[HPforGrownups] AW: JKR's Single Biggest Error

[Vivamus]

No: HPFGUIDX 123969

> > Vivamus:
> > All right, I'll bite, but my nomination is a group of errors.
> > Ignorance of snakes.
> <snipping excelent arguments on snakes>
> >
> 
> Silvana:
> Indeed, we do not know, what kind of snake nagini is. I 
> think, nagini MUST be a magical creature. And - as it already 
> was stated some weeks ago - "Nagini" is the name of a kind of 
> Snake-Goddess! So in my opinion it *could* be possible, if 
> Nagini *was* able to bite Arthur more like a dog rather than 
> a snake. And perhaps she *has* not only two fangs. Only JKR 
> knows. ;-) Think of the other creatures she made up! IMO this 
> woman has a really brilliant imagination.

Vivamus:
Okay, I guess this could be an official "way out" of the FLINT.  If Nagini
is a magical creature, she can have any sort of bizarre attributes.  My
impression was that she is magical in the sense that Hedwig is magical, that
is, a normal creature with some magical powers to aid as a familiar.  (Where
owls and other creatures GET their magical powers is an interesting question
for another thread.  From the comments at the examination of Scabbers, they
appear to have them naturally.)

The "lined with fangs" line is about the Basilisk, btw, which is of course a
highly magical creature.  If it is not really a snake, though, why would it
understand Parseltongue?  If it is a snake, one would expect it to follow
the general pattern of a snake, even as a super-deadly magical monster
snake.  The silly thing in the movie was quite spectacular, but didn't look
much like a snake.  It didn't fit JKR's description in the book, either, but
my feeling is that the way Nagini(?) bit Arthur was more like what a smaller
form of the movie version of the Basilisk would do.

If you say Nagini is a completely magical creature (rather than a normal
creature with some magical powers,) and therefore can have any form at all,
then okay, it can look like a smaller version of that movie Basilisk, have
jaws that can crush things and also have fangs.  Just like hippogriffs, it
doesn't really have to follow logic in its construction.

I think it still is a FLINT, though, and here is why.  One would expect that
the venom from a magical giant snake would be no less deadly than that of a
non-magical snake.  TR did tell Harry in CoS that he had about a minute to
live after the Basilisk fang got him.  Whatever Nagini is might not be as
deadly as a Basilisk, but it must have been ten minutes at the very least
after seeing the attack that Harry & co. could even have gotten to DD's
office, and probably another ten before anyone could physically have gotten
to Arthur to help him, and probably another ten minutes after that before he
could get any kind of treatment.  The snake bit him four times, so he
probably got a full load of venom from a 12+ foot long snake.  Arthur would
be dead long before anyone could get there.  

(To put it in perspective, there are some snakes that can kill an adult in a
matter of seconds.)

To provide JKR a way out of this, we can assume (1) the snake that bit
Arthur wasn't Nagini, but some other snake-like magical creature LV
transported into the MoM, and this magical creature kills with the crush of
it's bite, but not normally its venom, so it has weak venom.  Since we have
no view of this creature from the outside, it could look like anything, so
long as it looks like a snake from inside its mind.  Or, (2) it was Nagini,
and Nagini is different that way, but for some magical reason still looks
like an ordinary snake (i.e., with no jaw muscles.)  Or, (3) it was Nagini,
and Harry never saw it close enough to see that it is a different creature.


> > Vivamus:
> > (The
> > full moon rising much later than sunset is, of course, an 
> error, and I 
> > did not catch that one at all.)
> >
> 
> Silvana:
> If the moon rises at sunset it is purely by chance!

Vivamus:
(smacks hand on forehead) You are right, of course.  The moon is full
according to its relation to Earth, not according to any particular place on
the earth.  So the phase of the moon has nothing at all to do with when it
rises and sets.

I've just GOT to stop taking these stupid pills (but they taste so good!)

Vivamus