Snape's eyes / Seamus's fox / Werewolf students

[Catlady (Rita Prince Winston)]

No: HPFGUIDX 184790

Doddiemoemoe wrote in
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/184738>:

<< As a disabled veteran I have a few things to say... >>

Thank you for your service.

The rest of my reply is so long, and has nothing to do with the Potter
ouevre, so I put it in
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPFGU-OTChatter/message/37945>.

Zara discussed Chapter 32 in
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/184740>:

<< 2) Speaking of this something, what are we to make of it? These
same eyes have been elsewhere described thusly: "They were cold and
empty and made you think of dark tunnels". (Empty things have
*nothing* in them.) >>

I believe Rowling intended the 'empty' and look like 'dark tunnels'
only when Snape was Legilimensing Harry. Other times, his eyes gleam
and flash and glint and glitter (do they also sparkle?) and 'Acire'
suggested in
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/46534> that <<
the little-known theory that Snape doesn't actually have eyeballs and
that there are gemstones in his sockets. That's why they glitter and
flash. And they're magical, too. <vbg> >>

Carol wrote in
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/184744>:

<< A fox for Seamus? Are foxes associated with Irishness? >>

Foxes are associated with trickiness (altho' the one seeking food in
the gutter in Spinner's End was just a victim), reinforcing my belief
that there is something about Seamus -- some reason the Sorting Hat
took 'almost a whole minute' to decide what to do with him. Maybe
there was originally going to be a sub-plot in which Seamus was a
traitor in this generation of Gryffindors.

As for Luna's hare, hares have a lunar connection because some
cultures see a hare in the Moon instead of, or as well as, a man or
woman in the moon. Do they have any lunar connection in European cultures?

Montavilla47 wrote in
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/184787>:

<< Because we're told that Fenrir made a habit of biting children, and
that Lupin was one of his first victims, and yet we never hear about
any other werewolves being educated at Hogwarts. >>

I'm sure there's a lot that went on at Hogwarts that we didn't hear
about. Apparently Dumbledore decided that the Shrieking Shack wasn't a
good solution for werewolf students (presumably because of the Prank)
and either came up with another solution or didn't accept werewolf
students until the Wolfsbane Potion was invented. Even if he gave up
on his werewolf rights project because of the Prank, he could resume
it when the Wolfsbane Potion became available.

Described as a recent invention when Harry was a third year student,
it could have been recent and still been invented long enough ago that
werewolf students at Hogwarts were successfully treated with it before
Harry had even heard of Hogwarts. One result of the treatment being
successful is that even someone who listens to more gossip than Harry
does wouldn't have heard rumors that so-and-so is a werewolf.

Of course, if parents whose children were bitten choose to toss them
out and claim that the child died, so Fenrir can invite them to join
his werewolf encampment and grow up as his followers, those children
would not be academically qualified to go to Hogwarts.