Translation/Location Problems( was Stupid Question about the Vanishing Cabinet)

[houyhnhnm102]

No: HPFGUIDX 141721

Geoff:

> You are quite right. The floor level with the ground outside is the 
> ground floor so you have to go up the stairs (or lift if you're lazy) 
> to reach the first floor. IIRC, the same type of labelling certainly 
> applies in Germany.
> 
> I never knew that a different system operated in the US. They're a 
> funny lot across the pond. They even drive on the wrong side of the 
> road to us....
> :-))

houyhnhnm:

The translation from British to American in the American editions of
the Harry Potter books is very inconsistant.  Sometimes the sweet at
the end of a meal is called a dessert, other times it's a pudding. 
Sometimes the kids put on their jumpers and lace up their trainers, at
other times they wear sweaters and put on their sneakers.

It just occurred to me that maybe this is the explanation for the
mystery of where Myrtle's bathroom is located.  At the deathday party,
when Harry is first introduced to Myrtle, she is referred to as
haunting "one of the toilets in the girls' bathroom on the first
floor".  Thereafter, though, whenever the trio visits Myrtle's
bathroom it is described as being on the second floor.  At first I was
confused and thought I had just read carelessly.  Then I went back and
checked and discovered there were two different locations.

Still, I don't know what to make of this:
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"This way," he shouted, and he began to run, up the stairs, into the
entrance hall.  It was no good trying to hear anything here, the
babble of talk from the Halloween feast was echoing out of the Great
Hall. Harry sprinted up the marble staircase to the first floor, Ron
and Hermione clattering behind him.
[...]
"It's going to kill someone!" he shouted, and ignoring Ron's and
Hermione's bewildered faces, he ran up the next flight of steps three
at a time, trying to listen over his own pounding footsteps--

Harry hurtled around the whole of the second floor....  (CoS, p. 138,
Am. pbk. ed.)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
So: translation problem or particularly egregious FLINT? Maybe
Hermione's statement at the deathday party was translated into
American English and the passage above was not.  

BTW, when I was in the UK, it wasn't driving on the left side of the
road that blew my mind, it was shifting gears with my left hand--kind
of like writing or performing some other complex manual task while
watching your hands in a mirror.  I can't remember if the clutch and
accelerator were reversed or not. :-)