Platform 9 3/4 / Hufflepuff / Joining LV / Potters in hiding

[Catlady (Rita Prince]

No: HPFGUIDX 187979

Geoff discussed PS/SS Chapter 6 in <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/187943>:

<< Being a special case, would it have made more sense to arrange to take Harry directly to Hogwarts? >>

I don't think any student goes to Hogwarts without travelling on the Hogwarts Express, not even a student who lives in Hogsmeade. Especially the new first years have to go on those boats. We never find out if the leaving seventh years leave on those boats. That could be a little awkward, with people leaving school after fifth year (or sixth) year missing that boat return trip and its unknown magical effects.

Rick Kennerly asked in <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/187948>:

<< Well, if that's true, why would anybody want to be an also-ran like Hufflepuff? >>

Family tradition. I doubt that the Puffs think their House is an also-ran. Surely they think it's the best House, altho' not adequately respected by others, and that's what they tell their children.

Desire to be in the same House as an older sibling or cousin or neighbor. 

Desire NOT to be in the same House as an older sibling or cousin or neighbor (therefore taking Hufflepuff when the Hat offers it as an alternative to the unwanted House). 

Fondness for food leading to a desire to be housed near the kitchen (if the ickle firstie knew about where the Houses were located). 

Low self-esteem - I remain convinced that the reason the Hat took a long time sorting Neville was a conversation in which the Hat told him he should be in Gryffindor but he insisted that he was only good enough for Hufflepuff until the Hat told him: "A child brave enough to argue with a powerful magic artifact like me is brave enough for GRYFFINDOR!"

Pippin wrote in <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/187961>:

<< How many wizards actually join Voldemort, really join him, not just go along because they are hexed or frightened? A quarter of them? No way. There's thirty wizards in the graveyard. That's not much to show for fifty years worth of recruiting. >>

Plus a dozen who re-joined him when he broke them out of Azkaban. Plus the ones who were killed resisting arrest or died while in Azkaban. 

Oh, and plus the ones who died or were disabled from old age or experience, or possibly murdered by their impatient heirs ... some of the schoolboys recruited by schoolboy Tom Riddle would have been eaten by dragons during that there Swedish broomstick race by the time that Lord Voldemort went public.

Nikkalmati wrote in <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/187971>:

<< Harry was a year old when Lily and James were killed, so did LV wait almost a year before deciding Harry was the Prophecy Boy? It would seem so, because the Potters went into hiding only a few weeks before LV killed them and the response to the information and the request on the hilltop would make sense if they went into hiding immediately after that. >>

I believe the Potters were in hiding for a year before LV caught them. I envision that wherever they hid, soon DD's spies told him that LV had found out where they were hiding, so DD quickly moved them to another hiding place, but LV soon found out about that one, too. Since they trusted Peter to visit them in all their hiding places but Peter was LV's spy, the only delay in LV learning their latest hiding place is how long it is until Peter's next appointment to report to him.

Because LV kept finding out where the Potters were hiding, finally DD suggested the Fidelius Charm. I believe it was a week or two after that that LV finally caught them.

In <http://www.jkrowling.com/textonly/en/news_view.cfm?id=80>, JKR said: "When Harry was born, it was at the very height of Voldemort fever last time so his christening was a very hurried, quiet affair with just Sirius, just the best friend. At that point it looked as if the Potters would have to go into hiding so obviously they could not do the big christening thing and invite lots of people."

In <http://www.accio-quote.org/articles/2005/0705-tlc_mugglenet-anelli-3.htm>, she said: "At the time that they christened Harry, they were in hiding. This was not going to be a widely attended christening, because he was already in danger."