Drought

[Kirstini]

No: HPFGUIDX 83785

smaragdina5:
> Does anyone else wonder whether the drought (or Spanish baggage 
 strike) might have anything to do with the coming bad 
 tidings/Voldemort's return/etc.?
 I know that one person wondered so, but wonder if anyone else has 
ideas.  Probably the waterskiing budgie is safe not to worry about 
(unless it's another animagus or transfigured wizard!)> 

As a Brit, I read these as authentic detail. Southern England 
(contrary to all British stereotypes) can get very hot over the 
summer, and the news talks about a hosepipe ban every year. A baggage 
handler's strike, similarly, is something that seems to happen in 
European airports every summer. I think that these events, far from 
foreboding anything, are included to signal precisely how ordinary a 
summer it seems.
Kirstini, praying fervently to her little Rowling alter that Bungy 
the Budgie does not turn out to be Malfada Hopkirk in disguise.