World Building (was Why did Snape _really_ hate Harry?)

[Carol]

No: HPFGUIDX 187094

Lynda Cordova wrote:
>
> I answered the plumbing question in my head very simply. Hogwarts the castle is ancient, as is the school. However, even in the WW standards of modern sanitation must be met (Let's face it even the Amish have modern plumbing and such to due sanitation laws). So, Hogwarts simply installed modern lavarotories to keep up with sanitation laws. And, keep in mind, the school is magical, and the drains merely opened to the chamber. Certainly an enchanted castle can accomodate that.
> 
> Lynda
>
Carol responds:
But the problem is that the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets, which was created by Salazar Slytherin a thousand years ago, is a water faucet (or tap) in a girls' restroom with what appears to be early twentieth-century plumbing. How could that faucet have been there a thousand years ago unless the ancient wizards had modern plumbing? It isn't just the drain pipe that Harry slides down--it's the serpent-marked faucet on the sink that doesn't work that we're concerned about. (And Dumbledore appears to have used chamber pots at one time--wonder how long ago that was?)

Anyway, I suppose that the school could have had Roman-style plumbing upgraded to twentieth-century style later, but the implication is that the sink that doesn't work, and the serpent-decorated faucet has been there for a thousand years. It seems to be just another instance (like the Charlie Weasley problem) that JKR didn't reason out fully. But at least, in this case, we can figure out a solution for ourselves.

How she'll solve the seven-year discrepancy in Charlie's age (which I noticed the first time I read SS/PS) I don't know. I guess that Gryffindor somehow didn't win the Quidditch Cup in the time he was there even though elsewhere someone says that they haven't won it since Charlie left!

Carol, who finds such matters distracting but not sufficient reason to stop reading the books