Crabbengoyle / Socks / Duffers / Snape back story / Perenelle

[Catlady (Rita Prince]

No: HPFGUIDX 188537

Potioncat wrote in <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/188488>:

<< I never thought [Crabbe and Goyle] were so much loyal to Draco, as they were using him. >>

I always thought they were loyal to Draco, until that last scene in the Room of Requirement showed that Crabbe was (like the description of Peter Pettigrew) only attaching himself to the biggest bully available for his own benefit. Goyle, however, remained loyal to Draco even after Crabbe had stated that Draco was out of power. That may be because Goyle was too stupid to understand what Crabbe said.

Debbie wrote in <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/
188491>:

<< However, once I learned that Hogwarts employed house elves to do the dirty work, I developed a theory that the image of Dumbledore holding socks was a metaphor for his desire to bring the outcasts and 
underlings of the wizarding world into full participation in the WW and that someday he would (at least metaphorically) hurl the socks into the Hogwarts kitchen to free them. >>

Someone had a related theory that Dumbledore himself was actually Flamel's House Elf (in disguise) and he saw the socks because his deepest wish was to be freed.

Potioncat wrote in <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/188488> [and elsewhere]:

<< So, do you think Hufflepuff is as good a house as Gryffindor, or do you think they are mainly duffers? >>

I think the difference between the ideal Hufflepuff and the ideal Gryffindor is that the ideal Hufflepuff is good at modesty and the ideal Gryffindor is good at self-promotion. 

But there seems to be a certain Hufflepuff tendency, not much shared by Gryffindors, to obey rules and mores, which gives the impression of conventional thinking and lack of creativity. One might at first 
have thought Ernie Macmillan was a 'duffer', but he was one of the few in Advanced Potions.

However, in one of the Sorting Hat's songs, Helga declared that she would take all the students that none of the other Founders wanted. That means, some of her students are just rejects. 

I think the Hat sorts based on seeing deeper into the student than a mere human could (even a mere human who was the greatest witch or wizard of his or her time), and thus Godric would have rejected Neville, Rowena would have rejected Luna, and Salazar would have rejected crabbe and Goyle as students, altho' he might have accepted them as Draco's live-in servants.

Joey wrote in <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/
188505>:

<< these traits fit Snape seeing how he handled LV to achieve his goal; he was quite ambitious when he was young, yes; of course, he is a pure blood. >>

Snape is a Half Blood if his mother's husband Tobias Snape was his father. Rowling doesn't go into things like whether Eileen married an abusive Muggle because she "had to" get married because she was pregnant by a married Pure Blood wizard. However the description of Eileen's photo as 'not pretty' and 'cross and sullen' (even tho' she was photographed at a happy moment, as President of the Gobstones Club!) is not supposed to indicate that a married wizard would seek to dally with her. 

I like a back story in which Eileen Prince was somehow attractive enough (and naive enough) that Orion Black swept her off her feet and then tossed her aside. Sirius and Severus had seen each other before the Hogwarts Express, when Eileen brought her son to Grimmauld Place to beg Orion Black for money for her to leave Tobias. Orion refused to give her money and denied being the father of her 'half-breed' son. When they saw each other on the Hogwarts Express, Sirius recognized that ragged, crying beggar and Severus recognized the boy who had everything he (Severus) wanted. 

Njeri discussed PS/SS Chapter 13 in <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/188518>:

<< 4. Speculate as to whether there may be numerological significance to Nicolas and Perenelle's ages (665 & 658, respectively). [Interesting: Perennial, Continuing without cessation or intermission; perpetual; unceasing; never failing. [1913 Webster] >>

IIRC the historical Nicolas Flamel's historical wife was named Perenelle or Pernel.