91615-Nickname,/Prefect/Flint/Losing/Traitor/Bertha/Animagus-Patronus/Ages/

[Catlady (Rita Prince Winston)]

No: HPFGUIDX 93629

Antosha signed off
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/91615 by saying:

<< who could never think of Prof. McGonagall as 'Minerva.' >>

Is it possible that her usual nickname is "Mack", or is that not used
as a nickname in Britain?

Shaun wrote in http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPfor
Grownups/message/91668 :

<< they sometimes appointed prefects who they thought would rise to
the challenge - it was, like most things at school, intended to be a
learning experience - and if they had someone who they felt had the
potential to develop into a leader if given the chance, then they
could be appointed as well. >>

That's why I expected DD to appoint Neville as prefect, and I was
surprised it was Ron.

Pippin wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/91707 :

<< Usually JKR admits her Flints with cheerful chagrin. She's
acknowledged that she once thought boa constrictors were poisonous,
that ancestor/descendant was a muddle, that good ole Marcus spent an
extra year at Hogwarts. >>

Apparently recent printings of Book 1 describe Marcus Flint as a
*fifth* year student, rather than going with 'he had to repeat a year'
as the explanation for him still being at school in book 3.

Sue wrote in http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGr
ownups/message/91762 :

<< In losing Lilly and James (and Peter too, to a certain extent)
Sirius had lost his entire family. He had already lost his first
family because he did not share their beleifs and now he had lost
everyone else. >>

Except Remus.

Just Carol wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/91837 :

<<  I doubt that Peter revealed his secret about the Potters in front
of Snape or any other DE (if we can count Snape as a DE when he was in
fact a spy for Dumbledore). At any rate, Snape's behavior throughout
PoA indicates that he, like Dumbledore himself, thought that Sirius
was the Secret Keeper/traitor and the murderer of twelve Muggles--a
very dangerous man from whom all of the students, and Harry in
particular, needed to be protected. >>

Like Potioncat (nice name!) in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/91865 ,
I don't understand how the Death Eaters in Azkaban could all have
known that Peter was the Secret Keeper/traitor but Snape didn't know?
Someone must have told all those Death Eaters before they were put in
Azkaban, and why would that someone have omitted telling Snape, who
was still thought to be a Death Eater?  

Sue HP Fan wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/91928 :

<< M/M Weasley were both Gryffindor and their other sons had been as
well so IMO, they would have known McGonagall >>

I personally think that Arthur and Molly had been at school with
McGonagall. 

Elihu wrote in http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPfor
Grownups/message/91941 :

<< Seems like [Pettigrew] could not have convinced Bertha Jorkins to
go with him unless he had a wand and forced her to (Imperius Curse?).
She would have smelled rat (pun intended) and refused to go. >>

Ah, you've never been a middle-aged spinster with no beauty and an
unpleasant personality meeting an unpartnered man who doesn't make an
effort to avoid her.

John Bowman wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/92520 :

<< JKR is referring to Hermione's patronus form. Or is she? Could she
have let slip that Hermione is also an Animagus? The question was
asked about Animagi not Patroni (presuming these are their plural
forms). Could JKR mess up like that on purpose? >>

I don't think JKR was hinting that Hermione is an Animagus. I think
she simply takes it for granted that the form of a person's Patronus
is the same form that would take as an Animagus. To me that is
illogical: she seems to be assuming that always what protects people
is themselves, not their parents nor their faith in God nor their
commitment to justice and/or the rule of law nor their luck nor their
powers of deception.

However, given an Animagus becomes the same creature as hiser
Patronus, it would be wise for anyone to learn the Patronus spell
before embarking on the difficult project of learning the Animagus
spell, because that way they would find out whether the end product is
worth the effort. That would solve my concern about what if a person's
Animagus form were some kind of fish --- if they didn't know what the
form would be until they first turned into it, their success would be
to immediately drown in air, since they hadn't known to practise
beside a pond or ocean.

Cyberflower wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/92507 :

<< while Harry is grumbling to Prof. McGonagall about Umbridge, she
keeps telling him to "have a biscuit". (snip) Does anyone have any
theory on what the significance of the biscuits are or what they may
be? I'm pretty sure they're not chocolate... >>

They're Ginger Newts, which someone explained is a pun on the name of
some commonplace UK bikkie that I can't remember (Ginger Nuts?). Some
listies suggested that McGonagall is giving Harry the bikkies because
they contain a Calmness or Self-Control or Rationality Potion.

Jo Serenadust wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/92585 :

<< In addition, the fact that Angelina J. has her 17th birthday in
October while she's in her 6th year, seems to be pretty persuasive
evidence that Hogwarts is consistent with the British school
system's August 31 cut-off date. Otherwise, one has to assume a cut-
off between Sept. 19 (Hermione's birthday) and mid-October, and that
simply doesn't make any sense, to me. >>

While I don't care greatly what year Hermione was born, and feel
generally willing to agree with the UK listies who insist that she is
older than Harry, I can make up explanations of how she could be
younger than Harry. For example:

Hogwarts, founded over one thousand years ago, is older than the
British school system. They may have chosen Autumn Equinox or
Michaelmas (Sept 29) as their age cut-off date and not yet gotten
around to changing the match the Muggle cut-off date. I wonder how
long it took them to change from Julian to Gregorian calendar after
the Muggles did it: "The Julian calendar was in general use in Europe
from the times of the Roman Empire until 1582, when Pope Gregory XIII
promulgated the Gregorian Calendar, which was soon adopted by most
Catholic countries. The Protestant countries followed later, and the
Eastern Orthodox ones yet later. England had Thursday 14 September
1752 follow Wednesday 2 September 1752." (quoted from Wikipedia).

Bill Mongo wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/92511 :

<< Almost all of the U.K. has an August 31 cut-off. If the Hogwarts
cut-off date were different, then Muggle-born, and non-homeschooled
magical-born, students born between September 1st and the Hogwarts
cut-off date would end up with one year less of muggle schooling
than the other muggle-borns. This would be a considerable
disadvantage for muggleborn and non-home-schooled magic-born
students born between those dates. >>

Why would it be a disadvantage for them? Surely most of the wizard
folk think that any Muggle education beyond reading, 'riting,
'rithmetic, and maybe a little bit of geography is useless anyway. I
was distressed that JKR WBD chat listed only home-schooling and Muggle
schools and not wizarding 'dame schools' (small elementary schools
often held in the home of the teacher) as ways for wizarding children
to get their primary education.

Monkey asked in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/92638 :

<< what *are* Ron's dreams now? A lot has happened to him since he
looked in the mirror or Erised >>

I predict that if Ron looked in the Mirror of Erised during any part
of book 4 or 5 when violence was at a low ebb, he would see himself
passionately kissing an appreciative girl. The girl would cycle
through a change of identities from Fleur to Madam Rosmerta to the
current wizarding world superstarlet to Hermione to Fleur to ... He
would be totally embarrassed for anyone to know about this vision.