Resemblances/childbirth/GinevraMolly/Sectumsempra/Portraits/Draco/ThatBook

[Catlady (Rita Prince Winston)]

No: HPFGUIDX 165522

Magpie wrote in
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/164860>: 

<< But Lily Potter's child doesn't look like Tom. He looks like James
and Lily herself. >>

Harry looks like James and Harry looks like young TMR and young TMR
resembles his Muggle father. (And I've always thought that James
resembled Sirius and Severus and Bellatrix, altho' not as much as they
resemble each other. It is canon that all the purebloods are related,
so it makes sense for any purebloods to look similar.)

I suppose it's a bit late for a big reveal that TMR's Muggle father
was actually a halfblood, with a pureblood Witch mother who had been
disowned from the Black family for marrying a Muggle, thus explaining
why her Muggle son resembled so many wizards.

Jocelyn wrote in
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/164867>:

<< Anyway, the point I am making is that even if wizards in the 1920s
had better techniques in assisting childbirth, she didn't have access
to them and it is a process which is inherently dangerous. >>

Years ago, some listie suggested that childbirth is MORE dangerous for
wizarding folk. Because we have been told that wizarding children do
spontaneous magic when frightened or angry, and elsewhere we have been
told that babies are frightened and angry when being squeezed through
the birth canal. So the baby being born could, all unaware, set the
room on fire or split his mother open or something, and there would be
a need for skilled wizarding birth attendants either to immediately
reverse horrible accidental magic or to do special spells to prevent
it. A Muggle woman giving birth to a wizarding child (like Dean
Thomas's mother) would be in the worst situation.

Betsey Hp wrote in
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/164923>:

<< (Ginny has put herself firmly into her mother's camp in HBP, so
I'll assume she tends more towards curvy than lean.) >>

IIRc there are a couple of times in HBP where Harry (or the narrator)
notices that Ginny's face (or facial expression) resembles the Twins,
which I absolutely took as meaning that both her face and her figure
are the short, wide Weasley (Prewett) type rather than the tall,
narrow Weasley type. So I sighed in disappointment that, stacked as
she doubtless is at age 15 and 16 and 17, she'll get almost as fat as
me when they're married.

(Molly Prewett must have been a juicy little bit of all right when she
was dating Arthur at school, and I like to pretend that the Weasley
kids' abilities at Quidditch were inherited from Gryffindor's superb
Seeker, Molly Prewett.)

But it seems to me that the two oldest boys are not slaves of their
family resemblances. On one hand, Bill was Head Boy (good marks) and
Charlie was Quidditch Captain (athletic) and JKR said they were 2
years apart, so it's not that they had to divide the spoils between
them, but JKR makes Harry explicitly notice that Bill is not a pompous
Percy, but 'cool'. He dresses (or bodybuilds or uses cosmetic spells
or something) so that he is a tall, handsome man rather than a
gangling beanpole with too-big feet, and his behavior appears to be
relaxed and self-confident. As for Charlie, while dragon-wrangling is
a very physical job, leaving him with constant ignored burns, I don't
recall any evidence of him being insensitive to other people's
feelings or uninterested in intellectualizing for intellectualizing's
sake. This gives me hope that the other kids will grow up well when
they grow up. 

Va32h wrote in
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/165016>:

<< You know what has always bothered me about Sectumsempra? Why
doesn't Harry know what it does? Or at least have a guess. Most of the
spells they learn are derived from Latin words...I am twenty years out
of my high school Latin class, and I remembered enough to know that
Sectumsempra had something to do with "cutting" and "always". I could
make an educated guess about the effects of the spell. >>

I never took a Latin class, but I know English words like 'sect' and
'dissect' and 'Semper Fidelus', but I thought Sectumsempra was a spell
'for enemies' -- that is, to turn a pair of friends into enemies by
cutting their friendship. 

Steve bboyminn wrote in
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/165031>:

<< Nearly Headless Nick doesn't have to act because he really is HIM.
(snip) That is quite different that a man-made portrait. >>

Because of Dumbledore's portrait in HBP, it occurred to me that the
wizarding portraits might not be man-made at all. There may be spells
on the great institutions (Hogwarts, St. Mungo's, Ministry of Magic)
and old family homes of the [British] wizarding world that respond to
the death of a wizard deeply involved with that institution or family
by instantly generating an animatedly portrait of him/her. 

While some of the non-Headmaster portraits at Hogwarts might be
beloved teachers and matrons and groundskeepers, I suspect most of
them were donated by institutions and families that didn't want them
around. To me, this raises questions about the group of drunken monks.
Did they all die together to be in the same picture? Were they all
members of one family, whose portrait appeared at their family home?
If not, if they were associated with one institution, if it was a
monastery, it would make sense that a monastery wouldn't want these
drunken carousers (who no longer can be punished) around, but that
implies it was a wizarding monastery...

Carol wrote in
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/165049>:

<< turn against Voldemort, not because Draco rejects the pureblood
supremacy ethic but because, as Dumbledore said, he's not a killer.  >>

If Draco's attitude toward murder were like mine toward housework (I
won't do it, instead I'll pay someone else to do it), but he has to
get away from LV because LV will kill him for not murdering, does that
count as turning against LV? 

I think the goal is for him to believe that murder is wrong: people
should not be murdered. In that case, he should want to oppose LV, not
merely avoid LV. 

Someone pointed out in OoP, Dumbledore as leader of the Order was
directing his people to do what was hardest and most painful for them,
with specific examples of Remus hanging with the werewolves, Sirius
hiding in that horrible house, and Severus forced to teach little
first-year dunderheads. Some people's work against Voldemort (work
Sirius would have preferred and been good at) is to fight Voldemort's
soldiers, arresting them, killing them if necessary. Suppose Draco,
not a killer and disapproving killing, finds himself in the situation
that killing a Death Eater in combat is the only way to save himself
and innocent bystanders? 

Steve bboyminn wrote in
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/165292>:

<< This is why Hermione infuriates me so. She knew there were better
formulas, yet doggedly sticks with formulas she knows are bad. >>

I still think young Snape enchanted his book so it would repel all
eyes except his and Lily's. So it repels Hermione emotionally and
repels Ron by being unreadable for him, but Harry has Lily's eyes so
he can read it just fine. Young Snape may not have been aware that the
Charm he cast had a specific allowance for Lily, but only that he
intended 'no one can read my book unless I want them to'.

Further, I suspect young Snape's book was enchanted to make a good
impression on Lily's eyes. (No matter that I hate LOLLIPOPS, it sure
looks like that's where JKR is going.) So the reason that Harry loves
and trusts the Prince as his friend is not because the written notes
show that the Prince has a snarky wit and the same kind of anger that
Harry has, but because the book cast something like a Love Spell on
him. The Half Blood Prince's book was originally going to be in the
same story as Tom Riddle's diary; the diary cast seduction spells on
those who read it; the idea of enchanted books being enchanting would
ooze over both enchanted books in the same story.

<< Even the best students, Hermione and Draco, are just there to
pass the test and move on. They want good grades, but they don't have
the passion to pursue the subject beyond the classroom. >>

And Draco was a bit distracted that year.