Bill's age/Voldemort as Ultimate Dementor/Slavery/Secrecy

[Catlady (Rita Prince Winston)]

No: HPFGUIDX 80773

Sue Great Raven wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/80744 :

<< I don't think Bill can be much over 22, because in GoF, when he
visits Hogwarts, he says he left five years ago. >>

No, he says "It's great being back here," said Bill, looking around
the chamber (Violet, the Fat Lady's friend, winked at him from her
frame). "Haven't seen this place for five years. Is that picture of
the mad knight still around? Sir Cadogan?" I understand that to mean
that he left school long ago, but visited there five years before 
GoF, which would be one year before PS/SS, when Percy would have been
in fourth year and the twins in second year.

Jen Reese wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/80749 :

<< Perhaps Voldemort is The Ultimate Dementor, sucking all the good
thoughts and memories of all who try to fight him, and he and his
followers feed off them. People like Umbridge, Fudge and Percy
knowingly or unknowingly contribute to their power by thwarting the
Power of Good and feeding the Power of Evil. >>

Presumably, the Death Eaters don't feed on stolen good thoughts, or
they would get hungrier as they get more successful (because the more
successful they get, the fewer good thoughts people have). Dementors
at Azkaban have that same problem, so if the wizards don't keep
sending them a supply of fresh food, they're easily tempted to 
leave Azkaban and hunt for their own fresh food. Thus, people like
Umbridge are not good for Dementors, because they reduce the amount 
of good thoughts available for Dementors to feed on. Can it be that
Death Eaters get nourishment from people's *bad* thoughts without
taking the bad thought away from the people? 

DeeDee wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/80752 :

<< I'm watching muggle news closely...a coffee plantation in South
America was just shut down and more than 1,000 slaves were
freed...this is in the year 2003. What happens to these people, their
families, the community in which the slaves were kept. >>

According to an article in SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN, unless the freed
slaves get some training in money management, legal rights, and
self-esteem, they soon end up enslaved again. I quoted the article in
Message 37561. I found it again at     
http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?colID=1&articleID=0005F839-CC90-1CC6-B4A8809EC588EEDF
(if the URL doesn't work, go to www.sciam.com, click on Magazine,
click on Past Issues, choose 2002, choose April)
"When I met Baldev in 1997, he was plowing. His master called him "my
halvaha," meaning "my bonded plowman." Two years later I met Baldev
again and learned that because of a windfall from a relative, he had
freed himself from debt. But he had not freed himself from bondage. 
He told me: 

After my wife received this money, we paid off our debt and were free
to do whatever we wanted. But I was worried all the time--what if one
of the children got sick? What if our crop failed? What if the
government wanted some money? Since we no longer belonged to the
landlord, we didn't get food every day as before. Finally, I went to
the landlord and asked him to take me back. I didn't have to borrow
any money, but he agreed to let me be his halvaha again. Now I don't
worry so much; I know what to do.

Lacking any preparation for freedom, Baldev reenrolled in slavery.
Without financial or emotional support, his accidental emancipation
didn't last. Although he may not bequeath any debt to his children,
his family is visibly worse off than unbonded villagers in the same
region."

Laura jwcpgh wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/80754 : 

<< What is it about knowledge that makes grownups (both in HP and in
the RW) so reluctant to share it? Is it that knowledge is power and
adults don't want to give up their power over children? Is it
laziness? embarrassment? inability to find the right words? sheer
stupidity? >>

Listie Lunalovegoodrules has a theory about why all the adults keep
information from Harry in the story. 

Scooting2win Lori wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/80765 :

<< Now what I am having a difficult time with is, she abuses
Harry in this book. NOT emotionally, but physically. Umbridges pen!
It sent one heck of a message to me, and for little kids reading
this book as well. She basically is saying it's ok if someone hurts
you, you don't have to tell an adult, you don't have to tell anyone,
you can keep it a secret! Secrets are not good for small children to
keep. Especially if the secret includes someone hurting them, or
worse things then that. Maybe it's not what she intended but it's
there none the less. >>

I *hope* anyone with long enough attention span to read OoP has good
enough memory and understanding to notice that the result of Harry
keeping secrets (and of Dumbledore keeping secrets) is that Sirius 
was killed. "Keeping secrets makes bad things happen" could almost be
the moral of OoP.