AurorAlice/ThePortraits/Monks/Lucius/Phineas/JamesSnitch/SumHols/Houses/Flush

[Catlady (Rita Prince Winston)]

No: HPFGUIDX 85149

Sigma Librae: Zubenhakrabi or Zubenalakrab : "the scorpion's claw" 
(To add to the confusion, early in that century Elijah Burritt coupled
the name "Zubenhakrabi" to Eta Librae)
(http://www.astro.uiuc.edu/~kaler/sow/zubenh.html and
http://www.ras.ucalgary.ca/~gibson/starnames/starnames.html?o=0 )

Elfundeb wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/84467 :

<< In GoF, there is absolutely no mention that Alice was an Auror.
Crouch states that the Lestranges et al. were accused of "capturing 
an Auror -- Frank Longbottom -- and subjecting him to the Cruciatus
Curse" and further accused "of using the Cruciatus Curse on Frank
Longbottom's wife." Dumbledore says later when Harry asks whether 
they were talking about Neville's parents, "His father, Frank, was an
Auror just like Professor Moody. He and his wife were tortured for
information about Voldemort's whereabouts after he lost his powers, 
as you heard."

In OoP, on the other hand, they were both described as Aurors. The
difference is so striking, I'm left with the nagging feeling that
Alice was promoted between books. >>

After GoF, many people, including me, were under the impression that
both Neville's parents were Aurors, and canon-purists on list kept
'correcting' us that canon didn't say whether Neville's (as yet
unnamed) mother was an Auror or not. OoP stated that both Frank and
Alice Longbottom were Aurors. I believe that that was JKR's intention
all along -- that us careless readers picked up on her *intention*
rather than her words. The same for ferocious Lily Evans defender of
the weak and feisty prankster Ginny Weasley the Quidditch ace.

Paula wrote in http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/84465 :

<< Where is there any canon for this? I can't recall any canon that
specifically explains the process and/or spells that an artist used 
to paint a portrait. That's why I think that the portrait is simply a
vehicle for the departed to continue to function in this world. >>

Someone posted that one of the extras on the CoS DVD (which I don't
have) is an interview in which JKR explains that the magical portraits
are made by a process that involves spells and using some bodily
part/fluid of the model mixed in the paint. It would be wonderful if
some saintly person transcribed that explanation and posted it ... 

Just Carol wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/84510 :

<< But what about the portrait of Sir Cadogan? Surely he was a
wizard--if not, what is his portrait doing in Hogwarts? Or maybe
the paintings, which include one of a group of monks, are enchanted
muggle artifacts? Monkhood and wizardry don't seem to go together. >>

As for monkhood and magic, the Hufflepuff ghost is named the Fat
Friar. IIRC Sir Nick indicated that you have to be a wizard to become
a ghost. 

I don't know if magical paintings can be paintings of Muggles; I don't
know if magical paintings can be paintings of fictional characters ...
maybe 'fictional' isn't quite the right word, but in my fanfic, I had
a painting of The Judgement of Paris, whose Aphrodite was quite
sympathetic and helpful to under-age couples seeking a private place
to have sex: she had the personality of a diminished Aphrodite, not
that of the model who enabled the painter to get the muscles right for
her pose... I like to think that Sir Cadogan is a fictional character.

Steve bboy_mn wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/84497 :

<< The reason Lucius can't see this is because he is blinded by the
wealth, power, and status he thinks being in Voldemort's top echelon
will bring him. Sadly, once Voldemort is in power, and Lucius
discovers that his life of priviledge is really the priviledge to be
tortured by Voldemort on a whim, and spending the rest of his life
kiss the scalely backide of a dictator while the wizard world and it's
economy deteriorate into the worst depression in wizarding history, it
will be too late to do anything about it. >>

Steve, as you know, I believe that the reason that Lucius is not
concerned about living in a world controlled (i.e. ruined) by LV is
that Lucius thinks *he* controls LV, and will prevent LV from doing
all those things he wants to do. I wonder if LV knows what Lucius is
up to; I wonder if Lucius, about to back-stab LV, will be surprised
that LV back-stabs him first?

Berit wrote in http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/84614 :

<< > I've looked up www.behindthename.com , and see that the 
> name "Phineas" could mean "serpent's mouth" in Hebrew (or stem from 
> old Egyptian meaning "Nubian", black?). There seems to be a lot of 
> enlightened people on this list, so I wonder if anyone has more 
> background information on the former Slytherin Headmaster's first 
> name... >>

Phineas is a variant of Pinhas which is Pa-Nehasi which is Egyptian
for 'the Nubian', like some people nowdays are named Scot and Dane 
and Norman. Nigellus is Latin for 'Neil' but often thought to come
from Latin 'niger' meaning 'black'. (http://www.behindthename.com/ is
one of many great resources, but look up Nigel rather than Nigellus.)
To me it seems obvious that JKR intended to name that character Black
Black Black (altho' I would have preferred her to do so without
involving ethnicity) and I went to some effort to figure out related
names for his children: Ciaran Cole and Melanie Maura.

However, the belief that Phineas means 'serpent's mouth' in Hebrew
seems to be so widespread that well-informed JKR must know of it, so
perhaps she is building up to dear Phineas Nigellus being a parselmouth.

Iggy McSnurd wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/84629 :

<< And why was he shown in OotP playing with the snitch the way he was? >>

Besides the answer people have made, that a Snitch is more convenient
to show off agility with than a Quaffle, a while ago there was a
suggestion that James Potter's inherited fortune may have started with
Bowman Wright (of *Godric's Hollow*) who invented the Golden Snitch,
in which case he may have been playing with it to remind people of his
wealth. I think I am the only person who suggested that *Lily* might
have been the Seeker from whom Harry inherited his talent (that would
explain why James doodled a Golden Snitch around her initials), so he
was using to try to catch her attention in particular.

Just Carol wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/84692 :

<< Which brings up another question we could ask Rowling without
spoiling the plot: Do Hogwarts teachers stay at the school during the
summer? And what do they do when the students are gone? (You can spend
only so much time making lesson plans and rereading the textbooks,
especially if you've been teaching the same subject for fourteen years
or more. My apologies if this question has been asked and answered
before. >>

The Goat Pad http://www.angelfire.com/magic/aberforthsgoat/index.html
found me
http://www.the-leaky-cauldron.org/quickquotes/articles/2000/0700-swns-alfie.htm
which contains:
Q: Where do the Hogwarts teachers live during the school holidays ? Do
they stay at Hogwarts ? (Andrew Zimmer)
A: No, they don't. Filch, the caretaker, stays.

Cheekyweebisom wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/84749 :

<< Furthermore, children's qualities aren't necessarily inherited --
in the case of the Weasleys, I'd probably agree with you, but in
general, I think it's too much of a blanket statement. Sirius is a
perfect example, as his character seems to be comprised almost
entirely of deliberate efforts to be contrary to his parents'
racist, archaic, and generally dreadful views. I can't come up with
any other examples, probably because we see so few parent/children
relationships. >>

The gracious and chivalrous Cedric Diggory and his ungracious, snarky
father?

Hermowninny wrote in 
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/84757 :

<< I can't see anyone wanting to be in Hufflepuff, but maybe that's
where the sorting hat puts those who can't decide themselves. >>

I think Cedric would have been in Gryffindor except that he wanted to
be in Hufflepuff, for family tradition or to please his father. 

Troels wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/84874 :

<<  the Order of the Phoenix. Of the members we know or strongly
suspect the house of, at least 6 were in Gryffindor (or are strongly
suspected thereof), only one was never at Hogwarts, and only one was
in Slytherin. >>

Gryffindors: Dumbledore, Sirius, Remus, Peter, James, Lily, Arthur,
Molly, Bill, Charlie. Slytherin: Snape. Never at Hogwarts: are you
assuming that Arabella must not have gone to Hogwarts, just because
she's a Squib? I find that a reasonable assumption, but not canon. 

Eric Oppen wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/84876 :

<< As far as I can remember, we never find out _which_ House Dolores
Umbridge was in during her time at Hogwarts. For that matter, if she
hadn't mentioned being happy to be _back_ at Hogwarts, I'd have to say
that we wouldn't know for sure if she even _was_ a Hogwarts Old Girl.
She _could_ have been educated at Beauxbatons, Durmstrang, the Salem
Witches' Institute, or one of the smaller schools in Europe. >>

*sigh* *here I go again* The Salem Witches' Institute is *not* a
school, or Harry would have seen schoolgirls as well as middle-aged
witches hanging out under its banner. Surely the Witches' Institute is
a club for rural housewives, a pun on the Women's Institute in
Britain. (See
http://encarta.msn.com/encnet/features/dictionary/DictionaryResults.aspx?refid=561511693
and http://www.womens-institute.co.uk/ )

<< Harry, being young and highly partisan, does tend to think of the
Slytherins as all-evil, but I doubt that they all are...or, for that
matter, that the DEs are all Slytherin Old Boys and Old Girls. >>

We've heard a lot of people who lived through Vold War I tell us that
one could never tell who could be trusted. If all the followers of LV
were Slytherins, then it would have been easier to know that the
non-Slytherins could be trusted. I suppose Hagrid could defend his
generalization (that there wasn't a witch or wizard who went bad who
hadn't been in Slytherin) against some example of So-and-So who was a
Hufflepuff (for example) and sent to Azkaban for participating in the
ambus and murder of some Aurors (I made that up) by saying "She must
have been under Imperius. Stupid Ministry never convicts the right
people."
 
Just Carol wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/84826 :

<< There were no flush toilets in the days of Salazar Slytherin,
(snip) trying not to think about Moaning Myrtle being flushed down to
the lake with the sewage, or the resulting pollution of the lake >>

I always say, in the Potterverse, the wizarding folk had indoor
plumbing with hot and cold running water and flush toilets ever since
Atlantis. All the various Muggles who 'invented' indoor plumbing
(Minoans, Romans, 18th century, etc) were really trying to copy what
they had seen when a guest in a wizarding home. Also, the wizarding
folk had elaborate castles ever since Atlantis, so it doesn't matter
that Muggle 'castles' were IIRC wooden huts surrounded by a muddy
ditch and a picket fence at the time of the Founders.

I personally don't believe in Atlantis or primordial matriarchies, but
I also don't believe in flying carpets or House Elves. A large part of
the gimmick of the Potterverse is that many things which are familiar
folklore or fantasy motifs which every reader *knows* aren't real,
*are* real (altho' often garbled) in the Potterverse. So I think I'm
tremendously amusing to add Atlantis and primordial matriarchies to
the list of things that Muggles are too stupid to believe in.

***

I believe that their plumbing empties into the lake via a magical
cleaning spell that transmutes all the waste products into pretty
flowers or such, but I fear that that mgical cleaning spell was put in
place by the lake's inhabitants, such as the merpeople, rather 
than by the castle's occupants. Even tho' I believe that wizards have
had indoor plumbing with hot and cold running water and flush toilets
for over nine thousand years, I have no evidence that medieval wizards
had a higher concern for clean drinking water and pleasant smelling
surroundings than their Muggle contemporaries did.

***

I believe that Potterverse wizarding folk have had late twentieth
century indoor plumbing and Renaissance 'replica' castles since back
before Atlantis sank. They didn't need to know any plumbing,
hydraulics, metallurgy, stonecarving, or architecture because they
made their bathrooms and castles by MAGIC! However, Muggles who visted
wizards and saw the nice things the wizards had, had to invent all
that technology in order to imitate the wizarding goodies. There is a
long history of Muggles trying to imitate wizarding plumbing: Minoan,
Classical Roman, etc.
 
The wizarding folk teach their children a lot of self-enhancing
falsehoods. For example, they teach their children that the reason to
keep magic secret from Muggles is to avoid being pestered by Muggles
wanting favors (and Hagrid, not having completed his education, still
believes that), when in reality the wizarding folk went into hiding
because they were scared of the Muggles attacking them.

Another example is that they teach their children that Muggles use
technology to imitate what wizards do by magic. Technology probably
*started* that way, Muggles trying to figure out how to make bathrooms
and castles and swords like the wizards had ... this may have remained
true up to the Steam Age, with Muggles inventing horseless carriages
to imitate the (apparently) horseless carriages that carry students
from Hogsmeade Station to Hogwarts, inventing railroads to imitate
wizarding self-propelled wagons like at Gringotts, gaslight to imitate
the magical self-lighting candles on the wall of wizarding houses ...
but by then the discovery and invention of science and technology had
become self-propelling themselves, and with Electricity, Muggles went
on to invent things that the wizarding folk copy. The Wizarding
Wireless Network is obviously an imitation of Muggle radio, because
it's named after "wireles", the British Muggle name for radio. The
wizarding folk would have no other reason to name it "wireless",
because they didn't have a preceeding technology named "wire" (the
telegraph).

The kindly condescension to Muggles shown by the older Weasleys IS a
little off. They say, isn't it marvellous that Muggles and their cute
little toys are able to make do without magic? One common Muggle cute
little toy, the telephone, can send a message a great deal faster than
an owl! Other listies have mentioned Muggle bombs that blow up a great
deal more than one street and twelve people.