Afterlife/Clue/Quirrell/Phoenices/Apparation/RedGreen/Ravenclaw/Voice/Ethics

[Catlady (Rita Prince Winston)]

No: HPFGUIDX 171431

Ann wrote in <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/171077>:

<< But JKR's treatment of religion does leave out some interesting
things. This is a milieu in which souls and the afterlife are maybe
not facts of life, but certainly empirically verifiable in a way that
nothing spiritual in the real world is. No-one in the Wizarding World
can ignore the existence of souls. What's that going to do for
religion? Suppose the facts of life in the Wizarding World contradict
religions? Isn't this something JKR should have mentioned by now?
What's their afterlife like? >>

As Eddie quoted in another context in
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/171104>, 
Sir Nick said in OoP, the wizarding folk don't know any better than
Muggles what the afterlife is like:
'He will not come back,' repeated Nick. 'He will have . . . gone on.'
    'What d'you mean, "gone on"?' said Harry quickly. 'Gone on where?
Listen — what happens when you die, anyway? Where do you go? Why
doesn't everyone come back? Why isn't this place full of ghosts? 
Why — ?'
    'I cannot answer,' said Nick.
    'You're dead, aren't you?' said Harry exasperatedly. 'Who can
answer better than you?'
    'I was afraid of death,' said Nick softly. 'I chose to remain
behind. I sometimes wonder whether I oughtn't to have . . . well, that
is neither here nor there . . . in fact, I am neither here nor there .
. ' He gave a small sad chuckle. 'I know nothing of the secrets of
death, Harry, for I chose my feeble imitation of life instead. I
believe learned wizards study the matter in the Department of
Mysteries — '

For all the ghosts know, if they'd gone on, on the other side of the
'door' is extinction and oblivion. Or eternal torture in Hell. There's
a reason why Nick was scared to go on -- altho' I can't see Myrtle as
motivated by fear. More by vengefulness.

Clara wrote in
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/171083>:

<< I think that all the way back in Book 1, JKR was pointing out to
us that Snape, apparently responsible for the potion bottle test,
might not actually be the Pure-blood Slytherin everyone thought him
to be. (Did anyone pick up that clue?) >>

The clue that the logic puzzle was written on paper rather than
parchment? I didn't pick it up, but long-ago listies did and argued
whether it was a JKR mistake or a Snape insult to the contestant,
calling him/her a Muggle by writing on a Muggle material.

Constance Vigilance wrote in
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/171096>:

<< I firmly believe that Quirrell attended Durmstrang and met Victor
Krum there.  >>

Quirrell, already a teacher in 1991, must be a good bit older than
Krum. I imagine Krum would have been a first-year when Quirrell was a
last-year student. What kind of relationship do you think they formed
over such a large age difference?

Allie wrote in
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/171110>:

<< Hi everyone, I'm Allie and I'm a student from New York, USA. This
is my first message to this group, so please be gentle! >>

Hi, Allie, welcome to HPfGU and please don't feel attacked that I
nitpick your essay. One thing about writing a long and detailed essay
like yours is there isn't much to reply except 'Interesting!' or nitpicks.

<< A patronus represents a person's inner personality traits in the
form of an animal. >>

As Carol mentioned in
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/171270>: 
<< although JKR herself has muddied the waters, I think that a
Patronus, which she describes as a spirit guardian, differs from an
Animagus form, which clearly represents personal characteristics. >>

JKR especially muddied the waters by using her own desired Animagus
form, an Otter, as Hermione's Patronus (Which could be read as JKR is
what protects Hermione). 

But one can't analyze DD's inner personality by knowing what his
Patronus is. However, your analysis of DD's inner personality may be
quite correct anyway: when listies speculate what DD's Animagus form
is, the usual suggestions are a bumblebee (because it's his name), a
wasp (specifically the one buzzing in the Divination room before Harry
dozed off into his 'dream' of LV), or a phoenix (because it fits his
nature). Mind you, I don't know if Animagi can become a magical
animal, or only a natural animal.

<< I wonder 
 is there any way that a phoenix can be killed? In my
view, if a phoenix could be killed, Voldemort would prevail. >>

As far as I know, in mythology there is only one Phoenix, and it is
eternal, as least as eternal as the Sun. It seems Potterverse
phoenices are a more natural species of animals. It seems there are
multiple phoenices in the Potterverse -- perhaps a whole species,
which pairs off to reproduce by laying eggs, in addition to renewing
individual lives by burning up. In that case, maybe they can't be
killed, but they would have to be able to die, or else the world would
become completely overrun by phoenices. Maybe their last couple of
burnings renew them only to middle-age rather than to youth, and
finally they die in their sleep, or burn up and the egg in the ashes
never hatches.

Carol wrote in
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/171132>:

<< And how the heck did [Bellatrix] follow Narcissa when she didn't
know where Narcissa was going? >>

I seem to recall that wizards can Apparate to a place they've never
been, by visualizing it very well in their heads. It seems that the
Death Eaters, summoned by their Dark Marks, can Apparate to 'where the
Dark Lord is', without knowing where that is. Maybe Bella can Apparate
to 'where Cissy is'. Maybe Apparation leaves temporary tracks in the
ether, or whatever medium it is that they squeeze through.

Jr_Pumpkin wrote in
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/171160>:

<< Did anyone else notice that Godric has red hair and green eyes? >> 

It's starting to look like she's going to make ALL the Founders
red-haired with green eyes.

<< hmmmmmm....Lily-like? Come to think of it, wasn't Dumbledore a red
head too? >>

Yes, and I would like him to have been Lily's great-great-grandfather.
I would like for him to be Lily's great-great-grandfather, altho' one
'great' is also possible. Lily was born in 1960 according to the
Lexicon or 1957 according to me. I also was born in 1957, my late
mother was born in 1927, IIRC my late grandmother was born in 1897,
and the pattern suggests that my great-grandmother was born in 1867.
Dumbledore, born 1840, was around 26-27 when Lily's great-grandparent
was born, and around 56-57 when Lily's grandparent was born.

However, if he was Harry's great-great-great-grandfather, then he lied
when he said the Dursleys were the only relatives Harry had left. He
might have lied if his plan to use the Prophecy Boy as a weapon
depended either on him growing up completely ignorant of the wizarding
world, or growing up in unpleasantness, or both.

Constance Vigilance wrote in
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/171174>:

<< I think it is significant that JKR has shown us only three founders
before book publication. Perhaps the Ravenclaw artifact is the most
important one. She has said somewhere that Ravenclaws, whose house has
been sort of ignored in canon, to have their day. Luna and Ernie
MacMillan to be the heroes of Book 7? >>

Nitpick: Ernie MacMillan is a Hufflepuff. Do you mean Terry Boot?

Wrrex1 wrote in
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/171211>:

<< Sometimes, "The voice" impresses me as coming from his mother,
other times I'd swear I hear Dumbledore or Peter or even Voldemort in
there, giving Harry courage, or solutions to the problem at hand. >>

I make a big deal about the voice coming from  his mother (especially
in the scene you mentioned, of resisting the Imperius) because I
believe that he could not have grown up to be such a good kid, the way
the Dursleys treated him, unless there was some other adult to guide
and comfort him, and canon doesn't provide any other adult, except
Lily in his head, to tell him he's loved and a good person and to tell
him how good people behave.

But my theory is weakened by some instances in which canon says a
voice in Harry's head told him something and to me it sounds more like
something Harry thought of, all on his own.

Lizzyben wrote in
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/171363>:

<< Deontological moral systems (snip) Teleological moral systems
(snip) These are totally oppositional ethical pardigms >>

How can they be totally opposite to each other when both are totally
opposite to Voldemort's statement that 'there is no good or evil, only
power and those too weak to use it'?