Voldie & various DEs, mixed with Predestination, Eyes, Borgias, UsedWands &c

[Catlady (Rita Prince Winston)]

No: HPFGUIDX 86687

Carol wrote in http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPfor
Grownups/message/86283 :

<< (I personally think Bellatrix would be insulted to be referred to
as "Voldie's mistress." She's as much a Death Eater as Lucius Malfoy
and will Crucio you if you deny it.) >>

You didn't object when Kneasy referred to V as Bellatrix's 'squeeze'
in msg 86222: "Yes, Bella and her squeeze do enjoy inflicting pain. Is
that relevant to everyone else?" 

While I'm no fan of the word 'mistress', it seems clear to me that
Bella is some kind of in love with Voldemort, such as hero-worshipping
him. In msg 78548,  I described her as "sublimatedly-erotically
aroused by his display of POWER". And he seems to have some slight
affection toward her, as he does toward Lucius.

Carol wrote in http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPfor
Grownups/message/86315 :

<< Events may be shaped by the prophecy so that it's self-fulfilling
in that regard, but they can't be predetermined or Dumbledore (and
JKR) wouldn't place so much emphasis on choice. >>

That is a problem JKR got herself into by using the familiar literary
appliance of Prophecies, and also by using that of Time Travel. A
storyteller can tell stories of prophecies that came true (and of Time
Travel) because the history that happens inside the story really IS
predestined, no matter how much the characters think they are making
their own choices (and no matter how much the author thinks she is
depicting a world of free will or even complete lack of any Higher
Power). At least, when the characters are on page 1, what happens to
them on page 512 is predestined by the time the manuscript is sent to
the printer. The world inside a story is always a world which fits the
theist religious model: it was created by the Author, who retains
control over what happens to the people in it. Miracles sometimes
happen. *IF* the real world is not predestined, that is a way it is
different than stories.

Kathryn Cawte wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/86324 :

<< I wnder what this emphasis on the importance of choice tells us
about Dumbledore who's main choice in several circumstances seems to
have been to stand by and let someone else choose (of which more
later) [much snippage] It seems to me Dumbledore is full of pretty
words but precious few actions. >>

This is a complaint often made of God, given the name of 'deus
absconditas' (hidden God), and some have said that DD symbolises God.
Viewing DD as a person, it may show that he knows (or believes) that
all is predestined, so nothing he tried to do to interfere would work
anyway.

Tanya Swain wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/86372 :

<< With all this talk about killing curses, I can't help but wonder
what Remus and Sirius planned to use on Peter before Harry stopped
them. Thoughts anyone? >>

>From the way they rolled their sleeves up in order to do it, I imagine
that they were going to conjure up some sharp obsidian knives and dice
him. Altho' there is much to be said for Angel Moules's suggestion in
msg 86555 of "Diffindio on his neck, perhaps?". 

Laura Walsh wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/86531 :

<< I seem to remember a brief mention of the fact that Ginny has green
eyes too, in OotP. I can't find the quote right now, though. Does
anyone know if the Weasley clan has green eyes? >>

and Arcum replied in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/86543 :

<< I'm not sure about the other Weasley's, but Ginny has brown eyes:

'On the third landing, a door stood ajar. Harry just caught sight of
a pair of bright brown eyes staring at him before it closed with a
snap.

"Ginny," said Ron. ' -CoS, Ch 3 >>

I think the idea of Ginny with green eyes (which I wish was true!)
came from Jim Dale's audio of CoS, in which he said 'green eyes'
instead of 'brown eyes' in that passage. I believe that Ron has bright
blue eyes, but I haven't been able to find that in canon. JKR doesn't
seem to go for revealing characters' eye-colors. She hasn't told us
Remus's or Sirius's either.

Iggy McSnurd wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/86395 :

<< I don't know if it's been mentioned or not, but there is a
significance of the name Burke in "Borgan and Burkes." (snip) Robert
Burke was a man who actually earned his living by murdering people,
and selling the bodies to medical schools. >>

There's even a nursery rhyme about Burke and Hare:
<< This rhyme was chanted by the Edinburgh street urchins back in
1828:
Up the close and doon the stair,
But and ben wi Burke and Hare.
Burke's the butcher, Hare's the thief,
Knox the boy who buys the beef. >>
(from http://www.scotsmagazine.com/bk010352.htm)

Is there any significance to the name Borgin other than sounding like
Borgia? (and do I have to remind anyone that the Borgia family were
pope Alexander V, his sons Cesare and Giovanni, and his daughter
Lucrezia with a reputation for poisoning people?)

Yolanda wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/86465 :

<< However, since used wands will work for other wizards, I wouldn't
be surprised if there was a used wand shop in Diagon Alley or
Hogsmead. Since Charlie's old wand was available for Ron to use, we
may not have heard about such a shop yet. >>

In CoS, we heard of one in Diagon Alley: "in a tiny junk shop full of
broken wands, lopsided brass scales, and old cloaks covered in potion
stains they found Percy, deeply immersed in a small and deeply boring
book called Prefects Who Gained Power." 

Carol wrote in http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPfor
Grownups/message/86466 :

<< TR wrote the diary in 1943 and left Hogwarts in 1945. It's highly
improbable that he carried it around during his travels from 1945-1970
while he was busy transforming himself and trying to become immortal.
I think it's much more likely that he left it at Hogwarts in some
secure place just before he graduated in 1945, nine years before
Lucius was born. TR returned as Lord Voldemort in 1970 when Lucius was
about sixteen. If Lucius precociously became a Death Eater as a sixth-
or seventh-year student in 1970 or 1971, LV could have informed him
where the diary was hidden and asked him to find it and keep it for
him. That's the only way I can see Lucius receiving it during LV1. >>

Carol wrote in http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPfor
Grownups/message/86506 :

<< He must have left it behind him somewhere. It couldn't have
been his Muggle father's house, where he had committed three murders.
He had no other "home" except an orphanage, and of course he wouldn't
have left any possessions there. (I have a feeling that, beyond his
clothes, his wand, his schoolbooks, and the diary, he didn't have many
possessions to worry about anyway.) >>

I admit it would have been reasonable to have left the diary at
Hogwarts, where it was intended to be used. Hidden in the Slytherin
common room by a spell that made it visible only to Parselmouths, or
some such. But I don't think he did the reasonable thing.

Julie Inkyquill wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/86582 :

<< And since Tom was already calling himself Lord Voldemort to his
intimates while in school there is a whole generation of
friends/allies/afraid-not-to-follow wizards that predate the 1970s and
Lucius or even the younger Snape. Perhaps there's a Malfoy Grandmother
or Grandfather who went to school with Tom? I suspect that from the
moment Tom created the persona of Lord Voldemort, he used his charm
and existing anti-muggle prejudice to recruit supporters >> 

Julie Inkyquill wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/86473 :

<< And since presumably Malfoy Mansion is a large house
& estate it makes sense that Voldemort might have kept a few things
in storage there, or even had a permanent guest room, depending on
how chummy he was with Lucius >>

I don't have canon to prove it, but I believe that one of the
'intimate friends' Riddle met in school was Lucius's father or older
brother, who brought his friend Tom home to stay at Malfoy Manor.
Lucius was 41 at the beginning of OoP, suggesting that he was born in
1955 (I had previously estimated that he was born in 1950). If
Lucius's father was born the same year as Tom, he was 29 when his son
was born, a very reasonable age. However, if it were Lucius's older
brother who was roughly the same age as TMR and this older brother
(whom I invented because I LIKE the idea of Lucius inheriting by
murdering his brother and possibly his father!) were born when their
father was 25, the father would be 54 when Lucius was born, which is
not unreasonable even for Muggle men. Among long-lived wizards, they
could even have the same mother!

[Diary!Tom's fear of spending the summer holiday in the orphanage
indicates that he hadn't been made at home elsewhere by the end of his
fith (or sixth, depending) year, which seems a bit unlikely, but he
would have tried even harder to wangle the invitation during seventh
year, after which he had NO WHERE to go, not even the orphanage.] 

I figure that TMR, who described himself as "always able to charm the
people I needed", made himself liked by the then-head of the family,
who invited him to live at Malfoy Manor, and make it his home base
during his world travels, and gave him clothes and money and stuff.
Thus, he would left all his old school things, including the diary, at
Malfoy Manor while wandering. I like to think that those Malfoys also
gave him an alibi for murdering the Riddles.

With even less canon, I believe that Lord Voldemort was young Lucius's
"god"father, and a major influence on him growing up to be so very
evil.

Carol wrote in http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPfor
Grownups/message/86537 :

<< Unfortunately for us, Voldemort is so much older than the other
characters except for Hagrid, McGonagall, Dumbledore and possibly the
older Weasleys, none of whom became Death Eaters, that we really have
no way of testing this theory. None of the current batch of Death
Eaters, as far as we know, is of Tom's own generation (in their
sixties or thereabouts). >>

We don't even know the *names* of all the Death Eaters in the
Graveyard circle. Of the names we know, I don't recall any statement
of the ages of Nott and MacNair. Of DEs not present at the Graveyard,
I don't think we were told the age of Karkaroff except that his hair
is white in GoF (but we don't even know if he went to Hogwarts or
Durmstrang), and the Daily Prophet captions of the photos of the
escaped Death Eaters don't say their ages. 

Christopher suddenstrike wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/86627 :

<< Something that struck me as odd about OOP was the suspicously easy
defeat of a group of adult, experienced, evil death eaters by a group
of school children, who, with the possible exception of harry, don't
have anything like as much power. >>

Several of them have the excuse of long years in Azkaban that weakened
their magic and their sanity.