blood/FreeWill/TheProphecy/Hermione'sOWLs/Pre-Reading/Booklist/Hogs & Ferrets

[Catlady (Rita Prince Winston)]

No: HPFGUIDX 157483

Some weeks ago, some listie (I'm sorry I forgot who) suggested that
magic power is literally in the wizard's physical blood. Thus if it
were possible to drain all the blood out of a wizard while keeping him
alive (by putting in a synthetic blood substitute), and then fill him
back up with blood from Muggles, he wouldn't have any magic power
until his own blood grew back. And if one of us Muggles received a
large blood transfusion from Wizards, that one Muggle would have some
magic power until the transfused blood wore out.

And I realised the other night, during my usual tossing and turning,
that perhaps that explains what it is about the Bloody Baron that
makes him the only person Peeves fears. I have previously thought it
might be because the Baron is the only ghost able to do magic, so he
can properly curse Peeves, but I could never think of a good reason
why the Baron would have retained his magic power after death if no
one else does. Now the reason could be that he is the only ghost who
still has blood -- the blood showing on his exterior. I think that
works only if Sir Nick has no blood showing on the cut through his neck?

Jordan/Random wrote in
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/157223>:

<< I'm curious as to why you think "the approach that time happened
only once, but Harry and Hermione happened twice" is inconsistent with
free will. >>

Okay. For me it is axiomatic (despite Martin Gardner quoting C.S.
Lewis) that for Will (Choice) to be free, the future must be
undetermined, i.e. the future must not exist yet. That gives me
problems with that Einstein stuff about space/time and no such thing
as simultaneity and time is a dimension, by the way.

So, for me, the fact that two Harries and two Hermiones exist at this
same time is possible only because of something that Harry and
Hermione do in the near future: they turn the Time-Turner. It is not
possible for them to choose NOT to turn the Time-Turner because, in a
way, it has already happened. So that one little piece of future is
already determined. Which contradicts my personal axiom.

Julie 17 wrote in
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/157255>:

<< But let's get to the true heart of the matter. DD's love, for
Harry, for Severus, for Hogwarts, for whoever and for whatever, is
quite irrelevant. DD has always done exactly what he felt he had to do
the ensure Voldemort will be defeated. >>

I love your post (not only because you agreed with me!) but I nitpick
anyway: at the end of OoP, DD himself said he had allowed his love for
Harry to cause him to do something (withold the Prophecy from Harry)
which was not in the best interest of defeating LV.

Mike Crudele wrote in
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/157274>:

<< My least favorite is OotP (snip good reasons) and I was
disappointed that JKR interjected the whole prophecy thingy. >> 

In PS/ss, Harry asked DD why LV had tried to kill him as a baby and DD
said he couldn't tell him yet. I was SURE that it was because it was
Prophecied that Harry would kill LV, but struggled to figure out why
DD couldn't tell Harry that then.

When listies suggested that DD only was trying to spare Harry's
feelings, I decided that the Prophecy must say that the only way to
kill LV is that he and Harry die (kill each other) at the same time.
So I was greatly disappointed when JKR's Prophecy said one of them
must kill the other, not that they must die together.

If the Prophecy HAD said that LV and Harry will kill each other, the
big reveal could have been that it had already happened at Godric's
Hollow, so the whole story that we're reading is not predicted by the
Prophecy.

Sylvia wrote in
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/157283>:

<< But if there are only 12 subjects in total, how does she manage to
get 11 OWLs without Muggle studies and Divination? Or am I missing a
subject? >>

I have often wondered about that. As you indicated, Hermione received
her 11 OWLs in:

1. Astronomy
2. Care Of Magical Creatures
3. Charms
4. DADA
5. Herbology
6. History of Magic
7. Potions
8. Transfiguration
9. Ancient Runes
10. Arithmancy
11. ?????  

I posted something long, long ago about Divination and Arithmancy were
only half-day exams, so if Ancient Runes (that Hermione took while
Harry and Ron had Friday off) was also a half-day exam, she could have
taken another half-day exam that same day. Some listies have suggested
that she (and every other Muggle-born) could ace the Muggle Studies
OWL without taking the class (altho' I think they'd fail for failing
to give the erroneous answers taught in class). I suggested that the
wizarding world is so different from the Muggle world that there could
be an OWL exam that only prefects are allowed to take (so Harry
wouldn't know about it, and Ron doesn't seem the type to take any more
OWL exams than he HAS to), with questions about leadership and
discipline and authority.

I had another idea, that one History of Magic exam tests for 2 OWLs,
one for the BC History of Magic and one for the AD History of Magic. I
don't know if seeing Harry's OWL results blows that out of the water,
or if it can be argued that they don't further depress people who
failed both by telling them that they missed TWO qualifications.

In any case, I don't understand how Hermione only got 11 OWLs when
Bill and Percy got 12. She has been established as an unusually
outstanding student that doesn't come along as often as every 4 years.
If they both got both 2 History OWLs and the Prefect OWL, why didn't
she? I want to believe it's a Flint.

Aussie Hagrid wrote in
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/157334>:

<< My kids know there are some "Parental Guidance" sections so I have
to read each new book first. >>

That raised my curiosity: which sections need Parental Guidance and
how do you guide? Do you put a mark in the book that the kid has to
come talk to you before continuing to read?

Dave Hardenbrook wrote in
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/157460>:

<< What?? She lists Shakespeare, Dickens, Bronte, and Orwell, but
*nothing* from her idol, Jane Austen??? >>

And not THE LITTLE WHITE HORSE, which she has previously said was her
favorite book as a child.

Dr Carole asked in
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/157468>:

<< Have we ever figured out the significance of pigs and hogs? The
topic was brought up a while back. >>

Neither have we figured out the significance of ferrets. In CoS,
"Mortlake was taken away for questioning about some extremely odd
ferrets". In PoA, Hagrid fed Buckbeak dead ferrets. In GoF, Draco was
temporarily turned into a ferret. Even in OoP, during the
Transfiguration OWL, "poor Hannah Abbott lost her head completely at
the next table and somehow managed to multiply her ferret into a flock
of flamingos". 

I think the references to pigs are just common colloquialisms, and the
reference to hogs (like the winged boars on the gate post at the
entrance of Hogwarts' campus) are there because the school is named
Hogwarts because it is a funny name, whether Rowling was inspired by
warthog backwards, or the forgotten name of a plant she and her sister
had seen at Kew, or forgotten memory of there having been mention of a
school named Hogwarts in some other piece of writing.

But I made up a story for it. In which the mountains on whose feet
Hogwarts School is built is named Mt. Hog or Hogmount, and the Lake is
Hoglake, and the Forbidden Forest is Hogwood, and the grassy area by
the lake is Hogmeadow, and the slightly more elevated area where the
village is built is named Hogwald. In my story, the Founders got a
little confused and named the school Hogwald School even tho' it was
built on Hogmeadow. "HoGwald" School became "HoGwaRtS" School when
Salazar complained that Godric's suggested name included his initial
and Helga's, but not Salazar's or Rowena's, and Helga suggested a
compromise. Latter, that the village was named Hogsmeade (a variant
form of Hogmeadow) instead of Hogwald shows that the confusion
continued past the Founders.

And all these "hog" things were named after the Caledonian Boar, a
monstrous (perhaps winged) giant monster who was said to live in the
area, probably related to the boar Twrch Trwyth, whom King Arthur
killed in the story 'Culhwch and Olwen'.

If my story were true, the Caledonian Boar would show up in Book 7 --
presumably as a monster unleashed by Voldemort whom Our Heroes must
destroy or tame.