Sweets of Silence/ Sirius's cousin by marriage/Harry's grandparents/LV-LM

[Catlady (Rita Prince Winston)]

No: HPFGUIDX 82324

Fran maneelyfh wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/82296 :

<< We have also seen throught the series, characters given sweets to
shut them up. DD offered McGonagal a lemon drop in PS/SS so she would
stop talking about LV's demise and the Potter's death. In OOP she
pushes Ginger Newts on Harry to fill his mouth so he will stop
talking and listen. That gives more canon maybe to the Longbottoms
chewing so much Droobles...they have their mouth full so they cannot
speak. Plus it is full of mind numbing potion put their by someone
wanting to keep them quiet. >>

I accept that you have an insight about people being given sweets to
shut them up, but I disagree with the idea that it is the mechanical
act of filling their mouths. DD offered McG the sherbert lemon to
change the subject, not to fill her mouth. (I don't think she even
accepted it.)

There is a theory that the Ginger Newts were magicked to make Harry
calm down and *think* before shooting off his mouth to Umbridge, 
which could be defined to be a type of using sweets to shut him up,
but I didn't see anything in OoP about McGonagall using the bikkies 
to fill Harry's mouth so that he physically couldn't speak at that
moment. The first one, she listened to his entire explanation, and
when he had finished and shut up, she said: "Have a biscuit, Potter",
seeming for the moment as if she were expressing *approval* of his
reported behavior.

Tigerqueen wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/82307 :

<< We know that Molly is/was Sirius's cousin though marriage, but 
how? I think that either Molly's maiden surname was either Malfoy or
Lestrange >>

"Some kind of a cousin by marriage" -- "some kind of a cousin" could
mean third cousin four times removed, rather than first cousin. For
example, one of my friends has the anecdote from her college days of
meeting a boy (his name would mean nothing to this list) and "I think
we're related: isn't my Great-Aunt Sarah-Grace your Great-Aunt
Sarah-Grace?" Sarah-Grace had two siblings. One married the sibling
 of a grandparent of my friend and the other married a sibling of a
grandparent of the other person. My friend doesn't know how to label
that relationship except as "some kind of cousin by marriage".  

<< I know this question has been asked many time, but where are
Harry's grandparents? For James' parents we could assume that they 
are dead because and the money in the valut was James's inheritace
that passed to Harry. Though i cannot say the same for Lily and
Petunia's parents. >>

I feel sure that Lily and Petunia's parents are dead, or else
Dumbledore could have put Harry to live with them. His mother's blood
dwelt every bit as much with her parents as with her sister. As
Melanie said, if the Evans parents were killed by Voldemort and/or
Death Eaters, that would re-double Petunia's dislike of magic.

'Sherlock' Bohcoo wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/82317 :

<< I think [Lucius Malfoy] is just using Lord Thingy to get rid of
those he considers to be in his way, much in the same way as Hermoine
used the centaurs to get rid of Umbridge. Once that happens, Malfoy,
who has been quietly building a power base among those of like-mind 
in the Ministry, will marshall his forces and take over after Harry
Potter takes care of Voldemort for him. >>

Unless Voldemort is perfectly aware of what Lucius is doing, will 
know exactly when Lucius is planning to make his move, and will kill
Lucius just before then ... ideally in some scheme that will make it
clear to Lucius that Voldemort knew what he was up to the whole time
and outsmarted him. As in my post 82286's reply to Eric Oppen's post
82029.