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

[yolandacarroll]

No: HPFGUIDX 85483

Berit Jakobsen wrote:
<snip>
Rowling would be aware 
> that it is a common notion that it stems from Hebrew 
> meaning "Serpent's mouth" (or "big-mouth"). I'm not so sure this is 
> supposed to be a clue that Rowling's Phineas was a parseltongue 
> though... According to Tom M. Riddle, he and Harry were "probably 
the 
> only two parselmouths to come to Hogwarts since Slytherin himself." 
> (CoS p.233, Brit.Vers.) Phineas has been at Hogwarts, at least as a 
> headmaster. Of course this doesn't have to rule out Phineas being 
> one, since what Tom is saying is that HE doesn't know of anyone 
else. 
> The question is whether Tom would have known if Phineas was one... 
> But, it is an intriguing thought :-)
<snip>

I always thought Tom's comment showed how pompous 
he was.  I don't believe for a second that Tom and 
Harry are the only parselmouths to have come to 
Hogwarts in 1000 years.  Tom Riddle needed a 
"Big Head Boy" badge.  

I also don't see how Tom would know of any other 
parselmouths.  Since being a parselmouth has 
negative connotations, I can see people keeping 
that little piece of information to themselves.  
Since Phineas was a Slytherin, I imagine he'd be 
pretty cagey about his more unique talents, so 
Tom not knowing about him makes sense.

For that matter, I don't see how everyone would 
know what talents others had.  Wizards and witches 
do cast spells in front of others, so all of their 
abilities aren't secret, however I believe that 
most of their abilities are.  (When I 
say secret, I mean from the WW as a whole, not 
from friends and family.)

In OOP, Dumbledore disappears by grabbing Fawkes 
tail.  The aurors and minister of magic appeared
to have been caught off-guard by this move.  One 
of them was even impressed and said that Dumbledore 
"has style".

Dumbledore is acknowledged as a powerful wizard, 
so people must know about *some* of his abilities.  
However, does the WW in general know all the 
spells he can cast?  The little scene in his 
office suggests otherwise.

Yolanda