Remus-Sibyl/ProseStyle/Names/TriWizard/Designed HP/Animagi/Wick/WelshGG/more

[Catlady (Rita Prince Winston)]

No: HPFGUIDX 117408


Carol wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/116752 :

<< I keep thinking of Wormtail's silver hand and Trelawney's comment
that Lupin is unwilling to let her see his future in her crystal
ball. >>

I always see that interaction between Trelawney and Lupin as she is in
romantic pursuit of him and he is fleeing. Her offer to gaze into her
crystal for him was a transparent (!) ploy to get him alone so she
could try to "accidentally" hold his hand, and maybe tell him that the
Sight predicted he would marry soon. He avoided that. Then she
unexpectedly turned up at Christmas dinner, and almost the first thing
she said was "Where is dear Professor Lupin?" The question showed what
was on her mind; clearly the reason she came to the dinner was in hope
of sitting next to him or across from him and playing footsie under
the table. She's an old spinster, but much as I remember being a young
spinster; I remember that non-verbal irrational conviction that if
only I could get whichever man I was in love with at the time alone,
surely he would turn out to be in love with me, too.

Kneasy wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/116886 :

<< Do you read Jo for her prose style? I doubt it; I doubt anyone else
does either. It's not very good. >>

Well, actually ... yes. 

I'm not claiming that her style is beautiful or artistic or anything
like that, but I do find it charming and humorous and friendly and
delightful, and it is style, not characters and plot, that causes me
to read on and on when I open one of the books in the middle to quote
canon for a post.

Carol wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/116887 :

<< With the exception of Narcissa, named after a flower (or maybe she
enjoys looking at her reflection, like the mythical Narcissus!), all
the Black family members of Sirius's generation are named after stars
or constellations >>

I like to fantasize that the wizarding folk have named some star
"Narcissa", so as not to let the Black family naming tradition be
spoiled by JKR. I even tried to find a star Rho Dolph-something
(Delphini, I guess) for Rodolphus's name... Of course the naming
'tradition' doesn't go back as far as Phineas Nigellus and doesn't
include Aunt Elladora. Was she an aunt by marriage? Or if she'd been
Essadora, I could have pointed to encyclopedia articles on a star
named S Doradus...

Magda wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/117068 :

<< Fleur and Krum hung out with their own schoolmates and didn't
mingle with Hogwarts students much. >>

That always struck me as strange -- if the purpose of the TWT was to
encourage international friendships among young wizards and witches,
why did the organizers set it up so that the students of different
schools barely met each other except at one Yule Ball? 

Del wrote in http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGr
ownups/message/117078 :

<< Was Harry designed as the Anti-LV weapon ? ... There were 2 young
couples in the first Order (maybe more, but we know of those 2 only) :
the Potters, and the Longbottoms. Those 2 couples conceived their
first kid after or around the time they entered the Order.  Those 2
couples gave birth 1 day apart. Those 2 couples had good reasons *not*
to have a kid at that time. The Longbottoms were both Aurors, ie
soldiers during a war, not the best time to conceive a child for
soldiers. The Potters were extremely young and supposedly actively
engaged in the battle as well. A Prophecy was given, not even 2 months
before the birth of the kids, announcing that one of them would
vanquish LV. Both kids grew up in extremely difficult circumstances,
and yet both turned out extremely good kids : courageous, not
resentful, tenacious, intelligent, and so on. Well, I can't help but
wonder what's going on there. Are all those things just coincidences,
or were they planned ? >>

It's quite possible that there was a prophecy earlier than Trelawney's
prophecy, which predicted that a boy born at a certain time (or
conceived at a certain time) would have powers greater than the Dark
Lord, or would bring victory to his father's side, or some such. It's
quite possible that someone the young couples in the Order trusted (ie
DD) told them about the prophecised son and asked them to try to
produce one, and they did. As you know, I suspect the Death Eaters of
having done exactly that, causing a Malfoy, Crabbe, Goyle, Nott, and
*possibly* a Macnair (why not a Lestrange?) to be in Harry's year.
(Not an Avery because he was *such* a loser that no girl would marry
him.)

Before GoF, I spun an elaborate tale which I did not want to believe,
that the Prophecy was a long time in advance and that DD understood it
to mean that only a son of James Potter and Lily Evans could defeat LV
(someone else had a plot in which they both carried a rare recessive
gene for a superhero power), and therefore persuaded both of them to
break up with the people they were already engaged to (possibly
Severus Snape in the case of Lily Evans) and marry each other in order
to create the Prophecy Boy. Also that LV found out that DD believed
the Prophecy was about James Potter's son and that is why he needed to
kill both Harry and James but not necessarily Lily (unless she had
been pregnant at the time).

However, I prefer to believe that it was Fate who planned Harry and
Neville, and that the young couples (in my fanfic, there were 3 young
couples, because I included Susan Bones's parents) all conceived
*unplanned* offspring as the result of a mellow but drunken Halloween
party. I also like the idea that the Hero who can defeat is LV is not
Harry, not Neville, but only Harry and Neville working together.

Patrick wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/117095 :

<< Perhaps animagi don't have much control over the animal they
become...gods help the person whose inner self is an elephant... >>

I dunno that becoming an elephant would be such a bad thing. If the
aisles are wide, you could transform to reach things down off high
shelves. If you wanted to tear down a tree, you could transform
instead of using wand magic's Mobiliarbus or Arbium Leviosa. It would
be convenient when Crabbe and Goyle try to beat you up. It might be
useful in wizarding politics, if the voters think that a large,
intelligent, and impressive Animagus form is sign of a strong,
intelligent, and noble personality.

Animagi DON'T have control over the animal they become: JKR has
confirmed in interviews that the Animagus doesn't get to choose
his/her animal form, but instead the animal form is a reflection of
his/her personality.

<<
http://www.geocities.com/aberforths_goat/October_2
000_Live_Chat_America_Online.htm
Q: Does the animal one turns into as an Animagi reflect your
personality?
JKR: Very well deduced, Narri! I personally would like to think that 
I would transform into an otter, which is my favorite animal. Imagine
how horrible it would be if I turned out to be a cockroach! 

http://www.scholastic.com/harrypotter/author/transcript2.htm
Q: If you were Animagus, what kind of animal would you be?
A: I'd like to be an otter -- that's my favourite animal. It would be
depressing if I turned out to be a slug or something.

http://www.the-leaky-cauldron.org/JKRWorldBookDay2004.html
Q: When you turn into an Animagus, can you choose what animal you
become? Or does this get "assigned" to you?
JK Rowling replies -> No, you can't choose. You become the animal that
suits you best. Imagine the humiliation when you finally transform
after years of study and find that you most closely resemble a
warthog. >>

I want to know, what happens if a person who has become an Animagus
goes over the whole training again, from scratch, will heesh get
another animal form? Can a person who is a werewolf become an
Animagus? with an animal form other than wolf? Can a werewolf who is 
an Animagus with an animal form other than wolf avoid turning into a
wolf monster at Full Moon by turning into hiser animal before the
moment? 

Mimbeltonia wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/117132 :

<< Any thoughts on how an otter fits Hermione's personality?? >>

To me, it doesn't. But it does fit JKR's personality (as shown in HP
ouevre). Otters are intelligent and very physically capable, but their
defining personality trait is playfulness. JKR write playfully, with
pun names and literary references, but when have we ever seen Hermione
being playful?

As for Kim and Finwitch's earlier question on McGonagall being a cat
Animagus, it makes sense to me. It worked *perfectly* for book 1,
chapter 1: cats and Minerva are curious, but secretive: they keep
their dignity in public, and do not like for anyone to be *amused* at
them ... other traits that I assign to Minerva because of being a cat:
she can fight fiercely, she much enjoys sensual pleasures (e.g. nice
hot bath) in private, she is affectionate in private. I am sorry to
admit that another Cat trait is not being concerned with Ethics, but
with whether one can get away with it, and at most with being nice to
those we like.

Finwitch wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/117126 :

<< Wick St Lawrence, West Wick and Way Wick. (Why do these remind me
of Flit*wick*?) >>

I think that in English place-names, Wick and Wich are alternate
spellings of a Saxon word meaning 'village', so I assume that Flitwick
was named after a place, rather than after the wick of a candle. ... I
suppose the 'wick' of a candle is related to wicker and willow and
wicked and witch, all from a Proto-Indo-European root for 'twist'.... 

Kneasy wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/117128 :

<< If it's supposed to have some association with G.G. that might
cause a bit of a problem. His name is Anglo-Saxon and the Sorting Hat
states (in GoF): "Bold Gryffindor from wild moor..." Wales has a bit
of a shortage of wild moors; in fact I can't think of any in the
Principality. I'd have thought it more likely he was from your neck of
the woods - what with Dart-, Ex-, Bodmin, it seems like you've got a
surfeit of 'em. >> 

In my opinion, the Sorting Hat's song ("Fair Ravenclaw, from glen") at
best refers to the places where the Founders were sojourning just
before they founded the song, and more likely were chosen simply for
rhyme and not fact.

I am troubled that the Founders' personal names include two Saxon and
no Welsh nor Scot. I therefore Prophecised like Trelawney that "Godric
Gryffindor" had been born "Gryddyd Glyndwr" and had his name changed
for him by the Saxons, Normans, and other miscellany in the troop of
Muggle men-at-arms that he ran away from wizarding home to join when
he was around 13 or 14, because it seemed more exciting and romantic
than the daily drudgery of studying magic. 

Kneasy wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/117302 :

<< Yeah, I have mentioned [the elimination of magic from the world] as
a possible outcome a couple of times over the past year. Nobody seemed
interested - mostly, I think, because they didn't want this fantasy to
be killed off. The end of the WW, the death of JKR's wonderful
playground? Horrors! How can this be?! Though as Jo has said she
doesn't believe in magic and resolutely refuses to consider the
possibility of sequels, well - it does give one food for thought. >>

While I CERTAINLY don't WANT the wizarding world to be destroyed, I
have suggested that the story ends with the whole wizarding world,
Harry, and all the characters except Hermione dead and destroyed, and
then Hermione writes an account of it disguised as fiction.

I don't like the idea that the triumph of good, or the safety of
ordinary people, depends on *destroying* the innate, god-given
abilities that some people are born with. 

Carol wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/117332 :

<< Has anyone given thought to the question of who's taking care of
Theo now? Would a sixteen-year-old motherless boy whose father is in
Azkaban (or St. Mungo's) be living on his own? A guest of the Malfoys
(Narcissa and Draco)? A temporary ward of his Head of House, Professor
Snape? >>  

I figure Theo's father is so old that he could have a *grand-child*
older than Theo. Theo might move in with a sibling old enough to be
his parent and a nephew or niece older than him.

Kelsey wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/117368 :

<< I get an impression that Ms. Slytherin didn't marry Mr. Riddle, but
that he abandoned his witch girlfriend when she was pregnant, and that
she never got over her love for Mr. Riddle, and named her son after
him. >>

This is a forbidden "I agree!" post. I like to think that Tom, Senior
never did find out that his bit 'o fun was a witch, but simply had
never intended to marry her in the first place. Because of the irony
that if Tom, Junior had known the truth, he would have become a
crusader against premarital sex instead of racist murderer.

And his mother may have sought to live among Muggles because her
parents or whoever had warned her against trusting a Muggle (and
against premarital sex) and she had told them they were a bunch of
old-fashioned bigots and either they had disowned her altogether or
she was too ashamed to go back and have to tell them that they'd been
right and she'd been wrong.

And then she might have died in childbirth for lack of a wizarding
midwife (or maybe even a maternity ward at St. Mungo's!). Because
wizarding babies do unintended magic when they're fightened or angry,
or in pain I suppose, and everyone said that being born is like being
pushed and squeezed and suffocated, very scary and uncomfortable, so a
wizarding baby could do terribly dangerous things while being born,
and wizarding midwives would have special training in how to counter
those things.

The people at the orphanage might, I suppose, have told him that his
parents were married and his father deserted his mother (that may have
been the story his mother told whomever she found refuge with, maybe
some terribly unpleasant Home for Fallen Women, because of being
ashamed of unmarried pregnancy), but they wouldn't have told him that
his mother was a witch, because they were modern Muggles who didn't
believe in that nonsense.

But then how did he become so certain that his father deserted his
mother because he found out that she was a witch? Surely someone must
have told him -- who? 

As for finding out that he was the last descendent of Slytherin, that
probably didn't take MUCH research -- if he knew his mother's maiden
name, he could have looked it up in genealogy books in Hogwarts
Library. If he didn't know his mother's maiden name, he could have
found it out from someone who had known her or known of her -- someone
who heard the name 'Tom Riddle' and said "That was the loathsome
Muggle that dear Marvella fell in love with" or heard the name
'Marvolo' and asked: "Are you related to Marvolo Last-Blood?"