Rita Skeeter / Evans family / Sirius / Wands

Sun Oct 12 06:09:38 UTC 2003

No: HPFGUIDX 82757

Geoff Bannister wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/82655 :

<< The wizarding world appears to have two papers - "The Daily
Prophet" and "The Quibbler". >>

I agree that the Daily Prophet is their major paper, but not that The
Quibbler is its only competition. I even have a bit of canon. OoP, US
edition, page 568:

<<"My dad thinks it's an awful paper," said Luna (snip) "He publishes
important stories that he thinks the public needs to know. He doesn't
care about making money."
   Rita looked disparagingly at Luna. 
   "I'm guessing that your father runs some stupid little village
newsletter?" she said. "'Twenty-five Ways to Mingle with Muggles' and
the dates of the next Bring-and-Fly Sale?" >>

I take that as meaning there are several village newsletters being
published in the UK wizarding world.

Qui-gong Ginger wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/82436 :

<< Ethel Evans (the widow Evans), who has kept her late husband's
surname, gives birth to Mark. Not Jasper [Evans]'s son, but with the
father unknown, he gets the Evans surname. >>

Your theory works just as well with Mark being Jasper's son and
biologically an Evans: Jasper was killed before Harry was put on
Petunia's doorstep (Jasper might even have been killed the same night
as James and Lily) and Mark wasn't born yet at that time, so
Dumbledore's statement that only Petunia (and Dudley, who was in the
same place as Petunia) shared Harry's mother's blood was true. But
Mark could be born anytime from the next day to nine months after
Jasper's death and still be Jasper's biological son. (Even without 
any of that non-fairy-tale artificial insemination stuff.)

Ravenclaw Bookworm Scoutmom wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/82473 :

<< If this is true, then Lily's grandparents or great grandparents
might have been magical - hence her parents' pride over her talents.
They could have been known about the WW even if they weren't part of
it. >>

I think that people don't have to be descended from wizards to know
about the wizarding world. Suppose that Lily and Petunia's mother's
best friend from Muggle school ended up marrying a wizard and asking
Lily and Petunia's mother (Mrs Evans) to be her maid of honor at the
wedding?  Mrs Evans could have ended up going into business with the
wizard 'brother'-in-law running an import-export business between the
wizarding and Muggle worlds.   

Aussie Hagrid wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/82647 :

<< BTW, if Sirius was the godfather, was there a godmother ??? >>

to which, Iggy McSnurd answered in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/82716 :

<< the godmother could have been Petunia. This would be one reason
that helps explain why she took in Harry despite her anger with 
Lilly. >>

I don't think Petunia *could* have been Harry's godmother, because 
the very first page of PS/SS says: "The Dursleys knew that the 
Potters had a small son, too, but they had never even seen him." 
Among Muggles, Petunia couldn't be the godmother unless both she and
Harry were at the christening, altho' I *suppose* wizards might have
different rules.  

It has been suggested that Alice Longbottom was Harry's godmother 
and Lily Potter was Neville's godmother. That would be likely if 
Alice and Lily had been best friends at school, which there is no
canon for nor against.

Fred Waldrop wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/82693 :

<< I do not see Petunia having heard about dementors from Lily, James
or any of the other school kids (before Harry came to stay at her
house). As LV said in GoF, pg 651 paperback, US, "The dementors will
join us... they are our natural allies..." So, if the dementors are 
LV "natral allies", and DD seems to think they will go over to LV as
soon as he ask them to, it only seems logical that they were his
followers in the "first war". And if they were LV allies, they would
not have been guarding Azkaban, unless Lily and James got married and
waited many years to have Harry. >>

To me it seem quite the contrary. To me it seems entirely logical 
that IF the Dementors had been LV's allies in the Unpleasantness, the
wizarding world would NEVER have trusted them to guard prisoners
convicted of supporting LV. To me it seems that the Dementors were
already the Azkaban guards then and LV must not have gotten around to
recruiting them as allies before his HP defeat.

Sylvia Blundell asked in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/82442 :

<< The question was: why did Sirius go through all that trouble,
swimming for miles and then journeying north when he could have 
simply apparated once he was outside the prison and re-appeared
outside the grounds of Hogwarts. >>

to which many people answered, including TheWeirdOne18 in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/82532 :

<< Also, like Hogwarts, Azkaban probably has a charm put on it that
prohibits people form apparating or disapparating -- it just wouldn't
doooooo. Otherwise, all the prisoners would be apparating and
disapparating and it wouldn't be a prison... >>

I wonder if, instead of Azkaban having an anti-Apparation charm on 
it, *each prisoner* has had his/her ability to Apparate removed? I
mean, removed immediately, not just as a gradual result of exposure 
to Dementors. Even if it is possible to restore a person's ability to
Apparate when they are released, Sirius escaped rather than being
released, so he wouldn't have been able to Apparate south to Privet
Drive (after landing in North Britain after swimming from Azkaban) 
and back north to Hogwarts. He apparently *still* can't, which
explains Buckbeak. 

It has been suggested that Sirius never bothered to learn to Apparate
back when he was a free man and member of the Order, probably because
he preferred to use his flying motorcycle. 

Aussie Hagrid wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/82643 :

<< So where was he? Maybe the identity of the TROPICAL BIRD would
help. Harry said it was so big he was worried it wouldn't fit in his
window. Hedwig, the Snowy Owl, would have a wingspan of 4.5 feet, so
this bird has a bigger wingspan and is colourful. >>

In http://www.the-leaky-cauldron.org/quickquotes/articles
/2000/0200-scholastic-chat.htm when someone asked JKR: "Where did
Sirius Black and Buckbeack go after they went into hiding?",  she
answered: "Somewhere nice and warm!" 

My guess had always been the Caribbean, but I don't know whether such
a large bird could live on an island?

Lliannanshe wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/82620 :

<< Any other opinions on what happens to the wand when a wizard 
dies? >>

to which, Sylvia Blundell replied in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/82633 :

<< I would have expected it to be buried with him, like a Viking's
gear, but this is only an opinion. I can't support it from canon. >>

I would have expected that, too, but it seems to me to be opposed by
canon. Remember the junk shop in CoS where Percy was found reading 
'a small and deeply boring book called Prefects Who Gained Power'? It
was described as 'a tiny junk shop full of broken wands, lopsided
brass scales, and old cloaks covered in potion stains'. That suggests
that the wizarding folk don't feel so much attachment to their old
wands, not even enough to dispose of them respectfully when worn out.  