Spiders / Tom Jr/ Rookwood/ Snape's secret/ Potters' protection/ Werewolves

[Catlady (Rita Prince Winston)]

No: HPFGUIDX 147274

Geoff wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/146916 :

<< As young children themselves,they traumatised Ron by transforming
his teddy into a spider and creating the deep-rooted arachnophobia
which surfaces in the books from time to time. >>

Surely the teddy bear/spider incident was an act of childhood
unintended magic, like Harry finding himself suddenly on the roof when
having been pursued by bullies, or turning his teacher's wig blue. As
in Rowling's response to the Rumor that "Harry is a Metamorphmagus":
<< Anyway: before they have received training, very young witches and
wizards are prone to unstable surges of power, often accidentally
producing effects that they may have to train for a few years to be
able to reproduce deliberately. Their magical ability is bottled up
for weeks at a time and then, when made angry or frightened, it simply
explodes out of them, sometimes (as in the case of the vanishing glass
in the chapter of the same name, 'Philosopher's Stone) causing at
least as much inconvenience to themselves as others. >>

Fuzz876i wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/147010 :

<< She used either a love potion or some incantation to dupe Tom
Riddle Sr into marrying her. By doing this she insured that her
children would not face the insanities of her family. >>

I dunno -- Diary!Tom seemed sufficiently insane to me.

Andie wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/147118 :

<< if she only asked she would not have been left alone, Tom wouldn't
have grown up in a muggle orphanage, he wouldn't have turned rotten,
he wouldn't have become LV and we wouldn't have a story. >>

Oh, I'm sure Tom could have turned rotten without a muggle orphanage.
If there were such a thing as a wizarding orphanage, the staff there
would have known how to keep him from victimising the other children,
but they would also have known to tell him that he had inherited Gaunt
bad blood or that he was a mere Halfblood.

exodusts wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/147048 :

<< Carol Rookwood, (snip) Is it a coincidence J.K. was finishing GoF
that year, and a Death Eater appears with the surname Rookwood, which
is pretty unusual? >>

I think someone posted years ago that Rookwood was the name of one of
Guy Fawkes's co-conspirators, and perhaps came to JKR's mind when she
was writing about Fawkes the phoenix.

maria8162001 wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/147133 :

<<  I've also read Mr. Rickman's (Snape) interview and he said also
that there is more to Snape than what you see or how he look,
something like that. >>

My recollection is that when the first Potter movie was cast, JKR told
a secret to Rickman and a secret to Coltrane, something she didn't
tell even the director, something they needed to know to play their
characters. There was a lot of speculation at the time of what these
secrets might be -- maybe that Hagrid was going to die in the
then-upcoming fourth book, maybe why Dumbledore trusted Snape so much.
It occured to me recently that both secrets may have been revealed in
GoF -- Hagrid's secret that he is half-giant, Snape's secret that he
is a branded Death Eater.

Tanya wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/147143 :

<< I have always wondered what the Potters were doing for protection
before they cast the secret keeper spell a week before the attack. >>

When Harry was born, his parents were either in hiding or about to go
into hiding (from two different JKR interviews about why Harry doesn't
have a godmother), which may mean they had already survived an attack
or that one of DD's spies had warned him that LV was targetting them
(or just that they were doing important secret work and didn't want 
to be interrupted). LV's attempts to find them may have included
capturing and torturing, Imperius'ing, Legilimens'ing, or
Veritaserum'ing people who seemed likely to know something about the
hiding. LV may have gotten 'warm' a couple of times, forcing them to
change their hiding place. Once he had Peter (or Remus) under
sufficient control, he may have found out about the new hiding place
while they were still moving in. It may have been this history of LV
coming closer and closer that led DD to suggest using Fidelius.

The two quotes:
http://www.jkrowling.com/textonly/en/news_view.cfm?id=80
Q: Does Harry have a godmother? If so, will she make an appearance in
future books?
JKR: No, he doesn't. I have thought this through. If Sirius had
married
 Sirius was too busy being a big rebel to get married. When
Harry was born, it was at the very height of Voldemort fever last time
so his christening was a very hurried, quiet affair with just Sirius,
just the best friend. At that point it looked as if the Potters would
have to go into hiding so obviously they could not do the big
christening thing and invite lots of people. Sirius is the only one,
unfortunately. I have got to be careful what I say there, haven't I?

http://www.quick-quote-quill.org/articles/2005/0705-tlc_mugglenet-anelli-3.htm
ES: Who is Harry's godmother?
JKR: Didn't have one.
ES: Really?
JKR: Well, Sirius never had time to get a girlfriend, let alone marry.
ES: They could have just picked some other close friend of the family.
JKR: At the time that they christened Harry, they were in hiding. This
was not going to be a widely attended christening, because he was
already in danger. So this is something they were going to do very
quietly, with as few people as possible, that they wanted to make this
commitment with Sirius. And — yeah. Can't say much more.

Miles wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/147207 :

<< To activate the ancient magic that protects Harry until his 17th
birthday he needs to be "at home" in a house that is owned by a
blood-relative of his MOTHER. It was Lily's sacrifice that protected
Harry, and Lily is muggleborn. So the safe place for Harry could not
be a wizard's family, because Harry's magical relatives are all from
his father's side. >> 

Yes, but if McGonagall knew that Harry had wizarding relatives, why
didn't she argue with DD's statement that the Dursleys 'are the only
family he has left'?

Christina wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/147249 :

<< If the werewolves are forced to steal and kill to eat, it is
because they chose to. Lupin says that they have "*shunned* normal
society," implying a conscious choice. >>

I don't think that's *entirely* fair. Lupin, in PoA: "We gave me a job
when I have been shunned all my adult life, unable to find paid work
because of what I am." We even got to see an example of the shunning,
when Ron, who had known Lupin for a year, yelled 'Get away from me,
werewolf!' when he first learned of Lupin's condition. 

People who can't find paid work and have been (unlike Lupin) cast 
off by their families, have to get food, or money for food, in
unconventional ways, such as stealing or begging. Some of the hunting
and fishing can be legal, altho' I've heard a fair bit about shooting
deer outside the legal season and catching fish on someone else's
privately owned land from people who needed to feed their families. 

So, if they have no money to pay rent, and no one would rent to them
anyway, doesn't it make sense for them to camp in as close to
wilderness as they can find rather than on the city streets?