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[Catlady (Rita Prince Winston)]

No: HPFGUIDX 174533

Donna wrote in
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/173629>:

<< I get the distinct impression that the creature under the bench
(whether literally or metaphorically speaking) is the fate of that
last piece of soul in LV as well (snip) Dumbledore warned Voldy as
well, "...your failure to understand that there are things much worse
than death has always been your greatest weakness." (OOP pg 814) >>

The creature under the bench being LV's fate after death is a good
reason for him to think death is a worst thing. Carol said it better
in <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/174001>:

<< If, like Harry, he has crossed over into the afterlife without
being dead, he has not had a pleasant, edifying experience. His brief
exposure to his future as a mangled fetus beyond help or hope or
redemption, condemned to suffer eternally, would merely confirm his
view that death is to be feared and avoided at all costs. >>

Carol wrote in
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/173646>:

<< Lupin wants to protect Tonks knowing that marrying him will subject
her to great danger, but succumbs to peer pressure, quietly marries
her, >>

It's possible that the real reason why Remus didn't want to marry
Tonks was that he didn't love her (except maybe to love her like a
sister or like a daughter) and/or that he really didn't enjoy
prolonged doses of her companionship. Other than the clumsiness, she
didn't seem too tedious or annoying to me in OoP, but maybe if OoP had
shown more of her conversations with the Trio, we'd have discovered
that she spends hour upon hour praising her favorite wizarding bands,
giving her opinion of several small variations in the wand motion for
the Stunning Spell, or something else I get tired of very quickly.
Yes, it was weak to submit to peer pressure to marry someone he didn't
want to live with, but it was kindly to not want to tell her those
real reasons.

<< and brilliantly gets her pregnant (probably yielding to her
persuasion). >>

I have met women who wanted a baby even tho' their husband or
boyfriend didn't, who stopped taking the Pill but claimed they still
were taking it, and then were surprised that the man didn't share
their joy at announcing the pregnancy.

Shagufta wrote in
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/173739>:

<< Nevill Longbottom
Hat: Hmm..lots of potential but no self confidence, maybe i should
put you in Hufflepuff, they'll be kind to you
Nevill: My parents were in Gryfindor. if I'm not there my Gran will
kill me
Hat: Gryffindor...you might have a tough time there..
Nevill: Oh please put me in Gryfindor..
Hat..well if you insist... >>

I've always envisioned it pretty much the opposite:
Neville: I'll be Sorted into Hufflepuff.
Hat: Why not Gryffindor?
Neville: Because I'm almost a Squib and I'm not good at anything.
Hat: You have plenty of courage.
Neville: No I don't. I don't deserve to be in Gryffindor.
Hat: You're brave enough to argue with a powerful magical artifact
like me. That's brave enough for GRYFFINDOR!

The conversation would be a bit longer than either of us summarized
it, as PS/SS says that the Hat took a long time to Sort Neville. PS/SS
also said that the Hat took almost a whole minute to Sort Seamus, and
I was kind of expecting that eventually we'd find out what that was
about ... maybe the Hat had to decide between Gryffindor and
Hufflepuff, considering his distrust of Harry just because his mum and
the Daily Prophet said so to be an example of group loyalty...

Jim Ferer wrote in
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/173746>:

<< I'm very curious about JKR's future. Somehow I just can't imagine
much more major work from her - I blame the "you can't go back to
Woodstock" effect for that, and everything she ever did again would be
unfairly compared to Harry and found wanting by too many people. >>

I have long assumed that she'll write at least one novel under a
pseudonym, to make sure that any success it has is due to its own
merits rather than her famous name.

montims wrote in
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/173771>:

<< taking slight issue with the phrase above: "she didn't want to give
away that people live on after death, as in Heaven" - I'm not
convinced that JKR is referencing a heaven at all. I suppose one is
entitled to ask where she feels dead people go (or not, if they are
scared, like Sir Nick), (snip) I can also envisage them being
reincarnated, when they are ready to use the lessons learned in
their earlier life/lives. >>

I suppose I have a simplistic and mechanical idea of reincarnation,
but I don't see how reincarnation can co-exist with calling back the
souls of the dead -- does the person they reincarnated as go into a
coma when its soul flies off to the necromancer?

montims wrote in
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/173797>:

<< but the Slytherins don't hate each other, and I don't imagine the
Hufflepuffs hate them all that much. >>

I always thought it was the Ravenclaws, rather than the Hufflepuffs,
who don't hate the Slytherins all that much. I think Hufflepuffs are
about fairness (Cedric wanting to replay the match), hard work
('unafraid of toil'), and group loyalty. And maybe a little bit about
obeying the rules. So I think they would feel specific distaste for
Slytherin traits of using 'cunning', connections, or cheating instead
of hard work to achieve their goals. 

Eggplant wrote in
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/173832>:

<< And now I sign this post with my full name for the first time:
Eggplant Gellert Grindelwald >>

My jaw dropped at that. Could you have had inside information of
Grindelwald's first name's initial when you chose the name
E.G.G.plant? I don't know that JKR had even chosen his given name yet.

If you aren't really Gellert Grindelwald, why do you admire him? And
if you are really Gellert Grindelwald, why do you admire Harry? 

Matt wrote in
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/173864>:

<< I think, for instance that the fiendfyre is intended to allude
among other things to the use of incendiaries in Vietnam  >>

If it's intended to allude to the use of incendiaries in war, the
firebombings of Dresden and Tokyo would be more pointed allusions than
Vietnam.

Milz wrote in
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/173955>:

<< That led them to believe that there is a genetic link between some
forms of mental illness and that depending on how the gene was
expressed in a person, it could mean the difference between life-long
institutionalization and a MENSA membership.  >>

A MENSA membership indicates only high IQ. High IQ is a very nice
thing, associated with high ability at schoolwork and bookishness. But
I think even extremely high IQ is not enough to be a genius -- to me
the word indicates exceptionally creative and original excellent
ideas. As it's possible to be a genius painter or violinist or
clockwork maker, not just a genius mathematician or scientist, I don't
know that a genius even *has* to have a high IQ.

I am aware of one theory that artistic (literary, visual arts,
whatever) genius can be related to bipolar disorder. Because the
talented person in the depressed phase observes the world passively
but in detail, and in the manic (actually the hypomanic) phase has
immense energy to write or paint or compose the art work based on
those observations. The article mentioned a number of artistic
geniuses who had committed suicide, and a number of relatives of
artistic people who had been institutionalized with bipolar disorder.

I suppose that the creativity and originality might be associated with
some hallucinatory or delusional disorder, fortunately turned to
inventing scientific theories or novel plots rather than to inventing
paranoid conspiracy theories.

Magpie wrote in
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/174004>:

<< the other houses are all Sorted for virtues...and Slytherin isn't.
I don't think "cunning" or "ambition" have ever been really considered
virtues >>

Would you feel better if the Sorting Hat had spoken of Resourcefulness
and Ingenuity instead of Cunning?

<< the way courage, wisdom and loyalty have been. >>

The Sorting Hat once called Ravenclaw House 'wise old Ravenclaw", but
its characteristic is high IQ and perhaps also bookishness, *not*
wisdom. American Heritage Dictionary at
<http://www.bartleby.com/61/65/W0186500.html> says 'wisdom' is '1. The
ability to discern or judge what is true, right, or lasting; insight.
2. Common sense; good judgment: "It is a characteristic of wisdom not
to do desperate things" (Henry David Thoreau).' Surely that trait
comes more from experience than from high IQ. Bookishness is one way
of learning from other people's experiences, but empathy is an even
better way...

Chuck wrote in
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/174098>:

<< So it seems to me that Bellatrix is capable of love (or something
close to it), but it's a one-way street which doesn't exclude
Voldemort of taking what he feels is rightfully his from their
relationship. >>

I personally believe that Voldemort lost his sexual desires and sexual
organs (along with his nose) when he turned into a red-eyed snake-man.

Katie wrote in
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/174396>:

<< One thing we kept discussing was that if disarming someone was
enough to gain control of their wand...then no one in the Dueling
Club or the D.A. owned their own wand anymore! >>

The Deathstick passes to a new owner when the new owner defeats the
old owner, but I don't think canon says that that applies to other
wands. With ordinary wands, the wand works better for a wizard whose
magic is tuned to the same frequency as the wand's magic is, and works
better for a wizard the longer the wizard keeps using it, but ordinary
wands can be handed down (Ron starting school with Charlie's old wand,
which was so worn that it may have been Grandpa's old wand before it
was Charlie's) or resold ('broken wands' were one of the items
mentioned in the junk shop in CoS where Percy was found reading
Prefects Who Gained Power) or stolen (Harry stealing Draco's wand).

Leah wrote in
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/174412>:

<< I'm not desperately happy about Snape having to AK Dumbledore, and
neither was Snape. (snip) DD then suggests to Snape that his soul may
not be split if he kills DD with the intention of putting him out of
his misery- it is euthanasia in effect. >>

I read that as Dumbledore not much caring whether Snape's soul was
ripped and using words to guilt-trip Snape into doing it anyway.

Victoria wrote in
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/174529>:

<< how Marvolo Gaunt could have inherited the ring with the
resurrection stone. Cadmus Peverell is supposed to have lived alone.
He used the resurrection stone to call back the girl he had once hoped
to marry before her untimely death. Did he have children with another
woman? >>

I had the same question, but then I thought he might have married
another girl a few years after the one he loved died, and fathered a
child before the marriage collapsed due to his lack of love for his
live wife.