Textbook reliablility? RE: Lupin, mon amour was Re: Page-filler Lupin [the_old_crowd]

[silmariel]

> > Silmariel:
> > > In this particular case I can't consider the lack of reliable
> sources, furbys are wide known for a long period, and being (still) second 
grade citizens, I assume they have been studied, at least for 
practical/defense questions, that includes how they transform and when - 
definitely not the case of phoenix or
> > > those so rare three headed serpents.
>

>  Pippin:
> >I wouldn't count on the textbook being accurate,
> > though. Opportunities for studying werewolves must be rare, and  it's 
possible to come up with a great deal of nonsense when studying a subject in
> absentia, as we should know only too well. Politics plays a part also.  I
>> wouldn't have guessed from Fantastic Beasts that there were folks like 
Fenrir around.
>

I don't like furbys, that's a fact. I thought the extremist part could near 
Fenris, but only in pass, I didn't even knew if they breeded or they bite. I 
saw Scamander using a light tone not to give a too bad impression, but the 
history underneath is usually bloody and violent.

Now that I know it is by bite, I have to ask myself how they reproduce, if it 
was only by accident, I think the population curve would tend to 0, so I 
assume every generation has had its share of Greybacks.

I also think if vampires are studied in DADA it's for something, howhever 
'beings' they are as a whole, but vampires have something to offer that wws 
don't: a kind of inmortality, so I see that some wizards can be seduced into 
being one (instead of 'accidented' or forced).

Eileen:
> I agree with Pippin and think this can be taken a bit further,
> considering the psychology of the wizarding world.

> Where you may not actually go hunt down the real facts about werewolves,
> but instead partially rely on the old stories. Scamander is probably
> better than most in this regard, but there's still room for problems.

But the point is, JKR sees it that way, or wizards have been experimenting and 
developing charms and potions for the last centuries?

Very extreme, that other example, I'll keep with Scamander. I'm not very 
interested in a realistic background for the evolution of the WW, but then, I 
have to ask: Any type of knowledge in every part of the world was treated 
that way, or cultures/societys made a difference? Wizards strike me as very 
international very early (they unite against muggles, half breeds and other 
species, but I haven't seen religious/terrytorial/etnic wars between them to 
create compartimentalized knowledge), with an international council in 1750.

> Certainly Snape has this problem with the Potions textbook, judging by
> his notes in the HBP textbook.
>

But potions is a complete field, evolving, do wws change so much in every 
generation, are they a field on his own instead a DADA theme?

My starting point is that wizards presume to be quite good in managing methods 
of violence and auto defense (and exterminating/subjugating anyone opposing, 
in the process). They went into hiding and have managed it via a battery of 
spells. 

Werewolfs are not studied in the name of knowledge, it's war, and while you 
can conclude they don't care about muggle world and how it goes, they have 
clear the basic facts: they don't have magic, they are obliviated this way, 
confunded that way, susceptible to this and that. I think the rules for 
wolfies are the same: they may ignore everything about them but the basics. 
We are talking of the alphabet, not scholar's knowledge.

I think the basic facts of a werewolf are when he transforms (ie, when is 
dangerous) and how to kill them, and once you get an experimental item, it's 
like (usual) vampirism, use slaves or prisoners (or muggles, if they 
transform) to reproduce that item at will, you only need one, you don't have 
to get the animal to reproduce as with a fantastic beast, it is very easy to 
have instant copies, so where you may think is rare, I think you only need to 
be lucky once (Felix Felicis). If you are out of luck actually hunting the 
werewolf, you can localice the nearings of one and set some towns to be 
predated, a recently converted child should be pretty weak and manageable. 

Umbridge worked for the Ministery, I move her some centuries in the past and 
she can do it, for the sake of the greater good, obviously, what is some 
dozens of civils killed in order to know how to effectively combat those 
beasts during the centuries?

Silmariel