PS/SS - chapters 2-5 post DH look

[Carol]

No: HPFGUIDX 181203

Geoff wrote:
> 
> > It takes more than sweeping the floor and putting down sawdust to
make a room unrecognisable....
> 
zanooda responded: 
> Oh, absolutely, no doubt about that :-)! I just don't see the point
of changing the description of something in the book if it doesn't
serve some purpose, that's all. Unless you forgot how you described it
the first time, LOL! BTW, I don't think Aberforth swept the floor - he
just put sawdust on top of all this ancient dirt ... :-).

Carol responds:
Maybe Aberforth's house-keeping reflects medieval traditions.
(Admittedly, his mother was a Muggle-born and probably didn't sprinkle
the floors with sawdust, but Aberforth is a strange bloke and more a
part of the old-fashioned WW in his eccentric way than any Muggle-born
could ever be.

Just as most Witches and Wizards wear robes that resemble Muggle
clothing of the twelfth or thirteenth century (women's pointed hats
were from the fifteenth century, IIRC), it's possible that some
Wizards (those without House-Elves or a penchant for cleanliness)
retain ancient house-keeping customs.

In medieval castles (and probably homes and pubs as well), the floors
were strewn with rushes. Bones and other table scraps were thrown onto
the rushes and sank to the bottom, along with dog droppings and other
refuse. Occasionally, the smelly old rushes were swept away, but the
remains of old meals and other dirt remained.

Here's a quote from a website on medieval castles:

"In a ground-floor hall the floor was beaten earth, stone or plaster;
when the hall was elevated to the upper story the floor was nearly
always timber, supported either by a row of wooden pillars in the
basement below <snip>. Carpets, although used on walls, tables, and
benches, were not used as floor coverings in Britain and northwest
Europe until the 14th century. Floors were strewn with rushes and in
the later Middle Ages sometimes with herbs. The rushes were replaced
at intervals and the floor swept, but Erasmus [1466-1536], noting a
condition that must have been true in earlier times, observed that
often under them lay "an ancient collection of beer, grease,
fragments, bones, spittle, excrement of dogs and cats and everything
that is nasty."

http://www.castlewales.com/life.html

Maybe Aberforth liked living the old-fahioned way. Or maybe, he just
wanted conditions that his goats would appreciate. You'd think he'd
use hay or rushes rather than sawdust, though. Maybe the sawdust
served the same purpose as cat litter and absorbed the odor. I'm
pretty sure that the smell of goat urine would drive away even the
most devoted patron.

Carol, who has tried to keep this post canonical despite the outside
source