Who Gets Black House / Durmstrang / Krum / Personal Life of HogwartsTeachers

[Catlady (Rita Prince Winston)]

No: HPFGUIDX 87586

dmoorehpnc wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/87552 :

<< Who Gets the Noble House of Black? >><

"The House of X" can mean a building (a house) belonging to X, or a
business belonging to X, or it can mean The Family of X, in terms of
ancestors and stuff. I'm kind of sure that that phrase, Noble House 
of Black, refers to the family bloodline rather than to the building.

<< Just wondering, now that Sirius is dead who inherits Number Twelve
Grimmauld Place? Harry, Tonks, Narcissa? Will the Order still use it
as a meeting Place? >>

to which Meri August replied in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/87556 :

<< I assumed that if Sirius had a will and testament that Harry would
get it. >> 

One thing that depends on is whether the house is entailed in some 
way --- 'entail' is some weird thing they have in law in Britain,
where the person who inherits property is not allowed to sell it or
will it, but the next heir is already determined by a rule (like
always to the oldest son, or always to the nearest related male). 
If the real Mrs. Black disliked Sirius half as much as her portrait
does, it seems she would have made a point of willing the house to
someone else, almost anyone else, if she had been legally allowed to
do so. On another hand, maybe she forgave him when he betrayed the
Potters and killed all those Muggles, or just went too crazy to make 
a will. 

At any time since escaping from Azkaban, did Sirius have his act
together enough to thinke of making a will? If yes, would he look at
his dear godson Harry, with a nice inheritance from James, and at his
old friend Remus, ragged and half-starved, and decide that Remus
needed a bequest more than Harry did?

<< I think Harry will inherit old Number 12 when he comes of age at
the end of the seventh book, so that after triumphing gloriously over
LV, Harry has a home of his own to go to, with Ginny Weasly at his
side (well, that's how I want the books to end anyway ;-)). >>

Would you wish such a horrible house as Number 12 on the young
newlyweds? I think both Harry and the memory of Sirius would be
happier if that house burned completely down.

Arya wrote in http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforG
rownups/message/87549 :

<< Hmm, I wonder how Hogwarts would have arrived at a Triwizard
Tournament if it were hosted at one of the other schools....in a 
giant lemon drop chariot? >>

In the Hogwarts Express!

Janet Anderson wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/87560 :

<< I observe in GoF that the large amount of information we get about
Durmstrang comes either directly or indirectly from Hermione. Either
it's what Krum tells her, or it's what she has read (I don't know
where; possibly as a footnote to *Hogwarts: A History?*). >>

GoF, page 147, UK edition from GoF Day 2000, Hermione said of
Durmstrang: "it's got a horrible reputation. According to *An
Appraisal of Magical Education in Europe*, it puts a lot of emphasis
on the Dark Arts." 

Altho' it also seems to me that she might have seen mention of
Durmstrang in those books she mentioned as 'background reading' in 
the PS/SS scene where Harry and Ron first met her on the train:
*Modern Magical History* and *The Rise and Fall of the Dark Arts* 
and *Great Wizarding Events of the Twentieth Century*. 

Ba wrote in http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/87565
:

<< I always assumed that Durmstrang was in Bulgaria, given that 
"Krum" is that name of an early Bulgarian king known for his wisdom
and benevolence. Rarely are names in the canon random, as I don't 
need to tell any of you! >>

I am delighted with, and grateful to you for, this name evidence that
Viktor is a good guy. Up 'til now, I've had to work very hard at
ignoring that Neil said "Krumm" is German for "crooked" and my own
ears told me it sounds like "crummy".

However, just because Viktor is Bulgarian doesn't necessarily mean
that Durmstrang is a Bulgarian school. Draco told his buddies that 
his father had considered sending him to Durmstrang; if he had done,
that wouldn't make Durmstrang an English school.

Lisandra Stenth (whose English is perfectly good) wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/87579 :

<< My question is: Do the teachers in Hogwarts lack a personal life?
As written in Order of the Phoenix, Professor Trelawney was intented
to be kicked out of Hogwarts by Umbridge. So, she used to live there.
Like all the other teachers. In this case they couldn't have had a
personal life, a family or anything a normal human-being (either
muggle or witch) usually has. Do they have to devote their entire 
life to teaching at Hogwarts? Until they become a teacher, do they
have friends, can they married? In that case, when they become a
teacher, they just stop living with their husaband/wife? >>

Hogwarts Castle is *big* place, with lots of room going unused, so 
it seems to me that a teacher (or anyone whom Dumbledore wanted to
keep around) could have rather a large apartment in the castle, with
plenty of room for a spouse and children. 

The only thing is, Harry hasn't yet seen any very young children or
unidentified adults at Hogwarts, so they must not have dined in the
Great Hall in all these five years, so probably there's a rule 
against it, so presumably the children would feel very hard done by
about not being allowed to attend Halloween Feast and Christmas Feast
in the Great Hall. However, some of the teachers are old enough to be
grandparents and great-grandparents, whose children would have grown
up and have homes of their own. I figure *Dumbledore* is old enough 
to be a great-great-great-grandfather.

It also seems to me that only the Headmaster, Heads of House,
custodian (Filch), and gamekeeper (Hagrid) need to live in the 
castle, and all the other teachers could live in Hogsmeade, or
anywhere they wanted from which they could Floo or Apparate to
Hogsmeade and walk up the road to Hogwarts for their daily commute.
Similarly, if living at Hogwarts, they could walk down the road to
Hogsmeade and go to the Three Broomsticks, or the Hog's Head (Hagrid
seems to go there often enough), or Floo or Apparate anywhere to 
visit friends. 

<< And another one: are there things like divorce in the wizarding
world? >>

I haven't been able to figure that out. There has been no mention of
divorce in canon, but the footnote of the essay on Lethifolds in FB
mentions Janus Thickey, who pretended to have been vanished by a
Lethifold, but was found 'five miles away, living with the landlady 
of the Green Dragon'.