many replies to many posts from many people, ALL SPOILERS

[Catlady (Rita Prince Winston)]

No: HPFGUIDX 135857

Sherry spinelli wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/133250 :

<< There are a couple other things at number 12 Grimauld place. When
they are cleaning the drawing room one of the things they find in the
curio cabinet is a music box that makes them all sleepy (sorry don't
have book in front of me for exact page) but it says something like
"until Ginny had the good sense to close it" another thing in that
cabinet was a vile of something that looked like blood.  >>

I remembered that vial of blood when we read about Slughorn putting
his dragon's blood back into the vial, but a bit dusty from the walls.
That made me suspect that the one in the Black House is also dragon's
blood.

Rolshan wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/133572 :

<< I still can't get Hermione's OWLs to add up. We are told she got 11
OWLs, but she was only taking 10 classes - no? >>

Hermione took:

1. Astronomy
2. Care Of Magical Creatures
3. Charms
4. DADA
5. Herbology
6. History of Magic
7. Potions
8. Transfiguration
9. Ancient Runes
10. Arithmancy
11. ????? 

I posted something on the other list the other week about Divination
and Arithmancy were only half-day exams, so if Ancient Runes (that
Hermione took while Harry and Ron had Friday off) was also a half-day
exam, she could have taken another half-day exam that same day. Some
listies have suggested that she (and every other Muggle-born) could
ace the Muggle Studies OWL without taking the class (also I think
they'd fail for failing to give the erroneous answers taught in
class). I suggested that the wizarding world is so different from the
Muggle world that there could be an OWL exam that only prefects are
allowed to take (so Harry wouldn't know about it, and Ron doesn't seem
the type to take any more OWL exams than he HAS to), with questions
about leadership and discipline and authority.

I had another idea, that one History of Magic exam tests for 2 OWLs,
one for the BC History of Magic and one for the AD History of Magic. I
don't know if seeing Harry's OWL results blows that out of the water,
or if it can be argued that they don't further depress people who
failed both by telling them that they missed TWO qualifications.

In any case, I don't understand how Hermione only got 11 OWLs when
Bill and Percy got 12. She has been established as an unusually
outstanding student that doesn't come along as often as every 4 years.
If they both got both 2 History OWLs and Prefect OWL, why didn't she?

Luckie Meredith wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/134516 :

<< the watch Ron was given in HBP, which is similar to the watch DD
pulls out in SS/PS on Privet Drive. >>

The watches are described differently. DD's in PS/SS "It was a
very odd watch. It had twelve hands but no numbers; instead, little
planets were moving around the edge." Ron's watch in HBP: "a heavy
gold watch with odd symbols around the edge and tiny moving stars
instead of hands."

Ron's watch - no hands. DD's watch - 12 hands.
Ron's watch - odd symbols. DD's watch - no mention of odd symbols.
Ron's watch - moving stars. DD's watch - moving planets.
I also think that 'instead of hands' is a bit closer to the center
than 'around the edge'. 

Some suggest that the 12 hands on DD's watch are 12 people over whom
he is watching, but I think that watch is strictly astrological In my
theory, the 12 hands divide the 12 houses. (In the physical world, the
sky turns and the Houses stay in place except for like 1 degree a day,
but the watch face stays in place and the House Hands turn.) The
planets around the edge move in accordance with the planets in the
real sky. DD knows, or there is some marking not specified in JKR's
description, where the constellations are. Such a watch can tell time
AND tell you the moment's astrological influences. I don't think JKR
believes in astrology, but the centaurs do.

I have no theory for Ron's watch yet.

Juli wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/134624 of
sociopaths and young Tom M. Riddle:

<< They appear to be *incapable of any true emotions*, from love to
shame to guilt. >>

What about resentment, anger, and hatred? Tom certainly has shown
those, and I think they're emotions.

Potioncat wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/134877 :

<< It's interesting that something about the announcement makes it
clear that the groom was a Muggle. Why do you think they did that? >>

Maybe it's something like the location of the wedding was at a Muggle
church, that the bride is a former pupil of Hogwarts School while the
groom attended Eton College and St. Andrews University, or the groom's
father was an electrical engineer. IIRC many engagement or wedding
announcements in newspapers include that kind of detail.

Caro wrote in http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforG
rownups/message/135361 :

<< If I was is search of a person I would send him/her an owl with a
little note (lte's say: "Got ya in the end!") and follow the bird. As
long as there was no fidelius charm on the residence you should be
able to find the one you are searching. >>

My own theory, despite what JKR wrote on her site, is that post owls
fly to their addressee through some other dimension. They take off in
normal space and fly to the sky, then move sideways into a dimension
where they can see their addressee shining like a lantern in the
distance, then on approach they move back into normal space and even
Muggles can see them arriving.

Zgirnius wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/135718 :

<< And we don't know when the HBP wrote those notes. I mean, was he so
brilliant that he walked into 6th year NEWT potions every day, did
whatever potion assigned that day in a new, creative, and better way,
and then in the spare time left in the class, wrote down notations of
his improvements? >>

While reading every post on this list before posting my replies, I got
so tired of hearing how brilliant Snape was to write in his old
textbook that I developed a theory that his mother or other wizarding
relative was a Potions expert and leafed through his Potions textbook
stating corrections on the recipes and the kid hastily wrote them all
down from dictation and thus, like Harry, appeared to be an extra-good
Potions student due to outside help. 

I can think of only two reasons for writing 'just shove a bezoar down
their throat' in the antidote section. Once is that Snape's tutor
wrote it down for Snape to use in class or in life, and the other is
that the book magically wrote it down for Harry to use in class. I
mean, it makes no sense to me that Snape would write that down for his
own use -- it is the sort of thing that one can REMEMBER, not like the
detailed corrections to recipes.