Arianna / Thestral/Selkies/Lavender

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 184274

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Catlady (Rita Prince Winston)"
<catlady at ...> wrote:
> 
> Of course, in our RL, that is the only adult and responsible position
> that Albus could have taken in that matter -- in our RL, there is no
> value more important than that all children finish high school. But
in the Potterverse wizarding world, it turned out to be the wrong
> decision. Aberforth didn't need NEWTs to raise goats and run a bar,
> and he would have taken better care of Arianna than Albus did. 

Pippin:
Maybe you don't need NEWTs to run a bar, (actually a small inn) but
you probably need some kind of apprenticeship. Would that have been
available to Aberforth with Arianna in tow? I think that much as he
would not like to think it, Arianna's death also freed Aberforth to
pursue his  dreams, modest as they were, which I'm sure added to his
sense of guilt.

> Pippin wrote in
> <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/184252>:
> 
> << future generations of wizarding children will write "has Harry
read this book?" beside the thestral entry >>

Catlady: 
> Not beside the entry in the Muggle edition, which says nothing about
> thestrals having reptilian scales and skeletal faces, and eating
meat, which is not normal for horses. 

Pippin:
Scamander had probably never seen a thestral, (they are, or were,
rare) and can perhaps be forgiven for not knowing what they look like,
since people who think they are unlucky would not want to talk about
them. 

I suppose he's seen death -- but maybe he's spent all his time among
animals, whose deaths apparently don't count. I wonder if a wizard
photo of a thestral could be seen by someone who can't see the
thestral itself? 

 Obviously Scamander hadn't visited Hogwarts recently, or he would
know about the giant spiders (whose presence can now be confirmed by
many witnesses, not just Ron and Harry) as well as the domesticated
thestrals bred by Hagrid.

But wizard-born children won't have seen Fantasia and wouldn't
have our preconceived idea about what a black flying horse ought to
look like. Harry wouldn't either. The Dursleys would certainly never
have allowed Dudley to watch it, since it stars Mickey as a wizard.

But really, I am for once willing to say I don't think JKR
thought it through. I'll buy the  appearance only once the death has
sunk in. But if the skies over Hogwarts are truly populated by enough
thestrals to pull the carriages for a thousand students, over a
hundred  beasties, that is, each the size of a draft horse, plus their
young -- well, all I can say is, I wouldn't go outside without an
umbrella. And a pair of wellies.  <g>

> 
> Carol wrote in
> <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/184253>:
> 
> << why "selkies" is lowercased and "Merrows" is capitalized, I can't
> guess) >>
> 
> Rowling capitalized words that she thought she had invented and
> lowercased words that she thought already existed. 

Pippin:
"Merrow" is  traditional, for the Irish merfolk.


Pippin