Snape/Sorting H/Snp/Nott/Sn /Sort'g Neville/Invent'n/James/F+G/S/F+G/Boggart

[Catlady (Rita Prince Winston)]

No: HPFGUIDX 102143

Pippin wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/101154 :

Pippin: << Entering the willow after he found Harry's cloak and knew
he might be inside with a suspected Death Eater (PoA) >>

Alla: << Sorry, I think he was operating in the mode revenge first,
children's safety - later. >>

Pippin: << Sorry, but I don't follow. If he didn't think he was going
to find evidence that Lupin was endangering the children, then there
wouldn't be any way to get revenge, would there? >>

Catlady: Evidence that Lupin was aiding Black, or even keeping silent
his knowledge that could help catch Black, would make Lupin some kind
of accessory after the fact, thus getting him sent to Azkaban even if
the children were in no danger. Catching Black, even with no evidence
to be used against Lupin, would get Black the Dementors' Kiss. 

Potioncat wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/101179 :

<< The Sorting Hat said Slytherin would make him great. Can anyone
work out how that would have played? I cannot imagine Harry Potter
in the Slytherin dorm with Draco, Crabbe and Goyle. Especially with
Snape as the Head of House. >>

If Harry had been Sorted into Slytherin, Draco would have been happy
to be be his buddy ... not just to carry out his father's instruction
to get close to HP, but because HP is a celebrity and Draco wants to
share his fame. With Draco as buddy, Crabbe and Goyle would have been
his goons instead of his enemies. Some say, but Draco already hated
Harry for the insult on the train. I say, if Harry had guided by
ambition (which is what would have led to him choosing Slytherin in
order to become 'great'), he would have made up with Draco because
Malfoy money and political influence might come in handy one day.

If Harry had been Sorted into Slytherin, Snape would have had a hard
time with his canonical favoritism of all Slythies warring with being
constantly reminded of James by Harry's appearance. But it is PS/SS
canon that Harry was trying to be a good student when Snape started
taunting him in that first Potions class. Snape could probably
restrain himself from unprovoked taunting of a *Slythie*, so Harry
would not have come to hate him, so Snape might well have come to like
him because his Quidditch skills brought glory to Slytherin House.

Btw I agree with Dawn
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/101228 that the
Hat didn't realy *want* to put Harry in Slytherin -- I think it was
teasing him, altho' I allow as how it might have been testing him. 

Jenny from Ravenclaw wrote:

<< The moment when I really hated Snape was when he would not let
Harry find Dumbledore in GoF when Harry found Crouch on the grounds of
Hogwarts. I still cannot for the life of me understand why Snape not
only delayed Harry, but seemed to enjoy it. True, Harry was not about
to be punished, but Snape was just plain mean here. >>

I also read that as literal, and it made me really doubt Snape's
loyalty to DD (as by GoF Snape would have realized that when HP wants
to see DD, he has something DD wants to hear about). But someone on
this list -- maybe Pip!Squeak, I don't remember -- straightened me
out. Harry had been about to give up and go to the staff room when
Snape appeared and kept Harry there for DD to find (no doubt deriving
some pleasure from verbally torturing him during the wait). It's that
same Chapter 28 of GoF:

"Sher-sherbet lemon!" he panted at it.

This was the password to the hidden staircase to Dumbledore's
office
-- or, at least, it had been two years ago. The password had evidently
changed, however, for the stone gargoyle did not spring to life and
jump aside, but stood frozen, glaring at Harry malevolently.

"Move!" Harry shouted at it. "C'mon!"

But nothing at Hogwarts had ever moved just because he shouted at it;
he knew it was no good. He looked up and down the dark corridor.
Perhaps Dumbledore was in the staff room?

He started running as fast as he could towards the staircase --

"POTTER!"

Harry skidded to a halt and looked around.

Snape had just emerged from the hidden staircase behind the stone
gargoyle. The wall was sliding shut behind him even as he beckoned
Harry back towards him. "What are you doing here, Potter?"

Dolies wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/101211 :

<< Also prior to OOP, Theodore Nott's name made an appearance among
the list of names who checked out "Quidditch Through the Ages." >>

As "T. Nott", which I thought was going to be Tiberias. Instead, we
get Tiberias Ogden on the Wizengamot. (Which I thought was going to be
the Witchingamot.)

Potioncat wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/101327 :

<< it sort of explains why Snape doesn't seem to begrudge Karkaroff
for naming him...assuming Snape knows. >>

I've always assumed that Snape doesn't begrudge Karkaroff for naming
him because Snape named Karkaroff, which is why Karkaroff was in
Azkaban and needed to talk his way out.

Bufo Viridis wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/101355 :

<< I am pretty sure Neville didn't argue with Hat >>

I, on the other hand, deeply feel that Neville DID argue with that
hat. Canon says: "The hat took a long time to decide with Neville." I
envision that time spent on Neville thinking urgently: "I don't
deserve to be in Gryffindor; surely you must mean Hufflepuff" until
the Hat finally wears him down with: "If you didn't have courage,
would you be arguing with a thousand-year-old magical artifact?"

John Hatch wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/101661 :

<< Here's where we get into a bit foggier area. I think canon implies
quite clearly that advanced wizards (pretty much DD and Voldemort) can
create their own spells and magic. >>

The May '04 Wizard of the Month on Rowling's website was Felix
Summberbee 1447 - 1508 who invented Cheering Charms.

Jacqui wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/101696 :

<< James was a Chaser, so why was he always playing with the
Snitch?>> 

We know from QUIDDITCH THROUGH THE AGES that the Golden Snitch was
invented by Bowman Wright who lived in Godric's Hollow. It is
plausible that he made a lot of money from his invention. It is
plausible that the reason the Potters hid in Godric's Hollow was that
the old Potter homestead was there. Therefore, it is plausible that
Bowman Wright was the source of the fortune that James inherited. So
maybe he played with the Golden Snitch to remind girls of his wealth.

Snow wrote in http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforG
rownups/message/101926 :

<< Fred and George Prewett...F&G... and Fabian and Gideon Prewett...
F&G. >>

I never thought of that! But to me it indicates that Fred & George
were Molly's sons, not that they were Molly's nephews. I'm thinking,
it might have seemed good to Molly to name twin sons Fabian and Gideon
after her brothers (especially if her brothers happened to be twins)
and then she changed the names when her brothers were killed, to avoid
weeping each time she said her sons' names or whatever.  

Del started a long thread in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/101898 :

<< Snape seems to be one of those people. He grew up in the Dark Arts
and seems to have adopted early on a "Dark Outlook" on life so to
speak. He doesn't seem to like niceness and sweetness and light, and
seems to prefer darkness and cruelty.

And I'm wondering : what's wrong with that ? Isn't he entitled to
choose as he wants ? It makes his and others' lifes harder, but so
what ? Isn't it still his right as a human being to live as he chooses
? If others disagree (and many do), it is their right to fight him and
prevent him from hurting them. But if he likes darkness rather than
light, and cruelty rather than niceness, what Higher Rule is he
breaking, if he doesn't believe in a Higher Force ? >>

SSSusan answered in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/101919 :

<< Knee-jerk reaction from me is "citizenship." That is, I don't
believe one has to believe in a Higher Force in order to believe that
one should behave in "good" or "moral" ways. (I work w/ someone who
*wishes* she could believe in a Higher Being but just can't...but
she's certainly a very "moral" person and upright citizen, "doing
good" where she can and trying never to harm others.) There may not be
the same COMPULSION or the same RATIONALIZATION for being good, but
there may well be an alternate moral structure based on...who knows
what? The golden rule? Good citizenship?

I'm sure there is sniggering & eye-rolling out there at that
word "citizenship," but seriously, I mean it. If all people simply
watch out for themselves only and no one else, aren't we close to
anarchy? Even people with a "dark outlook" may not want that.
Anarchy is absolute freedom to some people's way of thinking, but
it's also absolute "on your own"-ness; there's no protection for you
or yours beyond what you can provide. I think many people who don't
believe in a Higher Being *do* believe in a civilized world and in
doing "what's right." >>

Kneasy answered in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/101930 :

<< Del's right, everyone is entitled and allowed to be bad. It's one
of those choices that DD is whittering on about. Just so long as you
accept responsibility for the consequences. >>

I personally agree with SSSusan, but I consider that the wizards like
"the war of all against all" better than I do -- with their magic
powers, they don't need as much co-operation with other people to get
things done as us Muggles. I think Kneasy here speaks for the
wizarding world (except that word 'responsibility' can mean so many
things). Part of my post
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/100221 says:

<< To me, the wizards in the Potterverse don't have any agreement that
good is good or evil is evil. They view it much more as a personal
choice, like preferring "liberal" or "conservative" in politics is for
Muggles. That may have something to do with why the wizarding
government is always making laws and rarely enforcing them. The good
wizards and the evil wizards will co-operate to keep their world
hidden from Muggles or to have on-going competition in Quidditch, but
to me, then they fall into dispute over whether one wizard who
murdered another wizard should be sent to Azkaban, or was it the
victim's fault for being such a fool as to be deceived by that trap,
or too weak at magic to fight his way out? >>

Abbet wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/101976 :

<< I was just rereading CoS and was wondering how a five year old Fred
could have changed Ron's teddy bear into a giant spider? I knew Fred
and George were talented, but this talented? >>

Am I the only person who read "It's not funny," said Ron, fiercely.
"If you must know, when I was three, Fred turned my - my teddy bear
into a great big fiIthy spider because I broke his toy broomstick ....
You wouldn't like them either if you'd been holding your bear and
suddenly it had too many legs and ... " to mean that Fred's anger
caused unintentional magic like Harry's anger caused blowing up Aunt
Marge? 

Barbara bd-bear wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/102104 :

<< However, in GoF, when Harry meets the boggart-dementor in the maze,
he performs the Patronus Charm, then realizes that he's not fighting a
dementor, but a boggart and uses the Riddikulus charm.

"There was a loud crack, and the shape-shifter exploded in a wisp of
smoke."
GoF 623

Now, how is this possible? Boggarts are supposed to be best fought
when more than one person is together so that they can get confused by
the different people's fears. In addition, you're supposed to change
the shape-shifter into something funny when you say "Riddikulus" so
you can then laugh at it. That's what is supposed to get rid of it
permanently. Harry is alone and doesn't laugh, so how can the boggart
be gone? >>

My understanding is that Harry *had* forced the Boggart into doing
something funny, i.e. tripping on the hem of its Dementor robe,
without even consciously noticing. Then he was full of laughter (at
least internally) when he shouted: "You're a Boggart!" Laughing with
relief that it was a much lesser monster than a Dementor, laughing at
himself for having been deceived, laughing at the Boggart for
tripping. I don't thing there's an inconsistency with Lupin's lesson.