ShriekingShack/CauldronThickness/Birds/Florian/Mothers/GoFSnapeMoody/Ludo

[Catlady (Rita Prince Winston)]

No: HPFGUIDX 181839

Potioncat wrote in
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/181730>:

<< BTW, how did Malfoy, Snape and LV get into the Shack? They didn't
seem to be using the passage from the willow. >>

Did they Apparate? The Shrieking Shack is not on Hogwarts campus, so
Hogwarts's Anti-Apparation charms don't matter.

Montavilla wrote in
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/181761>:

<< But what incentive is there for manufacturers to keep a safe
thickness? The Wizarding World doesn't seem to have a very strong
system of civil litigation. Why should the manufacturers care if x
number of people are harmed or killed in cauldron accidents?

Moreover, a thin-bottomed cauldron is advantageous for the
cauldron-makers, since it means that wizards will need to replace
their cauldrons more often, thus expanding the market. >>

*Some* manufacturers might choose a business strategy of making safely
thick cauldrons, advertising them as safer and higher quality, and
selling them for a higher price.

As cauldron thickness is a lot easier for the customer to check than
is lead in the paint or melamine in the food, they might just put the
higher price on the higher quality cauldron and trust customers to
know the difference.  If the wizarding public is too dim to figure
that out, their government does have the option of another way to
protect them other than just banning cauldrons less than a stated
thickness: the government can require that cauldrons for sale are
marked with their thickness and durability information, and the
government can distribute pamphlets explaining how to choose a sturdy
cauldron.

I might oppose the ban. IIRC PS/SS mentioned a solid gold cauldron. I
suppose that is not just a luxury to show off one's wealth, but
actually required for some potions. If the potion requires a solid
gold cauldron because it will dissolve *anything* else, then risking a
leak would be a bad idea. But if the potion requires a solid gold
cauldron for magical reasons, and I wanted to make that potion, my
budget urges me to choose a very thin solid gold cauldron indeed -- as
close to gold leaf as will do the job.

I don't know if cauldrons are produced in a sufficiently mass or
standardized way that the wizarding version of CONSUMER REPORTS
(CONJUROR REPORTS?) could warn that a certain brand and model of
cauldron, or Mr Fabricius Irons's cauldrons made between May of 2006
and September of 2007 are excessively prone to breakage, and should be
avoided.

But some previous listie suggested that the running theme of cauldron
leaks was a class-warfare issue, with only the more prosperous
wizarding folk able to afford thick, sturdy cauldrons, and the lower
(half? quarter? two-thirds?) stuck with dangerous thin cauldrons, with
results shown by Neville's melting cauldrons in Potions Class, and the
Leaky Cauldron inn given that name because its original founder meant
it to be a working class hangout where they could conspire to
overthrow the bourgeoisie	...

Mike wrote in
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/181743>:

<< I don't think there are owls available in all parts of the world. I
could easily imagine wizard inhabitants of the tropics having other
bird species as their post carriers. I like Carol's idea of parrots or
macaws. How about a toucan? >>

Zanooda replied in
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/181750>:

<< I found out that owls are very wide-spread and live on all the
continents of the world, except Antarctica, and also on large islands.
If Sirius went to hide in Africa - there are like 40 species of owls
living there, including the Barn owl - a lot to choose from :-)!
http://www.owlpages.com/owls.php?location=Africa
I'm not sure that this link works, but, anyway, owls live everywhere,
which came as a surprise - they seemed so "un-african" to me :-)!  >>

I was going to suggest
<http://www.owlpages.com/owls.php?location=The+World>! :)  

I like to think that Sirius waited in the Caribbean, which also
includes the Barn Owl in its repertoire. It seems they get around.

Altho' owls are available pretty much everywhere, the wizards who live
in a place might not have domesticated owls as postal birds, or not
owls large enough to cross an ocean, and they domesticated some other
kind of bird for long post routes and heavy packages.

Macaws were my first thought, toucans my second. I have no idea if
toucans are long-distance flyers. I can't imagine that Harry would
have called flamingos 'colorful tropical birds' instead of calling
them 'flamingos'. Allegedly, they're from Kenya, which was part of the
British Empire.

Why do owls seem 'un-African' to you? If you thought they needed long
cold winters, that excludes a lot of places besides Africa.

Carol wrote in
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/181782>:

<< Anyone have any ideas regarding what happened to Florian Fortescue
and why?(snip) Was he a Muggle-born, >>

Rowling said the bad guys killed him, but I don't know why. If he was
a Muggle-born, then he probably wasn't related to the Headmaster
portrait in OoP: << 'Blatant corruption!' roared the portrait of the
corpulent, red-nosed wizard on the wall behind Dumbledore's desk. The
Ministry did not cut deals with petty criminals in my day, no sir,
they did not!' Thank you, Fortescue, that will do,' said Dumbledore
softly. >>

My own vague idea was that Florian Fortescue was one of the good guys
who fought the bad guys in Vold War I ... he wasn't in Real!Moody's
group photo of the old-time Order of the Phoenix, so maybe he was an
Auror then, and retired to his ice cream shop after LV dissolved.
Maybe some of the resurgent DEs might have wanted to kill him as
revenge for him having arrested them or their relatives last time out.
I suspect that he was taking action during HBP to oppose LV's coup
d'etat, and they killed him to end this interference. Action? Maybe
finding people who had been put under Imperius and releasing them from
it. Maybe gathering evidence for legal cases against whoever had cast
Imperius on them. 

Alla wrote in
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/181812>:

<< [There are] two [working mothers in the series] and one of them is
really powerful. >>

I thought you meant Alice Longbottom, an auror, but wondered why she
would be 'really powerful', so I wondered if you meant Lily Potter. It
never occurred to me that you meant Rowena Ravenclaw ... for one
thing, we don't know if she raised her daughter before, during, or
after she was a schoolmistress.

Kemper wrote in
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/18182>:

<< I see. Then I think you're right, [Tonks] seems more the working
mom should she have lived. She would still want to fight the Dark as
an Auror... as I read her, anyway. >>

Jayne replied in
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/181830>:

<< IMHO that would depend on if Remus was still alive. She would not
have coped very well IMHO without him. >>

One hopes for little Teddy's sake that if Dora had lived while Remus
died, Dora would have been able to pull herself together for her
baby's sake. And it is possible that she would have. It is possible
that her awareness of her duty to her baby, and her love and concern
for her baby, would get herself to get up enough will-power to take
care of him and eventually even go back to work to support him. It is
also possible that being on the receiving end of the all-consuming,
ever-demanding, entirely exploitative love that babies have for their
caretakers would satisfy her obsessive need to be loved by poor Remus.

Alla wrote in
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/181814>:

<< In light of Snape being loyal to the light, I suddenly realized
that I am not quite sure why would he be avoiding Moody's eye if he
has no clue that Moody is a Fake one here. >>

GoF keeps telling us that Real!Moody didn't believe in former Death
Eaters. Fake!Moody's "I say there are spots that don't come off,
Snape. Spots that never come off" was in character for Real!Moody, who
muttered at Karkaroff's plea bargain hearing: "Let's hear his
information, I say, and throw him straight back to the Dementors."

I suppose Snape expected that Moody would take the opportuntity of a
year at Hogwarts to try to build a legal case for sentencing Snape to
Azkaban, even after so many years, and if he couldn't get the Ministry
to bring Snape to trial, he could publish his information and get a
lot of people fired up against Snape.

Carol wrote in
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/181834>:

<< only remaining mystery for Ludo is what happened to him and whether
the Goblins killed him >>

Is killing him the most profitable thing they could do with him?