Hagrid trusting Snape/Wizarding Food/the UV/the Dante/did the 1st years hate

[Catlady (Rita Prince Winston)]

No: HPFGUIDX 141985

Elyse wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/141834 :

<< It seems, judging from his reaction, that Hagrid was the only one
who really accepted DD's second-hand trust. >>

Maybe Hagrid also had some first-hand evidence of what side Snape was on.

Deborah wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/141837 :

<< Bechamel flows from her wand into the chicken and ham pie; origins
of sauce, chicken, ham and pie crust unknown, origins of potatoes
ditto. >>

Conjured bechamel that vanishes again in a couple of hours would save
calories.

Canon (IIRC CoS) shows us that Molly raises chickens at The Burrow.
The movie added pigs to their livestock; I would have thought a milk
cow would be more likely than pigs. I doubt they grow their own wheat,
but think it likely they grow their own potatoes, as well as seasonal
vegetables.

<< My feeling is that the WW probably operates a system analogous to
Internet shopping – you make your order, and the delivery takes place,
perhaps by Floo if wands are an inconvenient size and shape, or the
man on the white broomstick delivers; payment is of course by direct
transfer. >>

You may be right, as Owl Order is canonical, but my mind's eye
envisions Molly and other homemakers *going* shopping, to a series of
little old-fashioned shops (butcher, baker, greengrocer, etc) and
perhaps to some kind of Farmer's Market, maybe the local one in the
Muggle village, or a wizarding one held in or near Diagon Alley. 

I have always wondered if there are wizarding farmers supplying
produce to wizarding greengrocers and wheat to wizarding millers, 
or at what stage are the products of Muggle farmers, Muggle millers,
Muggle international importers, Muggle wholesalers, Muggle
supermarkets, imported into the wizarding world. And if they buy
Muggle produce, do they care about pesticides and artificial
fertilizers and so on?

IMHO Sugar would have to be imported, conjured, or transfigured from
something else, as sugarcane doesn't grow in Britain. However, if
Florean Fortescue made his ice cream by magic, he could make it from
shed snake-skins, shiny pebbles, and pencil shavings instead of cream,
sugar, fruit, and ice for all we know. 

We've heard of Agatha Timms's eel farm, but the eels could be for
potion ingredients rather than for food. 

SSSusan wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/141849 :

<< Was it out of the mistaken belief that the task in question was to
kill *Harry*? [Nah, probably have to nix this one, given Snape's
remark that if Draco succeeded in the task, it would allow him
(Snape) to remain at Hogwarts a little longer. How would killing
Harry be related to that?] >>

I'm one of the silly readers who thought that the 'task' was to kill
Harry, and of course, if Draco killed Harry so that Snape didn't have
to, Snape wouldn't have been fired from Hogwarts for killing a
student, not to mention being wanted for murder by the Ministry.

AyanEva wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/141888 :

<< However, I did get to the spot right before where I think the
"Barque of the Dante" painting comes in. It's the souls of the damned
in the water bit and the demon oarsman beating the crap out of people
with his oar because they're not moving fast enough. Or something like
that. >>

You mean, a painting called The Barque of the Dante doesn't depict the
few wretched survivors of the wreck of a ship name Dante?

Lucianam wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/141962 :

<< I don't think it is far-fetched to suspect these pissed-off kids to
come up with a plan against bullying-cheating-Prefect Weasley. >>

What is the evidence that the first years were pissed off or perceived
Ron as bullying them? From memory, he called out: "Hey, midgets, this
way" and Hermione scolded him: "You can't call them midgets!" and then
Hermione confiscated a Fanged Frisbee and Ron tried to take it from
her for himself. I think Ron was quite wrong in the second case:
that's *theft*; if he took the Fanged Frisbee from Hermione, he should
give it back to its owner with a warning about hiding it better.

HOWEVER, my feeling was that the first-years loved him; being called
'midgets' made them feel like he was their real life big brother, and
him taking the Fanged Frisbee made them real that he had the right
priorities in life.

I imagine that very few of the young-uns liked Prefect Hermione, only
exceptionally brainy ones to whom she might lend books, or weepingly
homesick ones to whom she would get all maternal.

Btw, loves & kisses to all on the SAD DENIAL.