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[Catlady (Rita Prince Winston)]

No: HPFGUIDX 144046

La Gatta Lucianese wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/143566 :

<< For some reason, from the first moment I met Sirius, he absolutely
made my skin crawl, especially when Harry proposed moving in with him.
I'm not sure why, but on mature reflection I have my suspicions. He's
a Black, after all... >>

He's a dog, after all, and we are cats.

Btw, a_svirn quoted in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/143737 :

<< Arabella Figg does a roaring trade in cross-bred cats and 
Kneazles >>

Why would anyone want to buy a cross-bred cat/Kneazle? If you want a
beautiful, lovable cat to adore, you can adopt one for free lots of
places. If you want an animal that can detect unworthiness and help
you find your way home, why not buy a pureblood Kneazle? 

Carol wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/143578 :

<< Certainly neither eleven-year-old Severus nor the students six
years ahead of him were casting the Unforgiveables at Hogwarts, and he
hadn't invented Sectumsempra yet. Unless we count Serpensortia, the
spell that Snape had Draco cast in CoS (and which Snape easily dealt
with by silently Evanescoing the snake, so maybe it doesn't qualify as
Dark), the only genuinely Dark curse that I can think of is the one
with the jet of purple light that Dolohov used to injure Hermione in
OoP (unfortunately, we don't know its name because Hermione had just
Silencio'd Dolohov). >>

I am pursuaded by whichever listie pointed out that it was the
Entrail-Expelling Curse invented by Urquhart Rackharrow, 1612-1697,
according to the caption of his portrait on the wall of Arthur's ward
at St Mungo's in chapter 22 of OoP. What does it mean about wizarding
society if the known inventor of a Dark Curse has his portrait on the
wall of St Mungo's?

Potioncat wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/143595 :

<< Actually Hermione's comment is "[Tobias Snape was a Muggle] from
what it said" Darn it, what did it say? >>

Maybe it said something like: 'The bride is the daughter of Joe
Prince, a security guard at the Ministry of Magic. She was educated at
Hogwarts. The groom is a mopper/waxer at the Bubbly Blatherton Company
textile mill and was educated at Bubbly Blatherton Comprehensive."

By the way, this discussion has made me wonder if Tobias was the boy
on the bucking broomstick and Eileen was the girl laughing. Snape
could remember something from before he was born if it had been put in
a Pensieve.

Krista wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/143598 :

<< (Total aside: I never had the mental picture that Durmstrang is
all-boys, as we saw in the movie. Do we know Dumstrang is all-boys? >>

I don't believe that Durmstrang is all-boys, but I've never found a
reference to a Durmstrang girl in canon -- perhaps part of their
evilness is that they didn't allow their girl students to try to enter
the Triwizard Tournament?

NymphandoraCallel wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/143608 :

<< "unless your fear of death causes you to become a ghost." Is this
true? Is that how you become a ghost? Were Myrtle and Professor Binns,
the History of Magic teacher, scared of death? >>

I think that wizards and witches become ghosts when they die if they
have a very strong reluctance to leave their lives. In Sir Nick's
case, he was reluctant because of fear of death (how did he become a
Gryffindor?). I think in Myrtle's case, her reluctance was because she
was determined to harass Olive Hornsby. I don't know about Binns --
maybe he was unwilling to do ANYTHING but his established habits.

I don't get the impression that ghosts can do magic, but I have no
idea what power the Bloody Baron has that Peeves is scared of -- is he
the unusual ghost who can do magic? WHy?

Colloquially, releasing ghosts from this world so they can go can on
to the next is called 'laying ghosts'. I don't know if Potterverse
ghosts can be released (maybe by throwing themselves through that Veil
in the Department of Mysteries) but since CoS I have hoped that it is
possibly because Myrtle is such a miserable ghost that I hoped she
will be laid.

n_longbottom01 wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/143619 :

<< I'm not sure were someone goes when they are vanished... but they
aren't dead, hopefully (otherwise, Hermione is a kitten killer). >>

Canon shows NO SIGN of JKR being bothered about killing animals, other
than hippogryffs and unicorns.

"kit_1_99" asked in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/143653 :

<< What did Dumbledore see in the Mirror of Erised? >>

I always suggest that he saw himself holding not just any pair of
woolly socks, but a pair of the specific hideously ugly and somewhat
uncomfortable socks that his beloved late wife or mother used to knit
for him every Christmas. The wish is to be with that person again, a
very ordinary human heart's desire for the greatest wisest wizard. Of
course, it could be that he saw himself being given socks by Harry
when Harry is a grown man and a father himself, indicating his hope
that Harry will survive and achieve a normal wizarding life.

My off-list friend always suggests that he is actually Nicolas
Flamel's House Elf disguised as a human and he sees himself being
given socks (ie his freedom) by Flamel. Some listies have suggested
that he sees himself freeing all Hogwarts House Elves, when they're
willing to accept it, because he does not like being a slaveowner.

Still, Dumbledore is such a big idealist, maybe even his heart's
desire is idealistic rather than selfish, and it is for all wizards,
witches, and magical beings to live in peace and respect, not fighting
among themselves nor trying to oppress each other.

Miles wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/143724 :

<< But we know, that Elves *do* know if they are abused and they
appreciate a friendly attitude towards them >>

We know from Dobby that the Malfoys enjoyed abusing him, such as
reminding him to punish himself, and it seems likely that the Blacks
treated their House Elves in a similar way -- one clue is that
Narcissa Malfoy was raised a Black, and another is that Black family
custom of beheading their House Elves when they got too old to work.
But Kreacher loved his Blacks, including Narcissa. And someone made
the comment that Kreachur's great ambition was to have his head
mounted on the wall alongside his mother's. It does not appear that
Kreachur knew he was being abused. (That makes Dobby even more
unusual.) Is there any evidence that Kreachur appreciated a friendly
attitude toward him?

Alla wrote in http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/143764 :

<< Hagrid NEVER to the best of my recollection shows the desire to
harm ANYBODY >>

Whenever Hagrid hears anyone insult Albus Dumbledore, he shows the
desire to harm that person. Vernon Dursley insulted Dumbledore and
Hagrid gave Dudley a pig tail. Karkaroff insulted Dumbledore and
Hagrid picked him up and banged him head first into a tree trunk. And
I was completely on Hagrid's side in both incidents.

KJ wrote in http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/143810 :

<< I suggest that Snape had arrived at the house prior to the arrival
of Voldemort to warn the Potters of their danger. >>

How could Snape go to the house unless the Secret Keeper told him
where it was? Perhaps Dumbledore summoned James to Hogwarts so that
Snape could warn James there and be disregarded. 

(I believe that Dumbledore, Hagrid, and Sirius could find the house
because they had been told the Secret. Dumbledore and Hagrid could be
told the Secret without knowing who was the Secret Keeper by reading
it in a note written by the Secret Keeper. I believe that the Potters
wanted to tell Dumbledore the Secret. I can believe that they wanted
to tell Hagrid or that Dumbledore showed Hagrid his own note. I can't
believe that Dumbledore would be so disloyal to James and Lily as to
show *Snape* his own note.)

<< 1. Snape believed that Sirius was the traitor so he was not present
with Voldemort during the attack. >>

How does that follow?

Kelleyaynn wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/143838 :

<< What about the fact that Moody borrows the map in GoF? I've gone
back to the book and as far as I can find (or not), the map is never
given back to Harry. Yet it shows up again in OotP without
explanation. >>

http://www.jkrowling.com/textonly/faq_view.cfm?id=20 says:

<< Q: How did Harry get the Marauder's Map back at the end of 'Goblet
of Fire'?

JKR: He simply took it back from the fake Moody's office, but I never
show him doing so. Maybe I'll insert a line in the next edition. I'm
afraid I took it for granted that you'd all assume that next time he
passed the untenanted office he'd go and get it! >>

Pippin wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/143843 :

<< It's laid out in canon that Snape wasn't gunning for Harry from the
beginning. >>

If that 'our new celebrity' business wasn't Snape gunning for Harry,
what was it?

"kchuplis" wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/143908 :

<< I don't think there is a DE out there he can really call a right
hand man (since the aprehension of Artie) besides, perhaps Snape. >>

Who is Artie?

colebiancardi wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/143944 :

<< did anyone in Snape's class come to any harm whatsoever
during Snape's lessons, other than Harry splashing the swelling
potion on the Slytherians on purpose(which was not Snape's fault)? >>

When Neville's cauldron exploded in his very first Potions lesson,
"Neville, who had been drenched in the potion when the cauldron
collapsed, moaned in pain as angry red boils sprang up all over his
arms and legs." Snape sent him to hospital wing between calling him
'Idiot boy!' and taking points from Harry for not having told Neville
to take the cauldron off the fire before adding the porcupine quills.

La Gatta Lucianese wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/143956 :

<< I wonder how and why JKR came up with that title [Supreme Mugwump].
TTBOMK, a mugwump is a bird so-called because it sits on the fence
with its mug on one side and its wump on the other. One thinks of
Dumbledore as being much more decisive. >>

A politician rather than a bird. At least, that's what I thought
before joining this group led me to lok it up in the dictionary. The
Online Etymology Dictionary at
http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=mugwump says << 1832, jocular
for "great man, boss," Amer.Eng., from Algonquian (Natick) mugquomp
"important person," used since 1884 of Republicans who refused to
support James G. Blaine's presidential candidacy, hence "one who holds
himself aloof from party politics." >>

Steve bboyminn wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/144018 :

<< I think we need to give Hagrid a chance as a teacher. Students do
seem to be passing their OWLs, and I suspect as he melllows a bit, his
classes will fall in line, and eventually "Care of Magical Creatures"
will become a very popular class. >>

But not if he leaves Hogwarts and moves to Beauxbatons in order to
marry Olympe. Now that Dumbledore is dead, Hagrid's loyalty to
Dumbledore will not keep him at Hogwarts.

And Hagrid will become neither a beloved teacher at Hogwarts nor a
husband/gamekeeper at Beauxbatons if he dies in Book 7, as the Granger
theory predicts. The Granger theory: the three stages of the
alchemical transformation are the nigredo ('blackening') followed by
the albedo ('whitening') ending with the rubedo ('reddening'), and
Sirius BLACK died in the nigredo book and ALBUS Dumbledore died in the
albedo book, therefore RUBEUS Hagrid will die in the rubedo final book.