D-G duel/House Elves/Krum/Sirius-Gryffindor/Slytherin/Shadow/Snape/Marietta

[Catlady (Rita Prince Winston)]

No: HPFGUIDX 175773

Carol wrote in
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/174545>:

<< I agree with this interpretation except for one thing. I think that
Dumbledore surprised Grindelwald, who was expecting fancy, powerful
spells, by using Expelliarmus. >>

Elphias Doge's obituary of DD: "They say, still, that no wizarding
duel ever matched that between Dumbledore and Grindelwald in 1945.
Those who witnessed it have written of the terror and the awe they
felt as they watched these two extraordinary wizards do battle."

My own idea as to how DD could defeat the wizard with the unbeatable
wand is: he cheated. I'm not sure how he could cheat: if the
Deathstick doesn't bother to defend against spells it considers
harmless and non-combat, could DD have figured out how to use such a
spell in combat? Vanishing the earth out from under GG's feet so that
GG fell down a hole? Flinging a potted Devil's Snare at him?

houyhnhnm wrote in
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/174611>:

<< They're not meant to represent human slavery in the real world.
They want to be owned. They will serve a mean master grudgingly, but a
kind one with devotion. They're dogs. Bipedal, English-speaking dogs.
That's how we're supposed to see them. >> 

This is a forbidden "I agree" post.

<< S.P.E.W. = S.P.C.A. >>

If only Hermione had understood what House Elves want, that's what it
should have been: a Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to House
Elves rather than a House Elf Liberation Front.

Carol wrote in
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/174888>:

<< (BTW, I've always wondered how Krum could already be eighteen in
August and yet still be in school.) >>

Of course it is possible that Durmstrang has a different system than
Hogwarts, in which perhaps students don't start when they're 11, and
perhaps don't leave until they're 20 years old ... I prefer to think
that Durmstrang students also normally leave after their 17/18 yo
year, but when Krum was invited to the National Team, he arranged to
go to school half-time for twice as many years in order to have time
to train and compete with the Team.

Carol wrote in
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/175072>:

<< Sirius chose to be in Gryffindor to be with his new friend, James,
who hated Slytherin. >>

I thought Sirius had already chosen to be in Gryffindor (or, as Alla
said, 'not Slytherin') to spite his parents before, he even met James.

Carol wrote in
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/175202>:

<< Can you cite some canon to support this view of Sirius at age
eleven (not as a teenager whose bedroom is decorated to emphasize his
differences with his family)? I don't see anything except his surprise
at James's antipathy to the House that his family has always been
Sorted into, his curiosity regarding the House James would prefer, >>

I don't read "Sirius did not smile. 'My whole family have been in
Slytherin,' he said" as surprise that James disliked Slytherin. I read
it -- perhaps wrongly -- as that he already knew that some wizards
hate Slytherins and he was concerned lest James would hate him because
he was related to Slytherins. "'Blimey,' said James. 'And I thought
you seemed all right!'" was James not holding his relatives against him.

Neri wrote in
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/175311>:

<< The WW in general doesn't think like Hagrid [that "There's not a
single witch or wizard who went bad who wasn't in Slytherin"], or
obviously they would have abolished the house a long time ago. >>

You awoke one of my hobbyhorses: I feel certain that wizarding society
in the wizarding world believes that Dark and Light (what Light
wizards call 'evil' and 'good') are a personal choice. Like the
history of Western Europe contains a couple of centuries of different
flavors of Christians fighting wars and burning each other at the
stake, but now days they view religion as a personal choice. A person
who believes that everyone except members of his own little
denomination will go to Hell might blog about it, pass out leaflets,
preach on a street corner, complain to his intimates that all other
denominations are deceiving people into Hell, but if he urged the
local school board to replace the comparative religions classes with
mandatory assemblies at which speakers would assure all the students
that they will go to Hell unless they join this particular little
denomination, everyone would think he was just another loonie.

I think the wizarding world is like that: wizards who are committed to
the Light may complain about evil people, evil doers, children being
indoctrinated into their parents' evil, and wizards who are committed
to the Dark may complain about prissy little goody-two-shoes prigs who
want to control how everyone else lives their lives, but they would
block most of each others' attempts to get Hogwarts or the Ministry on
one side or the other.

Lizzyben wrote in
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/175736>:

<< The shadow isn't bad, it's just what you think you shouldn't be. >>

If the Shadow was never bad, it wouldn't be so difficult to deal with.
All the parts of a person that they refuse to admit are parts of
themselves -- I suppose a big one in USA culture would be feeling
tempted to steal money or to get money by defrauding people. Feeling
urges to murder people for being annoying. (I confess to having felt a
strong desire to kill a certain crying, screaming baby on a long bus
ride.)

Adam(Prep0strus) wrote in
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/175737>:

<< I think we should see better treatment of Hermione, who is surely
skilled in potions, >>

I always thought that. When DH revealed Snape's insides, I was quite
shocked to find that he really had been an anti-Muggleborn-ist
blood-ist, because that bigotry is so illogical and contrary to
empirical evidence that I thought Snape, who is surely very
intelligent, wouldn't be stupid enough to believe it. But at least it
*explained* why he had always been so against Hermione, who started
the first class desperate to make a good impression on him, and always
listened to him in class and studied extra.

Adam(Prep0strus) wrote in
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/175772>:

<< In RL, I think Snape would be having more parent-teacher
conferences, mediated by the headmaster, than I think he'd be willing
to put up with. >>

The wizarding world is an old-fashioned place, which probably hasn't
discovered parent-teacher conferences yet. Wizarding parents probably
respond to their children's complaints like my parents' generation or
my grandparents' generation did. Parents: either "It's a bad situation
but you just have to tough it out, because there is nothing we can do
about it" or "don't be so oversensitive". Grandparents: "Children are
supposed to respect their teachers ... if you respected him as you
should, you wouldn't even notice that [he came to class drunk --
that's from something my Babba said to me, not that I think Snape
drinks to excess]."

Lizzyben quoted in
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/175742>:

<< Louie: Did Marietta's pimply formation ever fade?
J.K. Rowling: Eventually, but it left a few scars. I loathe a traitor! >>

She loathes traitors ... except for Snape betraying his Death Eater
friends, and Dobby betraying his Malfoy masters, and Tonks &
Shacklebolt in OoP betraying their duty as Aurors to catch the escaped
prisoner Sirius Black ...