Hogwarts plumbing/End of Book 7/The Problem of Evil/Hippogriff/Annoying TWT

[Catlady (Rita Prince Winston)]

No: HPFGUIDX 164034

Anne Squires wrote in
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/163861>:

<< Given the history of the "modern toilet" I do not believe that
Salazar Slytherin, wizard or no, had anything to do with the
construction of a girls' bathroom. As I stated in my previous post,
Hogwarts must have undergone a renovation at some point to have
bathrooms and accompanying piping installed. >>

I always say, in the Potterverse, the wizarding folk had indoor
plumbing with hot and cold running water and flush toilets ever since
Atlantis. (I don't really believe in Atlantis, but I don't really
believe in wizards either, and wizards exist in the Potter verse, so
Atlantis can exist there, too.) All the various Muggles who 'invented'
indoor plumbing (Minoans, Romans, 18th century, etc) were really
trying to copy what they had seen when a guest in a wizarding home. 

The wizards didn't need to know any plumbing, hydraulics, metallurgy,
stonecarving, or architecture because they made their bathrooms and
castles by MAGIC! However, Muggles who visted wizards and saw the nice
things the wizards had, had to invent all that technology in order to
imitate the wizarding goodies.

The problem I have is that I think the pipes in the walls must have
been designed as basilisk highways, never designed as part of the
plumbing system. Because wizards would think it easier for the
materials (water in, sewage out) transported by the plumbing to be
teleported, like travellers in the Floo Network, or the Knight Bus
jumping from Wales to Scotland to Cornwall.

<< According to a website called The History of Plumbing - Roman and
English Legacy http://www.theplumber.com/eng.html the first toilet
ever built on English soil was constructed by Sir John Harington for
his godmother, Queen Elizabeth I, in 1596 and installed for her use
in Richmond Palace. >>

That is news to me, and I suppose that Sir John Harington had visited
a wizarding house.

Julia Wilkes wrote in
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/163915>:

<< And I hope Harry doesn't die, that would be a shame and would
firmly close the book series. Which I have always hoped that maybe in
5 or 10 years JKR would break down and write another book. Like the
aftermath of a deadly fight. I would love to have it end with the
fight between LV and Harry with them both lying on the ground and just
as the movie goes to black out you see Harry move his hand or
something. >>

In <http://www.accio-quote.org/articles/2001/1201-bbc-hpandme.htm>,

JKR said: << But this is the Final Chapter of book seven. Um ...
[laughs] which I'm still dubious about showing you, I don't know what
I feel like, the camera's gonna be able to see through the folder. So
this is it, and I'm not opening it for obvious reasons. This is really
where I wrap everything up, it's the Epilogue, and I basically say
what happens to everyone after they leave school -- those who survive,
because there are deaths, more deaths, coming. >>

<http://www.accio-quote.org/articles/2005/0705-edinburgh-ITVcubreporters.htm>
says:

<< Vhari Leishman for Bloomsbury.com - I was wondering at the end of
the seventh book would we get into a glimpse of Harry and Hermione
post-Voldemort lives, in an epilogue or accompanying book (assuming
they live through the book 7)?

JK Rowling: That is very good that, is assuming that anyone survives,
I may kill the whole lot ­ not really, don't write me letters. There
is already a chapter written in which you find out about the survivors
post Hogwarts fates, so, I will have to re­write it when I get there,
because that was written years ago and it wasn't really written on the
assumption that I would use it as it is written in the hooks, it is
really an act of faith, it was me saying to myself "I will get here
and this information is the end point and that is where I'm trying to
get to. So yes, there will be. >>

Betsy Hp wrote in
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/163921>:

<< That so many readers think Dumbledore *wanted* Harry to go
through the trap door in PS/SS proves my point. There's no way to
explain a Dumbledore willing to put a child to that sort of risk
without allowing for a certain amount of monstrosity in his
character. But that version of the events in PS/SS, Harry's version,
still stands. JKR needs to shoot it down. IMO, anyway. >>

Many readers perceive that many of Harry's experiences were set-ups,
and some think it was Dumbledore who set them up. In general, I think
it was Rowling who set them up, and some of the Puppetmaster!DD folks
disagree with me by saying that Rowling is too good a writer to allow
her authorial hand to be so clearly seen manipulating the characters.

But actually it was that word 'monstrosity' that bit me. It's that old
Problem of Evil again. If DD set it up, he has a monstrous streak. If
the author set it up, she's cruel to the characters. *She* knows
Harry's life will not be lost in the trapdoor quest, but she has
already killed his parents and subjected him to those Dursleys. And if
we view Real Life, its Author has supplied Famine, Pestilence,
Tsunami, schizophrenia, and heartbreak (just as examples). 

Pippin wrote in
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/163973>:

<< Do we really think a man can outrun a hippogriff? >>

Hippogriffs were designed for flying. I doubt those eagle front claws
of theirs are good for running on.

Magda wrote in
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/164015>:

<< 1. The entire set-up of the Triwizard Tournament in GOF. Why can't
the champions and their headmasters simply apparate or portkey to
Hogwarts a few times a year rather than stay on the property for
months and months? Why have a team of judges made up of the very
headmasters whose students are competing (plus one nutty former
bureaucrat)? How exactly is international co-operation being
promoted or enhanced here? >>

International Magical Co-Operation *would* be being promoted if the
visiting students (Champions and would-be Champions) were eating their
meals and taking their classes with the already existing classes at
the host school -- then kids who were taking classes together would
have that chance to get to know each other and maybe become friends --
like Muggle exchange students. So I share your annoyance that JKR has
them taking their classes and eating their meals, as well as sleeping,
isolated in their ship and carriage. 

As the visiting Headmasters are the only teachers with the visiting
students, I assume the Headmasters are teaching all their classes, so
the visiting students miss out on the specialist knowledge of the
specialist teachers at their school. It would be better for them to
take classes from the specialist teachers at the host school.

I don't have a problem with how can Durmstrang and Beauxton get along
for almost a year without most of their Sixth Form students, but I do
have a problem with them getting along for almost a year without their
Headmasters -- isn't letting it be known that their Deputies are
*that* good a grave risk to their job security?