more replies, all spoilery -- Neil, are you okay?

[Rita Winston]

In lieu of
spoiler space,
I could rant
about my
lousy
cable broadband Internet connection
that lets me
have e-mail and Y!M
but refuses
to let me
access the Web
(i.e. Y!Groups)
for hours and hours
and hours and hours
AND HOURS AND HOURS
at a time,
during this vital
new!canon
period.
Whose
fault
is
it:
Comcast servers,
the physical bit of cable
for my apartment building,
or my cable modem?

While waiting for my computer to deign to show me 2496 of 2496, I
stumbled upon a better spoiler space: I decided to read BLACK DAHLIA
AVENGER by Steve Hodel. The epitaph (pro-taph? resident classicist?) is

"When I despair, I remember that all throughout history the way of Truth
and Love has always won. There have been tyrants and murderers and for a
time they can seem invincible, but in the end they always fall. Think of
it, always. -- Mahatma Gandhi"

As a devout S/R shipper, I suggested days and days ago that
Polyjuice!Tonks is NotDead!Sirius.

Around the same time that I facetiously suggested that RAB was Ronald
Arthur Bilius Weasley, grandfather of our Ron and father of our Arthur
(whom JKR on her site said was one of three brothers).

But I just now thought it might be Professor Binns, and the reason he's
a ghost is he stayed around to see Voldemort killed.

Jo mooseming wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/the_old_crowd/message/2271 :

<< Can you *do* anything with Sectumsempra? Any ideas on the linguistic
origins of this particular incantation. >>

'sempra' is 'always', like Semper Fidelis or Rictusempra. 'Sect' is to
cut or to divide, like 'dissect' and 'section'.   Like Mike the Goat
(whose post IIRC cited the word 'sectarian'), I was misled by the
notation 'For Enemies' to suspect that it was a spell to split two
friends from each other, turning them into enemies of each other.

Amy Z wrote in http://groups.yahoo.com/group/the_old_crowd/message/2307 :

<< In all those ways, she looked like the same old Hermione to me,
though she's getting more mature. In what ways do you see her acting
out of character? >>

Tim said 'She's out of character!' when she returned from her first
Ancient Runes class  complaining about the amount of homework that had
been assigned. (But I thought she was worrying rather than complaining,
and worrying IS in her character.)

Dungrollin quoted in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/the_old_crowd/message/2346 :

<< "Well, then it's natural ability!" shouted Slughorn. "You should
have seen what he [Harry] gave me, fist lesson, the Draught of
Living Death - never had a student produce finer on a first attempt,
I don't think even you, Severus -" >>

That reminds me, in PS/SS  "asphodel and wormwood make a sleeping potion
so powerful it is known as the Draught of Living Death." Not the Draught
of Living Death was a complicated mixture of many ingredients prepared
in diverse ways.

Catherine wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/the_old_crowd/message/2392 :

<< H/H hints abound as well - it is *never* made crystal clear until
well after the first 200 pages of HBP. Up until that point, I would have
said the most likely outcome was Penny's FITD. >>

I TOTALLY AGREE!!

Pippin wrote in http://groups.yahoo.com/group/the_old_crowd/message/2451 :

<< It didn't shock me when Hermione cheated to get Ron a place on the
Quidditch team >>

No, but it was bloody HYPOCRITICAL (capslock!Catlady *sigh*) from the
girl who confiscated the Fanged Frisbee (you, Pippin, may know Alan
Frisbie) and ranted at Harry about assumed FF potion cheating. It had
not occurred to me before that her flaws include hypocrisy.

Ewe2 Penguin wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/the_old_crowd/message/2476 :

<< Whose love has Snape denied? oooh.... >>

Maybe he hasn't denied anyone's love. Maybe he was loved by his mother.
Maybe he was loved, albeit inefficiently, by his abusive father. I think
he was loved (paternally, not sexually) by Dumbledore, altho' not
exclusively enough to satiate him.

Dungrollin wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/the_old_crowd/message/2494 :

<< Harry keeps finding notes where he expects Horseradish which read
"You'll have to do better than this if you want to kill him before I do,
Potter." >>

I don't expect it, but I love it! I wish I had something to say about
the Horkusses.

I am persuaded by Amanda's theory in #2395.

-- 
------------------------------------------------------------------
R ighteous
A ttractive
V ictorious
E rudite
N atural
C lassic
L ovable
A dept
W ise
------------------------------------------------------------------

         /\ /\                                          ___  ___
          + +     Mews and views                       ( @ \/ @ )
        >> = <<         from Rita Prince Winston        \ @  @ /
                                                         \ () /
                    ("`-''-/").___..--''"`-._             \  /
                    `6_ 6  )   `-.  (     ).`-.__.`)       \/
                    (_Y_.)'  ._   )  `._ `. ``-..-'
                   _..`--'_..-_/ /--'_.' ,'
                  ((('   (((-(((''  ((((