Trelawney/BlameGame/AKpractise/CupInCave/Umbridge/OneHanded/Boggart-Dementor

Mon Feb 13 00:06:58 UTC 2006

No: HPFGUIDX 148037

Kchuplis wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/147854 :

<< The last time through OoTP and HBP I got the distinct impression
that Trelawney's mutterings in the hallway while shuffling cards etc.
may show more "sight" than previously believed. >>

Yes! << "Two of spades: conflict," she murmured, as she passed the
place where Harry crouched, hidden. "Seven of spades: an ill omen. Ten
of spades: violence. Knave of spades: a dark young man, possibly
troubled, one who dislikes the questioner —" She stopped dead, right
on the other side of Harry's statue. "Well, that can't be right," she
said, annoyed, >>

"A dark young man, possibly troubled, one who dislikes the questioner"
might or might not have anything to do with the knave of spades, but
it is Trelawney picking up Harry's presence near. "The questione" is
herself, and Harry is troubled and does dislike her. "Well, that can't
be right" is because she refuses to believe that anyone could dislike her.

<< HAPPY ! not happen. I give up. >>

What a way to use one three posts for the day!

Steve bboyminn wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/147863 :

<< In fact, everyone is so busy trying to look good while making
everyone else look bad that nothing ever gets done because to do the
job is to risk failure. It really is a wonderful insight into an
alternate world of magicians. >> 

It is also a common way for real life businesses and bureaucracies to
fail, caused by higher levels of management who put too much effort
into punishing failure and not enough into rewarding success. An
employee who puts their effort into actually FIXING whatever went
wrong is not putting effort into batting off all the blame that is
flying around like a Bludger and therefore gets hit by it and
punished, possibly fired, making one less person to try to fix the
next snafu that happens. 

Carol wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/147892 :

<< thinking that an AK, like any other spell, would require practice
to master and wondering what the Durmstrang kids practiced on >>

Maybe foxes, like the poor beast Bellatrix killed on the way to
Snape's house. Maybe cute little kittens and puppies, to demonstrate
their evilness.

Tonks_op wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/147906 :

<< HBP: In the cave DD drinks the poison from a cup. >>

Last night Tim listened to the part of his cassette where Dumbledore
tells Harry about the six Horcruxes, and Tim turned to me and asked:
"Was that Hufflepuff's cup in the green potion in the cave?" I don't
recall anyone having suggested that before.

<< HBP: After DD's death the glass Gryffindor hour glass had been hit
by a curse and the rubies were falling out onto the floor. Some had
suggested that this meant that this was the death rattle of Hogwarts.
 I suggest that it might also be the disguised version of the "veil in
the temple being torn in two", which happened at the death of Jesus. >>

But it MUST have been spilled blood, because otherwise it could have
been one of the other, non-ruby (Rubeus?), hourglasses that broke.

Ffred wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/147924 :

<< Though [Umbridge]'s never actually referred to as (say) Junior
Minister or even Deputy Minister. >>

She is "Senior Undersecretary to the Minister". Her power comes not
from her official position in the org chart, but from her control of
the man at the top of the org chart. This is called 'the power behind
the throne' and what Lucius Malfoy thought he was going to be when
Voldemort conquered.

Ceridwen wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/147941 :

<< Why do stories about people with silver hands always involve
one-eyed warrior types? >>

Georges Dumezil claimed that the original tribe that spoke
Proto-Indo-European and whose descendents wandered off to become the
Vedic and Hellenic and Latin and Teuton and Celtic and Slavic people
had a myth about a one-handed hero and a one-eyed hero, who turn up as
Nuadha and Balor, as Tyr and Odin, and as early ROman 'historical'
figures whose details I have forgotten.

However, I think Pettigrew's hand is made of ectoplasm and only LOOKS
silver.

Carol wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/148023 :

<< wondering how Harry managed to make his Dementor Boggart ridiculous
(or whether a really good student can skip that step and just vanish
it without laughter, as Lupin seems to do on several occasions) >>

He made the one in the Triwizard maze trip over its own robe.