Fidelius/Alpha/Karkaroff/Wizards&Muggles&Food/Rickman/InvisiCloak/DARK MAGIC

[Catlady (Rita Prince Winston)]

No: HPFGUIDX 161672

Carol wrote in
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/161462>:

<< (Yes, it's possible that he could have seen a note written to
Dumbledore by PP in a disguised hand, but that's a pretty far-fetched
explanation for his knowledge, and JKR would have to find some
roundabout way to bring it into the plot. And why would PP have told
anybody [except LV] when the whole idea was to keep the Potters'
whereabouts secret?) >>

I think James and Lily would want their location to be known to some
people whom they trusted absolutely -- Sirius and probably Dumbledore
and maybe Hagrid, as well as PP -- so that these people could visit
and, well, bring them groceries.

Ceridwen wrote in
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/161521>:

<< It's very possible that Neville, Seamus and Dean have fought it out
amongst themselves for the Not The Boy Who Lived Alpha Male of their
dorm, but Harry, and Ron, who rode shotgun for Harry since SS/PS, are
not involved. >>

It seems to me that Neville is depicted as not wanting to be Alpha, as
wanting not to be Alpha. *waves at Potioncat's
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/161525>*

Nikkalmati wrote in
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/161540>:

<< Why was [Karkaroff] caught and killed by the DEs in England a year
later? Couldn't he have gone back to Durmstrang? >>

At Durmstrang, he would be the opposite of hidden. Being a
high-profile target is okay if you are surrounded by invulnerable
protections (as Dumbledore thought he was at Hogwarts). But if
Durmstrang is really such a hotbed of Dark Magic, it probably contains
Dark Wizards allied with LV who are INSIDE Durmstrang's protections. 

Stacey wrote in
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/161593>:

<< I did a search through the archives for any discussion on this but
couldn't find it. I was wondering if anyone had thought about what
Wizards/ Witches said about their professions when asked by nosy
nieghbors. Although Arthur Weasley works in a department dealing with
Muggle artifacts, he displays very little knowledge of them and one
could imagine he would have a hard time lying his way through an
answer. >>

Some listie once said that Arthur could tell his drinking buddies at
the Muggle pub that he was a minor civil servant with a job too boring
to speak of, and they would believe him without further question.

<< Memory charms? Are they and their houses as "invisible" to Muggles
as the Leaky Cauldron is? >>

No. Is it GoF where Harry and the Weasleys go from The Burrow to
King's Cross in three Muggle taxis? Anyway, Molly walked down to the
village to use the phone in the post office to make a taxi
appointment, but the taxis drove to The Burrow with no wizard
accompanying them. (Why didn't Molly Apparate to the village?)

Here's something that I accidentally found today that I posted in
2003: I imagine that there are some old, old villages where the folk
from the old, old Muggle families 'have always known' that the folk
from the old wizarding families are wizards. I imagine there are some
wizarding folk who associate with their Muggle neighbors while
preserving wizarding secrecy ... the So-and-sos live over there;
they're nice people but kind of weird, they're (artists, or hippies,
or members of a religious cult that rejects technology) so they grow
their own organic food and wear funny clothes and home-school their
kids, but they ALWAYS have the BEST milk and eggs for sale at the
farmers' market, and their kids are great soccer players ...

<< And (admittedly a silly question) how do wizards/witches do their
grocery shopping? I can't imagine they grow/raise all they need >> 

Oh, yes, I've wondered that myself. Are there wizard farms (other than
Agatha Timms's eel farm) and wizard greengrocers and wizard millers
and bakers and wizard butchers and slaughterhouses? There could be
wizard greengrocers who buy their goods from Muggle farmers or from
middlemen at the Central Market (is that Covent Garden for London?) or
even from Muggle greengrocers. If the food starts in the Muggle world
and is diverted to the wizarding economy, do the wizards have opinions
about organic food, chemical pesticides and fertilizers, genetically
modified organisms? If wizards farm and if they've ever heard of
'organic', they would consider their farms entirely organic, as they
would use magic instead of chemicals or genetic engineering or
internal-combustion machines. 

On another tentacle, how much can Transfiguration do? Steve bboyminn
has spoken of Florean Fortescue needing to buy sugar, cocoa, out of
season fruit, and other ingredients for making his ice cream, but I've
always thought it would be more magical if he can just Transfigure a
pail of cream into a gourmet flavored custard, and then freeze it with
a Charm. Hey, how about a pail of dirt? Do animals need to be raised
and slaughtered for all that meat they eat at Hogwarts, or can grain
be Transfigured into steaks and so on? 

<< and going all the way to Diagon Alley for weekly trips would seem
laborious. I'm not sure there's an answer, just wondering if others
have wondered about the more mundane aspects of the WW. >>

It doesn't matter how far the wizard greengrocer's shop is from the
wizard's home: when you can Apparate, or when you're connected to the
Floo Network, 200 miles and two blocks are the same distance away from
you.

rapid_white_wolf wrote in
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/161600>:

<< Perhaps they have a home shopping service, what would be the wizard
equivalent of the internet ;) >>

Oh, there were grocery stores that delivered before there was an
Internet. A customer could phone in an order -- before the telephone
was invented, a customer could send a servant or child with a note. A
customer could come in person to shop and then have her purchases
delivered later that day. A customer could have a standing order every
week. A wizard customer could send an owl.

I've wondered if wizarding delivery service would be by broomstick,
Floo, Apparation, or some other method of travel. By large owl?

Tinktonks wrote in
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/161623>:

<< What intrigues me is that in an interview with Alan Rickman (just
the best guy to play Snape or what) in a film magazine that was so
long ago I cant remember properly, it said that JK Rowling told him
something about Snape's back story that would help him play the role
and understand the man. I have fun hypothesizing what that could be.
Any clues? >>

IIRC that was before GoF was published, so it may simply have been
that Snape was a former Death Eater with the Dark Mark on his arm.
Altho' if she told him that Snape was a former Death Eater, it would
make sense for her to tell him if Snape was still a Death Eater at
heart or loyal to Dumbledore.

zgirnius wrote in
<>http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/161628:

<< Also, James' ownership of an invisibility cloak as a kid is an
indication of his family's wealth. They are supposed to be very rare. >>

Someone floated a theory that Aurors have Invisibility Cloaks, either
issued to then when they finish training, or that they are required to
buy. Moody has one Invisibility Cloak as a former Auror; I believe
Moody's "spare" Cloak to be the one that he was wrapped inside the
box, therefore Barty Sr's, who may very well have been an Auror before
being promoted to head of Department of Magical Law Enforcement. The
other Invisibility Cloak in canon is the one that Harry inherited from
James, and James had inherited it also -- perhaps one of James' recent
ancestors was an Auror, too.

DARK MAGIC

Carol wrote in
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/161513>:

<< What if "Unforgiveable" means something more than a lifetime
sentence to Azkaban (which would hardly serve as a deterrent after a
person has cast one Unforgiveable). >>

You're assuming that law enforcement (DMLE) will always be able to get
evidence of that first Unforgiveable. Maybe the only way to get
evidence other than witness testimony is the Prior Incantato spell,
and maybe Prior Incantato can retrieve only the most recent spell cast
by that wand (not the same as the Prior Incantatem effect). So there
would be a narrow window to collect evidence, only between the most
recent Unforgiveable and the next tap on a teapot to make the water
boil or such. 

Marion Ros wrote in
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/161563>:

<< Isn't Dark Arts/Magic defined not what it does to other people but
what it does to the one who uses it? Perhaps it's addictive.
Seductive. It changes you. It's like a drug. >>

Years ago, some listie suggested that what makes magic Dark is neither
intention or results, but method; that Dark Magic is the older method,
in which the wizard channels the magic power through his/her own body,
later superseded by Light Magic, in which the wizard channels the
magic power through a wand. 

This is a reply to your post because part of the suggestion is that
what makes the old method Dark is that it erodes the wizard from the
inside, gradually taking away his/her ethics, empathy, sanity, and
finally humanity, even animality ... he suggested that the Dark Wizard
might end by turning into a twisted tree.

And that wizards might use the Dark technique the first time because
it is more powerful magic, but continue and continue because it is
addictive.

Betsy Hp wrote in
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/161605>:

<< The weight is on the wizard, not on the magic. There is no
"forbidden" knowledge in JKR's world. >>

Except Horcruxes.

Carol wrote in
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/161633>:

<< We know that Mad-Eye Moody only killed when he had to. We don't
know that he used the AK when he did it, and I doubt that he ever
resorted to Imperio or Crucio. >>

I agree. But is it really more ethical to kill (in self-defense) a
criminal (who is resisting arrest) with a bullet or Accio'ing
something to suffocate him, then to cast Imperius on him and order him
to surrender peaceably and come along?