Religion in the Wizarding World. (Was: Re: Halloween Toasts)

[Nathaniel]

No: HPFGUIDX 191417

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Geoff" <geoffbannister123 at ...> wrote:
> Geoff:
> This is US English raising its head again.....
> 
> In HBP, Harry meets up with Draco in a "boys' bathroom". To a 
> British person, a "bathroom" is a "bathroom" is a "bathroom". We 
> never refer to toilets as bathrooms. The most common usage, 
> which has crept into informal speak in the last few decades is "loo"; 
> in more polite society "toilet". Lavatory has rather dropped out of 
> regular usage. In my house, we have a ground floor loo and on the 
> first floor we have a bathroom which also contains  a loo.
>

Nathaniel:
Are you sure about that? I lent out my Bloomsbury edition of CoS,* but I don't remember Moaning Myrtle's bathroom being referred to as a "loo." The Lexicon does not mention the word "bathroom" among the Americanizations of CoS:

http://www.hp-lexicon.org/about/books/cs/differences-cs.html

However, Myrtle is definitely in a room with toilets, but neither showers nor baths are ever mentioned. If there are baths or shower stalls in Myrtle's bathroom, I would think that's a better place to stew Polyjuice potion than in a toilet stall. With a proper curtain, you'd have just as much privacy, possibly more space, and it wouldn't have the unsavory aspect of being right next to a toilet.

*I do have my British Edition of GoF, and when Myrtle sees Harry in the prefects bathroom, Harry refers to it as "your [Myrtle's] bathroom."