Snape Leg / ChapDisc: Erised, Invisibility, Socks / Manipulative / Weddings

[Catlady (Rita Prince]

No: HPFGUIDX 188483

Jean Lamb wrote in <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/188420>:

<< My question is why Snape never went to Madam Pomfrey with the bad leg, and went to Filch for help instead. That always seemed rather odd. >>

So that the readers would assume that the reason he didn't go to Madam Pomfrey was to conceal from Dumbledore that he had tried to pass Fluffy.

Janelle discussed PS/SS Chaper 12 in <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/188447>:

<< 3. (snip) What do you think is the origin of the Mirror [of Erised]? >>

I recall that my husband stating that the Mirror of Erised was a tool used by a wizarding psychotherapist. I once riffed on the name Erised, noting its similar sound to Eris (the Greek goddess of Discord) and 'erased'. 

My husband's wizard also used another tool, a mirror found in fanfic but not canon, that shows a person's deepest fear. I don't recall fanfic giving it a name, but the Mirror of Raef sounds suitably magical. But he would only have needed a captive Boggart for that purpose. 

<< 4. Harry sees at least ten members of his family in the mirror. Two are his parents, and we can assume that four are his grandparents. Who do you think the remaining four-plus people are, and what happened to them? How could such a large family all die so young in the wizarding world, leaving Harry alone? >>

Personally, I believe that the people other than James and Lily (whom the Mirror could have pucked from Harry's buried memories) were fictional people, just painted by the Mirror with features resembling Harry's so he'd think they were relatives. *waves to Potioncat's <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/188449>*

If they were pictures of real people, they could have been people from many generations and centuries back, so it would be no surprise that they were already dead. The ones with green eyes like Harry's would have been from Lily's family, therefore probably Muggles. At first I assumed that the statement "The Potters smiled and waved at Harry" referred to all the people in the mirror and I was very annoyed at this error, because at least the people from Lily's side were not Potters. But a listie explained to me that that statement had referred to only James and Lily.

Both pairs of Harry's grandparents died so young simply for authorial convenience, but I agree that it is so unlikely that it should have been made part of the plot. Say, that Death Eaters captured Lily's parents and tortured them to death in the name of making them tell the hiding place of Lily and her baby, or as a way to lure Lily out of hiding to take vengeance. If Petunia knew that wizards had murdered her parents for Lily's sake, that could have turned her personality from very ordinary to the monster we saw.

<< 6. (snip) What do you think are [Dumbledore's] ways of becoming invisible without a cloak? >>

I always thought that his statement that he didn't need a cloak to be invisible meant that he hadn't been using any magic, just being very quiet in the shadows while Harry and Ron were being very unobservant, but I was told that Rowling said he used magic. 

IIRC it was Pippin who pointed out on list that there are enough ways to be invisible that there is an Invisibility Section in the Hogwarts library.

<< 7. Did you believe Dumbledore when he said he saw himself holding socks in the mirror? What were your theories on what he might have seen? >>

I always believed that Dumbledore HAD seen himself holding a pair of woolly socks. Not just any woolly socks, but the ugly and uncomfortable ones that his beloved deceased wife or mother had made for him every Christmas, symbolizing that his deepest wish was to be with her still. I could have that theory still, except it was his little sister who made the socks, but Rowling said somewhere that of course he had been lying.

Bart wrote in <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/188448>:

<< Well, the thing is that here were a series of traps designed to thwart even the most skilled of adult wizards, and three first years just happened to have exactly the right set of skills to get past them. And Dumbledore clearly expected the Trio to get through them; he says as much to Harry. This makes it hard to believe that it was a coincidence. >>

I figured that DD planned the traps AFTER he had noticed with whom Harry was friends. And even so, he noticed wrong: he planned for a Quartet, not a Trio. The Devil's Snare was for Neville, who was good at Herbology. *waves at Potioncat's <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/188450>*

Also, some listies have said that it's ridiculous to think that those easy traps were designed to stop a qualified adult wizard. One explanation is they were put there just for Our Heroes. Another is that they were supposed to fake out an adult wizard thief and the real protection was the Mirror of Erised. I think it has been suggested that the Stone was in the Mirror since summer and the Mirror was not behind those traps until DD was ready for Harry to find the Stone.

Marianne wrote in <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/188470>:

<< Muggle and Wizards weddings. How would weddings be arranged when a muggle marries a wizards. Both parties would want their own wedding >>

If necessary, they could have two big weddings, but I think that usually, if the Muggle wanted a big wedding, they would just have the Muggle big wedding and invite the wizarding side of the family to attend, and go to a lot of effort in advance to dress them in real Muggle style and teach them the cover stories. 

I don't know if even the Muggle parents could be invited to a wizarding big wedding, and certainly not any other Muggles, so they ought to have a Muggle small wedding along with their wizarding big wedding.

<< but how does one explain to the muggles that their son or daughter is marrying a wizard? >>

It seems to me necessary that the Stature of Secrecy either has exceptions written into it or is not enforced with unreasonable strictness. Because it seems to me necessary that a Muggle spouse, the Muggle spouse's parents, and the Muggle spouse's siblings would have to be told about wizards, and probably other close relatives and friends.

I don't think it's possible that the secret could be kept from a Muggle spouse, even if all Muggle in-laws were told that the wizarding spouse was an ordinary Muggle who had been born with psychic powers.

<< Even after the couple has married, how do muggles explain their children's lifestyle. Say what their children do for a living? >>

Some might actually earn their living in the Muggle world and not need a cover story. Also I am sure there are people in the import-export business, buying things in the Muggle world that they sell in the wizarding world, and their cover story would have to include why they buy stuff. 

Tell the family you have a government job in a boring department and whisper to the parents that they must not tell anyone that this job is a cover for being a secret agent. Tell the family that you're a free-lance inventor on contract with a big corporation to whom you send all your inventions. Tell the family you're a poet and recite some ridiculously bad free verse as an example of your work.

<< The children. How about explaing a wizard/witch baby to the muggle relatives. After all younger witches/wizards can't control their magic very well. They can't hide them, can they? >>

That's what Memory Charms are for, right?