Occlumency/ JKR/Castles/Murtlap potion/TWT Dragons/know Future/Potions grade

[Catlady (Rita Prince Winston)]

No: HPFGUIDX 101151

Occlumency: I personally believe that, as Harry's mental connection
with Voldemort is something quite different than Legilimency,
Occlumency would be no damn use at all for closing down H's mental
connection to LV. Therefore, H not having learned Occlumency in no way
contributed to V luring H into the DoM. Listie Demetra suggested that
Dumbledore intended the Occlumency lessons as a way for H to learn to
kick V out of his mind when V tried to possess him. Maybe that was
DD's plan, but IMHO it didn't work. The way H kicked Snape out of his
head was by resistance and anger. The way H kicked V's possession out
of his head (OoP, UK, top of page 720) is that Harry thinks: '"... let
him kill us ... and I'll see Sirius again." And as Harry's heart
filled with emotion, the creature's coils loosened...' That is, with
acceptance (of death) and love (of Sirius), of which JKR implies that
the latter is more important.

I intensely dislike the theory that DD set up for H to emotionally
bond with Sirius and then be present when Sirius was killed by LV (via
DEs) in order for H to be able to kick LV out of his head, in order to
H to be a more effective weapon against LV, but I can't disprove it
based on canon. If it is true, the Occlumency lessons may well have
served their *purpose* by softening H up for LV's bait.

Faith wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/100270 :

<< I get a weekly news magazine called The Week. In a little snippet,
they recapped a recent interview with JKR - she said that, for fun,
she joined an online HP group (as an average reader) to through out
some of her ideas for the future books - and no one wanted to listen
to what she had to say. So she stopped. She said she joined a
discussion about SpongeBob SquarePants instead. >>

It was MuggleNet. JKR reported it on her new website,
http://www.jkrowling.co.uk/ Click on the newspaper and scroll a bit
down; it's the second to last article on page 1. There is a follow-up
in the Rumours tabloid -- third of three dated 02/06/04. 

Mike Feenster wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/100339 :

<< In many years after the seven books are all completed and everybody
knows the whole story, we will be able to tell younger generations
what it was like to speculate about what was going to happen. I don't
know if anything like this has ever happened in the history of
literature. >>

Charles Dickens's novels were first published as serials in magazines.
I gather that there was great public speculation as to what would
happen in upcoming installments ... They didn't have to wait as long
between installments as we do, but their installments were shorter. 

Mandy (exSlytherin?) wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/100389 :

<< anyone who had been to a castle knows how cold, hard and
unforgiving they are. >>

I keep thinking that magic would work better than coal fires or even
central heating to warm a big old stone castle. Tapestries on the
walls, carpets on the floors, and overstuffed furniture soften it a
bit.

Potioncat wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/100506:

<< Maybe I'm being lazy here, but does anyone know how Hermione knew
about that potion? It's also very interesting that Harry will
recommend it to Lee Jordan who will tell the twins (Weasley twins not
the Snape twins) about it and it will be used in one of their
snackboxes. >>

I just assumed that Hermione had learned about it by reading FANTASTIC
BEASTS AND WHERE TO FIND THEM when it was a set book for first year.
Page 30 of the Muggle edition says: "The Murtlap is a ratlike creature
found in coastal areas of Britain. It has a growth upon its back
resembling a sea anemone. When pickled and eaten, these Murtlap
growths promote resistance to curses and jinxes, though an overdose
may cause unslightly purple ear hair." Presumably the wizard edition
goes into more detail, explaining the uses of "a solution of strained
and pickled Murtlap tentacles", which seems to also be called "essence
of Murtlap tentacles" and "Murtlap essence".

I was a bit bothered when the twins told Harry that Lee Jordan had
turned them on to using Murtlap essence. It was good of the twins to
give attribution, but surely Lee failed to tell them that he had
learned it from Harry, or they would have mentioned "your idea". On
the other hand, IIRC Harry didn't tell Lee that he learned it from
Hermione, so I suppose the wizards are much less obsessed with
footnoting *every* source than my university was.

Fan Dulin wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/100733 :

<< it occurred to me that the first Triwizard task is a little cruel.
... They take these awesome creatures, dragons, out of the wild, and
ship them to England for sport keeping them under control until the
contest by continuously stunning them. They then take these nesting
mothers and put them in an enclosure for a student to .... seriously
hurt the dragons or their eggs. Which is exactly what happens when
Krum hits one of them in the eye with the conjunctivitis curse,
causing it to run around in agony trampling half of it's own young.
... It's particularly galling that Charlie Weasly, supposedly some
kind of naturalist, who studies these creatures in the wild, would be
complicit in this. On one hand, we're to believe that it's a great sin
to harm a unicorn, but on the other hand, dragons, equally legendary
creatures, are apparently fair game. >>

My own feelings is that the Rumanian 'dragon preserve' is more a
dragon ranch than a wild habitat. Remember, dragons of species from
all over the world were brought there, regardless of whether it
resembled their natural habitat. Both FB and Oliver's mention of
Charlie's career use the phrase 'study' dragons for what goes on
there, but it seems to me more like 'wrangling' dragons. FB points out
that 'dragon hide, blood, heart, liver, and horn all have highly
magical properties' and in the novels we read constantly of dragonhide
garments, the twelve uses of dragon blood, dragon liver at seventeen
Sickles an ounce, and dragon heartstring cores for wands. I guess the
wizards view them somewhat as Muggles used to view large and dangerous
longhorn cattle.

Lavendar Starz wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/100928 :

<< Dumbledore already knows the entire future of the Wizarding World
therefore allows him to leave Hogwarts once in a while... >>

The problem is that, if the can be changed by actions taken in the
present, then HOW can the future be known (whether by time travel or
divination)? It's like, you used to know what happened in the future
like you used to know my phone number, and someone did something to
change the future (e.g. saving Harry from being killed by Quirrelmort)
like I changed my phone number, and now you DON'T know any more what
will happen in the future like you don't know any more my phone
number. So, for Dumbledore to know what happens in the future, or for
Prophecies to work, then why bother struggling and planning and
pursuading now?

Mel melaniertay wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/101134 :

<< Actually we don't know that. I know he got D's all the time and the
book states that DD must have something to do with him scraping a
pass. >>

PoA: "The exam results came out on the last day of term. Harry, Ron,
and Hermione had passed every subject. Harry was amazed that he had
got through Potions. He had a shrewd suspicion that Dumbledore might
have stepped in to stop Snape failing him on purpose."

Just because Harry suspected that DD had prevented Snape from giving
him a failing mark doesn't prove that Harry's suspicion was true. I
believe that Snape hates Harry but has too much respect for final
grades to use a final grade against Harry the way he used assignment
grades against him in OoP.