Dudley / Ghosts / Grand Sorceror / Mrs Figg / Hors de crux

[Catlady (Rita Prince Winston)]

No: HPFGUIDX 153660

Corey wrote in
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/153347>:

<< I think you guys are missing some thugs. Dudley and his crew of
friends. Or more accurately, his gang. I mean come on, if ever there
was a gang of thugs, it's Dudley and his gang. I mean, look what they
did to the play park, to other children, and their bodies - they
smoked, remember? >>

I remember being shocked when I first read of their pathetically
inadequate efforts to be juvenile delinquents (much less gangstas!).
These are FIFTEEN-YEAR-OLD boys we're talking about, and they beat up
ten-year-olds and throw rocks at cars instead of shooting people in
drive-bys, vandalize the play park instead of committing armed
robberies of convenience stores, and smoke cigarettes instead of crack
or crystal. 

Julie juli17 wrote in
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/153434>:

<< Besides spirits, there are souls--and what exactly is the
difference between the two? Do spirits like Nearly Headless Nick still
have their souls intact? >>

Do we know that Potterverse ghosts are spirits? 

Snape, teaching his first DADA lesson in HBP, said: "A ghost, as I
trust that you are all aware by now, is the imprint of a departed soul
left upon the earth, and of course, as Potter so wisely tells us,
transparent." 

As I don't know what an imprint of a soul is, I don't know whether the
imprint of a departed soul would be a spirit.

Anyway, if the person-who-became-a-ghost's soul has departed, did it
go to the next great adventure, through the Veil, wherever it was that
the person was so scared (or otherwise resistant) to go to?

Laura Walsh wrote in
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/153457>:

<< How did The Bloody Baron get bloody? He is described as
being covered with silver blood. The only source I have read
about for silver blood is a unicorn. Since he was covered
with it as a ghost, I would assume that something happened
to him at the time of his death that would have covered him
with unicorn's blood. Is there anything else we know about
him? >>

The blood might be silvery just because the ghosts are entirely
silvery, as other posts have mentioned. I suppose they are some kind
of faint black&White double-exposure. 

I'm inclined to think that he's covered with his own formerly-red
blood, altho' molten lead has been suggested (poured from a tower onto
besiegers of a castle).

I want to know what it is about the Bloody Baron that makes Peeves be
scared of him; Peeves is not scared of anyone else, but he's so scared
of the Baron that he obeys him. I made up the theory it is that the
Bloody Baron is the only ghost who can still do magic as when alive
(why?) but Peeves doesn't seem to be scared of live people's magic...

Goodlefrood wrote in
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/153540>:

<< Here as a small aside I say that it is often overlooked that
Dumbledore is a Grand Sorceror, a title that he has never lost and one
that Lord Voldemort may covet himself, hence his outburst at the end
of Chamber of Secrets. >>

I thought 'Order of Merlin, first class, Grand Sorceror' was the very
highest level honor awarded by the British Ministry of Magic (above
O.M., first class, Sorceror, which is above O.M., first class). You're
invited to try to persuade me to your view.

(I view Chief Warlock as head of the Wizengamot and Grand Mugwump as
head or head emeritus of the International [Con]federation of
[Wizards/Warlocks].)

Hagrid aussie_lol wrote in
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/153543>:

<< If we correctly guess major suprises to JKR's story, do you
think she would change what she was going to say just to keep
control of the story -
(snip)
Or Arabella Figg with all her cats and taking care of Harry every so
often. Rumours went around she was a witch there to protect Harry. >>

Rowling gave a reading at the Toronto SkyDome in 2000. No transcript
of her Q&A has been posted on-line, but some people who were there
posted their accounts of the event. Those accounts said that when
asked if Arabella Figg, member of 'the old crowd' mentioned toward the
end of GoF when Dumbledore sent Sirius on his errand, was related to
Mrs Figg the babysitter, she said: "Good catch!" and agreed they were
related. (Well, identity is a relationship.) 

Because she also said that Mrs Figg is a Squib, many fans thought that
Arabella was her neice. When she revealed that the next title would be
HP & the Order of the Phoenix, many fans believed that 'the old crowd'
is the Order of the Phoenix. We eventually turned out to be right,
despite all the people who told us we were jumping to a conclusion and
an Order of the People could be a lot of other things.

My point ('and I do have one') is she wrote Mrs Figg in OoP the same
way she had spoken of Mrs Figg in 2000, which doesn't seem like she
changed her plan.

Leslie14 wrote of Horcruces in
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/153659>:

<< Do you know what a "crux" is? It means "cross." The word "hore" in
middle/old english means "whore". Whorecrosses. >>

Crux is cross, also suffering (ecruciating, Cruciatis), also the main
part of the matter ('the crux of the issue'). I think Hor is 'hors',
meaning 'outside', like hors d'oeuvres and hors de combat. Thus a
Horcrux contains a soul fragment which has been removed from the
suffering of life and been removed from the main business of life.