Hogwarts classes and textbooks

[Jerri/Dan Chase]

No: HPFGUIDX 182649

zanooda:
> I don't remember this quote, although logically it has to be in GoF,
> because they studied planetary divination in their 4th year. 
> However,
> I remember another one, which may support Jerri's side, even if
> indirectly :-). It's in PoA, when Harry was living in The Leaky
> Cauldron. He wanted to buy a moving model of the galaxy, and he
> thought that, if he did, he would "never had to take another 
> Astronomy
> lesson" (p.50 Am.ed.). Wouldn't it mean that Harry already had
> Astronomy lessons?
>
> 

Many thanks.  I knew that there were at least a few references to 
Harry taking Astronomy.  And this being at the beginning of PoA, would 
seem to imply that he had taken those lessons sometime in the first 
two years.  And the mention of the classes at midnight every Wednesday 
in the first book, seems to make it a regularly scheduled class.

I tend to think that it is one of those things that JKR intended to 
have Harry do because it seemed to be a wizarding sort of class, and 
also established the need for an Astronomy tower, but as until the 
practical exam in OoP nothing important happened during an Astronomy 
class it didn't get much mention.

There are lots of things that happen to HRH and that they do that 
don't get mentioned in the books.  From the evidence of the books, he 
takes very few baths and showers, for example!

What I find frustrating in the Harry Potter books in retrospect, as I 
read over them now that we know the ending and consider the series as 
a whole, is that it is so difficult to discern which things were not 
mentioned or explained early as it would give too much away.  Which 
things weren't mentioned or explained because it didn't seem important 
to the plot (like Harry's hygiene habits!), and which things because 
JKR hadn't thought the situation out completely.

[There are many of these.  I had a long list made out before DH with 
all the loose ends I expected to see tied up in the final book, and 
almost all of them were left hanging for one reason or another.]

Take the Astronomy.  Carol made some excellent points.  If HRH were 
taking an Astronomy class at midnight or thereabouts one night a week, 
surely it would have interfered with a detention or late night 
homework or running around under the invisibility cloak or at least 
had them sleepy the next day.  It appears to me that she intended them 
to be taking Astronomy, scheduled the classes for late at night so it 
wouldn't interfere with the day time schedule (and so that the stars 
would be out), then never gave it another thought till she needed it 
for a plot point.

Also, what about all that cloudy, rainy, stormy weather in Scotland? 
I suppose that could be used to explain why we don't see Astronomy 
class interfere with other night time activities, and why the classes 
had to extend over 5 full years, it had to be canceled so often 
because of the weather!  ;-)

Jerri