Shoemaker'sElves/ RegulusAtSchool/ VeelaReproduction/hating child of beloved

[Catlady (Rita Prince Winston)]

No: HPFGUIDX 80738

Grey Wolf wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/80693 :

<< Let's examine, then, the concept of "giving the boot". As 
Catlady has oft mentioned, the concept probably comes from the
folklore stories about little creatures helping honest merchants 
(my country's version is a shoemaker, I've no idea about the possible
variations), >>

Yes, the most common version in English is "The Shoemaker and the
Elves", and there is also one about a housewife and some brownies. I
vaguely recall also one about a tailor... 

<< which help the merchant survive bad times and re-float his shop by
doing huge amounts of work. The merchant eventually spies on those
creatures and notices they're naked, or wearing ragged clothes, and
has his wife make them appropiate clothes (he does tiny shoes), and
lets them were the little creatures can find it, as thanks. However,
when the little creatures find the clothes, they are offended and
leave. >> 

Nitpick: I don't recall any English-language version in which the
little creatures are *offended*. Usually, they are delighted by the
gift of clothes, dress up and admire themselves, and then decide not
to risk dirtying their beautiful new clothes by ever working again.

Lziner wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/80715 :

<< After reading post #807803 about Regulus Black, it mentioned that
Sirius and Regulus may have been at Hogwarts together. I can only
wonder how they "got on " at school. If Sirius was the height of cool
(along with James), where was little bro Regulus in the pecking
order? OR is it possible he went to another school - Drumstrang -
perhaps? >>

If Sirius was in Gryffindor and Regulus was in Slytherin, they
wouldn't have lived in the same House nor dined at the same table.
Being different years, they wouldn't have had classes together. Thus,
they would have had no more opportunity to pick on each other (ah,
"sibling rivalry", I remember it well) than any other Gryffie plus
Slythie pair. 

As good looks and self-confidence appear to run in the Black family
(Sirius, Bellatrix, and Narcissa even tho' she's blonde and not named
after a star), I imagine that Regulus was also handsome and popular,
the 'cool kid' of his year and of Slytherin House.

It is possible that those two brothers never actually *hated* each
other, in which case they may have liked each other in-between
quarrel, in which case big brother Sirius may have occasionally 
given little brother Regulus good advice about fashion, girls, how 
to get on the good side of certain teachers, etc.

Paula Gaon Griff wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/80726 :

<< But does anyone have a theory who/what the Veelas are? They 
remind me of the Sirens of Greek Mythology, who lured sailors to 
crash on the rocks. >>

The Veelas (usually spelled vila, which is the origin of the US
English phrase about someone "having the willies") are from Slavic
mythology/folklore. They are kind of like nature spirits, because 
they can bring good weather and good harvest to farmers who please
them, and bad weather and other disasters to farmers who displease
them. Various books say that they are the spirits of girls and young
women who died unmarried and/or childless, so they still have unused
fertility they can give to the crops. 

They appear as groups of beautiful young women, who dance in the 
woods and try to lure any man who walks alone in the woods to dance
with them, and then dance him to death or something. They take the
form of swans in order to fly, and upon arrival at their dancing-
place, they return to human form by taking off their swan skins. If 
a man steals a vila's swan skin, she has to marry him and keep his
house and bear his children, but if she ever gets a chance, she will
steal back her swan skin and escape. This is supposed to be the 
origin of the plots of Swan Lake and another ballet that I forget. 
(As well as reminding me of Irish tales about selkies and their seal
skins.)

The vila who live underwater, in streams and pools, come up to the
surface to lure both young men and children to come be hugged. When
the water vila is hugging and kissing a man or a child, she descends
underwater, thus drowning the human she pulled down with her. The
water vila are called 'nereids' in Greece ('nereid' is classical 
Greek for an ocean nymph and almost-modern English for a mermaid). I
can't remember whether it is water or land vila who are called
'rusalka' (plural: rusalki) in Bulgaria or someplace, from the name 
of the Greek holiday Rosalia, which IIRC has something to do with
putting roses on the family graves (more death). 

<< Also, Veelas seem to be by definition exclusively female. So how
could Fleur Delacoeur be anything but half Veela? Wouldn't all Veelas
be half-breeds? >>

If the vila really are the spirits of dead girls, new vila come 
from another place than procreation, and any children born to vila 
by procreation would be only part-Veela. I think JKR wouldn't get 
into something so weird as the vila being dead people (necrophilia?),
but Potterverse Veelas could still be an all-female species whose
children are not half-human. Maybe new Veelas grow on trees (that 
would fit with certain translators of Russian folktales into English,
who call them 'dryads') or maybe they give birth parthenogenically
like some species of anoles (a kind of lizard). Or they could be a
two-sexed species without humans knowing it: maybe the males are 
short and ugly and live underground and are considered to be dwarves
or kobolds or such. Or, if all Veela offspring were fathered by human
men, then the daughters could be Veelas, and the sons could be
part-Veela, and thus Fleur could be the child of a part-Veela man 
and a fully human woman.  

Deirdre Woodward wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/80732 :

<< The two don't add up. Why would Snape hate the child of the woman
he loves/-ed? >>

I don't believe that Snape loved Lily,but it seems reasonable 
enough to me that IF Snape DID love Lily, he could hate the child 
that caused her death.