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[Catlady (Rita Prince Winston)]

No: HPFGUIDX 109406

Nora and Kneasy discussed fascism in several excellent posts. Nora,
does the ideology of fascism *require* a cult of personality? It seems
to me that sometimes The Dictator's line is like: "It's not about me;
it's all about protecting our great nation from enemies. I'm just the
one who was in the right place at the right time to take the necessary
actions against the traitors and enemy spies [i.e. all members of all
oppositions]." 

Wm. McLamb wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/107704 :

<< Don't Wizards have funerals? While Crouch jr.'s could probably be
hushed up how could Crouch sr.'s and Cedric's? If I were Dumbledore I
would have used these as opportunities to spread the word of you know
who's return. >>

Young Barty's confession mentioned that he transfigured his father's
corpse into a bone and hid it by burying it. To me that means there
was no Old Barty corpse to have a funeral for.

Mandy wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/107832 :

<< However if Lucius doesn't emerge from Azkaban Fortress
smelling of roses, all charges dropped, and a written apology from
Minister Fudge himself, Mr. Malfoy isn't half a slippery as we've
been lead to believe. >>

I love that sentence! However, it led me to wonder -- how sure are we
that the Dementors have left Azkaban? What would prolonged contact
with Dementors do to Lucius's slipperiness?

Just Carol wrote
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/107832 :

<< He was only about twenty-six when Voldemort was defeated at
Godric's Hollow, and Voldemort was not anticipating defeat. Why would
he have given his old school things to Lucius? My theory (okay,
speculation) is that Lucius found the diary at Hogwarts as a schoolboy
and kept it. He must have discovered *then* who Tom Riddle was and
been ordered to keep the diary secret until he felt the need to use
it. >>

In my theory, one of the 'useful friends' TMR met at Hogwarts was a
Malfoy. Presumably either Lucius's older brother or his father. It
might not have been difficult for TMR to have wangled an invitation to
come live at Malfoy Manor (which I imagine to be spacious) after
leaving Hogwarts. I'm sure there is an excellent Dark Arts library at
Malfoy Manor for TMR to begin his private research; the head of the
Malfoy family would also be a very useful connection, and perhaps
Malfoys gave him money to travel around (the world? Europe?) visiting
Dark Wizards. 

In that theory, *all* TMR's old school things would have been at
Malfoy Manor because he brought them with him when he moved in, and he
never was interested enough in them to remove them. I think Dumbledore
knows that, so his remark to Lucius about not handing out more of Lord
Voldemort's old school things was quite relevant. 

About the diary, your theory is be more logical -- TMR should have
hidden it in the Slytherin common room for an appropriate student to
find and use, as its use is at Hogwarts, not at Malfoy Manor. But it
seems to me that if schoolboy Lucius had contacted Diary!Tom, neither
of them would have yet know that Lord Voldemort was soon to become
famous, so they would have been more interested in re-opening the
Chamber and killing 'mudbloods' than in saving the diary for future
use.

Valky wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/107853 :

<< Lucius the 'slick talking silver tongue' that he is, was able to
engender the trust of Voldemort. In my own case, to be keeper (haha
another keeper for book 7!) of his magical possessions. >>

In my theory (above) TMR/LV was Lucius's godfather. He was enough of
an influence on child Lucius to explain why Lucius is so *very* evil,
and to me the gentleness of his scolding of Luicus at the graveyard
circle shows paternal-like affection for Lucius. Moving on from
baseless speculation to pure fanfic, I imagine that Lucius is head of
the family at such a young age because his godfather helped him to
murder his father, older brother(s), anyone ahead of him in the
inheritance, and disguise it all as Death Eater terrorist attacks.

<< (I go on to say that he has a swelled head and thinks that he will
rule the WW side by side with the victorious LV but we wont go into
that now ;D) >>

Oh, yes, except what is this 'side by side' stuff? He thinks he will
be the only ruler and LV will be only his figurehead.

Flop wrote in http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforG
rownups/message/109041 :

<< I'd wondered why she chose Lucius (of all things!) for Mr. Malfoy
(um... Light Bad-Faith?... That's a LITTLE odd!) >>

1) The Arthurian theory, as you explain. 2) Similar sound to Lucifer,
whose name *means* "Light-bearer", as Geoff explained. 3) Connected in
some way to his extremely fair coloring, shared by Draco. Several
years ago I posted about all blondes in the series being bad guys --
Petunia and Dudley and Draco and Lockhart -- and was that a clue that
Seamus will turn evil? After all, he spent a long time under the
Sorting Hat, perhaps begging for Gryffindor while it really thought
Slytherin would be a better choice. Then someone interfered by asking
what about Hannah Abbot, who was "a pink-faced girl with blonde
pigtails" when she was Sorted. 

Amey wrote in http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforG
rownups/message/108083 :

<< "But I've told you, I had no idea!" Bagman called earnestly over
the crowd's babble, his round blue eyes widening. "None at all! Old
Rookwood was a friend of my dad's . . . never crossed my mind he was
in with You-Know-Who! I thought I was collecting information for our
side! And Rookwood kept talking about getting me a job in the Ministry
later on ... " (GoF)

Where was he collecting information from? Or more precisely, from
whom??? And when did he became so important and clever to gather
information? What am I missing here? >>

Canon shows that Ludo's Quidditch achievements made him famous and
popular. I go on to fantasize that he was *so* famous and popular that
very rich and highly placed witches and wizards were eager to
socialize with him, and invited him to high-society parties. Where
some people were eager to impress him with how important they were by
passing along tidbits of "classified" information that ordinarily he
would have found too boring to pay attention to, but under Rookwood's
guidance, he listened carefully and remembered what he had heard so
that he could recite it back, even without understanding it. This is a
sexless version of the beautiful (and secretly intelligent) female spy
who uses seductive wiles to lure men who should know better into
telling her their nation's secrets. 

Alice_loves_cats wrote of speculation of Regulus's hypothetical
half-blood son in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/108091 :

<< But Dean Thomas is black (so probably not a Black). >>

Until quite recent times, it was regarded, at least in USA, that if
one parent is black, then the child is black. 

Julie wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/108120 :

<< Neville's problem is lack of confidence. His case actually makes me
believe the Sorting Hat does the actual sorting, however much it may
hem and haw, and give lip service to considering the student's
preference. I'm sure Neville didn't think he was Gryffindor material,
and expected to be sorted to Hufflepuff. But the Sorting Hat put him
in Gryffindor anyway. (It makes me wonder if the long time it took to
sort Neville was because of an ongoing argument between Neville and
the Hat--"I'm sure I belong in Hufflepuff.", "Hmm. Perhaps, but you
would also do well in Gryffindor.", "But I'm not brave enough!",
"Courage reveals itself in many forms and deeds.", "But I'm not really
good at anything. I'm just average.", etc, etc.) >>

Yes! That is what I believe. And the Hat's final argument would be:
"If you aren't brave, why are you arguing with a thousand year old
magical artifact?"

Magda wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/108302 :

<< Dumbledore says that the "Power the Dark Lord knows not" is love.
That's why he didn't anticipate Lily's sacrifice for Harry. If Harry
has this power, then he will be able to defeat the DL permanently.
How to make sure Harry has this power? By letting him grow up as
normally as possible, come to Hogwarts, make friends, discover the
warmer emotions including real love (as we saw with Sirius). >>

If that was DD's goal, he took a BIG risk placing Harry with the
Dursleys. I understand the argument that DD had to place HP with them
for the sake of physical protection (by living with his mothers's
blood kin), but it risked HP learning Dursley values.

ssgtkaras wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/108405 :

<< I'm probably overlooking this in the books. However, I am new to
the series and was wondering if anyone could tell me the difference
between a wizard and a warlock. >>

None of us know for sure (or if someone does, they haven't told).
Recent threads on the subject begin with the following posts:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/106697
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPFGU-OTChatter/message/23351

In those threads, Steve b_boymn suggests that 'wizards' are Western
European and 'warlocks' are Eastern European. That doesn't explain why
Dumbledore's title as chairman of the Wizengamot is Chief Warlock, and
why Quidditch, a sport invented in England, is called 'the noble sport
of warlocks'. 

My theory is that 'warlock' means a member of the wizarding parliament
(which might be the Wizengamot, named as it is after the Saxon
parliament, Witangemot). I assume that the word acquired additional
meaning: as being chosen by your neighbors to represent them is
something of an honor, 'warlock' came to mean a respected person, thus
'the noble sport of warlocks'; but public opinion of politicians being
what it is, 'warlock' also came to mean a person full of hot air,
which might explain the 'wild-looking' warlocks arguing over the
latest issue of Transfiguration Quarterly at the Leaky Cauldron.

Potioncat wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/108737

<< Steve wrote: "Thank you, Fortescue, that will do," said Dumbledore
softly. >>

<< Given DD's sweet-tooth, giving Fortescue a place of honor makes
sense! (Assuming of course, the ancestor also had a sweet shop on
Diagon Alley...) >>

Of course I'm being far too serious about a sweet funny joke, but Old
Fortescue's ice cream shop must have been before or after or on the
side of being Headmaster, since the portraits in DD's office are all
former Headmasters and Headmistresses.

Josh wrote in http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforG
rownups/message/108917 :

<< The negative answer to the choosing animagi form in a previous
response was the World Book Day chat, I believe. She made some
comment about working so hard for so long only to find that you most
resemble some embarrassing creature. Look at the animagi you know:
Prongs -> proud, big ego, Padfoot -> playful but loyal in the
extreme, Wormtail -> sly and sneaky, Rita Skeeter -> a pest, Minerva -
> prim and proper. >>

Based on a person's Animagus form reflecting their personality, I
figure Minerva is quite a sensual hedonist on her own time ... cats
only *fake* being prim and proper.

DuffyPoo wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/108944 :

<< My sincerest apologies. You all must think I'm nuts. I was
intending that e-mail for a friend who asked me, "Are Harry Potter and
the Lord of the Rings all part of the same story." So, as you can
tell, I was trying to explain that they are NOT. >>

IIRC, according to Tolkien, they *are*, and so are WWII and the Bible:
all part of the story of good against evil.

Carolyn wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/108963 :

<<The more interesting question to me is whether Harry is also going
to fail because he is so closely identified with Gryffindor talents.
There is that ick-making line of Hermione's: 'Harry - you're a great
wizard, you know' forewarning us of his abilities (and we all know she
is the voice of the author), but would substituting Gryffindor values
for Slytherin values really change much in the WW? >>

We might not thinkn so, but JKR might. 

Some clever listie once translated Hermione's next sentence as
invoking all four Houses:

"Harry -- you're a great wizard, you know."

"I'm not as good as you," said Harry, very embarrassed, as she let go
of him.

"Me!" said Hermione. "Books! And cleverness! There are more important
things -- friendship and bravery and -- oh Harry -- be careful!"

"Me!" said Hermione. "Ravenclaw! There are more important things --
Hufflepuff and Gryffindor and -- oh Harry -- Slytherin!"

Nora wrote in http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforG
rownups/message/109054 :

<< Nora notes that her favorite person in Theory Bay is Faith, who
always comes out of Hurricane Jo with her haircut intact >>

I'm very fond of Faith, who never requires me to understand those
logic puzzles about "If DD lives in the red house and uses a Time
Turner, in what color house does the Heir of Slytherin live?" But I'm
pretty sure that at the end of PoA, Faith had to do a big job of 'pick
herself up, brush herself off, and start all over again' -- a reader
who believes the obvious never expected that Scabbers the boring pet
rat was really a dead human wizard. And again at the end of GoF -- I
never suspected Moody as bad guy the first read through, and even if I
had, only a suspicious mind would have doubted that young Barty was
really dead.

Aggie wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/109062 :

<< IMO it would solve some of the mysteries as how DD KNOWS so much.
He has a list, (12 hands I do believe the watch has) of the 12 people
he wants to keep tabs on and then he just has to look at his watch to
know where they are. >>

Personally I think there's something astrological about Dumbledore's
watch. To me, the 12 hands delineate the 12 Houses into which the
heavens are divided and the planets go around the circumference. So he
can both tell time from his watch (Hagrid being late to arrive at
Privet Drive) AND read it like the centaurs read the sky.

Jo Sturgess wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/109126 :

<< I suppose that Harry may follow in the marauders footsteps
(pawprints?) and teach himself to transform. The marauders were
focused by the desire to help Lupin and Harry, I suspect, is going to
want to pass through that dratted veil in search of Sirius, might not
be possible as a human. >>

JKR said not:
http://www.the-leaky-cauldron.org/quickquotes/arti
cles/1999/1099-pressclubtransc.html
SB: We're going to take a few more questions, and um, the next
one is
will Harry ever turn into a shape-changer like his father?

JKR: Animagus. No, Harry's not in training to be an animagus, and
if
you've read book three, you won't know -- um, that's a
wizard that's
very, very difficult to do. They learn to turn themselves into
animals. No, Harry is not, Harry is going to be concentrated
elsewhere, he's not going to have time to do that. He's got
quite a
full agenda coming up, poor boy.

Lorel wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/109168 :

<< Exactly. So why would this be any different for Sirius? He can get
there, but not bring people with whom Peter had not shared the
secret. Of course, it just occurred to me that within this setup,
Sirius would be the only other person who could know, because
otherwise everyone else would have known that Peter was the S-K.
Hmmm, that's a big weakness in my theory. >>

Just as Secret Keeper Dumbledore informed Harry of 12 Grimmauld Place
by a written note, Peter could have informed Dunbledore of Godric's
Hollow by a written note. If he had written the note in disguised
handwriting, DD might not have recognized Peter's handwriting and
simply thought Sirius was being overdramatic with disguised
handwriting. It is possible that Peter handed these notes, said to be
from Sirius, to DD, Hagrid, Remus, and maybe more Order members at an
Order meeting... Even if one of them were LV's spy, not being Secret
Keeper, they couldn't reveal the Potters to LV.

Kemper wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/109331 :

<< DD wouldn't hire some evil man to work with youth, and a character
can be unlikable and still be good because "it is our choices (snip)
that show what we truly are." >>

Dumbledore believes in second chances. That means, he believes that a
person can STOP BEING EVIL -- he is willing to take some risk of
hiring formerly evil people who appear to have given up evil. It isn't
much bigger than the risk of hiring apparently good person who later
decide to TURN EVIL.