OoP SPOILER: Number of New Characters

[Kirstini]

No: HPFGUIDX 60008

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Cindy C." <cindysphynx at c...> 
wrote:
>the list becomes:
> 
> Arabella Figg
> Mundungus Fletcher
> Mrs. Longbottom
> Mrs. Longbottom
> Dedalus Diddle
> Mr. Lestrange
> Real Moody
> Fridwulfa
> 
> So that means JKR will introduce only one new character in OoP!
> 
> Man, we're good, huh?  ;-)
> 
> Cindy -- betting this single new character will be female and will 
> have something to do with Voldemort's first reign of terror

Kirstini, wriggling in her seat and waving her hand in the air, 
wants to add:
Yeee-sss! The new DADA teacher! Or are we all now accepting that 
it's going to be Arabella Figg? With "a personality like poisoned 
honey"? That that dotty, smelly old lady who has worked to protect 
Harry all his life is going to turn out to be essentially a female 
Snape (better clarify this bit: I'm not trying to suggest that 
anything much about Severus reminds me of honey, poisoned or 
otherwise. For Arabella Figg to be the new DADA teacher and even 
vaguely fit the "poisoned honey" criteria, she would have to be 
nasty, but working for Harry's good, like Snape)? 
"Poisoned honey" surely suggests someone apparently sweet, 
ultimately treacherous. Why would Arabella have been protecting 
Harry all this time if she can turn around and betray him just like 
almost every other blinking DADA teacher/old confidante of 
Dumbledore's has done so far? I think you should count the new DADA 
teacher as a seperate voice. 
[Unless she's mute? Had her tongue ripped out by an Auror (Daddy 
Longbottom?) and has spent her life vowing bloody revenge on his/her 
entire lineage? Oh dear. I think I need a lie-down]

Kirstini