Patronus / Chapter Discussion 20 / Hiding Neville / Typica

[Catlady (Rita Prince Winston)]

No: HPFGUIDX 182935

Carol wrote in
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/182934>:

<< now wondering whether Celtic mythology will throw any light on
Seamus's fox and Ernie's boar >>

*If* the boar is Ernie's, maybe it's a simpler pun on Ernie being
good-hearted but pompous and stodgy. I would prefer if whoever it is's
boar was a reference to Hogwarts, with the winged boars at the front gate.

houyhnhnm discussed Chapter 20 in
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/182890>:

<< Ron hastily shuts him up before he can say Voldemort's name and
then explains that Voldemort has placed a jinx on the uttering of his
name. Anyone who says it aloud can be traced >> 

As always, one wishes Harry would have *remembered* the Taboo even
when angry.

<< Could there have been a Taboo on the name in VWI? >>

If there was, then Dumbledore having encouraged Order members to say
the name 'Voldemort' ('fear of a name increases fear of the thing
itself') probably helped them be killed in such numbers. Either
Dumbledore didn't know about the Taboo, which would be a major flaw in
his omniscence, or he didn't care that he was getting his followers
killed for no reason, which is wasteful. It would be much better if
there weren't such a Taboo in VWI, altho' that does require us to make
up a difference reason why people were afraid to say the name.

<< Hermione has come noiselessly upon them at this point and assures
Harry that he just needs practice. Harry thinks she still feels guilty
about breaking his own wand. >>

I was *very* disappointed in Hermione claiming that one wand is not
more powerful than another and one wand is not more in tune with a
particular wizard than another. I am not demanding that she be New Age
irrational -- she wouldn't claim that every shoe in the world would
fit Harry equally well and equally badly, nor would she claim that
every shoe in the world would last the same amount of walking on rough
terrain -- some would wear out faster than others.

<< The house resembles a giant black chess rook. >>  << Did the
physical description of the house strike you in any particular way? >>

It struck me as a danger to wizarding secrecy. Surely a tower on a
hill can be seen for some distance, and Muggle kids would have gone to
get a closer look at the peculiar building.

<< The Lovegoods are the only Ravenclaw family into whose home we
are admitted. Do they typify Ravenclaw? >>

Surely not. Look how badly the other Ravenclaw students treated Loony
Luna.

Potioncat wrote in
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/182919>:

<< No more than the Weasleys are typical of Gryffindor; the Blacks of
Slytherin or Hepzibah of Hufflepuff. >>

I thought the Weasleys, other than their degree of poverty, ARE
typical of Gryffindor, and the Blacks, other than their degree of
wealth, ARE typical of Slytherin. I agree that Hepzibah and Zacharias
did not seem typical of Cedric Diggory, Ernie Macmillan, Justin
Finch-Fletchley, Hannah Abbot, Susan Bones, Amelia Bones (because
Houses seem to run in families), etc.

Carol wrote in
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/182892>:

<< I think that Luna represents intuition and eccentric genius (I
certainly never expected her to be a gifted painter). >>

I agree with both sentences. (Surely she could have gained a bit more
popularity at school with her painting.) 

In specific, I think she is a spiritual genius rather than an
artistic, musical, scientific, literary, or magical genius -- that she
was born knowing wisdom that usually takes a long hard time to learn.
Non-anger, non-fear, kindness, meet again in the next life, give
second chances, that stuff. Saintliness -- e.g. one starving refugee
in a group of starving refugees finds a stash of food, and gives all
of it to the other refugees, keeps none for him/her/self, and soon
dies of starvation. 

I sure don't *feel* any of this (spiritually, I'm a single-cell
organism) and I dunno how much of it I even *believe* (*is* it better
to refuse to kill one innocent janitor just in order to free a bunch
of useful good-guy prisoners from a bad-guy prison where they'll be
executed in the morning?), but I used to think that Dumbledore had
come to this viewpoint over the course of his long life, finding from
experience that anger and fear and self-preservation and desire aren't
very rewarding in the long run, and that he actually felt some of the
general Love he preached about... I even worried whether his refusal
to do some evil, but necessary, deed might cause Voldemort to triumph
... DH sure proved me wrong about Dumbledore!

lmf3b wrote in
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/182894>:

<< We still don't know where Neville was that Halloween night. The
Longbottoms did not seem to have gone into hiding with their child
like the Potters did, since Bella tracked them down so easily after
Voldy fell >>

Bella attacking the Longbottoms 'after Voldy fell' could have been
months after that Halloween night. If the Longbottoms had gone into
hiding when the Potters did, they would have come out of hiding soon
after Voldy fell. If they hid their baby with Gran as you suggest,
they would have retrieved him soon after Voldy fell. 

An old theory on this list is that Neville witnessed the entire
torture of his parents, hidding under an Invisibility Cloak that his
mother threw over him when she heard intruders enter.