eagles/wizard technology/Hagrid/a few things in the James thread

[Catlady (Rita Prince Winston)]

No: HPFGUIDX 187052

Pippin wrote in <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/186938>:

<< when people put the American bald eagle on top of a flagpole, do they care that it is actually a scavenger bird that steals its food >>

Ravens (who symbolize wisdom) and eagles (who symbolize courage) are famously carrion eaters, the birds of Odin who gather at the battlefield to feast after the battle, but I thought the bald eagle ate fishes. IIRC I read an article about its larger Siberian cousin the white-shouldered eagle diving for salmon and ripping open the salmon skin that lesser birds aren't strong enough to tear.

Jerri wrote in <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/186970>:

<< had there been modern type plumbing "1000 years ago" or so, when the Castle and Chamber of Secrets had been built. >>

In accordance with the wizarding view that Muggles invented technology to imitate that which wizards did by magic, of course modern type plumbing (and modern type castles) existed IN THE WIZARDING world 1000 years ago when Hogwarts Castle was built. They probably existed many thousands of years ago in Atlantis. Muggles who saw these things when they visited wizards figured out how to accomplish the same result without magic. Muggle technology became independent when Muggles who had no contact with wizards started inventing new things that wizards later imitated, such as Wizarding Wireless; I think this happened roughly when Muggles tamed electricity.

Pippin wrote in <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/186985>:

<< He was friends with Hagrid, who, the CoS film to the contrary, is not popular with students in canon. >>

Hagrid was popular enough for former students to write DD all those letters in his defense in GoF: "I have shown you the letters from the countless parents who remember you from their own days here, telling me in no uncertain terms that, if I sacked you, they would have something to say about it –"

<< It's not a given that he would be on the good side in the war. When Dumbledore was James's age, he was supporting Grindelwald. >>

Albus supported the handsome and charming Grindelwald before he had seized any power. This could be analoguous with supporting the handsome and charming Tom Riddle while he was still a Hogwarts student, but not with suppporting the snake-faced commander of terrorists, Lord Voldemort. Anyway, canon gives us the young Tom Riddle with hangers-on who had no more intelligence than they had conscience, while giving us young Grindelwald partnering with Albus as an equal and eventual co-emperor.

Pippin wrote in <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/186990>:

<< Funny, no one's asking for a scene to explain how Lucius could turn from the friendly schoolboy who patted Severus on the back into a guy whose idea of a post-game celebration is a spot of Muggle torture. >>

It never occurred to me that anyone would think that Lucius was a 'friendly student' just because he was a good Slytherin prefect. If patting little Sevvie on the back was sincere rather than just a job duty, it still was only friendliness to people in his chosen group, friendliness which he might perhaps have expressed by inviting them to join in on some Muggle-torture. No contradiction. (Alas for me, Magpie already said this.)

Kleroy33 wrote in <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/187027>:

<< I think it was a tit for tat battle. It started on the train to Hogwarts the 1st year and escalated from there. Initially Snape probably had the upper hand over James (we are told Snape came
into Hogwarts with a lot of dark magic.) I would think that over the course of their school life the battle between these two just continued to rise. >>

What distresses some of the listies is that it WASN'T 'the battle between these two'; it was the battle between Severus versus both James and Sirius, with some signs that Sirius may have been much more anti-Severus than James was. If Severus had had a constant companion on his side in two against two fights, they wouldn't be so distressed.

It would have been difficult for Severus to have the upper hand against two opponents, even with superior knowledge of magic. If  he took a moment to hex one opponent who didn't know how to use a wand, the other equally ignorant opponent could use that moment to physically jump on Sevvie and knock him down. We were shown Hogwarts students fighting physically with Neville versus Crabbe and Goyle in the Quidditch stands in PS/SS.