Black Names/Counter-Jinx/Hate at 1st Sight/Headmaster Portraits/The Mesdames

[Catlady (Rita Prince Winston)]

No: HPFGUIDX 154275

Ken Hutchinson wrpte in
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/154016>:

<< Rowling often uses a heavy dose of whimsy in her place and
character names. You have to wonder how she avoided the temptation to
use the star name Zubenelgenubi as a character name. >>

Zubeneschameli is even better. They could be the two daughters of
Scorpius Black ... I like *my* Black Family Tree better than
Rowling's. Hers has so many born-Blacks whose names aren't astronomical.

Consulting the Lexicon at
<http://www.hp-lexicon.org/images/blackfamilytrees/official-final-version.gif>,
I found Isla, Elladora, Belvina, Marius, Dorea, Lucretia, Lycoris,
Walburga ... Are Cedrella, Calidora, and Charis stars?

When all the canon I had on the subject was from the BOOKS, I was
willing to allow as how Phineas Nigellus was before the astronomical
tradition started, that the wizards have named some particular star
'Narcissa', that Elladora is a nickname for Lambda Doradus (*is* there
a lambda Doradus?), and that Araminta Melliflua was a Black by
marriage only (I had her as a Malfoy by birth).

Altho' back when I was studying this on websites, I found that there
is a star named Meissa in Orion's neck (not bright enough for me to
ever be able to see it) and it seems to me that JKR could have changed
Narcissa's name to Meissa and kept the narcissim ("ME"issa).

Rabastan Lestrange is one sound-transposition away from the star name
Rastaban.

Oh, if Lucretia Black and Ignatius Prewett are the parents of Fabian,
Gideon, and Molly Prewett, then Molly Weasley (nee Prewett) was
Sirius's first cousin, not 'cousins by marriage'.

Pollux Black born 1912 is shown as father of Walburga born 1925, when
he was (by arithmetic) 13. Cygnus Black born 1938 is shown as father
of Bellatrix born 1951, when he was (by arithmetic) 13. If this
document is canonical and time-travel is not involved, all
SexGod!Draco fanfics can be defended as merely continuing a Black
family tradition of early sexual activity.

Pippin wrote in
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/154041>:

<< Well, as Hermione points out in OOP, the label changes from jinx to
counterjinx depending on how the spell is being used. >>

I think Wilbert Slinkhard was wrong. (I *hope* Slinkhard isn't the
answer to the question "What does Rowling think of nonviolent
resistance?") I think Hermione changed the subject rather than
actually addressed his error.

'[Slinkhard] says that counter-jinxes are improperly named.... He says
"counter-jinx" is just a name people give their jinxes when they want
to make them sound more acceptable. ... But I disagree.... Mr
Slinkhard doesn't like jinxes, does he? But I think they can be very
useful when they're used defensively.'

I start with a feeling of certainty that, just as 'jinx' is a name
used for some curses, so 'counterjinx' is a name used for some
countercurses, so I can speak of 'counterjinx/countercurse'. In
Potterverse, a countercurse/counterjinx is NOT a curse/jinx; it is a
only a defense against (or a cure for) a curse/jinx.

One that comes immediately to mind is Fake!Moody teaching about the
Killing Curse (Avada Kedavra): "Not nice," he said calmly. "Not
pleasant. And there's no counter-curse. There's no blocking it. Only
one known person has ever survived it, and he's sitting right in front
of me."

Also in GoF, we have Hermione helping Harry prepare for the Third
Task: "He was still having trouble with the Shield Charm, though. This
was supposed to cast a temporary, invisible wall around himself that
deflected minor curses; Hermione managed to shatter it with a well
placed Jelly-Legs Jinx. Harry wobbled around the room for ten minutes
afterwards before she had looked up the counter-jinx." (LOOK! The
actual word 'COUNTER-JINX'!)

PS/SS: "At that moment Neville toppled into the common room. How he
had managed to climb through the portrait hole was anyone's guess,
because his legs had been stuck together with what they recognized at
once as the Leg-Locker Curse. He must have had to bunny hop all the
way up to Gryffindor tower. Everyone fell over laughing except
Hermione, who leapt up and performed the countercurse. Neville's legs
sprang apart and he got to his feet, trembling."

And Quirrelmort's confession: ""No, no, no. I tried to kill you. Your
friend Miss Granger accidentally knocked me over as she rushed to set
fire to Snape at that Quidditch match. She broke my eye contact with
you. Another few seconds and I'd have got you off that broom. I'd have
managed it before then if Snape hadn't been muttering a countercurse,
trying to save you."

In the latter three examples, the counter-curse removes the effects of
its specific curse (Jelly-Legs Jinx, Leg-Locker Curse, broomstick
curse). The broomstick example shows Snape's counter-curse can remove
the effects of Quirrelmort's curse while that curse is still being
cast. Presumably if the counter-curse was cast powerfully enough and
fast enough, it could remove the effects of the curse before they even
occured, thus serving to *block* the curse entirely. So Fake!Moody's
"no counter-curse, no way to block it" would be repetition for emphasis.

I don't know if the spell sung by Snape over Draco was a countercurse
to Sectumsempra or a regular healing charm for big, deep cuts, whether
caused by spells, steel, or hippogryff claws.

Alla wrote in
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/154064>:

<< Draco and Harry absolutely in my opinion has some "political" base
for it – NOT Dark Arts hatred, but hatred of ideology Draco stands
for. Of course that is not all of it – it is also two kids who did not
like each other on the spot >>

1) At that point, the only Draco-ideology that Harry was rejecting was
snobbery. 2) They didn't 'not like each other on the spot'. When they
first met, at Madam Malkin's robe shop, Draco showed no animosity to
Harry -- he went through a child!Draco version of trying to make
friends with Harry, by telling how great he was and assuming that the
person to whom he was speaking shared his bigot values. And Harry
didn't dislike Draco until he had gotten an earful of Draco's
opinions. To me, Draco didn't dislike Harry until their second
meeting, when Harry dissed Draco because Draco had dissed Ron.

Carol wrote in
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/154131>:

<< Twice in HBP Phineas reprimands Harry for speaking disrespectfully
of Severus Snape. Why? Because, IMO, Phineas has heard doing
everything from Snape's change of sides to his reports of Harry's
dreams (revealed to Snape in the Occlumency lessons). The only key
conversations between DD and Snape that Phineas would not have
overheard, aside from messages delivered by Patronus, are the argument
in the forest and the events on the tower in HBP. >>

The portraits are sworn to serve the Headmaster of Hogwarts. The Board
of Governors could choose a Dark Wizard or some other kind of evil
person to be Headmaster. Then the portraits would serve the new
Headmaster as loyally as they served Dumbledore. Therefore, it would
be careless of Dumbledore to let the portraits know too many of the
Order of the Phoenix's secrets or any other anti-Voldemort secrets.

Does anyone actually know if the talking portraits were painted or
otherwise made by humans, or do they just Magically Appear when needed?

Carol wrote in
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/154232>:

<< Some of the female adults are usually referred to as "Madam _____"
(Hooch, Pince, Pomfrey). Madam Rosmerta, perhaps because she's a
bartender rather than a teacher, is called by "Madam" plus her first
name (more friendly and intimate, or less respectful, or both?
Contrast Madam Malkin, the robemaker). >>

I remain convinced that Madam Malkin is a Madam Given-Name example. I
remain convinced that Malkin is an old nickname for Mary, related to
that other old nickname Molly, even tho' dictionaries claim that
Malkin is a nickname for Matilda (still a given name). What I dunno
about is Madam Puddifoot: Puddifoot is not a normal given name, but it
is not a normal surname either.