the race thread/Weasley names/Mundungus Fletcher/WWII and Wizards

Sat Feb 1 12:00:10 UTC 2003

No: HPFGUIDX 51348

On the who-reads-all-the-posts question, I do (reading them on the 
website, in one huge orgy of catching up) but it's 3.30AM and I have 
to take a nap before I go on to the next 400 posts. So I may be 
repeating something someone has already said that I haven't gotten to 
yet.

In the "post-colonialism" thread, Ebony used the phrase "African- 
descended folks". In paleontology, ALL humans are African-descended. 
The only question is whether our most recent common ancestor was a 
Homo sapiens in Africa only 200,000 years ago, a Homo sapiens in 
Africa longer ago than that, or a Homo erectus something like a 
million years ago.

Carolyn wrote:

<<  Has anyone considered Bill's full name to be Bilius? >>

Andrea wrote:

<< However, I use that same evidence to submit that Fred is NOT named 
Frederick, since Dumbledore refers to the twins simply as "Misters 
Fred and George Weasley". I don't see any reason to assume the "full 
names" of the other Weasleys aren't simply Bill, Charlie, Percy, and 
Ginny. (Although I think I like Perseus for Percy -- very classical. 
:) I still don't think that's it, though.) >>

Carolyn! Andrea! You ladies are geniusses! I have believed for years 
that Bill Weasley was named after his late uncle Bilius. (Altho' I 
might somehow have been influenced by the Askhenazi Jewish tradition 
of naming children after dead relatives.) And that Charlie, Percy, 
Fred, and George are named Charlie, Percy, Fred, and George. Altho' I 
like to think that Ginny is named something like Genevere.

Percy being named Perseus would Mean Something in that alternate 
universe in which it Means Something that 'Severus Snape' is an 
anagram of 'Perseus Evans'.... that Lily's mum was Arthur's sister 
and both of them named a son after their father Perseus (the Perseus 
who was Lily's brother changed his name) ....

Tzvi wrote:

<< [Mundungus Fletcher] had been raided by the Misuse of Muggle 
Artifacts department of the MoM. >>

It's in CoS, when Arthur comes home and finds Harry at the Burrow: 
"What a night," he mumbled, groping for the teapot as they all sat 
down around him. "Nine raids. Nine! And old Mundungus Fletcher tried 
to put a hex on me when I had my back turned ...... "

That has never seemed to me to mean that Mundungus was one of the 
people being raided; rather it seems to me that he is a Ministry 
employee or hanger-on who either went along with the raiding team or 
was in Arthur's office when Arthur came back between raids to do the 
paperwork. An UNHELPFUL employee or hanger-on, letting his practical 
jokes (hexes) interferes with people who are trying to do their WORK.

JOdel wrote:

<< The WW may not even have *been* at war during Riddle's school 
days. >>

This is something I have wondered a lot about lately. Even if the 
wizarding folk don't go to Muggle wars, that War came to them: Does 
the magic that hides Diagon Alley and Platform 9 3/4 from Muggles 
also protect them from bombs dropped from airplanes? Could wizards 
who lived in London Charm their houses to make all bombs and shrapnel 
go somewhere else? Suppose they lived in flats? (DO wizards ever live 
in flats?) I am so ignorant of history: were other places (besides 
London) Blitzed?

They wouldn't have wanted to call attention to themselves by 
violating the black-out. How were they affected by food shortages 
and rationing? If the wizarding economy goes all the way down to 
having its own wizarding farms to supply its own food, they might 
have really cleaned up in the food black market. I think they would 
have wanted to defend their island from invasion, from self-interest 
if not from patriotism: it seems to me that being ruled by an Army of 
Occupation and a Gestapo would mean, at least, a LOT more eyes to 
conceal magic from.