HG-HBP/LegalSystems/Co-Creator(3)/Sandwich/Bed(2)/CHAPDISC(2)/Free HE/Regulus

[Catlady (Rita Prince Winston)]

No: HPFGUIDX 178838

Delwyn March wrote in
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/178598>:

<< This was totally out of character, IMO. Even if she were in the
deepest throes of jealousy, Hermione Granger would still want to know
why and how the Prince's recipes work better than the original ones.
She just couldn't help it. No way, no how. Her curiosity would take
the better of her, sooner or later. Such an intellectual challenge,
such an opportunity for learning, those are things she would be
totally unable to pass up. >>

I believe young Sevvy put a spell on his book to repel all eyes but
his and Lily's. So it repelled Ron by being illegible to him and it
repelled Hermione by activating her priggishness. And it didn't repel
Harry because, as was said all through the series, he had Lily's eyes.

People say "Huh? So why was it important that Harry had Lily's eyes?"
and answer "Because the way he got the real memory from Slughorn is
because his eyes reminded Slughorn of Lily" or "because that way Snape
was able to look into Lily's eyes as he died". I think enabling him to
read the Prince's book was more important than either of those.

Eggplant wrote in
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/178611>:

<< As for Kreacher, Harry was far more forgiving than I would have
been considering that in any legal system on the planet he would have
been imprisoned for being part of a murder conspiracy that caused the
death of Harry's godfather. >>

Nitpick: not in a legal system that doesn't use imprisonment, only
fines, mutilation, or death penalty. And not in a legal 'system' which
relies on individuals taking revenge for wrongs to their family
members without bothering the government with their petty problems,
because Hermione would have stopped Harry from killing Kreachur when
he wanted to, and now Harry doesn't want to.

More interesting to me: how would Kreachur have been dealt with by a
legal system that believes House Elves do not exist? Would the Grand
Jury, told by the prosecutor that they can't indict Kreachur because
House Elves don't exist, report out that he was an unindicted
co-conspirator?

And even more interesting to me: in legal systems that recognize that
House Elves exist, would they be be regarded something like Muggle
legal systems regard dogs? There is a range of ways that Muggle legal
systems regard dogs. There have been Muggle legal systems in history
that tried, convicted, and hanged dogs for murder or theft. I've never
heard of any dogs being burned for blasphemy or treason, but that
would seem a logical result of a dog eating a Communion wafer or
lifting his leg on a posted Royal Decree. Modern legal system don't
convict and execute dogs for malicious intent, just ordered them
destroyed for being, however unintentionally, a danger to the public.

The wizarding legal system treats House Elves as creatures with more
ability to speak English than dogs have, and possibly also as
creatures with greater responsibility for their intentions. I don't
recall anything from the books about House Elves involved with the
wizarding legal system other than poor Hokey, and I don't recall that
the court's decision that she accidentally confused (rat poison
powder?) for sugar tells us much.

Lee Kaiwen wrote in
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/178613>:

<< The only Dumbledore JKR owns is the DD of her imagination. The DD
of *my* imagination was a collaborative effort between us, containing
as much of me as of her, and then along she comes after the fact,
after I've invested so much of myself in co-creating *my* DD, to tell
me that *my* portion of DD isn't worth squat, that it's her
imagination and hers alone that counts, and then tries to force-feed
me her DD. When JKR says, "He is my character," she is not only wrong,
she is offensive. >>

What about DEATHLY HALLOWS? In the *text* she made revelations about
Albus Dumbledore that *contradicted* the image of him that I had
co-created, revelations which I have yet to digest to form a new
image. Can I complain that she thus asserted that my imagination is
worthless? 

I wasn't expecting him to be so cold to Severus after Severus had been
risking his life for him all those years. That the reason he refused
to be Minister of Magic was not that he didn't want to waste his time
with bureaucracy nor he thought molding the minds of the next
generation was more important, but that he believed he could not be
trusted with power. And did he notice that he was quite willing to
exercise immense power over all those children and staff at Hogwarts,
the members of the Order of the Phoenix, and everyone he could
manipulate with beautiful words and understanding what makes them tick? 

What did it mean, in his life, when his eyes twinkled?

Julie wrote in
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/178649>:

<< Even her comment about DD being "mine" I don't think was meant to
imply that she wants to control anyone's individual interpretation of
DD, but that she created him (and legally owns him) so has every right
to share *her* interpretations of him. >>

This is a forbidden 'I agree' post. I agree with you that that's what
she meant and I agree that she does have every right to share her
unpublished ideas about the Potterverse.

Besides, I want to hear them. I may or may not believe them, but I
want to find out if what is still in her head is as fascinating as
what she put on paper.

Lee Kaiwen wrote in
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/178691>:

<< If somewhere in the future I post my speculations about, say, DD's
ex-wives, >>

When this list un-bans fanfic and pure speculation, I'll counter your
speculations on DD's ex-wives with my speculations on his late wives
(the two Muggles who died of old age sequentially can remain; the
witch killed fighting Grindelwald will need to be re-written).

DH indicates that Kendra Dumbledore was Muggle-born. Unless she was
some kind of abused child like Harry, eager to escape from her parents
or guardians into the wizarding world, one'd think her children would
get to know their maternal grandparents and other relatives, and thus
have enough contact with Muggles to learn more than appears to have
been taught in Muggle Studies. I liked to think that as a young man he
had used his familiarity with Muggles to go into business importing
Muggle goods to wizarding shops, but DH suggests that the only
profession he ever had was being a magical genius.

Anyway, this is something else I've wanted to post about for a long
time, when did the name Kendra come into use among Muggles? It's a
beautiful name and the wizarding folk may have been using it since
3000BC, but Kendra Dumbledore was born to Muggles a long time ago and
I've never heard of anyone else named Kendra from that time.

Geoff wrote in
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/178632>:

<< Supposing Harry had wondered whether Molly Weasley or Hermione or
even... Draco(!) might bring him a sandwich in Gryffindor Tower. What
would you read into that? >>

If he had wondered if Molly, or Hermione, or Ginny, or any female
Gryffindor, might bring him a sandwich, that would be read as Rowling
approves of men believing that women are automatically their servants.
Altho' it wouldn't be out of character for Hermione -- in which book
did she bring him a stack of toast when he ran away from breakfast?

One of the replies reminded me that Molly had just lost her son, Fred.
At some point things will be tidied up enough that the adrenaline of
the battle will wear off and she will go into deep grief, probably
clinging to Arthur (or to Arthur and George and whichever other of her
surviving children she can grab) and weeping big tears. It would be
strange for a grown-up to interrupt that to ask her to fetch a
sandwich, and stranger to think she might think of it herself while
thusly distracted.

If Harry had wondered if Draco might bring him a sandwich, some would
believe he had gone crazy as shown by forgetting that Draco doesn't
know the Gryffindor Tower password, some (such as me) would claim it
proved the Harry/Draco ship, some would said it was Rowling's approval
of forcing the defeated enemy to work for you without pay, and some
would say it was one more proof that Rowling believes that anyone
sorted into Slytherin is an unworthy being regardless of what they do
after that.

afn wrote in <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/178639>:

<< Rather than running away from school, he purposely chose not to
attend his 7th year there. Who's to say an incoming student might have
needed Harry's old bed? >>

Hogwarts Castle is a magical building. I've always thought it found
out how many beds were needed for each dorm (such observing the
Sorting to figure out how many beds in the first-year girls and boys
dorms in each House) and created them -- I don't think furniture is
one of Whoever's Five Principal Exceptions. To me, it would have
created new beds for new students, not re-assigned old beds. And while
it probably hadn't created a bed for Harry in the seventh-year
Gryffindor boys' dorm at the beginning of the school year, it probably
did notice him coming up the stairs and created a bed for him then.

I wonder if there is a dorm or two in Gryffindor Tower (and each of
the other Houses) that creates beds for Old Boys and Old Girls come
visiting.

Tonks_op wrote in
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/178674>:

<< It has nothing to do with elf rights or lack or rights. It was a
statement about finishing school. Why else would he sleep there? >>

He had not long before realized that he was one of three lost little
boys (with Snape and Riddle) who had found their only home at Hogwarts.

Alla summarized Chapter 6 in
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/178652>:

<< Molly [snip] keeps Harry, Ron and Hermione very busy with
different jobs. Ron thinks she does so to distract them from
preparations for the Horcrux hunt >>

And stupid me thought, when I read it, that she did so to keep the
couples (Ron and Hermione, Harry and Ginny) apart except when she was
there as chaperone.

<< Harry tries to talk Hermione and Ron out of coming with him one
more time. >>

Which is why I thought it was so unfair of Ron and Hermione, during
the camping trip, to get mad at Harry when they discovered that he
didn't have a plan and Dumbledore hadn't told him where the Horcruxes
were hidden. It's not like he *asked* them to come along.

Zara wrote in
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/178702>:

<< especially combined with the flash of a blue eye Harry saw in the
broken mirror in a previous chapter. >>  

Stupid me, I thought the blue eye in the mirror was Albus in the
afterlife using the other mirror that Sirius had taken with him to the
afterlife, and was disappointed we would get more Albus instead of
more Sirius.

Carol wrote in
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/178754>:

<< has twice requested a description of the life of a free House-Elf,
this supposedly ideal state that certain readers thought would be
achieved through Harry's victory, and is still puzzled as to what they
mean by "freedom" >>

I can define it even tho' I don't expect it to come about for decades
after Hermione leaves school and starts working full-time on it. Free
House Elves choose which human they will work for, and leave whenever
dissatisfied, and are paid if they want. A human who abuses a House
Elf is punished by law. (So is a House Elf who abuses a human.) If the
House Elf and the human agree, the House Elf can do work for the human
other than domestic service. There is no magical compulsion on them to
punish themselves for disobedience or disrespect, and voluntary group
therapy to cure them of any psychological compulsion to do so. Free
House Elves can buy a house or shop if they have the money and the
desire and can start a business if they want to. In addition, it seems
to me that there needs to be some provision for House Elves too old to
work other than beheading them. 

However, the human for whom they work is free to fire them and ban
them from the premises owned by the human, and can sue them for
damages if they sneak back to 'steal' an artifact 'belonging' to their
new master or whatever. 

As for the bad effects on my morals of having someone else to do all
this miserable scut-work, I don't mind.

Potioncat wrote in
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/178805>

<< How did Lupin and Black get the idea that Regulus was killed
because he tried to back out of the DEs? >>

Maybe after Regulus found out what happened to Kreachur, he asked
Cousin Bella some questions that gave her doubts about his loyalty to
the Dark Lord. So when he vanished (and perhaps the Blacks have some
magical artifact that tells when a person on the Family Tree is dead),
she figured that the Dark Lord had killed him for disloyalty, and
maybe it was one of the things she shouted about in her nightmares in
Azkaban, or maybe she mentioned while being interrogated by the Aurors
about her attack on the Longbottoms.