comments on Two Weeks of Posts

[Catlady (Rita Prince Winston)]

No: HPFGUIDX 159714

Dillgravy wrote in
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/158945>:

<< I was hoping to start a discussion on Dementors and their possible
origins. Do we know how they came to be? Were they ever human? They
aren't "beasts" because they're not mentioned in the "Fantastic Beasts
and Where to Find Them".>>

It has been suggested that Lethifolds
<http://www.hp-lexicon.org/bestiary/bestiary_l.html#lethifold> are
juvenile Dementors. Because both are dispelled by Patronus, and
because the lethifold looks like a black cloak and the dementor looks
like it's wearing a black cloak.

Potioncat wrote in
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/158989>:

<< The funny thing is, Sirius says Karkaroff put lots of DEs in prison
and they were very mad at him. Yet we didn't see that in the Pensieve.
He only came up with one new name. So--is Sirius wrong? Did someone
else name names that Karkaroff was credited/blamed for? >>

IIRC the one new name mentioned by Karkaroff was Rookwood, who was in
the Department of Mysteries, and Rookwood was the spymaster using Ludo
Bagman. Maybe Rookwood was running a *lot* of spies, who blamed
Karkaroff for Rookwood's files being seized. 

On another tentacle, IIRC Sirius said that lots of DEs in prison were
screaming against Pettrigrew for getting their Master de-corporated,
and that has never made any sense to me -- if all the DEs knew that
Pettigrew was the traitor, why didn't Snape know? (Or if Snape knew,
then he knew that Sirius wasn't the traitor, so he was willing to turn
over an innocent man to the Dementor's Kiss.)

Listies offered some other possibilities. One was that the DEs were
shouting against 'WOrmtail', not 'Pettigrew'; they knew only the code
name, not the real name or the face, and Snape thought 'Wormtail' was
Sirius. 

Another was that it was only Bellatrix and maybe a couple of other
inner-circle DEs who knew about the traitor; their cries were
magnified in Sirius's head to the noise of a crowd; Snape was not one
of that inner circle. This possibility offers that only one DE in
Azkaban was screaming against Karkaroff -- Rookwood himself, and
Sirius multiplied it in his head.

Laurawkids wrote in
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/159028>:

<< How about Snape being an animagus as a Thestral? The same batty
clues can still support the Thestrals' huge bat-like wings, "...vast,
black leathery wings that looked as though they ought to belong to
giant bats." OotP >>

Someone used the same evidence to 'prove' that Snape's animagus form
is a Hebridean Black Dragon. In which case, Snape in the tunnel or
even in the Shrieking Shack could not have saved himself from the
werewolf by taking animal form, as a dragon is too big to fit in the
tunnel or the shack.

I don't know if the Animagus spell can turn people into magical beasts
or is it limited to normal beasts.

<< There is no listing for Thestrals in Fantastic Beasts, is the
ommision telling? >>

As someone posted, the Thestrals *are* in FABULOUS BEASTS under
"Winged Horses", altho' the description of black winged horses who are
sometimes invisible didn't mention the reptilian faces, skeletal
(bodies? then how to sit on them?), fangs, or relationship with death.

Katssirius wrote in
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/159044>:

<< like the Wizard Baruffio they may end up on the floor with a
Buffalo on their chest. He says that a s replaced an f. I do not get
it. Can someone help me. What did the Wizard really want to happen? >>

That would be so much easier to spin if the F replaced an S. Accio
Buffalo instead of Accio Bussalo, with only the need to figure out
what Bussalo is. 

The thing that landed on his chest might have been a Water Buffalo
(Bubalus bubalis) or an American Bison (Bison bison). but both are in
the cow family, Bovidae, from Latin word for 'cow', Bos. Maybe he said
Accio Bos when he meant Accio Bof. Maybe it's more closely related to
levitating a feather with Wingardium Leviosa -- he meant to levitate a
toad with Bufium Leviosa but instead said Busium Leviosa (of which I
would never have thought if not for some long-ago post explaining why
'wingardium' is Wizardish for 'feather'.)

Laurawkids wrote in
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/159058>:

<< If PP had not been saved by Harry, would there have even been
someone who would cut off his hand for LV?! >>

Barty Crouch was loyal enough and Bellatrix was loyal enough. I don't
know about the Lestrange brothers -- loyal enough or merely under
Bella's control. If LV had known that young Crouch was in old Crouch's
house, he could have sent Quirrell to free young Crouch rather than to
chase the Philosopher's Stone. But he didn't know until he
interrogated poor Bertha.

Aussie Hagrid wrote in
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/159062>:

<< We found out in OOTP that Sirius had a nice safe hiding place in
Grimauld Place. Did he go there straight after leaving Harry in POA?
SB sent messages to Harry , not with owls, but with tropical birds.
(personally, I hoped they came from Australia to forshadow a DADA
teacher that wrestled Crocodiles) But in light of OOTP, I am wondering
if that was a decoy. >>

Accio Quote led me to the desired JKR interview:
<http://www.accio-quote.org/articles/2000/0200-scholastic-chat.htm>
<<Q.  Where did Sirius Black and Buckbeack go after they went into hiding?
A. Somewhere nice and warm! >>

That allows Australia or the Canary Islands, altho' my preference is a
Caribbean island. It rules out London.

Tonks_op wrote in
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/159074>:

<< I think we are going to see the "other ways to destroy a man". When
I heard that phrase, I assumed some horrible method know to Wizards
and Muggles alike, >>

Well, one method is well known both to wizards and to readers of the
Potter ouevre: the Dementor's Kiss.

Tonks_op wrote in
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/159192>:

<< And are there no male veela? I guess common sense would be that
there must be to continue the race, but we never hear about them, do
we? >>

As someone posted, the 'real' veela (the ones that real humans in the
real world have folktales about) start as the ghosts of girls who die
unmarried. I doubt that's the origin of Potterverse veela, but they
*might* grow on trees. 

They might reproduce parthenogenically -- there are real world species
of lizards who do that -- the whole species is genetically identical
because it started with one female lizard who mutantly produced eggs
with a full set of chromosomes, no need to get any chromosomes from a
sperm. The magic would be that Veela, unlike those lizards, can ALSO
reproduce sexually. In which case, a full Veela was produced
parthenogenically; a half-Veela was fathered by a male from an
interfertile magical humanoid species, such as human, goblin, troll.
Some listies suggested that all Veela offspring are fathered by
(humans or whatever), with the daughters being Veela and the sons
being half-Veela.

Carol wrote in
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/159451>:

<< But if that's the case, how could Fleur be *part* Veela? If her
"grandmuzzer" was a Veela who married a human man, then she and her
mother would (and little Gabrielle) also be full-blood Veelas. >>

LIke Maria
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/159460>, I assume
that Fleur's Veela ancestor was her paternal grandmother, so that her
father was half-veela. We saw Fleur's mother and little Gabrielle come
to see Fleur before the third task and there was no mention of Fleur's
mother being exceptionally handsome for her age.

Allie summarized Chapater 22 in
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/159314>:

<<6.How much of the effect of Felix Felicis do you think is placebo?>>

I think Rowling meant for the Felix Felicis potion to be a mere
placebo that only gives Harry confidence, not abilities. Because of
the conversation the Trio has about it: <<"It's a great feeling when
you take it," said Ron reminiscently. "Like you can't do anything
wrong." "What are you talking about?" said Hermione, laughing. "You've
never taken any!""Yeah, but I thought I had, didn't I?" said Ron, as
though explaining the obvious. "Same difference really ..." >>

But the description of Harry' experience sounds like FF potion really
is magic, something akin to Divination but more reliable: <<Why he
knew that going to Hagrid's was the right thing to do, he had no idea.
It was as though the potion was illuminating a few steps of the path
at a time. (snip) It was when he reached the bottom step that it
occurred to him how very pleasant it would be to pass the vegetable
patch on his walk to Hagrid's. It was not strictly on the way, but it
seemed clear to Harry that this was a whim on which he should act,
(snip) Seized with an immediate desire to reveal himself, Harry pulled
off the cloak with a flourish.>> and so on.

<< 8. Harry thinks how upset Hermione would be by Slughorn making a
house-elf taste wine that could be poisoned. Are we EVER going to see
something come of Hermione's obsession with house-elves? >>

Would the House Elf have been killed/sickened by the poison, or just
detected it by taste?