DD-MG/Kreachur/Goyle/150/SchoolSong/Seamus/ThatVoice/BlackHouse/Ginny/SK/Ship

[Catlady (Rita Prince Winston)]

No: HPFGUIDX 131916

KathyO predicted in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/131480 :

<< 1. Professor Dumbledore and Professor McGonagall are husband and
wife. >>

Even tho' Albus is 80 years older than Minerva? 

In your theory, were they already married in the first chapter of
PS/SS, when they have that oddly formal conversation in Privet Drive?
I'd think that if they were married, he would call her "Minerva"
instead of "my dear Professor", especially considering they have no
eavesdroppers. (And, hey, if there were married, shouldn't he have
seen her Animagus form already?)

<< where he sat down on the wall next to the cat. He didn't look at
it, but after a moment he spoke to it.

"Fancy seeing you here, Professor McGonagall."

He turned to smile at the tabby, but it had gone. Instead he was
smiling at a rather severe-looking woman who was wearing square
glasses exactly the shape of the markings the cat had had around its
eyes. She, too, was wearing a cloak, an emerald one. Her black hair
was drawn into a tight bun. She looked distinctly ruffled.

"How did you know it was me?" she asked.

"My dear Professor, I've never seen a cat sit so stiffly." >>

Anyway, I *know* that Albus and Minerva aren't married nor even having
an affair, because it is just so totally OBVIOUS that McGonagall and
Hooch are a couple, and have been for decades.

And I think it's Poppy Pomfrey that is Albus's 'special friend'.

Alla wrote in http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforG
rownups/message/131486 :

<< Do I even have to address Kreacher here? Sirius' dislike of
Kreacher shows that he did not treat him as his family did ( Kreacher
loved Sirius' parents, didn't he?) >>

Considering that Kreachur's great ambition was to be beheaded and have
his head mounted on the wall beside his mother's, it may well be that
his beloved Mrs Black treated him every bit as badly as Sirius did,
and flogged him besides.

John K wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/131500 :

<< Perhaps even that his buddy Goyle is having a change of heart (why
the heck isn't he on the inquisitorial squad?). >>

Maybe his grades weren't good enough. Canon has references suggesting
that he is stupider than Crabbe, such as the end of PS/SS: "They had
hoped that Goyle, who was almost as stupid as he was mean, might be
thrown out, but he had passed, too. It was a shame, but as Ron said,
you couldn't have everything in life."

Chys Lattes wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/131578 :

<< Ok so DD is like 150 right? (But Harry doesn't know this yet.) >>

Amanda replied in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/131621 :

<< We don't know that Harry doesn't know. Canon is silent on this
point. >>

He didn't know back in October 2000 (that would be as of GoF, yes?):
http://www.quick-quote-quill.org/articles/2000/100
0-scholastic-chat.htm
<< "About the Books: transcript of J.K. Rowling's live interview on
Scholastic.com," Scholastic.com, 16 October 2000
Question: How old is old in the wizarding world, and how old are
Professors Dumbledore and McGonagall?
J.K. Rowling responds: Dumbledore is a hundred and fifty, and
Professor McGonagall is a sprightly seventy. Wizards have a much
longer life expectancy than Muggles. (Harry hasn't found out about
that yet.) >>

Can I become a LOON by knowing Her interviews?

Finwitch wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/131678 :

<< (Just because we only 'heard' it once, doesn't mean they
don't traditionally sing it *every* year, after the Feast - or the
first morning). >>

http://www.jkrowling.com/textonly/faq_view.cfm?id=104
<< Q: We haven't heard the school song since the first book. Did the
teachers rebel against it?

A: Dumbledore called for the school song when he was feeling
particularly buoyant, but times are becoming ever darker in the
wizarding world. Should Dumbledore ever suggest a rousing encore, you
may assume that he is on top form once more. >>

Finwitch wrote again in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/131715 :

<< I ask you, why did the teachers' smiles become fixed when
Dumbledore came about with the song? >>

Shaun replied in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/131716 :

<< Well, that's not at all surprising in my view, I think it's just a
reflection of how long the dinner had gone on at that time. >>

I thought it was because the teachers knew from experience that
Dumbledore always said: "Everyone pick their favorite tune," said
Dumbledore, "and off we go!" and that instruction always produced a
cacophony (described in the text as "bellowed") that hurt their
musically delicate ears. 

Meri wrote in http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforG
rownups/message/131730 :

<< the real personality change we should be debating is Seamus
Finnegan, who went from being the charming Gryffindor fourth banana to
a raging dork-wad... >>

I'm sure there must be Something about Seamus, because the Sorting 
Hat took a long time with him: SS p120 "'Finnigan, Seamus,' the
sandy-haired boy next to Harry in the line, sat on the stool for
almost a whole minute before the hat declared him a Gryffindor."

Shell wwrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/131752 :

<< In GOF, when Moody puts the Imperious Curse on Harry, he hears 
a voice in his head that helps him fight the curse. Who is this 
voice? >>

Chris replied in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/131770 :

<< I re-read the reference from GoF (snip): Moody: "He fought it, and
he damn near beat it! We'll try that again, Potter, and the rest of
you, pay attention-WATCH HIS EYES, THAT'S WHERE YOU SEE IT-very good
Potter, very good indeed" p. 232, Scholastic PB.

We have all discussed what we think about Lily and the constant
references to Harry's eyes being exactly like hers. Could this voice,
though speaking in first person, be a part of Lily in Harry? Could
this be Lily's voice that is throwing off the imperius curse? >>

This is one of my Obsessions (altho' I hadn't noticed the 'eyes' clue
before, thanks, Chris): I have a theory. I think Lily was able, with
her magic, to put an image of herself in her baby's mind, that would
be like an 'imaginary mum' (by analogy with 'imaginary friend') who
would cuddle Harry and tell him that he's a good kid who doesn't
deserve Dursley abuse and tell him about how decent people behave,
thus being that one caring adult said to be necessary to even a
'resilient' child's survival of serious abuse, and an example of
goodness he could learn from.

I kind of think Lily used her last magic to put this image in his head
intentionally, instead of using her last magic in one last attempt to
escape Voldemort. That is the heroic self-sacrifce that canon credits
her, accepting her own death because it was more important to her to
give this protection (from abusive Dursleys) of her love. I don't know
why she would do that if she really believed that he would be dead
seconds after she was, so I am left sympathetic to the theories that
Harry survived AK because of some magic that had been done on him
(presumably by Lily) or that he had been born with.

When Harry resisted the Imperius Curse, the Curse's Moody-voice in his
head told him to jump up on the desk, and "another voice had awoken in
the back of his brain. Stupid to do, really, said the voice." I
believe that that other voice is what's left of the image-Lily after
all these years; she doesn't appear often, she appears as Harry's
voice instead of her own, but she still is caring for Harry -- and
still has free will.

In addition, so far we've always seen Harry wondering and trying to
find out about his father, and not about his mother. Some say that's a
plot device because JKR is saving some big surprise about Lily, and
some say it's normal because Harry is 11 to 15 so far, puberty and
adolescence, and much more concerned about a male image to identify
with. But *I* say that he doesn't search so much for Lily because,
unknown to himself, he already has her with him.

Emma wrote in http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforG
rownups/message/131761 :

<< Let me explain why I think Number 12 Grimmauld Place was Mrs
Black's property rather than the Black ancestral seat:
(snip all the 'house of my fathers' stuff which I, like a_svirn,
explain as first cousin or sibling marriage)
The following is pure speculation, and based almost entirely on too
much reading of Jane Austen and George Eliot, but it also strikes me
as implausible that such a grand family as the Blacks seem to be
should have a house in a *street* with a *number* as their main seat.
Betcha there's a country estate somewhere, or there was, and Number 12
Grimmauld Place was just their house in town, brought to the marriage
by Mrs Black. >>

But I think it *was* a grand house in the country when it was built,
and Grimmauld Place was the name of the estate. It would have stopped
being in the country as London grew over the centuries, and I propose
it stopped being a grand estate because of the wizarding Statute of
Secrecy: enforcers ruled that hiding too big a slice of London from
the Muggles might raise Muggle suspecions. So the Blacks had to either
sell most of their land to some Muggle(s) or create a Muggle 'front'
company to rent it to Muggles.

Now my fan-fic instincts have kicked in with a notion of traditional
rivalry for supremacy between Malfoys and Blacks leading to a clever
scheme by a 17th or 18th century Malfoy to manipulate the government
and law to force the Blacks to give up their land so that the Malfoys
 are permanently on top.

Adi wrote in http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGr
ownups/message/131771 :

<< All this talk about Ginny makes me ask: In the Forbidden Forest
when the sextet converges and discusses flying to London, Ginny talks
about the thestrals as if she prefectly knew about them. Did Hagrid
show them to the fourth years too eventhough he said he was keeping
them for fifth years only? >>

We have canon for Ginny being one of the kids who visits Hagrid. In
the CoS scene where Harry and Hermione take slug-spewing Ron to
Hagrid's house, and later Hagrid shows off his pumpkins:

"An Engorgement Charm, I suppose?" said Hermione, halfwayvbetween
disapproval and amusement. "Well, you've done a good job onvthem."

"That's what yer little sister said," said Hagrid, nodding at Ron.
"Met her jus' yesterday." Hagrid looked sideways at Harry, his beard
twitching. "Said she was jus' lookin' round the grounds, but I reckon
she was hopin' she might run inter someone else at my house." He
winked at Harry. "If yeh ask me, she wouldn' say no ter a signed -"

So he may have shown (? can Ginny see them?) her the threstals even
before he showed them to a CoMC class.

KathyK in http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/131795
quoted 

<< Phyllis From Message 87113:
"I think Sirius switched with Peter in the hopes that both he
(Sirius)and the Potters would survive. Sirius didn't suspect that
Peter was Voldemort's spy, and he believed Peter to be the last
person Voldemort would identify as the Potters' secret-keeper. So by
switching to Peter, Sirius was trying to avoid being killed himself
while still protecting the secrecy of the Potters' whereabouts.">>

and added:

<< Not only, IMO, would this switch, had Peter not been the traitor,
have solved the issue of possibly saving both the Potters and
Sirius, but there was also a good possibility Peter would survive
this plan as well since I don't think, even if LV had gone after
Sirius, Sirius would have given Peter up because that would have
meant betraying James. And even if Sirius did not escape LV in his
pursuit of baby Harry, it still allows for the possibility that it
could have been quite a while before their attention turned to Peter
for information. >>

But I wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/130985 :

<< Actually, I think it was a somewhat flawed plan in the first place.
altho' Very brave of Sirius. He meant to be decoy/bait for LV; the bad
guys who assumed he was the Secret Keeper would capture him and
torture him to give up the secret, but even if they killed/destroyed
him, he couldn't give them the Secret because he wasn't the Secret
Keeper. But it didn't occur to him that he *could* tell them that
Peter was the Secret Keeper *and* tell them where Peter was hiding.
And whatever combination of Cruciatis, Imperius, Legilimency and
Veritaserum they were using would override their impression that
choosing a vulnerable weakling like Peter as Secret Keeper was too
idiotic a thing for reasonably intelligent Potters to have done. >>

To which, Gerry Festuco replied in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/131014 :

<< But if they would know that Sirius disappeared and then Peter,
they'd know their secret was discovered, they could find a new hiding
place and a new secret keeper. If they discovered early enough Sirius
was missing Peter could have found a new hiding place in time. >>

Hermione's Kitten (great name!) wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/131867 :

<< I ship Harry with Susan Bones. >>

I want Susan Bones for Ron. Harry can have Luna. And Hermione/Ginny
4eva!