Snape/werewolves/Seamus/SPEW/Demonic/HQuest/Firenze/House Elves/purple curse

[Catlady (Rita Prince Winston)]

No: HPFGUIDX 147843

La Gatta Lucianese wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/147328 :

<< Dumbledore's relationship with Snape (and McGonagall's too; I wish
JKR showed us more of it) is definitely more "in loco parentis" than
colleague to colleague. >>

I definitely agree about Dumbledore, but PS/SS McGonagall said:
"Heaven knows, we need a better team than last year. Flattened in that
last match by Slytherin, I couldn't look Severus Snape in the face for
weeks...."

PAR "richter_kuymal" wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/147330 :

<< Is Lupin offering them Wolfsbane Potion (which only helps control
the episodes) or would it be possible to offer them the immensely
complex Homophus Charm and a cure? >>

I agree that the Homorphus Charm is real, because Lockhart stole his
exploits, not invented them. I don't agree that the Homorphus Charm
is a cure for lycanthropism, because if it were, someone would have
tried it on Lupin by now, either his parents, who 'tried everything'
or his clever friends who became Animagi for his sake.

At first I thought it might put an end to the werewolf transformations
permanently, but at the cost of tremendous brain damage to the person,
but then I realized it MIGHT be the same spell that Black and Lupin
used to make Pettigrew leave his rat form.

So now I think that it turns the transformed human back into
his/her human form for only a few moments. That's not a cure for
lycanthropism, but it is long enough for the villagers to recognize
one of their neighbors. Now that they know who the werewolf is, they
can deal with him while he is still a mere human. One would hope that
they would lock him in a secure cage before moonrise on the Full Moon
night and release him when he turned human again, but I expect they
probably just killed him in his sleep in his bed at New Moon.

(*waves "Hi" at Steve bboyminn in 
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/147341 )

Carol wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/147366 :

<< Maybe the parents didn't know that Dumbledore would tolerate and
protect the werewolf children if the parents asked his help, but
surely they would educate them at home and provide a safe place for
them to transform even if they didn't send them to school? >>

Apparently not. It seems that most wizards have a horror of
lycanthropy that is more than intense.

<< And wouldn't the children get Hogwarts letters like all other
magical children in Britain, as Remus obviously did? >>

The wizarding werewolf children must get Hogwarts letters --- owls can
find their shack in the werewolf encampment --- and throw them aside
because, even if they know how to read, they know they have no money
for school books.

Some of the bitten children must be Muggles -- FB says both Muggles
and wizards become werewolfs when bitten. Their Muggle parents may
know *nothing* about werewolfs. I wonder if the MoM takes their bitten
children away from them and hands them over to Fenris Grayback, and
Obliviates the parents -- better yet, make them think their children
died, so they can tell everyone who questions.

Betsy Hp wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/147375 :

<< The only peer betrayal that I've seen any sort of foreshadowing for
myself is ....  *Possibly* Seamus, though I think that's another boat
that's sailed. >>

I still want to know why the Sorting Hat took 'almost a whole minute'
to Sort Seamus.

Lupinlore wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/147416 :

<< (And it is interesting that Hermione forgets all about SPEW for the
time being, isn't it?) >>

I think that particular point was adequately foreshadowed. In OoP, we
saw Hermione reluctantly accept the fact that they CAN'T free
Kreachur, saw Kreachur consistently rebuff her kindness and insult her
and finally participate in a plot to catch Harry for the Dark Lord.
Not surprising to me that, after a few weeks to digest it, she decided
not to talk about Kreachur to Harry. Further, in GoF we saw her forget
all about SPEW and Elf Emancipation while at the ball with Viktor --
in HBP she is concentrating even harder on romance, aka being mean to Ron.

Pippin wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/147543 :

<< It's interesting that the context of that quote was how much JKR
enjoys writing about Snape. C.S. Lewis said that his devils, who
were of course demonic, weren't much fun to write. >>

J.K. Rowling is not C.S. Lewis. I recall no sign that Lewis enjoyed
vulgar jokes about bogies, either.

Lucianam wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/147623 :

<< I'd like to ask you guys if any of you considers the possibility of
the Horcrux subplot being partially false? Or at any rate surprisingly
unimportant to the actual plot of book 7? >>

Yes, me. I suppose the Horcruxes are real, but I was surprised to find
so many listies agreeing that Book 7 will be a search for Horcruxes
when my assumption was that Harry's allies (probsably the Order of the
Phoenix members) would find them and destroy them all, getting that
business out of the way in about one page, 

mandorino222 wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/147728 :

<< Centaurs are good creatures, even if they are a stubborn/hotheaded,
and I think that Firenze may yet have a role to play in deciding
this conflict. >>

The lying Statue of Magical Brethren depicted a wizard, a witch, a
goblin, a centaur, and a house elf. I keep thinking, first that it
refers to some specific historical event, and second that it
foreshadows that Voldemort will be defeated by teamwork of a wizard
(Harry), a witch (Hermione, Ginny, Luna), a house elf (Dobby), a
centaur (Firenze), and a goblin. 

Miles wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/147737 :

<<  We learnt in CoS, that Elves communicate, that they are aware of
how they are treated, and that they feel their situation being
improved after the fall of Lord Voldemort. Constraint: Dobbie is a
very special elf - but I do not doubt his words when he reports
to Harry, that the Elves appreciate being treated friendly and dislike
being tortured and mishandled, both within the limitation of their
slavery. >>

It appears that Kreachur dislikes being treated friendly and
appreciates being tortured and mishandled. Is he representative of a
significant fraction of house elves, a weird exceptional house elf, or
perhaps not a house elf at all? An Inferius made of a house elf corpse?

Carol wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/147747 :

<< hopes that JKR will tell us what that purple spell Dolohov used on
Hermione was >>

I remain persuaded by whoever posted that it was the Entrail-Expelling
Curse, invented by Urquhart Rackharrow whose portrait in St Mungos was
seen in OoP.