RoR/InvisiCloak/uglybaby!LV/2wayMirror/Hooch/MuggleClothes/Marietta/Merlin

[Catlady (Rita Prince Winston)]

No: HPFGUIDX 155853

Ken Hutchinson wrote in
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/155490>:

<< I think the supposed secrecy of the RoR is quite possibly the most
implausible element of the Potterverse. A castle full of teenagers
desperate for some privacy.... No, this would be the most well known
room in the castle. They just wouldn't call it the room of requirement
;-)  >>

They would call it the Come-and-Go Room, as the House Elves do. ;)

Amanita Muscaria wrote in
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/155497>:

<< Perhaps the cloak wasn't _bought_ by James, but was found? In the
ROR, or elsewhere in Hogwarts? Perhaps it 'belongs' to Hogwarts, not
James... >>

http://www.quick-quote-quill.org/articles/2000/1000-aol-chat.htm says
<<Q: Where did James get his Invisibility Cloak?
JKR: That was inherited from his own father -- a family heirloom! >>

Has it been mentioned recently that Quick Quotes Quill is a search
engine of all JKR's interviews that are archived on-line?
http://www.quick-quote-quill.org/index2.html

Tonks_op wrote in
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/155508>:

<< Now he did not have a real body until the graveyard. But he did
have that weird baby body, and that is a mystery as to how that came
into being. I can't remember or maybe we are never told, how he went
from a disembodied spirit to some strange entity that was not a real
body. >>

>From Voldemort's speech in the Graveyard in GoF:
<< "Wormtail's body, of course, was ill-adapted for possession, as all
assumed him dead, and would attract far too much attention if seen.
However, he was the able-bodied servant I needed, and, poor wizard
though he is, Wormtail was able to follow the instructions I gave him,
which would return me to a rudimentary, weak body of my own, a body I
would be able to inhabit while awaiting the essential ingredients for
true rebirth ... a spell or two of my own invention ... a little help
from my dear Nagini," – Voldemort's red eyes fell upon the continually
circling snake – "a potion concocted from unicorn blood, and the snake
venom Nagini provided ... I was soon returned to an almost human form,
and strong enough to travel." >>

Not having italics in my e-mail, let me repeat the sentence that needs
emphasis "Wormtail was able to follow the instructions I gave him,
which would return me to a rudimentary, weak body of my own".

Voldemort's speech certainly doesn't say that Bertha Jorkins provided
him with more than information, but I believe her poor moribund body
was a necessary ingredient for making his uglybaby body. Either by
using pieces of it to make like a Frankenbaby, or by using her womb to
grow one.

Cassie Ferris wrote in
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/155573>:

<< Though in case of the mirrors, their NOT appearing again would not
make any sense, since they never played any part at all and it is
unclear why to introduce them in the first place if not to use later.
As for emotional impact, Harry could just as well brood over any other
memorabilia given to him by Sirius instead. >>

No, the mirrors inspired Harry to feel a bitterly ironic guilt that no
other souvenir of Sirius would have done. Because if Harry had
*remembered* the mirrors, he could have used them to contact Sirius to
check whether Sirius was safe at home, without all that mess with
Umbridge's fireplace, and the mirror would not have been answered by
Kreacher, as the fireplace was, so Kreachur wouldn't have been able to
deceive him into going to MoM, and maybe Sirius always carried the
mirror with him in hope of receiving a call, in which case he would
have answered from Buckbeak's bedroom, so Harry couldn't even have
argued that no one answered so that proved that Sirius was being
tortured at the Ministry. So if Harry had remembered the mirrors, he
probably wouldn't have gone to MoM, and if Harry hadn't gone to MoM,
Sirius wouldn't have died. Thus Harry's feeling of guilt, that he
tries to drown out by accusing Snape.

The irony part of it is that the reason he forgot the mirrors was that
he was determined not to use them, and the reason he was determined
not to use them was that he was determined that he wouldn't contact
Sirius in any way that might lure Sirius out of his house into danger.
Thus the motive led to action that caused the exact opposite of the
motive.

Con Collins wrote in
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/155587>:

<< I always wondered whether Madam Hooch was a lesbian ...  >>

I have long felt certain, starting well BEFORE the movies, that
McGonagall and Hooch are long time partners. I suppose that Hooch used
to be a professional Quidditch player, and when she retired,
Dumbledore kindly hired her for the Flying teacher position so that
she and McGonagall could live together in their quarters in Hogwarts
Castle. The only canon support I have is 'but it's so *obvious*!',
which apparently it isn't, considering the number of people who
mysteriously believe that Pomfrey is McG's partner or that Sprout is
Hooch's partner. 

Ceridwen wrote in
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/155731>:

<< There is rarely mention made of clothes in the HP books, except
when wizards try to dress like Muggles and come out looking like an
explosion in Grandma's attic instead. (snip) How do wizards and their
children dress while at home or visiting friends? Do they wear Muggle
clothes like jeans and tee-shirts as fanfics suggest? Or do they wear
their everyday robes? >>

There seems to be a big generational difference in wizard clothing.
The younger ones wear jeans and tee-shirts except when compelled to
wear school uniform or formal wear, up to Bill first appearing in GoF
in 'His clothes would not have looked out of place at a rock concert,
except that Harry recognised his boots to be made, not of leather, but
of dragon hide.' The older ones wear robes all the time except when
they deliberately try to disguise themselves as Muggles. Earlier in
GoF, when Harry is waiting for the Weasleys to arrive to take him
away, Vernon growls about hoping they'll dress decently so as not to
shock the neighbors and 'Harry felt a slight sense of foreboding. He
had rarely seen Mr or Mrs Weasley wearing anything that the Dursleys
would call "normal". Their children might don Muggle clothing during
the holidays, but Mr and Mrs Weasley usually wore long robes in
varying states of shabbiness.'

I think this change occured quickly, as a result of Voldemort having
been blown away by baby Harry and Lily's sacrifice. THe Ministry was
rounding up DEs to send to Azkaban, so people were eager to
demonstrate how much they opposed LV and loved Muggles, so they
encouraged their children to invite Muggle-born classmates to visit
them at home and to accept return invitations, where the children
learned to wear Muggle clothing straight from Muggles. People like the
Malfoys would not have deigned to be polite to Muggles or to wear
Muggle clothing, but when jeans are considered 'what all the cool kids
are wearing' instead of considered 'what Muggles wear', they would
wear jeans they bought at wizard boutiques, either imported from
Muggle shops or manufactured by wizards in imitation of the originally
Muggle style.

<< Still, this question has given me some interesting mental pictures.
If the twins, not knowing at the time how to properly dress like
Muggles, decided to do so anyway, could poor Dudley have been
tongue-tied by two identical wizards dressed in linebacker jerseys
complete with shoulder pads, plaid school skirts, and hiking boots? 

This is a forbidden 'LOL' post.

Betsy Hp wrote in
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/155790>:

<< (Which always makes me wonder if teachers are out there with purple
markers writing "Snitch" on the faces of children who tell tales, >>

NOT teachers. Teachers WANT kids to tattle. And I approve of the
teachers' motives when they want to find out who set fire to the
school or beat a fellow student unconscious. 

Tonks_op wrote in
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/155802>:

<< Have we ever been told who was the first Headmaster/Headmistress of
Hogwarts? >>

Not in the books. What we were told seems to me to mean that at the
beginning the Founders were all equals and not one was HEAD. So I
suppose that the first Headmaster was the last Founder left standing. 

<< Merlin comes to mind, but I really don't think it is him. >>

Hogwarts was founded 'over a thousand years ago', but it seems we all
take that as 'a little' over 1000 years before CoS, therefore sometime
in the 900s. I've always believed that Merlin was in the 500s, so he
would have been gone (dead or trapped in his cave) long before the
Founding.

<< But this brings me to ask, how did the Order of Merlin award come
into being? Are we ever told that either? >>

The Lexicon says "The Order of Merlin is a great honor, bestowed on
wizards who have demonstrated their devotion to the principles of
living harmoniously with Muggles. The Order was created by Merlin, the
famous wizard of the Middle Ages, to pass laws against using magic
against Muggles." Apparently that comes from Merlin's Famous Wizard Card.