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[Catlady (Rita Prince Winston)]

No: HPFGUIDX 73544

Ersatz Harry wrote in 
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/70945 :

<< Hagrid (for "haggard", which he seems to be, though that may be 
movie contamination). >>

Yes, but even closer, in  
http://www.the-leaky-cauldron.org/quickquotes/articles/1999/1099-bosto
nglobe-loer.html JKR said: "Hagrid, who by the way is one of my 
favorite characters, also comes from an Old English word -- hagridden 
-- meaning having a nightmarish night." In 
http://www.the-leaky-cauldron.org/quickquotes/articles/1999/1099-conne
ctiontransc.html she said: "Hagrid is also another old English word 
meaning if you were Hagrid, it's a dialect word meaning you'd had a 
bad night. Hagrid's a big drinker. He has a lot of bad nights."

Kirstini wrote in 
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/71353 :

<< Interesting, all these characters disappointed with their fathers: 
Riddle, Crouch, now Percy and Harry too. If Snape is the boy in the 
Pensieve (and I do believe he is, despite all "crying Sirius fan" 
TBAYs to the contrary), that makes one more. There's got to be some 
sort of significance. >>

Maybe two years ago, someone wrote a long and eloquent post about 
everyone loves the Potter oeuvre because of the absence of fathers, 
Fatherhood, and/or The Father (monotheist god) in our modern 
civilisation.

So maybe JKR or her Muse refined the messaage: our modern 
civilisation lacks not father, but worthy fathers.

I have snarkier suspicions: that unworthy fathers were on JKR's mind 
during all the pre-plotting and most of the writing of the books so 
far, because her daugher's father was unworthy. (It would be 
*excessively* rude to speculate on her feelings about her own father.)

Christina iluvgahan wrote in 
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/71561 :

<< the whole "essence divided" scene: When Dumbledore asks the 
question, I think he is talking about Harry and Voldemort. When a     
single snake appears Dumbledore says, "Naturally, naturally." The 
single snake means that Harry and Voldemort are connected in a way    
(scar). Dumbledore has a feeling that thoughts are being shared 
between the two (I'm sure that's stated in canon), and IMO when he 
asks, "But in essence divided?" He is finding out whether or not they 
are connected physically in any way, for example if Voldemort has been 
possessing Harry. >>

This is a forbidden "I agree" post, except that I am really uncertain 
and curious about what that scene meant.

An'nai Jiriki wrote in 
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/71695 :

<< I also find it odd that Snape, Karakoff and Crouch were in a line 
in the circle (assuming that these three are who I think they are, 
not in that order). >>

To me it makes sense that Snape and Karkaroff were next to each other 
in the circle, considering that Karkaroff is the only person whom 
Snape first-names. Maybe they became friends because of standing 
beside each other in the circle, or perhaps one of them recruited the 
other and Voldemort had his Death Eaters stand beside whoever had 
recruited them ... In that case, maybe Snape had recruited young 
Barty...

Ravenclaw Bookworm wrote in 
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/71702 :

<< I've been pondering something similar - it seems that the subjects 
of paintings can talk, but not the subjects of photographs. Could it 
be because the painter captures the "essence" of the person, but the 
photographs only record the current activity the way digital cameras 
can take mini-videos? >>

Photograph: current activity and MOOD (happily waving, avoiding 
Lockhart, etc) and superfacial responses to the outside world (hiding 
because she had a water drop on her photo'ed face, stepping aside 
when poked by real!Moody).

Painting: apparently the capture of the person's essence is done by 
laborious magic: 
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/69788

Faith's Girl wrote in 
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/72346 :

<< See, I'd've described Harry himself as a pureblood, except it says 
not in canon. Maybe his kids would be quarter-bloods. And then 
eighth-bloods! And then... well, you get the picture! >>

Yes, like in 19th century (with African-American instead of Muggle 
ancestors), there were specific words: mulatto, quadroon, octaroon 
... I don't know the other words, but I'm sure there was one for 
one-sixteenth and at least one for anything less than one-sixteenth. 
Racists get like that.

Dawn the Crashing Boar wrote in 
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/72512 :

<< Hogwort (Croton capitatus) is a poisonous plant. >>

Why is named for "Hog"s? Can they eat it without being poisoned?

Kirstini wrote in 
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/72544 :

<< What on earth would Ludo Bagman, rather dim Quidditch player, know 
about the progress of the Ministry/Order/war that Augustus Rookwood, 
be-thonged Unspeakable wouldn't? Who told him what he told Rookwood? 
Answer me that, ye canonists. >>

My theory is that Ludo, as a popular celebrity, could be invited 
to any party he wanted to be, and the people there, high ranking 
officirs of the Ministry of Magic or whatever, would be so eager 
to impress him that they would talk about all the classified 
information that they knew, and all he needed to do was to utter 
little sounds of interest to keep them at it. 

Idlerat wrote in 
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/72692 :

<< I also think Rosmerta should be counted as a more indirect [flower 
name] >>

Rosmerta is the name of a Gaullish goddess. I read on a couple of 
websites that she is a goddess of harvest and her name means Great 
Provider, which is very appropriate for her career choice.

Lisa G wrote in 
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/72970 :

<< The only word Lucius gets out before Dobby unleashes momentarily 
is 'Avada.' Yeah, I probably could have guessed that if I had thought 
hard enough, but it was like a little bitty revelation for me when we 
popped in the DVD to show me the end again. I liked this  addition to 
the film. >>

I didn't like that addition to the film, because it seems to me 
that Lucius Malfoy, no matter how angry, has more sense of 
self-preservation than to cast an Unforgiveable Curse in front of 
a whole school of witnesses.

Iris wrote in 
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/73020 :

<< (Tu ne quaesieris, scire nefas, quem mihi, quem tibi finem di 
dederunt, Leuconoe, nec babylonios temptaris numeros. Ut melius erit 
pati...) >>

I *loved* your thoughtful post, but the only bait for replying is to 
ask what the Latin means.

Ivan Vablatsky wrote in 
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/73058 :

<< On day 5 Christian Rosencreutz sees a golden fountain with 4 
figures in the entrance to the Room of Love (Venus). The 4 figures: 
an angel, a lion, an ox and an eagle. >>

The symbols of the four Evangelists: Matthew is the Man, Mark is 
the Lion, Luke the Bull, John the Eagle. Before Christianity, 
they represented the four directions and maybe the four 
elements. 

It seems agreed that they originated from constellations, but not 
*which* constellations. I like Aquarius as Man, Leo as Lion, 
Taurus as Bull, and Scorpio as Eagle, but read somewhere that 
Scorpio is Man and Aquila is Eagle.

Melanie Black wrote in 
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/73237 :

<<  if [Andromeda] is alive I think she is older than Narcissa but 
younger than Bellatrix. >>

I think the tapestry had them in order left to right of Bellatrix, 
Andromeda, Narcissa, so some assume that is their sequence from 
oldest to youngest. I don't think Andromeda CAN be younger than 
Bellatrix. Bellatrix was the same year in school as Severus, MWPP, 
and Lily, therefore born 1957-1960 (depending on WHEN Severus was 
'35 or 36' as stated by JKR), there aged 24-20 when Harry was born. 
Harry is 15 when Tonks is 22 or 23 (she had finished Hogwarts and 
four years of Auror training and at least some months of working a
s an Auror), therefore Tonks is 7 years older than Harry. 24-20 minus 
7 is 17 to 13 ... I have just proved that Bellatrix would have been 
aged 13 to 17 when Tonks was born, so Tonks's mother HAS to be 
older than Bellatrix.

One possibility is that the sequence left to right is youngest to 
oldest. Another is that the oldest is in the middle, with next to 
her right (our left) and third to her left (our right). But my same 
argument about being old enough to bear children inside marriage 
means that Narcissa couldn't be Very Much younger than Belletrix and 
Lily, because Narcissa's son is the same age or a bit older than 
Lily's son.

Mlle Bienvenu wrote in 
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/73302 :

<< During dinner at the Black's someone mentions that the goblets are 
silver. And in a paragraph or so after that, it states Lupin is 
eating there as well. Does anyone have any ideas about this? Maybe 
Lupin is using a special goblet or something... >>

I believe that JKR put in that whole conversation about the goblets 
being solid silver just so she could put in that statement about 
Lupin setting down his goblet just to show the readers that 
Potterverse werewolves are not specially affected by silver (well, at 
least not in human form).

There were several things in OoP that seemed like responses to the 
fans, such as naming the Bones, MacKinnons, and Prewetts whom Hagrid 
mentioned early in PS/SS as killed by Voldemort, and explaining 
in detail how Fidelius works. I think squashing the fan speculation 
that Remus is destined to meet his end at Wormtail's hand because 
werewolves "are" severaly allergic to silver is another thing that is 
there to respond to the fans. 

Random wrote in 
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/73332 : 

<< is this Freudian? If so, would you mind explaining just what you 
see in him? ^^; [it's spelled "Lucius"] >>

I formed my vision of Lucius before even the *first* movie was cast, 
but was very relieved that Jason Isaacs *drool* so closely resembled 
it. I see Lucius as cold, evil, and dangerous, but also as slim, 
impeccably groomed, elegantly dressed, graceful in his movements, 
posh in his accent, with marvellous voice tones like an actor, oh and 
did I mention *reeking* with power and wealth? ... some of those 
things can be bought with all that inherited money he has, and some 
(like being slim) are things that can't be bought but somehow rich 
people often have them. 

Wanda Sherratt wrote in 
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/73430 :

<< The one thing I noticed was that both Dumbledore and his brother 
have names beginning with "A". It reminds me of Ambrose Bierce, 
who had 12 siblings, and every one of the children had a name 
beginning with the letter "A". I wonder if Dumbledore had any other 
siblings? >>

Arabella Figg? 

Melanie Black wrote in 
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/73436 :

<< I think susan will be a much more important character as the books 
go on. I don't know why but I just have a hunch. And weren't her 
parents killed or tortured by Voldemort? >>

As mentioned ago, in PS/SS, Hagrid said Voldemort had killed the 
MacKinnons, the Bones, and the Prewetts as well as the Potters. 
Someone asked JKR in an interview if the Bones who were killed were 
any relation to Susan Bones. At that time, JKR said they were her 
grandparents. But here in OoP, she wrote that they were our Susan's 
Uncle Edgar, auntie and cousin(s). 
 
I understand that the reason taht Susan Bones appeared all over the 
movies was that she was played by the director's daughter, but thought 
that perhaps he had cast her as Susan Bones rather than as Hannah 
Abbot or Mandy Brocklehurst was that JKR had given inside info that 
Susan would be more important in later books. On another tentacle, 
perhaps the reason Hannah Abbot was made Hufflepuff prefect instead of 
Susan Bones was to squash that bit of fannish speculation. ...