Conversation_Alley

Help!

2008-08-03T14:24:20Z

How old is Draco when Lucius is sent to Azkaban? And do the Malfoy family have a motto in canon?

Quick Query

2008-06-07T15:14:26Z

Is there an absolute Canon definitive (as in, in the seven books rather than in something JKR has said in interview) as to the age gap between Bellatrix Black and the Marauders?

The Black Sisters

2007-07-16T17:56:56Z

Okay, so is there anything in canon apart from the bit in OOTP that says what the age difference between Bellatrix, Narcissa and Andromeda Black is?

The bit in OOTP implies (though it doesn't precisely say) that the order is from oldest to youngest:

Bella
Andromeda
Narcissa

(I've not got onto book 6 re-read yet, so if there's anything in there I may well have forgotten it.)

Is this vouched for elsewhere/by JKR? Is there any reason why two of them couldn't be twins (just with the elder twin marked first) - or, hell, why they couldn't be triplets (apart from sheer improbability, obviously, which is beside the point!)?

If there's a definite age gap, does it say anywhere what that age gap IS?

(Yes, I have fanfic writer's angst here, does it show?!?)

Which year

2007-06-24T18:17:32Z

Okay, so a friend and I were discussing which year/era we'd like to be at Hogwarts in. For example - did we want to be in Harry's year? In James's? In Tom Riddle's? Or a couple of years above Harry (in, um, Oliver Wood's year, for example?) or at school with one of the elder Weasley brothers?

She was torn between a crush on Bill Weasley and one on Sirius Black.

I have a particular liking for Remus Lupin and Lily Evans. BUT. I took at look at that era and reckoned I would not be cool enough for Lily or Sirius; that James wouldn't be interested; that I did NOT want to spend time with Peter; and that Remus wouldn't notice I existed.

Gods, it was a horrible experience, actually. I could feel all the nightmares of what it was like at school for me in reality (and I went to an all girls' school, so there wasn't even too much male issues) linked with the thoughts.

So. Yes. Being of a peaceful state of mind, probably I'd like to go in the years after Harry defeated Voldemort for the first time, so everyone would be happy and not worried. Or I'd like to be in the year beneath Harry, as I'm sure I'd be a Ravenclaw (though the last 'which house?' quiz had me level for ALL FOUR - how impressive is that? - but somehow gave me Gryffindor for no apparent reason) and I could stop them bullying Luna, which is just shameful.

hp_conversation @ 2007-05-05T10:31:00

2007-05-05T09:31:39Z

Has the death of Dumbledore exploded the chess theory?

hp_conversation @ 2006-08-04T10:43:00

2006-08-04T09:44:21Z

Since I wrote up The Trials Theory, and shared with Mum the idea that Harry will lose his magic, we have been discussing what might happen in book 7. Mum points out that if Harry loses his magic, Voldemort's veins will no longer contain the blood of a wizard and therefore the spell at the end of book 4 will no longer be valid and he will dissolve into a hand, a bone and a splash of blood. Which would be very interesting.
We also talk a lot about Ron's death, and also Pettigrew (well, if Harry loses his magic, he'll need someone to fight for him because he'll be pretty defenseless...though I suppose he could get out the sword of Gryffindor again) and I half-jokingly suggested that Ron and Pettigrew could die together protecting Harry. Mum looked gleeful and said
"Yes, and Ron's last words could be 'Scabbers'!"
There was much horrified shrieking and mad giggling and we eventually thought that as last words go, they really are atrocious.

SO, let's have a horrendous last words game! What would be the worst possible last words for anyone in the Potter-verse? Can we beat 'Scabbers!' for sheer trauma factor? I have faith that we can :-)

Cross-posted to my own LJ

hp_conversation @ 2006-07-23T23:23:00

2006-07-23T22:24:24Z

Cross-posted to hptheories

What Significance do the trials for the Philosopher's Stone have for the books as a whole?

There is also a bit at the bottom about the location of the Horcruxes in which I suggest that Harry himself is a Horcrux.

hp_conversation @ 2006-07-21T23:41:00

2006-07-21T22:41:18Z

I had a thought about GoF that I never had before while I was watching the court scene with Karkaroff and the Crouches. In the movie, it's very different from in the book - Barty Crouch Jr is all suave and sneaky and then gets zapped and is all "And so's your mom, loser!" and Barty Senior is all ;_; Whereas in the book, Barty Jr very young and weeping and wailing. And I got to thinking why. Because he quite plainly felt the way Bellatrix did - that it was okay to go to prison, he remained loyal all the way, he didn't want to wriggle out of it, he was PROUD of what he did. Yet he was having a right old go at wriggling out of it. Or seemed to be. And I have come to the conclusion that he was actually doing it as a big stunt to help his father's fall from grace. Not enough that his son went to Azkaban, better to send a crying, hysterical boy to Azkaban and de-cry him as not his son. According to Sirius, that really was the bit that meant Barty Crouch Sr lost everything and didn't get the Ministry job. If it was a big "stunt" to get some final revenge, it worked brilliantly. Just my thought of the day really!

hp_conversation @ 2006-05-20T11:12:00

2006-05-20T10:17:32Z

Peter has a toe missing as a rat AND as a human (well, it's a finger when he's a human but you know what I mean) and I was wondering whether this is inevitably the case - whether, whatever you're missing when you're human you don't have as an animal animagus.

Obviously, even if you have all your limbs as a human you won't have any if you transform into a snake! But then I was thinking - if you're missing one arm, say, as a person, how many legs do you have as a beetle? Five? Or less than that, because your one arm would translate into one-and-a-bit legs?

And teeth. Sirius, in the film, has bad teeth as a human. Does he also have bad teeth as a dog? And if he lost all of his teeth, would he then be a toothless dog? And if so...

would the same thing happen with werewolves? Could you stop werewolves being able to transform so many people by forcing them to have all of their teeth pulled?

(I should get more sleep.)

Time at Hogwarts

2006-03-12T16:10:16Z

I saw mention of the bell at Hogwarts, but how else do students tell time? I assume they go by a normal clock: Umbridge declares all students must be in their common rooms by six o'clock, and once we get "By eight o'clock, Madam Pince had extinguished all the lamps and came to chivvy Harry out of the library."

Students don't wear watches, so I'm guessing there are clocks scattered around the school. Are they possibly mentioned somewhere? How would a student wandering the halls know when his secret eleven o'clock meeting was coming up?

Harry's full name

2006-03-01T18:40:30Z

I think I read somewhere that we've never seen Harry's full first name, and there is some speculation that it's not "Harold" but really just "Harry." Wouldn't surprise me; I've seen people named Vicky and Joey and other strange things. But...

Wouldn't it be funny if his first name was Harrison? I just find the idea very amusing.

Carry on :)

Animagus forms

2006-02-24T19:49:10Z

Are animagus forms chosen, or inherent?

I can't recall any details in a book that conclusively say one way or the other (yes, I *am* going to re-read them but there is the matter of borrowing them ;)). I thought at first they were chosen, as part of the "becoming an animagus" process, but now I'm not so sure. Perhaps the form you take reflects something of your personality. It's possible that Rita Skeeter didn't become an insect animagus because she was a journalist, but the other way around.

What would that mean, if the animal form wasn't something you got to choose? Someone could spend a few years becoming an animagus only to discover their alternate form was.... a lizard. Or something boring. But perhaps it wouldn't be boring *to them*, and that's part of the magic. Only the kind of person who will get use out of turning into a rat actually has a rat as his animagus form.

I wonder if there is a spell or something to see what form you would take? Why aren't there more animagi?

Head Boy/Girl question

2006-02-22T01:41:04Z

Do we know, based on what's in the books, if there is a Head Boy and Girl for each House, or is it just one of each for the entire school? I saw a fic where it was the latter and did a double take, because I had assumed it was one per House.

p.s. I have a ton of "do we know X based on just the books" questions -- is this the right community, or is there a better place to ask? Any direction would be much appreciated.

hp_conversation @ 2006-01-10T02:43:00

2006-01-10T08:47:15Z

Question.

Why didn't they give Sirius Black truth potion?

I mean...they had him. And they say that Voldemort himself would spill his secrets if he was given a few drops of it. So...what gives?

Hmmm....

hp_conversation @ 2005-12-13T18:35:00

2005-12-13T18:31:40Z

...why couldn't it've been follow the butterfly?

A Bizarre Theory

2005-09-26T19:27:13Z

Okay, I was just re-reading HP6, and I came across this description:

"the vulture-like countenance appeared round the corner... sunken cheeks, skin like parchment and long hooked nose illuminated unflatteringly" (p288 British edition. A few words missing.)

Now, is it just me, or does that sound very much like a description of Snape?

It's not. It's a description of Madam Pince, the librarian. And then I was thinking... Pince. Hmm, sounds rather like PRINCE, doesn't it? And what was Snape's mother's maiden name? Prince. Is there any relationship there, possibly?

I know, it's improbable. But if it turns out to be true, I suggested it, and if it doesn't, I never really believed it anyway :-P

hp_conversation @ 2005-09-25T09:07:00

2005-09-25T08:09:35Z

One of my friends pointed out that Harry's rejection of a relationship with Ginny at the end of book 6 is a really bad move on his part. Dumbledore has spent the whole book saying that what Harry has over Voldemort is his ability to love and be loved, yet at the end of book 6, he's shown rejecting that love. Isn't this precisely the wrong thing for him to do?

hp_conversation @ 2005-08-26T21:09:00

2005-08-27T04:09:17Z

This is a wild half-assed idea about the end of HP7 that came to me earlier this week. I don't even want to call this a "theory", because it's kind of out there, but what the heck.

OK, so here's the way this goes.

1. We know that Harry's scar was inflicted during Voldemort's attack on him when he was a baby and that the scar gives him a connection to LV.

2. Part of this Harry-Voldemort connection involves a transfer of at least some of Voldemort's powers over to Harry. I'm thinking in particular of the fact that Harry is a Parselmouth.

3. What if the scar gave Harry more powers than just the ability to speak to snakes? What if Harry is actually a Squib, and the only reason why he's a wizard is because his scar gives him some of Voldemort's magical abilities? [Note that powerful wizard parents don't necessarily have magically gifted kids. Observe Neville's almost-Squibness in books 1-4, despite the fact that his parents were powerful Aurors.]

4. There's been speculation flying around since HBP came out that Harry's scar is a one of Voldemort's Horcruxes. As said above, certainly the scar connects Harry to Voldemort, and being a Horcrux would certainly explain this connection. Let's suppose that the scar is in fact a Horcrux.

5. Assuming that the scar/Horcrux can be destroyed without killing Harry, then afterwards, Harry would revert to being a Squib. In other words, he would only be able to defeat Voldemort by giving up his magic and his active involvement in the Wizarding World. This would be a far more devastating sacrifice than if he were to have to die.

So that's my half-assed pseudo-theory -- that Harry killing Voldemort might require him giving up his magic. I'm not saying that I think this is going to happen. I don't even know if this is consistent with canon, since I haven't really done much digging below the surface to find out. But I'd love to hear what any of you have to say about it.

hp_conversation @ 2005-07-18T08:28:00

2005-07-18T07:28:21Z

Spoilers beneath. No, really.

Nobody else has started posting spoilers and thoughts here, so I thought I'd be the first :)

Firstly, it appears that I can now see slash in everything. Sorry, but you've been warned.

Secondly, perhaps I should make it clear that I really liked this book. I thought it was far better than OOTP, and I loved a lot of things about it. People seem to think that if I ask questions/comment/nitpick it means that I don't like something. Actually, it means quite the opposite. If I didn't like something, I'm not interested enough to do this. The more I do this, the more I liked it.

1. What happened to the Marauders in this book? They took a fairly central position in OOTP (if I'm honest, one of the things I liked about the book, which is still my least favourite) and yet were dropped from this one like stone.
Sirius - dead and practically ignored. No one mentions him much, except to suggest Sirius/Tonks. We still don't know what the bloody hell the veil was, the mirrors have been ignored and Harry's grief is pretty strongly submerged.
James - at the end of OOTP, Harry's sitting around feeling like his father was pretty nasty, and feeling miserable about it. This book - no James at all. Huh?
Lupin - I mean, come on: he's still alive. Couldn't we just have a go at putting him in the book a bit more? Apart from the fact that it clearly takes him so long to pair up with Tonks because he's got to grieve Sirius first.
Peter - is put in near the beginning and then totally ignored, just as he was pushed aside in OOTP. Well, come on, tell us - what's his motivation? And what's with the slashy subtext about him and Snape?

2. Dumbledore's hand. Although he apparently did it fighting a horcrux so we know the general gist of how it happened, he several times promises to tell Harry the whole tale and never does. Why not? Because he'll have to admit that it's slowly killing him?

3. It's too easy for Snape to be evil now. Don't think there's any way that he can be, really. Am STILL burning to know why Dumbledore trusts him (and am not going to suggest, no no no, not going to suggest a slashy reason for it). But, you know, there are several ways (hand, potion, old age) in which Dumbledore seemed to be dying before Snape killed him, and various suggestions that Dumbledore wanted it done (conversation in forest, the pleading which couldn't be to prevent "the next great adventure" given D's earlier comments, his insistance that Harry find Snape). And Snape yet again protects Harry from the Death Eaters and doesn't kill him when he easily could.

4. I wish Dumbledore hadn't spent the whole book saying "I'm really clever, me" - or variations on a theme. It began to annoy me.

5. I felt there were too many new characters introduced and too many old ones dumped or used very sparingly. Yes, okay, we've got Kingsley Shacklebolt moved to the PM's office - but then not mentioned again. Lee Jordan has now totally disappeared. Even Neville and Luna are given bit-part roles, despite being major players in the last book (and okay, I never liked Luna much, but still...). Wasn't there someone who had at least been mentioned before to make Minister? Or to bring in as Potions teacher? Why not Lee J as the Weasley Twins' assistant? What was the point of McLaggen?

6. Lily's eyes. Have some hypnotic quality about them, presumably. Or rather, Harry's inherited eyes like Lily's with the same sort of power. Which helps him get Slughorn's memory out of him, presumably, given that there's a big bit about how Slughorn can't stop looking into his eyes even when he wants to turn away.

7. Felix Felicis. A useful device, just as the timeturner was. Similarly hole-filled and difficult to use as an idea. It worked, but she might have been better off without it. (And, incidentally, I couldn't help but notice the destruction of all the other time-turners. Let's get rid of an awkward plot device that has served its purpose but is begging for too many other uses.)

8. And of course I'm disappointed by the threatened lack of school story side to the last book. As a s.s. fanatic, what are my feelings supposed to be now? I feel robbed.

9. It is entertaining that the title translates to "Harry Potter and Severus Snape", though, isn't it?

10. Doesn't Harry look at his Potions book and find that it's 50 years old? This put me off the scent of Snape as HBP, after he'd been my first thought, so surely I haven't dreamt this. But if the book were that old, then Snape would have had to have it second hand himself, because he certainly wasn't at school 50 years ago. That would make him just a few years younger than Voldey. Which he isn't. He's significantly younger and the same age as the Marauders.

11. Tonks. I'm uncomfortable with the characterisation of her in HBP. There are a couple of problems I find in her inability to do magic whilst upset. Firstly... in PS/SS, at the beginning, wasn't it suggested that Harry's magic came out precisely when he was upset or angry? (Even magic of an unnervingly metamorphmagus kind: he was upset that he was going to have to go to school bald, and his hair grew back.) Okay, maybe it becomes less controlled - you could have had fun with Tonks ending up looking like all sorts of things as a result of not being totally in control of the metamorphasising.

But I'm also unhappy that we seemed to get a cool adult female in OOTP, and she turns into a bit of a state because she's in love and it's all unhappy. Meh. Uncomfortably close to a bit of a stereotype. Why not have Lupin having those problems? Why pick on the female to get all upset?

12. The Half-Blood Prince business. Now, this is slightly more arguable, but if James and Sirius used Snape's spells against him, aren't they likely to have been reading his books? And therefore, aren't they likely to have come across the fact that he's calling himself the 'Half-Blood Prince'? And come on - if they knew that, then Lupin would have known too, surely? And mentioned it to Harry when he asked?

hp_conversation @ 2005-07-16T22:13:00

2005-07-16T21:13:44Z

Remember to lj cut all spoilers please! :)

MOD POST

2005-06-17T21:25:24Z

Okay, since it's now less than a month before Half-Blood Prince is released so I thought I'd better post on here with the spoiler policy. Obviously we want lots and lots of discussion about HBP but we don't want to spoil it for anyone who hasn't read it. So all HBP conversations MUST be under an LJ cut. Information on how to make LJ cuts here. I don't know exactly how long that'll be done for but it'll be for a while. Don't assume that everyone will have read it - people sometimes are very busy.

I look forward to the discussions! :)

hp_conversation @ 2005-06-11T15:10:00

2005-06-11T14:16:58Z

There seems to be more than one implication in OOTP that Sirius and Remus are a couple. I wasn't looking for it, but things keep popping up at me.

Firstly: "Lupin, who was staying in the house [12 Grimmauld Place] with Sirius..."

Well, hmm... Harry, Hermione and the entire Weasley family (excepting Percy, obviously) are staying in 12 Grimmauld Place - but not "with Sirius"...

Secondly, the fact that Sirius and Remus give Harry a joint birthday present. Now, every present I give (except to people who I know but my husband Jay doesn't) comes from "Sabethea and Jay". But I have only once, since I became an adult, given a joint present with someone else (and that was with my sisters for my mother, not that you needed to know that).

Remus never bothered looking up Harry at any point in the past, and has never given him a present at any other time. Why is he now giving joint presents with Sirius?

hp_conversation @ 2005-06-02T21:26:00

2005-06-03T02:30:04Z

fckingcute_

"Professor" R.J. Lupin

2005-05-28T15:13:00Z

Okay, I was just re-reading POA, and I read the following line:

The name 'Professor R.J. Lupin' was stamped across one corner [of his case] in peeling letters.

This suddenly intrigued me. Was Lupin a Professor (either at Hogwarts or elsewhere) before? In previous years?

If not, why is "Professor" on his suitcase in peeling letters? I understand that he's poor, and therefore he'll have a battered case - but either he's added the letters recently, when he got the job, in which case they shouldn't be peeling; or he's added them a long time ago, in which case how come he's put "Professor" on his case?

You can call me nit-picky, but I like to construct huge theories based on little lines, so mine is that he was once a professor somewhere else, until the really stringent werewolf laws came into being, at which point he had to register himself and was thrown out :)

OR... there was an accident with a student, which is why when he finds out that there was NEARLY one at Hogwarts, he's so determined to leave immediately.

hp_conversation @ 2005-04-07T04:48:00

2005-04-07T08:53:51Z

What do you suppose are the wizarding 'creation myths'?

Now, by this I don't mean 'Where did the world come from?' I mean 'Where did WIZARDS come from?' and, more to the point 'Who was the first person in our Pureblood line?' EDIT: And, more to the point, what to Wizards TELL themselves as to where they came from?

I can only see three options, really...

1. Wizards are seen as Muggles-plus-something-extra (Wizards grew from Muggles)
2. Muggles are Wizards without something (Wizards came first and then Muggles lost their magic)
3. Both came from something else (there was a proto-Wizard/Muggle which split into two 'species' via some evolutionary process, act of magic, act of $DEITY, whatever.)

Now, all three really have their shortfalls from a Pureblood POV...the first requires you to believe that the 'Head' of your line was likely Muggleborn, the second requires you to see Muggles as being kin to Wizards, and the third is just harder to comprehend and requires attempting to place an ancestor at the beginning that was neither, and seeing someone as NEITHER Wizard or Muggle is probably a brainbender (then what WERE they?)

(My personal belief is that 1 makes the most logical sense, though admittedly I'm speaking as someone who's a Muggle and would see not!Wizard as the default, but I wouldn't be surprised at all to hear that Purebloods believed the second). But what does everyone else think?