Potter Professions/MagiCreatures/MissingWeasley/ DEvictims/LovePotion/MMap

[Catlady (Rita Prince Winston)]

No: HPFGUIDX 89586

Iris, I like your philosophical/psychological post
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/89139 even tho' I
can't comment on it.

Watercolor Stain wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/89098 :

<< Has there been a discussion/speculation on what James and Lily's
professions were? >>

http://www.the-leaky-cauldron.org/quickquotes/arti
cles/2000/1000-livechat-aol.html
AOL on-line chat October 19, 2000:

<<Q: What did James and Lily Potter do when they were alive?

JKR: Well, I can't go into too much detail, because you're going to
find out in future books. But James inherited plenty of money, so he
didn't need a well-paid profession. You'll find out more about both
Harry's parents later. >>

One popular theory is that James and Lily were Aurors; another is that
they were researchers in the Department of Mysteries. Another is that
they fought Evil and researched Ancient Magic as "talented amateurs"
(to imitate Emma Peel's job title).

Berit wrote in http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPfor
Grownups/message/89102 :

<< Well, I'm one of the "ignorant" ones that believes Harry IS going
to be an auror :-) After all, the one thing, apart from Quidditch,
that he is REALLY good at is DADA. And he knows it and enjoys
it.(snip) I agree that he'll probably be dead tired of dark wizards at
the end of book 7, but he'll have the whole summer to recover before
starting auror training in the autumn... :-) >>

If Harry defeats LV, passes some NEWTs, and lives past book 7, he'll
have a right to take some vacation. Having been fighting LV for seven
years, he has a right to take one, two, or three years off to do
something refreshing (and he's inherited enough money to do it). He
might like to travel the world and visit wizarding and Muggle foreign
countries (where fewer people recognize him) or he might like to build
a cabin in the woods and practise self-reliance and living close to
Nature (find out how much can he do without using his wand). 

He can start his adult career AFTER that. I'd like to see him play
professional Quidditch for a few years before he becomes an Auror, and
I'd like to see him become DADA Professor at Hogwarts after a couple
of decades Auror-ing, and eventually be Headmaster of Hogwarts. 

The above is my preference, not my prediction: I predict he'll die in
book 7.

<< in twenty, or maybe fifty years, Hermione might be the new Minister
For Magic! >>

Yes! I keep saying Hermione will be the first Muggle-born Minister of
Magic!

Debbie wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/89160 :

<< Perhaps we'll know that the WW has made real progress when the MoM
renames the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical
Creatures to Department of Magical Creature Cooperation. >>

But some of the creatures *aren't* people ('beings' in MoM
terminology). It seems to me that Ashwinders, Doxies, and Lethifolds
need to be regulated and controlled as much as fleas, mosquitos, and
great white sharks.

Barbara wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/89162 :

<< First of all, I have seen many people mention the "missing" Weasley
son. I tried to find references to this in the FAQs and by searching,
but with no luck. Could someone either explain this or point me in the
right direction? >>

A lot of us compute that Bill is the oldest brother, then Charlie was
born around 1967, then Percy was born in 1976, the twins in 1978, Ron
in 1980, and Ginny in 1981. That computation gives a big gap between
the second (Charlie) and third (Percy) child. Some of us feel that
there must be a more interesting reason for such a gap than 'it just
happens that way sometimes' or 'JKR has trouble with numbers and dates
and ages'.  

An early speculation was that they'd originally planned to have
another baby every two or three years, but then the Death Eater
murders began (1969 in my computation) and they wanted to wait until
the world would be less dangerous for children. The problem with that
speculation is they DIDN'T wait for Voldemort's defeat: Percy through
Ginny were all conceived during the First Voldemort Reign of Terror. 

Another is that they originally planned to have only two children, or
only two children per each twenty years, but something made them feel
a need to personally repopulate the wizarding world from all those
VRoT deaths.

Another is that they DID have another baby every two or three years
(every three years would be Charlie 1967, another 1970, another 1973,
Percy 1976), but the one(s) born between Charlie and Percy somehow
died before Ron was even born, when the twins were too young to
remember it much. Remembering this, but having been trained by his
parents and elders to keep it secret has been offered as a reason for
Percy's uptightness. Also, if one and only one of the missing children
was a boy, Ron would be a seventh son, which in some folklore would
give him special magic powers. 

Siriusly Snapey Susan wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/89234 :

<< do the Death Eaters not go after muggles *selectively*, most likely
those who've borne a witch or wizard, thereby "tainting" the wizarding
world? >>

I think the Death Eaters torture/kill Muggles mostly as 'targets of
opportunity' (someone pointed out the Robertses at the QWC), or else
for practical reasons such as the Muggle witnessed something.

Kelly Lolatsukino wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/89259 :

<< didn't Rita Skeeter say in one of her articles that love potions
were illegal? >>

The Skeeter article (GoF Chapter 27) says: "Love Potions are of course
banned at Hogwarts." Being banned from the school is not the same as
being illegal out of school. 

Tonya wrote in http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPfor
Grownups/message/89459 :

<< I have always thought that the map only shows people who are moving
around. So if someone is still, like sitting in a chair, it would not
show them. >>

I always think that would be less than useful for students who use the
Map to check that they can go about their nocturnal business without
running into Mrs. Norris lying attentively on a stair with her front
feet tucked neatly under her chest -- she's NOT moving, but she IS to
be avoided.

Arya wrote in http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforG
rownups/message/89464 :

<< odd that neither Harry nor the twins ever saw a Ron Weasley dot
with a nearby Peter Pettigrew dot... >>

If they had looked in the first-year Gryffindor boy's dorm in book 1
and see some unknown bloke named Peter Pettigrew in bed with Ron, they
would have commented on it.

Geoff Bannister
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/89412 :

<< "He had soon mastered the Impediment Jinx, a spell to slow down and
obstruct attackers, the Reductor curse which would enable him to
blast solid objects out of the way and the Four-Point spell, a useful
disocvery of Hermione's which would make his wand point due north
therefore enabling him to check whether he was going in the right
direction within the maze. He was still having trouble with the
Shield Charm though. This was supposed to cast a temporary, invisible
wall around himself that deflected minor curses; Hermione managed to
shatter it with a well placed Jelly-Legs Jinx."

(GOF "The Third Task" p.529 UK edition) >>

Hitomi http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/89426 :

<< Yes, and Harry taught the DA the shield charm as well. >>

Thank you, folks, for bringing up a couple of things. Geoff's quote
continues: "Harry wobbled around the room for a good ten minutes
afterwards before she had looked up the counterjinx. "You're still
doing really well, though," Hermione said encouragingly, looking down
her list, and crossing off those spells they had already learnt."  

First is about 'counterjinx'. OoP, UK edition, chapter "The Hogwarts
High Inquisitor", page 283. Hermione argues with Umbridge: "He says
that counter-jinxes are improperly named. ... He says "counter-jinx"
is just a name that people give their jinxes when they want to make
them sound more acceptable. ... But I disagree. ... Mr Slinkhard
doesn't like jinxes, does he? But I think they can be very useful when
they're used defensively."

It appears in GoF that a 'counter-jinx' is the spell that cures a
person who has been jinxed, which doesn't sound to me like the same
thing as a jinx except used defensively.

The other thing is about the DA lessons. Page 488. " ... when Harry
taught them the Shield Charm -- a means of deflecting minor jinxes so
that they rebounded upon the attacker -- only Hermione mastered the
charm fster than Neville." It seems to me that Hermione *already knew*
the Shield Charm, as she is the one who taught it to Harry back in GoF
-- she is the one who went through books finding useful spells for
Harry's TWT training: that is the list she was crossing off.