another flint?

[joy_the_lemur <joy_the_lemur@yahoo.com>]

No: HPFGUIDX 50230

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Steve <bboy_mn at y...>"
<bboy_mn at y...> wrote:
> --- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "jomamaumd <bobbippon at h...>"
> <bobbippon at h...> wrote:
> > Don't know if this has been discussed yet, but I think JKR slipped
> > up in the location of Myrtle's bathroom.
> > 
> > Hermione says at the Deathday Party (COS p.132, American
paperback):
> > "She haunts one of the toilets in the girls' bathroom on the
first 
> > floor."
> > 
> > Then, only 6 pages later, "Harry hurtled around the second floor, 
> > ...edited...
> > 
> > Clearly, Moaning Myrtle's bathroom has to be on the second floor
> >  next to the scene of the attack, as the water trail came from 
> > there - so  the location given on page 132 must be a flint.  
> > - jomama
> 
> bboy_mn:
> We are not the victums of a mistake but of language. 
> 

[Snippage of differences in UK and US concepts of floors]

> 
> Anybody with a UK edition who would like to check that out for us?
> 
> bboy_mn

No problem. 

'She haunts the girls' toilet on the first floor,' said Hermione. 
(UK COS p 101)

Harry hurtled around the whole of the second floor, Ron and Hermione
panting behind him, not stopping until they turned a corner into the
last, deserted passage.  (UK COS p 105)

'Remember all that water on the floor?  Where did that come from? 
Someone's mopped it up.'  [Ron  points out it was level with a
particular door.  He manages to stop himself from opening the door.] 
'Can't go in there,' said Ron gruffly, 'that's a girl's toilet.'
     'Oh, Ron, there won't be anyone in there,' said Hermione,
standing up and coming over.  'That's Moaning Myrtle's place.'  (UK
COS p 117 -118)

Looks like a missed detail indeed. 

Do the American versions actually refer to a difference between
ground floors and first floors?  I just glanced at these passages in
my US paperback of COS and when Harry's chasing the mysterious voice,
he starts down where the dungeons are and he runs up into the
entrance hall, which I presume to be on the "ground" floor.  However,
he then sprints up from there to the "first" floor and runs up to the
"second" floor.  

So in common US terms, Moaning Myrtle's bathroom would be on the 3rd
floor, even if in the US version, they say 2nd floor.  

I dislike this arbitrary and inconsistent "translation" thing going
on.

-Joy