Peverells/the Cloak/the Wand/the Horn/Hogwarts Class Schedules/Umbridge

[Catlady (Rita Prince Winston)]

No: HPFGUIDX 183103

Goddlefrood summarized Chapter 21 in
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/183022>:

<< the Peverell brothers are integral to the legend of the Hallows,
naming them as Antioch, Cadmus and Ignotus. >>

Before the Deathly Hallows symbol was on Ignotus's gravestone or
Xenophilius's necklace, it was on the spine of one of the Bloomsbury
editions of DH, cover art that was released before the book. The list
had much discussion of what it might mean. The Christian Trinity,
Alcoholics Anonymous and Mary Magdalene were all suggested, but no one
suggested that the triangle was a cloak, the circle a stone (now set
in a ring), and the line a wand. 

On my second reading, I noticed a thing about their initials: A looks
like a triangle, C looks like a circle, and I looks like a line.
However, if the names are meaningful, they don't go with the right
artifacts: Ignotus is 'unknown' which goes with hiding under the cloak
and Cadmus was the guy who sowed the dragon's teeth, which immediately
grew into fully armed warriors who killed each other therefore a good
namesake for 'a combative sort of man' who got the wand. I don't
recall any suggestions as to why Herself named them Peverell.

She could have named them Invictus or fiery Ignis for the wand,
Orpheus for the stone, and ... A is harder. Isn't 'Aidoneus' a title
of Hades meaning 'unseen'?

<< 4. What reaction did you have to the speculation relative to
Harry's Cloak being the cloak from the story and did you find yourself
agreeing with or dismissing Ron's thoughts about Harry's cloak being
extraordinary? >>

As others have already posted, I think Herself cheated, having never
before given any clue that Harry's invisibility cloak was exceptional.
Yes, at first Harry and Ron had never seen any other so they had no
comparison, but the Order of the Phoenix had two cloaks and, to play
fair, she should have used them to work in some reference to 'the
spell is starting to wear off; it was only guaranteed for 15 years' or
'they can see a bit of you through the holes where the demiguise fur
is wearing out'. 

Or the Trio could learn about it from being assigning to write a
homework essay about Invisibility Cloaks.

It would have been in character for Hermione to have read up on
Invisibility Cloaks when she learned that Harry had one, and bored him
and Ron with a lot of information about how unusual his is, except
that clue would have been in the first book and readers would have had
long enough to figure out what was going on.

<< 6. Xenophilius uses the word 'capture' when describing how
ownership of the wand could be transferred - would that then mean that
the wand does not necessarily have to be defeated in order to transfer
its allegiance? >>

As others have already posted, Grindelwald captured the Wand from
Gregorovitch without killing him. I kept wondering why the merry-faced
thief had perched in the window waiting for Gregorovitch to get a good
look at him instead of leaving right away, but eventually accumulated
enough clues to understand that he wasn't confident that just stealing
the Wand counted as 'capturing' it, but that Stunning the previous
owner was adequate. 

He may have had practical reasons for using Stupefy instead of Adavra
Kedavra, such as there being a Forbidden Curse alarm in the area, or
understanding that his future empire would need a good wandmaker, but
I prefer to think that Grindelwald didn't kill Gregorovitch because
Grindelwald wasn't a murderer when he started.

Carol wrote in
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/183032>:

<< I still want to know who sold Xeno that horn, claiming that it
belonged to a Crumple-Horned Snorkack. >>

There was such a long history of mysterious strangers who popped up
just to give Hagrid "interesting creatures" who turned out to be Lord
Voldemort or his agents, that automatically my thought was 'why would
the bad guys want to plant an erumpent horn in Lovegood's house?' I
can't think of any reason why bad guys or good guys or anyone but the
author would want to hang it on that wall. 

But your comment made me think that Xenophilius might have a lot more
money than he seems, and be willing to spend it on a Snorkak's crumped
horn, and various con men might know that. He may have bought other
fake Snorkak horns in the past. I'd think Erumpent horn would sell for
a good price as itself, so why sell it as a fake something else, but
maybe this one was stolen and the thief is eager to get rid of it...

Random832 wrote in
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/183069>:

<< I was trying to work out a consistent class schedule for a fanfic
I'm working on, and ran into a problem. >>

I believe that even if there are 280 rather than 1000 students at
Hogwarts Castle, it is impossible to work out consistent class
schedules. Just make up something that fits your fanfic -- that's what
Herself did. And you can use the excuse that the schedules aren't the
same every year. For my fanfic, I made up one where Snape taught two
long classes a day, Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws in the morning and
Gryffindors and Slytherins in the afternoon, first years on Monday,
second years on Tuesday, third years on Wednesday, fourth years on
Thursday, and fifth years on Friday. Then mixed classes for NEWT level
students, sixth years on Saturday morning and seventh years on
Saturday afternoons. It doesn't give him any time to read and grade
those essays he's always assigning, and he and the Advanced Potions
students could attend Quidditch matches only if he replaces class on
match days with an evening class or a homework assignment. 

Jerri wrote in
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/183076>:

<< I was certain that the only way Umbridge could have worked the
schedule that she did was with the aid of a time turner. However,
there is no cannon to that effect, I don't know if JKR intended it
that way or if it is just one of her "maths" problems. >>

I feel sure that JKR didn't intend that Umbridge was using a time
turner, but it occurs to me that maybe, unbeknownst to the author,
most of the teachers are using time turners repeatedly every day, so
they can teach three or four classes at once. And grade many essays at
the same time. 

Jerri wrote in
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/183076>:

<< there is the fact that the train always leaves to go to Hogwarts on
September 1, and the first day of classes is the next day, and seems
to be always Monday! >>

Maybe the wizarding calendar is set up so that every month begins on a
Sunday, so the second of each month is a Monday. Either the months are
only 28 days long or every month but non-leap February ends with a
partial week, where Sunday comes again after, like, Tuesday. If there
are 28-day, there would be 13 of them plus one day left over between
years. The thirteenth month could be while the kids are home on summer
holiday, so Harry doesn't know about it. And the 28-day month year
would have to begin on September 1st, so that their September 1st (a
Sunday) is on the same day as the Muggle September 1st.

Hey! They could have eight-day weeks, so Snape could teach classes 6
days a week (above) without teaching on Saturday or Sunday. Then they
could have eleven 32-day months with one 10-day month.

Altho' they probably would prefer to have 17 months of 29 days each,
to be as inconveniently prime as possible, like their money.

Carol suspects in
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/183089>:

<< that Umbridge was yet another Half-blood Slytherin with a Witch
mother and Muggle father and that her mother's maiden name was 
Selwyn >>

I agree with Debbie that Umbridge was probably just lying about being
related to the Selwyns (and with Potioncat about the type of her
interest in Fudge, altho' she lost interest in Fudge when he lost
power). I think it's insulting to Muggles to suggest that she's
related to us. 

The constant description of her appearance as 'toad-like' suggests to
me that she has genes from one of the less pretty magical non-humans
-- I suppose she'd have fangs instead of a long sticky tongue if she
were all or half Hag. (All Hags are female, so maybe the male of the
species just has another name. Usually I suggest 'ogre' but that word
doesn't seem to appear in the Potterverse, so maybe Trolls.) Maybe
she's part mer-folk, as they and toads are both amphibious.