Difficult Choice / Warlock / Hag / Homorphus / HarryVsSnape / Kreachur / Keys

[Catlady (Rita Prince Winston)]

No: HPFGUIDX 113448

Pippin wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/112826 :

<< Rowling's magic formula for deciding between your internal sense of
values and others' would seem to be, go with the choice that is more
difficult. But first you have to be aware that there is a choice --
Hermione simply assumes that where her values conflict with others',
it's the others who are wrong, not her. >>

You know that the most difficult option is not *always* the virtuous
option. For example, I have often read that most ordinary people find
it very difficult to bring themselves to intentionally kill another
human being (I suppose it gets easier with practise) -- it is said
that military combat training is supposed to make shooting the moving
target a matter of habit, so that the soldier will do it by habit,
without having to think that he is killing a human being -- which
relates to the 'gang initation' requirement of killing a random
innocent stranger -- I'm not saying all gangs have that in their
initiation, but you live in SoCal so I am sure you heard the news last
month about the idiotic asinine evil 16-year-old whose gang initiation
requirement led him to shoot dead a random uniformed law enforcement
officer At the Courthouse, in front of All Those Witnesses.

We even have a canon example: Regulus trying to quit the Death Eaters.
I am sure he was trying to take what he thought the easier option (he
didn't realise that someone from the Ancient and Noble House of Black
would be killed) instead of having to actually go through the
emotional stress of killing someone himself. Just because murdering
the target was the more difficult option doesn't make it the virtuous
option -- in fact, if he had realised that he was requesting his own
death, his option would have been admirably honorable.

(If the more difficult and unpleasant option were always the virtuous
option, then Snape in MY FIC should kill Draco. I haven't been able to
figure out whether that is the virtuous option, even tho' I've had
years to think about it and the character has to decide quickly.)

Theotokos wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/112930 :

<< I have read information on the Lexicon and other places I cannot
recall but there does not appear to be a definitive definition
/distinction between warlock and wizard. Anyone know more about this?
Has JKR ever been asked to clarify? Are they simply synonyms? >>

Here is a reply that I gave to that request about a month ago:
None of us know for sure (or if someone does, they haven't told).
Recent threads on the subject begin with the following posts:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/106697
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPFGU-OTChatter/message/23351

In those threads, Steve b_boymn suggests that 'wizards' are Western
European and 'warlocks' are Eastern European. That doesn't explain why
Dumbledore's title as chairman of the Wizengamot is Chief Warlock, and
why Quidditch, a sport invented in England, is called 'the noble sport
of warlocks'.

My theory is that 'warlock' means a member of the wizarding parliament
(which might be the Wizengamot, named as it is after the Saxon
parliament, Witangemot). I assume that the word acquired additional
meaning: as being chosen by your neighbors to represent them is
something of an honor, 'warlock' came to mean a respected person, thus
'the noble sport of warlocks'; but public opinion of politicians being
what it is, 'warlock' also came to mean a person full of hot air,
which might explain the 'wild-looking' warlocks arguing over the
latest issue of Transfiguration Quarterly at the Leaky Cauldron.

Macfotuk wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/112961 :

<< However, what I have not understood is what makes a crone a crone
(or is it a hag?), as opposed to a witch. JKR talks of what sound
like child-eating witches in many of the books (cropping up at bars
mostly and in knockturn alley) but never really says much more. I
for one would like to know more about them but doubt there's any
real significance. >>

You are speaking of hags. Potterverse hags are non-human beings and
Potterverse witches are human beings (female humans with magic power).
The Lexicon says at http://www.hp-lexicon.org/best
iary/bestiary_h-m.html
"Female human-like magical being, but less adept than a witch at
disguising herself from Muggles (PA4, GF19). Hags are what one might
refer to as "fairy tale witches." Hags are wild in appearance, and
they have been known to eat children (FB, DP, fw), although at the
Leaky Cauldron Harry once saw a hag eating raw liver (PA4). Hags can
be quite frightening, apparently, since Quirrell had a "nasty bit of
business" with one during his year off for first-hand experience in
fighting the Dark Arts (SS5). Interested parties may also consult
Gilderoy Lockhart's book Holidays with Hags (CS4), which probably can
be picked up quite cheaply at Flourish and Blotts, Diagon Alley,
London, UK these days."  

I wonder whether hags reproduce parthenogenically or are they the
females and trolls are the males of the same species?

Brenda wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/113069 :

<< While we know Lockhart was not the wizard to perform the Homorphus
charm, there had to be fact to the possibility of it being done or
he would not be famous for having done it. So why is Lupin so
resigned to his fate and not wandering the world searching for
someone who can perform this charm? Why hasn't Sirius or Dumbledore
helped their friend more. >>

and Macfotouk replied in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/113311 :

<< I took this to mean that the charm will revert a werewolf to its
human form, but transiently only - not permanently. It would have
been a useful charm on that fateful night in PoA when Pettigrew
escaped, but might not be long-lived/irreversible.

On this same charm, what spell did Lupin and Sirius use on Scabbers
to force Pettigrew's appearance in the shrieking shack? Might that
have been homorphus too? That is, is it a spell that turns any
animal back to its formerly human form >>

and Luckdragon replied in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/113317 :

<< Also according to canon the homorphus charm allowed the village to
stop fearing the monthly attack of the werewolf thanks to Lockhart
which sounds rather permanent. >>

I agree with Mac. Turning the Wagga Wagga Werewolf to his human form
for even a few seconds would be enough for his neighbors, his fellow
villagers, to recognize him. Then they could steps during the large
part of the month when the moon is not full -- I would rather believe
that they built a strong cage and knew whom to chain up inside it
before moonrise on each full moon night, but I feel it's more likely
that they killed him while he was a vulnerable human.

Another possibility would be that the Homorphus Charm forces a
werewolf (and maybe other transformed humans) to turn back into human
form permanently, but with the side effect of severe brain damage: too
high a cost. 

Pippin wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/113227 :

<< How would Harry laughing off Snape's treatment of him give
Snape more enjoyment? If Harry cheerfully said, "I can see I'll
have to study more if I want to do well in this class, sir" would
Snape derive some twisted pleasure from it? >>

No, it would enrage Snape so that Snape would give Harry a detention
and lost-points for insolence with absolutely no excuse. 

<< If Harry said, "I was sorry to learn that my father treated you so
badly when you were at school, and I wish there was something I could
do about it" would you think less of him? >>

Do you think Snape would manage to die of shame on the spot if Harry
said that?

<< Excuse me? There are at least 100 House Elves owned by
Hogwarts, and I have never heard Dumbledore treat any of them
the way Sirius treated Kreacher. >>

OTOH, none of the House Elves at Hogwarts call Dumbledore a
Mudblood-loving blood-traitor who broke his poor mother's hearts, and
it probably bugged Sirius even more for Kreachur to insult his guests
than for Kreachur to insult him ... being unable to protect his own
guests in his own house from being insulted surely would have been a
terrible pain to Sirius's pride.

Alla wrote in http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforG
rownups/message/113228 :

<< What do you mean, it is beyond Snape's control to stop feeling
pleasure, while he hurts somebody. You mean sadism is like an
addiction or an uncurable disease? You mean there is no way for the
person to improve oneself? >>

I agree with Pippin that Snape can improve himself only by controlling
his behavior and forcing himself not to hurt people unneccessarily and
forcing himself to utter (possibly insincere) apologies and
condolences, like an alcoholic can force himself not to drink that
tempting alcoholic beverage and a heterosexual who wants to turn
homosexual can force herself not to have sex with the attractive
opposite sex person. Only grace (which is bestowed by God, gods,
Jungian collective unconscious, whatever) can improve Snape by making
him feel compassion instead of pleasure at someone else's pain, can
improve the alcoholic by making him not want the alcoholic beverage in
front of him, can make the would-be gay person feel *arousedly
attracted* to someone of the same sex. Snape could *seek* that grace
by trying very hard to imagine what he would feel like if he were the
other person, but trying is no guarantee of succeeding.

Steve bboyminn wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/113246 :

<< In ancient mythology, the treasures of the gods were
protected by JANUS, the "Keeper of Keys", and "Custodian of
Treasures". Looking both forward and back, this ancient figure could
see in all directions, preserving and protecting all that was
important. >>

That is contrary to everything that I was brought up to believe. All
my childhood, my mother taught me that, while Janus was the two-faced
god who saw both past and future (and was some kind of war god), it
was the great goddess Juno, wife of Jove, who guarded the treasures
ofr the gods in heaven and of mortal in her temple, thus having the
title Juno Monatus, Juno the Watcher (like 'monitor'), from which we
get the words 'money' and 'mint'.

<< The French word 'Concierge' translate to English mean 'The keeper
of keys' >>

American Heritage Dictionary at
http://www.bartleby.com/61/79/C0547900.html says:
"French, from Old French cumcerges, from Vulgar Latin *conservius,
alteration of Latin conservus, fellow slave : com-, com- + servus,
slave."