Snape, Durmstrang, Snape;

[Catlady (Rita Prince Winston)]

No: HPFGUIDX 87708

Kathryn Cawte wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/87643 :

<< [Snape] doesn't want to make things better between him and 
Harry - he wants to never have to spend any more time with Harry 
ever again! >>

That's what Snape wants, but he isn't going to get it as long as the
war against Voldemort continues, Harry is the prophecy boy (or the 
red herring), and Snape is on Dumbledore's side. 

Constance Vigilance TBAY'ed in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/87645 :

<< Berit describes part of Muggle War II when Germans occupied Norway
and imported labor from Eastern Europe.(snip) I think it could have
been possible for a Dark Wizard to have co-operated with the occupying
force. I think the Dark Wizard could have taken over a wizard school
in Scandinavia, renamed it with a German name >>

Hermione had read about Durmstrang in those books I mentioned in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/87586. If its name
had been changed so very recently, the books would have mentioned it,
and I think Hermione would have mentioned it at some point. If the
Dark Wizard Grindelwald's connection with Durmstrang was known,
Hermione would have mentioned it when she said that Durmstrang has 'a
horrible reputation'.

Could Grindelwald's connection with Durmstrang have been kept secret
if Dumbledore fought Grindelwald at Durmstrang when it is Chocolate
Frog Card common knowledge that Dumbledore defeated Grindelwald?

Constance Vigilance wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/87700 :

<< So, we have a school that is named for a movement that is only a
little over 200 years old? If it was participating in Tri-Wizard
tournaments 700 years ago, it must have done so under another name. >>

If we're meta-thinking, JKR invented both the school Durmstrang and
its history, and its name which she based on 'sturm und drang'. Being
the author, her relationship to the story is in the form of 'an
eternal now' in which she can put effects earlier in the time line
than causes if she chooses to do so.

If we're stan-thinking, first there is no reason to assume that
Durmstrang was named after 'sturm und drang'; the similarity of sound
could be a pure co-incidence. When the Blacks named their sons Sirius
and Regulus, were they planning that Sirius would become an Animagus
with a Black Dog form? Second, wizarding folk could have invented the
'sturm und drang' movement many centuries before it crossed over to
Muggles. Third, they have time travel (PoA).

Whether we're meta-thinking or stan-thinking, the school could have
been named Durmstrang all along and still be/have been in northern
Scandinavia (IIRC Pengolodh_sc once posted a lot of evidence that it
is). The meta-thinking, that JKR can name her creation whatever she
wants, is easy. The stan-thinking might suggest that the Germanic
sound of the name is a coincidence (maybe they named it by casting
runes and using the word formed by that sequence of runes? Like
Dweezil Zappa was named by drawing Scrabble tiles?), or develop lovely
fan-fic of how a wizard from Germany travelled, fell in love with the
Arctic, and had a hard decision between his two favorite sites to put
his school, one in Norway and one in Canada. 

It has been pointed out that 'Hogwarts' and 'Hogsmeade' are not
Scot-sounding place-names, and none of the Founders's names sound
particularly Scots: Godric and Rowena are Saxon names, Helga Danish,
Salazar foreign.

K Cawte wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/87671 :

<< I would be quite amused if Sirius came back as a ghost purely to
take Molly aside and say 'I told you we should tell him!' :) >>

This is a forbidden LOL post! 

Amanda wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/87675 :

<< Harry & Hermione joined by Neville, Ginny, Ron, and Luna, who
*also* apparently don't have the sense God gave a brass doorknob, as
they *also* have not gone to the only Order member, Snape, >>

It seems to me that you can't blame Luna: does she even know that the
Order exists, let alone who's in it? I think the same for Neville.

Karen Reid wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/87678 :

<< (we know that the prophecy was overheard before Harry was born in
July and that Voldemort doesn't visit Godrick's Hollow until Halloween
which was 3 months later). >>

Your theory that it's all about Snape is very creative (I bowed to it
by calling Harry 'red herring' up near the top of this post), but I
have a nitpick on an irrelevant detail: the attack at Godric's Hollow
was 15 months after Harry was born, not 3 months.