Out of sight, out of mind?

[Barry Arrowsmith]

Been doing a bit ceiling gazing.
You know what it's like - everything quiet, mind in neutral, let the 
thoughts drift along. Memories mostly. "Whatever happened to...?" I'll 
let you fill in your own blanks - mine are private.

Anyway, I  was in the same sort of reminiscent mood when I fired up the 
old iMac to see what was new on the board. And I got to wondering .... 
'cos there're characters and items from past HP books that just seemed 
to drop out of sight, too. Some will turn up again, some probably 
won't, some will  have their moment of glory or infamy - and others, 
well, it'll be "I wonder what happened to...?"

So, a little list.
Starts off with some dead certs and gets progressively more fanciful 
the further down you go.

First up, something not from the books.
Remember, oh, about 18 months back? There was a little something from 
Jo to the effect that Harry'd be getting a new pet. Haven't seen it 
mentioned for yonks. Gave it some consideration at the time (post 81563 
  'Pets-U-Like'), but nothing lately. Worth a thought or two as to what 
pet/whose pet (death stalks Hogwarts?) and unless it's a totally new 
beastie the list of potential Black Spotees is pretty limited. And no, 
I don't think you could count Buckbeak as a 'pet' - not when it's 
liable to snack on Figgy's moggies and what with there still being a 
valid death sentence on it.  Can't see that Vernon'd be happy with that 
in the spare bedroom either.  Thought my idea of Nagini was nicely 
perverse, though.

Another nudge from herself, this time round about Christmas time and on 
her website. Peter. It was one of the 'voting' questions (the one that 
won was the "With reference to my last.." question.
Peter didn't appear in OoP and we were offered the opportunity of 
getting a hint of what he'd been doing instead of traipsing round St 
Mungo's and the MoM. IIRC JKR said that the answer would have been 
interesting. We'll see. But the chances are fair that he's no longer 
just Voldy's Igor.

Third - Bagman. Yep, he's my hot favourite, too.

Krum. This book or next?

Fleur  too.

There's a missing Invisibility Cloak - the one Arthur was wearing when 
Nagini put the bite on him. Useful object. Wonder who found it?

Apparating. Harry's 17, he gets to learn to Apparate. Good for a 
fraught moment or two I'd imagine. Who'll teach him? Hmm. How about 
Madam Hooch? She's been very low profile since the first book - and 
since Brooms and Apparating both come under the heading of 
transportation..... (And why the hell is she called 'Hooch?' What's the 
connection?)

Speaking of transport - the FFA and that bloody motor bike.
To be objective, I think FFA has had it (nothing personal, Neil!); if 
it was going to turn up again the logical place would have been in 
place of the Thestrals - what's more natural than  a car on the streets 
of London (though the Nasally-vocal Newt-Fancier obviously intends to 
rectify that ASAP).
The bike, though? Outside chance, I'd think.

Norbert. A fully fledged pissed-off dragon that causes Hagrid to do 
something daft. And possibly fatal. Wishful thinking.

The Hand of Glory. Mmm. Dunno. I get the feeling that we reacted to its 
emphasis in the film more than in the book. Still, it's possible.

The Mirror of Erised seems a useful bit of kit. DD sends images to 
influence a decision of Harry's? Could be work for it yet.

Lastly the individual that characterises the title of the post. 
(There's an apocryphal story about a translating device - they fed it 
the phrase 'out of sight out of mind', translated it to Russian, then 
translated it back to English - and got 'invisible lunatic'.
So what'll Lockhart be up to? Anything?

Decent selection to choose from.
Comments and further suggestions welcome.

Kneasy