[HPforGrownups] Re: Lethifolds and Voldemort

[rayheuer3 at aol.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 60196

thomasmwall at yahoo.com writes:

> So, I agree with your assessment that the black cloak in the forest 
> resembles the description of the lethifold as far as appearance. 

Resembles, perhaps, but not a lethifold.

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (US mass market edition) Chapter 15 p. 
519:
"Then, out of the shadows, a hooded figure came crawling across the ground 
like some stalking beast.  Harry, Malfoy, and Fang stood transfixed.  The 
cloaked figure reached the unicorn, lowered its head over the wound in the animal's 
side, and began to drink its blood. {Malfoy shouts and he and Fang run] The 
hooded figure raised its head and looked right at Harry -- unicorn blood was 
dribbling down its front."

Fantastic Beasts & Where to Find Them (US Hardcover edition) p. 25
"It resembles a black cloak perhaps half an inch thick (thicker if it has 
recently killed and digested a victim), which glides along the ground at night."  
{Then, as part of Flavius Belby's account:]  "It resembled nothing so much as 
a rippling black cape."

Neither Newt Scamander not Falvius Belby use the word "figure," and in fact I 
get the impression that the Lethifold is flat and roughly rectangular.  The 
PS/SS account clearly implies a hooded *person* crawling on all fours.  

IMHO, the descriptions are sufficiently distinct to say that the figure Harry 
encounted in the forest was definitely not a Lethifold, even ignoring the 
fact that Hogwarts is not in a "tropical climate".

  --  Ray

"We could have all been killed.  Or worse -- expelled!"


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]