CedricTaskI/Myrtle/Oct31/CoS-Gryff/MeaningOfNames/WizardUniversity/DM'sInjury

[Catlady (Rita Prince Winston) <catlady@wicca.net>]

No: HPFGUIDX 51894

JODel wrote:

<< Cedric Diggory -- who utilized the Bubblehead charm for task 2 
(don't have my book with me and can't recall what method he used for 
task 1).  >>

>From my memory, he Transfigured a rock into a Labrador retriever so 
that the dragon would be distracted by the dog. If the result of 
Transfgiguration is a real thing, that would be cruelty to the dog, 
setting it up to get burnt by dragon breath, but some have suggested 
that the result of inanimate-to-animate Transfiguration is more like 
a fleshy robot than a real being. Viktor used the Conjunctivitis 
Curse which Sirius would have recommended.

Marcus wrote:

<< Will Moaning Myrtle eventually become a house ghost? And if so, to 
which house did she belong? >>

I've become pretty sure that Myrtle was a Slytherin: she concentrates 
pretty hard on getting her way (which is to scare people, lecture 
people on all the reasons why she should feel sorry for herself, and 
flirt with Harry). I don't think she would become Slytherin House 
ghost if the Bloody Baron were laid to rest: I think the House ghosts 
have to be able to do *something* to aid their House students, and 
Myrtle seems like she'd be pretty useless unless she grows up a 
little. *Can* a ghost grow up a little? 

Michelle Bailey wrote of NHN:

<< OK so lets take the day he died 31st Oct: >>

I often get a vague and irrational wonderment of whether Nick died, 
it being Halloween and all, as a Druid human sacrifice. 

Shehrzad wrote:

<< So maybe DD did tell Fawkes to bring the hat, but it wouldn't be 
just because the hat could give him the sword. Although he probably 
thought it would be, it could have also been a bow and arrow (wisdom) 
a shield (loyalty) or a short sword (ambition) >>

I was wondering about this all week, while I was off-line: what would 
Harry have pulled from the Hat if he had been the protégé of one of 
the other Founders? I thought maybe:

The wand of Slytherin, symbol/tool of magic, as Salazar was so 
concerned about distinguishing magic from non-magic people.

The pen of Ravenclaw, because she was into scholarship. The pen has 
the advantage of being a quill, thus punning on her feathery name 
(raven) and symbol (eagle), but a parchment with a useful spell 
written on it might be equally appropriate and rather more helpful.

The broom of Hufflepuff, which Helga herself used for sweeping the 
floor (by waving her wand and telling it to sweep) but Harry could 
perhaps have put a Levitation spell on and used it to fly with.

Ing(achristsuperstar) wrote of the meaning of names:

<< Charlie = Manly, Farmer >>

Charles is from Carolus which means Song (like "Christmas carol") and 
also reminds me of kings successful in battle like Charlemagnus and 
Charles Martel.

<< Denis = Wild, Frenzied >>

Denis is English/French form of Dionysio, which is the Greek god 
Dionysus, who was the god of alcohol, frenzy, and a number of other 
things.

Elkins wrote:

<< Voldemort ... He was the one who had torn these families apart, 
who had ruined all these lives. . . . (snip) The passage is ironic 
because Crouch's son is actually not dead at all; >> 

Well, it seems to me that even if young Crouch was a fully guilty 
eager participant in the torture of the Longbottoms, it was still 
*Voldemort* that was the reason young Crouch had become an 
almost-murderer instead of hanging out in coffee houses writing bad 
poetry about the general rottenness of parents and authorities.

Steve bboy_mn wrote:

<< I also have a theory that there are Wizard Universities. They just 
don't have campuses, classrooms, or even names. It's all done by 
independant study, personal experience, and research. The research or 
practical experience is submitted to academic review commitees either 
as published papers, oral exams, or practical exams, then the 
committee decide if it merits the award of a 'professorship' or the 
title of 'Doctor' of Wizardry. Of course, I made all this up, but 
it's still a reasonable theory. >>

Steve, I think you *did* invent the Schools of Magic before I 
invented the multi-campus Hogwarts (on which the latest bell or 
whistle is to wonder if the wizarding folk, who can bend space to put 
Diagon Alley where Muggles can't get to it, can also bend space to 
put all the different Hogwarts campuses in the same place without 
them being able to get to each other except through Hogsmeade - 
rule-breaking kids who go to Hogsmeade outside of their appointed 
Hogsmeade weekends might run into kids from one of the other 
Hogwartses
) 

But I'm pretty sure I was before you with the idea that wizards *do* 
have higher education, except they get it via academic Guilds rather 
than from Universities. Besides independent study and personal 
experience, the apprentices study under their Masters, and might even 
be herded into the Guild's lecture hall for regular lectures like in 
a Muggle college class. I like the degrees to be apprentice 
(student), journeyman (college graduate), and master (Ph.D), with the 
would-be master required to present and defend a dissertation which 
is the equivalent of a "masterpiece" in a non-academic Guild. (I 
imagine various sorts of grueling dissertation defenses.)

Unlike you, I think that "Professor" is just a courtesy title and 
"Doctor", in the academic guilds, is a title of honor given by the 
Guild's ruling council to distinguished masters. I have my masters 
called Magister and Magistra (of Artis Magia) when being formally 
addressed. 

(I imagine that the Potions Guild has an on-going tension between the 
scholar members and the artisan members, with the artisan members 
resenting that they pay "all" the money while the scholars get "all" 
the glory, such as only the scholar members ever get chosen to be 
"Doctor".)

Diana wrote:

<< Draco faked that his arm injury lasted for THREE months! Madame 
Pomfrey heeled his cut and it was painfree the same day it occured.>>

Please, what is the canon for the arm being painfree the same day it 
occurred? I believe that Draco was faking being still injured when he 
used it as an excuse to postpone the Slytherin-Gryffindor Quidditch 
match so that the Gryffs played Hufflepuff instead, but that was two 
months later - the injury was on the first day of classes and the 
match was after Halloween and the attack on the Fat Lady.