Which "One liners" do you think most beg for an explanation ?

[John Kearns]

No: HPFGUIDX 131432

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Geoff Bannister" 
<gbannister10 at a...> wrote:
> --- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Someone" 
> <someoneofsomeplace at y...> wrote:
> 
>  Petunia may have willfully forfeited 
> her 
> > place at Hogwarts; she may have chosen to remain an untrained 
> witch; 
> > but in that case she would still be a 'witch', after all, and 
not a 
> > muggle.
>  
> Geoff:
> In matters such as innate talents as you mention, I wonder whether 
> there might be a "use it or lose it" effect. As an example, when I 
> was much younger, I could speak fairly reasonable French. But 
since I 
> have not had the opportunity to practise the language for many, 
many 
> years, my knowledge has gone completely. I doubt if I could string 
> even one sentence together. I take your point about Harry's hair 
and 
> Great Uncle Algie's experiments with the coefficient of 
restitution 
> but those were under conditions of extreme stress; Petunia, being 
> Petunia, would arrange her well-ordered life to try to avoid these 
> conditions......

Jo's Barnes & Noble interview, 1999:

Question --> Will there be, or have there been, any "late blooming" 
students in the school who come into their magic potential as 
adults, rather than as children? 

Rowling --> No, is the answer. In my books, magic almost always 
shows itself in a person before age 11; however, there is a 
character who does manage in desperate circumstances to do magic 
quite late in life, but that is very rare in the world I am writing 
about. 

John K:
When I read through this thread this quote is what immediately came 
to mind.  There are certainly other characters with this potential: 
Filch and Figg come to mind.  But in the context of this 
conversation, I think Petunia would be the prime candidate.  

As Geoff said, Petunia has arranged her life to avoid extreme 
stress.  But remember this from OotP chapter 2, referring to 
Petunia: 

"All [Harry] knew was that he was not the only person in the room 
who had an inkling of what Lord Voldemort being back might mean."  

Petunia knows that Voldemort will threaten Muggles.  The dementor 
attack has made her realize that her family will be atop the list.  
Surely, this stressful situation she's been avoiding, or in 
Rowling's words "desperate circumstances," are very feasable in the 
very near future.  In fact, we know that Harry this summer will have 
his shortest stay yet at the Dursleys, but we don't know why; 
perhaps he leaves either in response to or in order to prevent an 
attack on the Dursleys.

John K