Notts/SackingDumbledore/#ofStudents/WizGovt/hippocampus/MagicCity/OwlOrder/.5

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

No: HPFGUIDX 50645

Ginger Snape wrote:

<< I realized that the Nott in the graveyard was described as 
'stooped' and that this usually implied elderly, so would not likely 
have been a father. >>

Elderly MEN can father children, especially with a new young wife 
(for example, and trying to leave out all forbidden Muggle politics, 
Strom Thurmond, the US Senator who just turned 100, has a son Strom 
Thurmond Jr born when Sr was in his 70s). 

Amy Marblefeet wrote:

<< To begin I would like to make unknown!Nott a girl in Ravenclaw 
purely to reflect her with Neville (and because I am an incurable 
romantic) and call her Alison purely for ease. >>

If there is only one Nott at Hogwarts with Neville, hiser named 
starts with a T, because T. Nott is one of the names on check-out 
sheet for QTTA. 

If I gave the family tree of Notts in MY Potterverse, I would get a 
Howler for fanfic, so I'm going to put it on 
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPFGU-OTChatter/messages

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "thomas m wall" wrote:
>
> And now, now he wants us to talk to those violent giants?  Isn't it 
> bad enough that he's got one on the Hogwarts staff?  

I enjoyed your example of ordinary stupid wizarding parents' opinion, 
but must nitpick this aspect: when Rita Skeeter revealed Hagrid's 
parentage and he hid in his hut in shame, Dumbledore was bombarded 
with letters from parents who remembered Hagrid from their own school 
days, remembered him affectionately enough that their letters were 
demanding that Dumbledore *keep* him on the job.

<<It'll be interesting to find out whether or not JKR brings Lockhart 
up again. You'd think that the disappearance, or even the 
memory-wiping of a notorious heartthrob and prolific author would 
cause some stir in the WW, even if Dumbledore managed to keep the 
whole affair hush-hush. >>

In MY Potterverse, a cover story has been spread (perhaps published 
by Rita Skeeter) in which Lockhart was memory-wiped as a heroic 
battle injury while heroically rescuing three Hogwarts students 
including Famous Harry Potter from the monster that had been 
petrifying students all year. I dunno whether they admitted that the 
monster was a Basilisk or that it had come from Salazar's legendary 
Chamber of Secrets ... I doubt they admitted anything about Tom 
Riddle's diary possessing a student ... but they must have made some 
explanation of how the Chamber had been opened ... 

<< So, about 35 students per year per house. (snip) So, apparently, 
we haven't even met half of 'em in Harry's year alone. >>

The number of students at Hogwarts is a subject of fierce, almost 
theological, debate. You can read about it in 
http://www.hpfgu.org.uk/faq/hogwarts.html but that FAQ is too old to 
include my current theory: 

I believe that EVERY child in Britain and Ireland with ANY wizarding 
power is invited to attend a school of magic. (There may be other 
countries in which Muggle-born students are not invited, no matter 
how powerful.) If all the students go to Hogwarts as JKR said, then 
Hogwarts has 1000 students as JKR said, that would be all the 
wizarding children, based on many previous threads about the size of 
wizarding population. 

I believe that Hogwarts has several campus, the Castle that we see in 
canon is the main campus, has approx 280 students as shown in canon, 
and the children of less aptitude (and/or less family connections) 
are sent to other campus. Some listees believe that Hogwarts has only 
one campus, 280 students as depicted, and is the only School of 
Witchcraft and Wizardry, but all the lesser students are sent to a 
School of Magic instead. 

Either of those ideas would go along with Neville's statement that 
his family, even after they were reassured that he wasn't a Squib, 
doubted that he was magic enough to get in 'here': that is, to 
Hogwarts Main Campus rather than another campus, or to School of   
Witchcraft and Wizardry rather than to School of Magic.

<< Is there ever, ever, a mention in canon of wizarding elections? >>

Yes. In QTTA, chapter four. Barberus Bragge, Chief of the Wizards' 
Council, brought a Golden Snidget to a Quidditch match in 1269 and 
offered 150 Galleons ("equivalent to over a million Galleons today") 
to the player who caught it. Kind-hearted Modesty Rabnott rescued the 
poor birdie and Chief Bragge confiscated her house. In a letter to 
her sister, she wrote: "Chief Bragge would have lost my vote if I'd 
had one." Some listies have asserted that Modesty's not having a vote 
means that the franchise was limited to males at that time, but I 
believe it INSTEAD means that there was a property requirement and 
Modesty did not own enough wealth to meet it.  

Ebony wrote:

<<Rather, I've always seen the Ministry as a "hidden" branch of the 
UK's Muggle government that has an unusual degree of autonomy, >>

No, no, no! There is no canon to disprove that theory, but I am 
repulsed by it. Here is canon to cast a little doubt on it: FB, 
preface, footnote on the page that begins with the header WHAT IS A 
BEAST? "The Wizard's Council preceded the Ministry of Magic". I 
understand the inference that a Minister Of is a member of the Prime 
Minister's Cabinet, but can find no implication that a 's Council is 
part of Her Majesty's Government.

Freely spinning a mile of yarns from a smidgeon of canon, I 
hypothesize that the Wizard's Council survives as a committee whose 
job is to choose the Minister of Magic. This committee may be elected 
by (and from within) a larger wizarding parliament (I like the name 
Witchingmeet, as a pun on witangemot) or be another hat worn by 
Hogwarts's Board of Governors. The Board of Governors may be 
self-perpetuating; the members have staggered terms, all the members 
whose terms end in even-numbered years vote for who to replace the 
members whose terms end in odd-numbered years, and vice versa.

<< it is very likely that wizarding governance varies greatly from 
country to country. >>

That SHOULD be true, but JKR seems to have created a wizarding world 
in which every wizarding country has the same [tremendously British] 
system of government. QTTA quote: " the International Statute of 
Wizarding Screcy of 1692 made every Ministry of Magic directly 
responsible for the consequences of magical sports played within 
their territorries."  

Scott wrote:

<< This is so off-topic it's laughable, but has anyone ever wondered 
why a part of the human brain (The Hippocampus- it helps us with the 
development of long term memory) is named after a half-horse, 
half-fish monster? >>

Because the people who named it thought it was shaped like a seahorse.

Annemehr wrote:

<< So, to conclude, I think the Malfoys for the most part probably do 
live in that manor in the country. >>

I completely agree with you. I have always believed that Malfoy Manor 
is a country estate surrounded by square miles rather than mere block 
of property. Some forest but mostly agricultural, farmed by wizarding 
families who live in a less-than-village (a dozen houses, one pub, no 
church) (so it doesn't contradict Hogsmeade as only wizarding village) 
near the front gates of the Big House.

<< I also think it quite likely they have a place in London which 
Lucius finds quite convenient for when he has business there with the 
Ministry or on some board of governors or other of which he is a 
member. >>

With Apparation for adults and Floo for everyone, wizarding folk 
don't need a house in town. They can Apparate or Floo to Diagon 
Alley, Hogsmeade, a wizarding concert hall hidden in a warehouse- 
looking building in a Muggle industrial district, wherever, as easily 
from Malfoy Manor (presumably only from the gatehouse, for security 
reasons) as from a house or hotel in town. For that reason, I see no 
reason why the wizarding folk would need a Magic District in each 
Muggle city ... one for England and Wales, maybe another for Scotland 
and another for Ireland, should be in Floo and Apparation range of 
everyone.

Steve bboy_mn wrote:

<< Even if you don't want to tackle the magic space/muggle space 
issue, how big do you see the magic city being? >>

Not very ... I'm not sure I see it as large as Century City Shopping 
Gallery. I don't see it as having any residential section except 
people who live over their shops/offices and I don't see it as having 
any industrial section except artisans who do craft work in the same 
shops where they sell to to the public. Residences and a few 
artisan-ish factories are scattered over the country, in isolated 
areas or among Muggle neighbors. 

Sajid said:

<< Hermione also used Owl Order to buy Harry his Brookstick Servicing 
Kit. Her order seems to confirm the method of using Owl Order since 
she couldnt have visited Gringott's, or gotten anyone else to while 
she was in France. >>

I've always imagined that Owl Order included sending a small bag of 
cash attached to the order form. 

Ffred Manawydan:

<< If wizards and muggles form relationships, how do they meet? >>

We know that Muggle-born students attend Hogwarts and sometimes marry 
wizard-born classmates. Someone like Lily, she's supposed to be such 
a nice person, she would have Muggle friends from primary school as 
well as wizarding friends, and might she not introduce them to each 
other, maybe even as deliberate matchmaking? Anyway, there would be 
relatives of both spouses at the wedding, and other gatherings where 
both sets of in-laws would be invited, so people from the Muggle side 
of the family could meet wizarding folk that way.

In a case like Seamus's parents where the father didn't know that the 
mother was a witch until after the marriage (or Tom Riddle's case, 
which he described the same way, altho' I have my doubts whether his 
parents were ever married at all, and whether his father *ever* knew 
that his mother was a witch), the witch must have been participating 
in Muggle society familiarly enough to be mistaken for a Muggle. I 
imagine that there are some old, old villages where the folk from 
the old, old Muggle families 'have always known' that the folk from 
the old wizarding families are wizards. I imagine there are some 
wizarding folk who associate with their Muggle neighbors while 
preserving wizarding secrecy ...  the So-and-sos live over there; 
they're nice people but kind of weird, they're (artists, or hippies, 
or members of a religious cult that rejects technology) so they grow 
their own organic food and wear funny clothes and home-school their 
kids, but they ALWAYS have the BEST milk and eggs for sale at the 
farmers' market, and their kids are great soccer players ...