
so shouldn't his representation be different than his father's?

Evidence that Hermione's Animgus form would be an otter comes from 
the Scholastic chat, above, and many other places where JKR has said 
that Hermione is based on herself as a schoolgirl, and another place 
where she answered what animal she would like to turn into.

<-<Q: If you could be a wizard, who would you be? 
JKR: If I were a character in the book, I'd probably be Hermione. 
She's a lot like me when I was younger. (I wasn't that clever but I 
was definitely that annoying at times!) >->

<-<Q: If you were Animagus, what kind of animal would you be?
JKR: I'd like to be an otter - that's my favourite animal. It would 
be depressing if I turned out to be a slug or something. >-> 

<< The way the stairs to the girls dorm turned into a slide. I think 
it's a little late in the books to mention something like this unless 
it will come into play later. >>

I think that, like naming the deceased members of the Order and 
explaining why Hermione isn't in Ravenclaw, was put in OoP to answer 
a question that many fans had asked. Presumably the question was: 
"How can Hermione visit the boys in their dorm (room) on Christmas? 
My boarding school NEVER appears students in a bedroom of the 
opposite sex."

Sarah MochaJava wrote in 
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/79357 :

<< How was Mungo beatified? Who made Mungo into a saint? Does that 
mean that wizards in the UK are also Anglican?) >>

St Mungo is a real person, patron saint of Glasgow. His childhood 
name was Kentigern, meaing 'one hundredth warrior" and "Mungo" 
means something about "dog". I'd give you a URL for more info but my 
browser is acting up.