Lily/ChapDisc/Zach/TheDetentionCards/Werewolf/Spider/GoF Stomp / Snape :)

Sun Apr 2 08:13:49 UTC 2006

No: HPFGUIDX 150392

Annemehr presented in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/150106 the JKR quote :

<< MA: Did [Lily] know anything about the possible effect of standing
in front of Harry?
JKR: No - because as I've tried to make clear in the series, it never
happened before. No one ever survived before. And no one, therefore,
knew that could happen. >>

JKR chooses her words carefully. Lily couldn't KNOW what would happen,
but she could maybe EXPECT some particular thing to happen based on a
theory she had.

Jen Reese summarized Chapter 13 in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/150131 :

<< Chapter 13, The Secret Riddle >>

I suppose there were two Riddles in this chapter, Merope was Mrs.
Riddle and Tom was young Mr Riddle. Which one was secret?

<< 6. Just out of curiosity, we never learned what happened to
Caractacus Burke. Any speculation? >>

I speculate that he died of normal old age before young Riddle got a
job at the shop. If he'd still been alive when TMR got the job, TMR
would have murdered him in revenge for 'stealing' the locket.

<< 7. JKR made a statement prior to HBP that we would know more about
the 'circumstances of Riddle's birth'. Was there anything about his
birth or life in the orphanage that surprised you or was it pretty
much the story you were expecting? >>

I expected the orphanage to be a much nastier place. It wasn't really
THAT bad -- it was better than the way the Dursleys treated Harry
before he got his Hogwarts letter. Children allowed to have pets!

I expected the witch to have lured Tom Sr with beauty rather than with
a Love Potion, and therefore expected her to be his victim, rather
than to feel sorry for Tom Sr. (I always liked the idea that they
weren't even married, but I didn't really expect JKR to go for it.)

I expected the witch's family (somehow I expected two parents and no
sibling) to be cleaner and saner than they were.

That is, I was all wrong.

Hickengruendler wrote in 
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/150137 :

<<  I just realised that Burke had to be alive at least some time
later to give Dumbledore his evidence. >>

I think Burke revolving above the Penseive means that he could have
come from a memory that someone else gave to Dumbledore rather than
from DD's own memory... That raises questions about who was the
rememberer whom DD was concealing (another, secret, Riddle?) and was
the Pensieve Trelawney DD's own memory?

Magpie wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/15015 :

<< I couldn't figure out why everybody seemed to hate Zach from the
year before. >>

Because Zach is snide, or his friends would call it snarky. Snarkiness
is delightful and charming when aimed by one's friends at people who
aren't one's friends, and is at least irritating when aimed at one or
one's close friends by people who aren't one's friends. Very much like
Snape and Draco, whose snarkiness is one of their 'good' points.

Sharon wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/150184 :

<< << Kemper, who's wondering where all the detention/punishment forms
are for Snape in Filch's filing cabinet.>>
I doubt it.  They might have been, but I think Snape would have made
sure to remove them before setting Harry to re-write all the damaged
cards in HBP. He wanted the opportunity to pull down Harry's
estimation of James - not show himself in an equally bad light. >>

It has been speculated that young Severus was good enough at sucking
up to teachers that he avoided getting detentions. I dunno that I see
that in his adult personality. But adult Snape seems to be a friend of
Filch, so maybe young Snape was a friend of Filch and Filch didn't
give him detentions. And Filch's detention cards might well only
record detentions given by Filch.

I'm not sure that Snape thought that reviewing James's and Sirius's
juvenile delinquencies would lower them in Harry's esteem -- he
claimed to believe that Harry was just like James including thinking
that pantsing Severus was funny. I think the Snape spitefulness may
simply have been to keep reminding Harry that the people who loved him
were dead. 

It has been suggested that Snape was keeping Harry confined all those
Saturday mornings in order to Legilimens him. If he was seeking
information about Sirius, it would be reasonable to keep reminding
Harry to think about Sirius.

Pippin wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/150213 :

<< JKR tells us that a clever wizard might be able to transfigure
veritaserum  into something else. Presumably that could be done with
wolfsbane too, if the werewolf wanted an excuse to attack. >>

You don't think that wizarding law provides capital punishment or
lifetime in Azkaban for a werewolf who attacked a human and got caught?

mrs_weasley2004 wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/150244 :

<< Remember why Ron says he is afraid of spiders?  One of the twins
turned his teddy bear into a spider when he was a little kid. >>

I'm sure that was the uncontrolled magic that wizarding children
accidentally do when they're angry or frightened, like Harry turning
his teacher's wig blue.

Tonks_op wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/150264 :

<< I do wonder what DD would have modeled for us. What would he have
done??? >>

He would have gently asked Draco: "Are you pleased that Cedric is
dead?" I personally believe that Draco was not particularly pleased by
the death of a pureblood wizard, good Quidditch player, who had never
sided with Gryffindors against Draco. In fact, I imagine that just as
Harry wants to blame Snape for Sirius's death, Draco wanted to blame
Harry for Cedric's death. Dumbledore could have asked gentle steel
questions and soon had Draco criticizing the Dark Lord...

Alla wrote in http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/150296 :

<< laughs when she remembers arguments in defense of the Draco in this
scene long time ago that he was really .... warning Hermione here that
danger is coming, because he secretly likes her. >>

And how has that been disproved? 

kchuplis wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/150328 :

<< I wonder if [young] Snape was ever happy. Or laughed. Or smiled. >>

Surely he smiled nicely when he got one of his invented spells refined
just right. And probably when he got an exam paper or an essay back
with a perfect score.

I specified 'nicely' above, because surely he smiled nastily when
someone he disliked was humiliated or defeated.

The man who made that poetic PS/Ss speech about the beauty of the
softly shimmering cauldron must have been happy when he was making
some of those potions.

Pippin wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/150337 :

<< Indeed in HBP we learned that their roots of the tragedy overtaking
the wizarding world go back centuries, far beyond Voldemort. >>

Do you mean the Gaunts being bred for looniness?