werewolf / inheritance / Fidelius / Emeric

[Catlady (Rita Prince Winston)]

No: HPFGUIDX 81704

Alshain wrote of werewolves in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/81426 :

<< we can't even be quite sure about the silver issue in JKR's
universe until she chooses to tell us >>

I'm pretty sure she DID tell us, in the scene of Harry's first 
dinner at 12 Grimmauld Place, that silver doesn't harm Potterverse
werewolves (at least not when in human form). First, we had Mundungus
asking Sirius if the goblets were solid silver, and Sirius saying 
they were. Then, when it comes time to give Harry some information,
she specifically states: Lupin, who was drinking wine, put his goblet
down. There was no reason for her to include that conversation of
Mundungus except to make sure that us readers knew that the goblets
were silver (it was not needed as characterization for Mundungus, who
had already been characterized) and there was no reason for the
readers to need to know that the goblets were silver, except that
Lupin was holding one.

moviebec wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/81439 :

<< do wizards have wills? >>

Wizards must be able to bequeath property to people of their own
choosing (as Muggle do by writing a will), because Sirius's Uncle
Alphard left him enough money to leave his parents and live on his own.

<< If Sirius did have a will, who do you think he would have left his
house to? >>

Sirius doesn't strike me as the will-making type. If he had been
required to make a will as one of the rules of joining the Order of
the Phoenix the first time (I believe that will would still be in
effect, as he wouldn't have made another since), I suppose he would
have left everything to Remus. Even if one is not a Sirius/Remus
shipper, as I am, who else did he have to leave it to? No wife, no
children, he hated his relatives, Harry (his godson) wasn't born yet
(probably not even conceived yet), Remus was the one of his friends
who really needed some money and a roof over his head. In fact, I
fantasize that when Sirius was sentenced to life in Azkaban, Remus 
did inherit the 'place of [his] own' that he had bought at age 17 
with Uncle Alphard's bequest, and that was the 'Lupin's place'
mentioned at the end of GoF.

<< I'm leaning towards wizards not having will's after Molly's
reaction to the boggart/dead family members scene. "And what's going
to happen if Arthur and I get killed, who's g-g-going to look after
Ron and Ginny?"Page 161 OoP Australian edition. Lupin reassures her
that the order would look after the kids, but wouldn't that
responsibility fall to Bill as the oldest brother? >>

Responsibilities and property falling to people because of their
position on the family tree is what happens when people didn't bother
to make a will. People who make a will can name someone else to be
guardian of their orphaned children.

Narie wrote in http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/81596 :

<< The only problem with this theory is that then the spy would have
known who the secret keeper was, as the secret can only be revealed
by that specific person. If that was the case, you would have hoped
*someone* would have informed Dumbledore or the Ministry of the fact
that Pettigrew was the Potter's secret keeper, and not Black. >>

Two things we learned about the Fidelius Charm in OoP: 1) if the
Secret Keeper tells one person the secret, it is still hidden from 
all the people who haven't been told. 2) the Secret Keeper can tell
the secret in writing (as Dumbledore "told" Harry that the
headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix is at 12 Grimmauld Place and
the house suddenly became visible to Harry). 

Therefore, Pettigrew as Secret Keeper could have written "James and
Lily are hiding in their house in Godric's Hollow" on several notes,
and the people who read those notes would know. I suppose James
instructed him to write one note to Sirius, one to Dumbledore, and 
one to Hagrid. Peter could have written the ones for Dumbledore and
Hagrid in an imitation of Sirius's handwriting, so they wouldn't 
known that Peter was the Secret Keeper. 

That would explain how, when Sirius got suspicious, he went straight
to Godric's Hollow, and Dumbledore was able to send Hagrid to Godric's
Hollow, but McGonagall didn't know where they were hiding, or she
would have gone there to check out the rumors instead of waiting in
front of 4 Privet Drive for Dumbledore to arrive.

Iggy MacSnurd wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/81690 :

<< Emeric [...] America [...] Hmmm... interesting. *grin* Would this
mean "America the Evil"?... >>

Probably not, but there is a theory that America was named after
someone named Emeric (or E. Merrick, the article is audio): "Robert
Siegel talks with Rodney Broome about his book Terra Incognita, about
the origins of the word America. Broome challenges the idea that the
name came from the Italian explorer Amerigo Vespucci. He suggests
instead that the name "America" can be traced back to fishermen from
Bristol, England, who saw what is now Newfoundland as they sailed the
North Atlantic."
http://discover.npr.org/features/feature.jhtml?wfId=1131065