YKW -FideliusSwap -Madam -SeekerTom -Sorting H -Flesh of Servant -Phineas

[Catlady (Rita Prince Winston)]

No: HPFGUIDX 87428

re: Shaun and Geoff's fascinating discussion of the history of
Vauxhall Road: it just occurred to me that "Wands-worth" would be a
good name for a wizarding village.

TravellerRose (lovely name) wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/87092 :

<< Actually, the reaction whenever Harry says Voldemort instead of
"You Know Who' put me in mind of the old English saying, ``speak of
the Devil and he shall appear''. There is an old belief that if you
actually name the thing you fear it will manifest - so that, to me,
explains why the WW is afraid to call LV by name. (snip) Dumbledore
calls LV by name because he is too intelligent to fall for such a
silly superstition >>

Maybe in this case it ISN'T superstition. Maybe Voldemort DOES has a
magical awareness whenever his 'name' is spoken. 

Phyllis erisedstraehs wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/87113

<< I think Sirius switched with Peter in the hopes that both he
(Sirius) and the Potters would survive. Sirius didn't suspect that
Peter was Voldemort's spy, and he believed Peter to be the last 
person Voldemort would identify as the Potters' secret-keeper. So by
switching to Peter, Sirius was trying to avoid being killed himself
while still protecting the secrecy of the Potters' whereabouts. >>

I don't understand your theory: please explain. To me, if Sirius let
it be generally believed that he was the Secret Keeper, he was 
setting himself up to be captured by LV and tortured to encourage him
to reveal the Secret and tortured eventually to death because he
COULDN'T stop the torturers by giving them the secret because he
didn't have it.

I don't know why that would strike him as clever unless he didn't
trust his ability to withstand all DE torture and not give up the
secret. 

He seems to have trusted his ability to avoid saying: "Stop! I can't
tell you the Secret because I changed with Peter: he's the real 
Secret Keeper" (whereupon the DEs would have captured Peter and
bribed, threatened, tortured him) unless he had total faith that the
bad guys would never believe that tale long enough to capture and
torture Peter just in case it was true.

Kneasy and K Cawte explained this all to each other in:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/87337
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/87340
(Who's Baldrick?)

K Cawte wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/87347 :

<< Sirius would be doing for Peter exactly what James was doing for
his family - not trying to defeat the enemy but rather give the 
others time to leave. They don't give too many details of the plan 
but it would be a reasonable assumption that Sirius and Peter were in
regular contact, which would mean that if Sirius vanished Peter could
hide/run. >>

Oh! Okay. Sirius and Peter were in contact: PoA, Chapter 19, "The
Servant of Lord Voldemort": "I'd arranged to check on Peter, make 
sure he was still safe, but when I arrived at his hiding place, he'd
gone."    

Jen Faulkner wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/87123 :

<< Gran seems to me to be exactly the sort of older woman who 
would've grown up expecting to be a "Mrs." and continues in that
expectation now. It would, I think, be insulting to her to imply that
her marital status was irrelevant or questionable -- she *was*
married, thankyouverymuch, and she would want that acknowledged. >>

In the Muggle world, yes, but the wizarding world has had witches in
the professions for centuries --- Elfrida Clagg was Chief of the
Wizard's Council in the mid-1300s -- so it seems unlikely that a
witch's expectations would have dramatically over Gran's one long
lifetime. 

Arianna Arielock wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/87242 :

<< Is it possible that Tom Riddle was a seeker, and that Harry
"inherited" his talent from him? Even though she said she didn't love
it, Ginny did replace Harry as seeker when he was banned from
playing... >>

Yes! Harry keeps saying the only thing he's good at is Quidditch, so 
I love to think of his angst if he learned that he got his Quidditch
ability from an implant of his enemy instead of from his own genes!
Thanks for pointing out that Ginny also playing Seeker is more
evidence for this theory, not just Mary Sue-ism.

Dmoorehpnc wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/87335 :

<< Kneasy you are brilliant! I like your thinking the Four houses in
One! Excellent. I'm not totaly on your side though but I can be easily
be knocked over the line with a feather. Here's why, simply choice.
Each one of the 4 made the the choice to be in Gryffindor. Although I
concede that Neville's reasons have not been shared. I believe he
feels the need to prove himself to be as good as his parents inspite
of his fears, (isn't that the essence of courage?). All that being
said your ideas are more intriguing. >>

I 3/4 agree with you: We saw Ron and Hermione both say, on the
Hogwarts Express, that they hoped to be in Gryffindor, and we heard
Harry tell the Hat that he *didn't* want to be in Slytherin (I still
think the Hat was just teasing him about that). 

But my theory as to why the Hat spent so very long with Neville is
that it wanted to put him in Gryffindor and he kept protesting: "I
don't deserve Gryffindor, I'm almost a Squib, I should be in
Hufflepuff." Unlike you and Kneasy, I think Neville has great courage
that he isn't even aware of.

Kneasy wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/87339 :

<< Can't say that I'd fancy any of the Houses. Probably start one of
my own. Why should the cantankerous, curmudgeonly, bloody-minded,
suspicious misfits not have a haven to themselves? >>

Ah, Filch House!

Abbet wrote in 
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/87396 :


<< Sorry if this has been brought up already. So anyways at the end 
of PoA Dumbledore tells Harry that Wormtail's in his debt and that 
he might be glad that he saved Wormtail's life. So the look of 
triumph in Dumbledore's eye in GoF could be because the flesh of
Voldemort's servent is in debt to the blood of a enemy. I think the
look in Dumbledore's eye has at least as much, if not more to do with
the fact Voldemort used Wormtail and not as much to do with using
Harry. >>

Look up MAGIC DISHWASHER in Hypothetic Alley:
http://www.hpfgu.org.uk/faq/hypotheticalley.html#md 

Snape'sAngel wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/87420 :

<< I actually ADORE Phineus. He reminds me of how Snape is in fanfics
where he has mellowed and found someone companiable to make him a cup
of tea and stir things for him - more talkative and calm, but with all
the wit he always had. >>

I adore Portrait!Phineas, too, but I feel sure that Portrait!Phineas
must have mellowed compared to Live!Phineas (possibly as a result of
whatever spell was involved in that "oath" the portraits of deceased
Headmasters took to assist each current Headmaster). 

Sirius described him as the most hated Headmaster Hogwarts ever had,
and to even be in the running for 'most hated' out of one thousand
years of Headmasters, he must have been nasty indeed.  

Presumably he was very fond of sentencing students to be punished by
physical damage -- Filch would have *loved* to work for him --what
eLse might he have done to earn hatred?