another week of posts

[Catlady (Rita Prince Winston)]

No: HPFGUIDX 122137


Valky wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/121570 :

<< One of my favourite things about the Hans' postulation that Remus
is the Grey King is that The Grey King has a young vibrant wife,
symbolic of the joy that goes with the Grey King state in Alchemy.
Personally I can't imagine anything more appropriate for Remus than
to have someone young and joyful and full of life by his side, he
deserves it. >>

Oh. I suppose that is why Tonks was introduced. But *I* would prefer
him to have a joyful *boyfriend*.

Not having studied Alchemy, I have no idea what "the Grey King state"
is. 

Gina Miller wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/121576 :

<< I think the biggest questions are why Tom Riddle's name sounds so
familiar to Harry and why DD asked Harry and TR the same question, "is
there something you wish to tell me" >>

Maybe that is the question that Dumbledore always asks students who
seem to be troubled (or to be trouble) to make them bring things up in
their minds that he can then see with Legilimency.

Mandy ex-Slytherin wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/121580 :

<< Do any of you think there is chance that Voldemort may have had
some kind of legitimate position within the WW before and during the
first war? I think it's one way he could have gathered the support
and power he did, and was able to systematically begin to wipe out 
the Ministry sanctioned Order of the Phoenix. A huge feat he almost
accomplished. >> 

I personally think that Voldemort had turned himself into a red-eyed
hairless snake-man before he started recruiting Death Eaters, and I
imagine the wizarding folk being very suspicious of giving a
legitimate position to a red-eyed hairless snake-man.

I also suspect that the Ministry DID NOT okay the Order of the
Phoenix. Government law enforcement always objects to vigilantes.

Eggplant wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/121649 :

<< At the exact instant you specify Marietta could have stood up and
said, "I don't care to sign", and then walked out the door. I am quite
certain nobody would have stopped her. >>

I feel equally certain that poor Cho (foolish rather than evil) would
have tried to stop her.

Hans quoted in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/121678 :

<< so she never stirred from her skull, unless it happened that Cupid
twitched a little at her, for then she slipped in so suddenly that we
all could not choose but marvel at it. >>

What did he mean by Cupid twitching a little at the snake? Did he mean
her consort inside the skull called her to come in for some, um,
cuddling? Or was Cupid standing beside the altar, and made a
threatening movement at her, so she ran to hide inside the skull?

Geoff wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/121695 :

<< I wonder how many people here, prior to your expositions, knew of
the Rosicrucians? (I did - I have a friend who is one.) >>

The Alchemical Wedding (the book) and references to Rosicrucians are
in Umberto Eco's book FOUCAULT'S PENDULUM, which may have been widely
read as his previous book, THE NAME OF THE ROSE, was a best seller. A
lot of people (such as me before I read FOUCAULT'S PENDULUM) would
have known of the AMORC order of Rosicrucians without having heard of
Christian Rosenkreutz, because AMORC have recruiting ads in the
classified ads of some magazines AND own a museum in San Jose with
REAL ANCIENT EGYPTIAN ARTIFACTS.

Nicky Joe wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/121713 :

<< LV certainly won't have a bit of interest in building business and
making money (any ideas what he WILL want to do after he's "running
the world"?) so he will most likely leave the mundane tasks like that
to his underlings. >>

Despite JKR's statements, I always see LV as more eager to destroy
things than to be immortal. I expect him to use his rule over the
world to have fun, by killing people and destroying things. While he
might want to research and experiment into inventing tortures worse
than the Cruciatis Curse, I think his favorite research would be
figuring out how to cause volcanic eruptions and major earthquakes and
tsunamis, and aim them at highly populated areas without warning, and
then try to figure out how to make the Sun go nova. I don't think it
has occured to him to plan what his once again disembodied immortal
spirit will do after that.

Geoff commented to Tristan in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/121747 :

<< <<Aragog: The scientific name for a spider is ARAneae, which
happens to be the first three letters of Aragog's name. Since Aragog
is a spider, that makes perfect sense! >> JKR isn't the only one who
does this. In LOTR Shelob, the giant spider is derived from "she" +
"Lob" whici is an Old English word for spider. >>

I thought the Old English word for spider was "cob", like "cobweb".
ARA is short for Arachne as well as for Araneae. She was the princess
who was turned into a spider by Athena, so spiders are called
arachnids. "Gog and Magog" were a famous pair of giants, with some old
statues in London nicknamed after them.

<< << Beauxbaton: "Beaux-Baton"="Beautiful Stick" in French! >> This
could be also accurately translated as "beautiful wands" - a little
more apt perhaps. >>

GoF specified that the Beauxbatons shield of arms on the door of their
Cinderella carriage was crossed wands with some stars, but I poked
around some in my friend's French dictionaries and found that actually
"baguette" is a better French translation of "wand" and French "baton"
is a big thing, like a wizard's *staff*, rather than a the baton a
majorette twirls.

Betsy asked in 
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/121766 :

<< Why is Draco an only child? It doesn't make sense for the Malfoy
family to have only one heir, especially in those dangerous times. And
if Narcissa is about Lucius' age (which puts them in the same age
group as Arthur and Molly Weasley, I think) why did they wait so long
to have a child? >> 

If Lucius Malfoy is planning on living his natural span (perhaps 150
years), he doesn't need to hurry to provide himself with an heir;
there's plenty of time for that in the future. And it's not as if
either Malfoy parent shows any sign of having wanted a child to love
and teach! 

My theory is the reason they have one child instead of none is that
Trelawney's First Prophecy wasn't the only prophecy referring to Harry
and/or Neville, but the other was more explicit about a boy born in
the summer of 1980 who would have powers to win the then-current
wizarding world, and this other prophecy became known either to LV or
to Lucius. Whichever one learned it then ordered his followers to go
make babies, in hope that the powerful wizard would be a filial son of
a loyal follower, and therefore make his power available to his
master. 

At first I thought it was LV who learned that prophecy and gave that
order, look at the Death Eater children in Harry's year of whom we
know: Malfoy, Crabbe, Goyle, Nott, and possibly Macnair (the list of
students includes an extra Mac with the rest of the name off the edge
of the picture), but no evidence that Bulstrode or Parkinson or Zabini
had DE parents. No student named Lestrange or Rookwood or Dolohov. It
seems a closer correlation with Lucius's particular clique than with
the graveyard circle as a whole.

Carol wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/121808 :

<< a descendant of "nature's nobility," the Black family. >>

My own personal opinion was that that book was a genealogy of all the
pureblood wizards in Britain, not just the Black family.

<< (Still don't understand how you can be "part" Veela if the father
has to be human. Wouldn't all Veelas marry wizards and have only
full-blooded Veela children? Unless there are male Veelas, which
doesn't fit the mythological background.) >>

Perhaps, while a daughter of human father and Veela mother is a full
Veela, their son is half-Veela, so his daughter is quarter-Veela. We
saw Fleur's mother but not father wishing her good luck for the Third
Task, and I didn't notice anything Veela-like about Fleur's mother.

Carol wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/121834 :

<< BTW, she married Rodolphus, but his brother Rabastan seems to be
their inseparable follower. (I'm curious about him, but I seem to be
the only one who is.) >>

My main curiosity about him is why his name is one transposition away
from a star name (Rastaban, like Thuban, is a star in constellation
Draco whose name means Dragon). I confess to only the mildest
cheap-gossip interest as to whether she's sleeping with both of them.
It is clearly the Dark Lord who has her heart, regardless who has any
of her other body parts.

Inkling wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/121844 :

<< Marietta doesn't seem in a postion to inform anyone, and Harry
didn't do so, so unless McGonagall ran around spreading the word
(which seems out of character) someone other than the people we know
were in the room heard everything and lost no time telling the whole
castle. Who might that have been? >>

Might it have been House Elves? They have to always keep enough of an
eye on everything in the Castle so they know when some Professor calls
for food or whatever. And they might have friendly conversations with
students who go to the kitchen to 'steal' food without trying to talk
them into revolution.

Hans asked in http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforG
rownups/message/121873 :

<< As you can see above, Hermione says, "Friendship and bravery and
--" And what? Ever since the first time I read this I've thought that
she was going to say, "love", but was too embarrassed to say it. I
thought it was obvious, in fact, that everyone else would think the
same. After some years now I've found that no one else has this
thought at all. My question to you is, what do you think is the
missing word? >>

I've never thought very hard about what the missing word might be.
I've thought it might be "goodness" and I've thought it might be
"loyalty", but there is no reason she'd be embarrassed to say
"loyalty". I've thought it might be 'wanting to help others' and she
realised that was too long a phrase.

Fiona wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/121935 :

<< The entry got me to thinking back over the role of the diminutive
charms professor and to wondering if JKR is trying to wrong-foot us
into thinking the prince has to be a major character. Perhaps
Flitwick is half-human half-goblin? >> 

A number of posters have speculated that Flitwick is half-goblin or
half-House Elf (and, thus, another misfit whom Dumbledore has
sheltered). It could be true without him being the Half-Blood Prince.

Geoff replied in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/121936 :

<< regulus=petty king - whatever that means(!) >> 

A petty king (or rajah) is a king (or rajah) who is subordinate to a
higher king (or viceroy) and possibly to an Emperor above that.

Alla wrote in http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforG
rownups/message/121978 :

<< You don't see Slytherin offering the rematch because the Seeker of
the other team was hurt, for example. >>  

You don't see Gryffindor or Ravenclaw offering any such thing, either.
That may have something to do with why the Twins thought Cedric was
"thick" and why Hufflepuff (according to Harry's thoughts in GoF) gets
very little glory. I have previously suggested that the ideal
Hufflepuff is a Gryffindor minus the craving for personal glory.

Tonks wrote http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGro
wnups/message/121980 :

<< I was trying to figure out a reason LV would need to kill Harry and
James, but not Lily. >> 

We used to speculate that there was a prophecy that "the last of the
Potters" or "James Potter's son" would be Voldemort's doom. Then he
wouldn't need to kill Lily unless she was pregnant, because she is not
really a Potter, only by marriage. 

Another speculation is that LV didn't *need* to kill James any more
than he *needed* to kill Lily, but was not in the habit of leaving
people who fought against him alive. That he made a token effort to
get Lily to surrender instead of being killed either because he had
promised Lily to one of his Death Eaters as a reward, or (IIRC this
next was called SO EWWW-ER iTS IN THE SEWER) he wants Lily to bear him
a child because of a prophecy that the war will be won by Lily's
child's father.

AyanEva wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/122021 :

<< When entering a new environment, it is imperative that an
individual come from a previously stable and supportive environment
and have the ability to trust others in order to form a stable social
environment. >>

When HARRY entered Hogwarts, he did not come from a supportive
environment, altho' one could argue it was stably and preductably
unsupportive.

<< As a result of his social shortcomings, Severus failed to gain a
sense of Industry >> 

We have been given grounds to assume that he worked hard at Potions
and we SAW him work hard at his DADA OWL.

and in http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/122022 :

<< Severus' loyalties seem to lie with whichever individual is most
appreciative of his efforts and can be pleased. Albus showed him more
affection, acceptance, and understanding than Voldemort and therefore,
Severus switched sides. >> 

There are plenty of other theories as to why Severus switched sides
(including the theories that he NEVER switched sides, but either is
still loyal to Voldemort and serving as a spy on Dumbledore, or that
he only joined the Death Eaters in the first place to spy on them for
Dumbledore).

Alla http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/122048 :

<< Since when in order to be a good human being, you don't have to be
"nice" human being? >>

I can't remember which writer wrote that you can't judge that a person
is morally mediocre just because he/she is always rude and insulting
and complains a lot, even whines, and displays a very grudging
attitude whenever he/she helps someone, because for all you know, the
person's natural personality might be SO nasty that he/she is using an
incredible amount of willpower just to hold it down to average nasty,
and maybe using that much willpower to force oneself to do the right
thing is a much bigger moral achievement than the average good person
makes. No, I personally don't think that applies to Snape, but I admit
that I haven't seen into his heart.

Tonks wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/122062 :

<<JKR: << Snape is a very sadistic teacher,(snip) However, everyone
should keep their eye on Snape, I'll just say that because there is
more to him than meets the eye and you will find out part of what I
am talking about if you read Book 4. [WBUR-99] >> I can't remember
what she is talking about in book 4. What did we see in book 4 that
fits here? >>

That Snape used to be a Death Eater. IIRC Elkins wrote that she and
her sister had a contest for the most unlikely Potterverse prediction.
In that contest, after book 1 she predicted that Scabbers was an evil
wizard in disguise, and after book 3, her sister predicted that Snape
wasn't just a teacher with a bad attitude, but had been a servant of
Lord Voldemort. Remember back to those long ago years when we were as
sure as Sirius that Dumbledore wouldn't hire a former Death Eater to
be in charge over children?

Eggplant wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/122079 :

<< I think Snape's mission at the end of Goblet Of Fire was to
secretly teach Occlumency to as many Death Eaters as he could without
Voldemort's knowledge. >>

Interesting! (You-uns know about one-line posts being forbidden. This
is an Even More Forbidden one-WORD post.)

Magda wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/122088 :

<< It would also stand as a test to see how far Harry's compassion
will go - will he stick his neck out only to save his friends or
people he likes or will it extend as far as saving Snape, who he
loathes? >>

Early in OoP, Harry stuck his neck out to save Dudley from the
Dementors, if I recall correctly only minutes after Harry had been
bullying Dudley.

Pippin wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/122090 :

<< (the Order's secrets are in little danger since they are under
fidelius >>

I thought only the location of Headquarters was under Fidelius?

Alla wrote in http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforG
rownups/message/122114 :

<< And remember when Sirius shows Harry the tapestry? Harry could have
missed a few names on there surely. I do think that all of this blood
relatedness of many pureblood families will lead us to new
interesting discoveries. >> 

It's entirely possible that children fathered out-of-marriage by the
Black menfolks don't show on the tapestry in the first place.
Especially if the reason he didn't marry the child's mother is that
she wasn't pure-blood.