Little Questions Answered v.21

[ShadowSonic]

Originally Posted by The_Green_Woods

Yes but that's not what I meant. I meant getting hit with an AK and surviving. i don't think one can get hit with an AK and still survive, which when Harry did became a thing of wonder. It was something unheard of until then. IIRC the fake Moody in GoF says that Harry Potter was the only one to survive the AK.

Well, like I said the circumstances of Harry's protection really weren't the unique. I think that when people say he's the only one they're exaggerating a bit. He's probably the only documented case of it, but not the only one in all history.

He's the highest profile case in recent history, the guy who failed it was an infamous person, it ended a major war.

So it's believable that it got exaggerated a bit.

[The_Green_Woods]

Why do you think circumstances of Harry's protection were not unique? I think they were, since Snape, Lily or Voldemort never knew something like this could occur just beacuse Voldemort decided to spare Lily for Snape.

[ShadowSonic]

Originally Posted by The_Green_Woods

Why do you think circumstances of Harry's protection were not unique? I think they were, since Snape, Lily or Voldemort never knew something like this could occur just beacuse Voldemort decided to spare Lily for Snape.

Because someone offering their lives in exchange for someone they loved...really isn't that unique a situation.

And Voldemort did know what happened. He knew exactly how the magic worked. He probably was kicking himself for letting it happen once he realized how easily he could've avoided it (just ignoring Lily or knocking her unconscious).

[The_Green_Woods]

But the protection did not come due to an exchange of lives. It came because of a desperate request by a young man who loved this girl and wanted her to be spared. He never realized that his master could be defeated by his desperate request. In fact I believe that no one there realized how the magic was working at all and definitely not to the extent that an AK could be not just repelled but rebound and destroy the castor.

I think it was more than a mother sacrificing her life for her child. It was magic herself working at her most deepest level which no one quite understood. That's why I think Harry was called the BWL

[OldMotherCrow]

The other thing going on was that it was Mr Multi Horcrux Man who got hit by the rebounding AK, and I think throwing Horcruxes into the mix of magical contracts and protection magic was what caused the destruction of Voldemort's body and the explosion that ruined the house. I think it was more than Lily's sacrifice that made the situation unique.

[ShadowSonic]

Originally Posted by The_Green_Woods

But the protection did not come due to an exchange of lives. It came because of a desperate request by a young man who loved this girl and wanted her to be spared.

Well, it's repeatedly mentioned that the Protection Spell came from Lily more than anyone else. Both DD and Voldemort said it was because of her offering her life and Voldemort accidentally agreeing to this.

Snape begged for her life...but did anything in Voldemort's flashback really show he really cared that much about what Snape wanted?

Snape himself didn't think Voldemort would care either, that's why he went to Dumbledore.

I think it was more than a mother sacrificing her life for her child. It was magic herself working at her most deepest level which no one quite understood.

But they did understand, both Voldemort and Dumbledore did. Harry himself and other also understood at the end when Harry accidentally did the same thing.

It's not just a mother sacrificing herself for her child that causes things like this, it's anyone willingly offering their life in exchange for another when they were given the chance (no matter how small) to walk away.

That's why I think Harry was called the BWL

I'd say it's also to do with the Wizarding World trying to create the image of a Messiah to scare off Death Eater remnants.

[Voldemort_Jones]

in DH Hermione says to Ron

"i could slash you through with this sword and youd die but your soul would remain untouched"

Ron is Ginger

they don't have souls

[The_Green_Woods]

The Goblet Of Fire - The Egg And The Eye

"Well, thats what Diggory thought," she said. "He lay there talking to himself for
ages about it. Ages and ages . . . nearly all the bubbles had gone. ..."
"Underwater ..." Harry said slowly. "Myrtle . . . what lives in the lake, apart from
the giant squid?"
"Oh all sorts," she said. "I sometimes go down there . . . sometimes don't have any
choice, if someone flushes my toilet when I'm not expecting it...."
Trying not to think about Moaning Myrtle zooming down a pipe to the lake with
the contents of a toilet. Harry said, "Well, does anything in there have a human
voice? Hang on.

It looks like the Hogwarts toilets are flushed into the lake.

I wonder how the judges agreed to hold the second task there? Hostages would be kept in the lake for a longer time, time when people were flushing toilets into them? That's frankly pretty disgusting.

Plus what about the creatures that lived there? Were people okay with dumping everything into the lake and does anyone know if the lake was a fresh water one. I had always thought it was until this registered. Then I wondered from where Hogwarts and the town of Hogsmeade got their drinking water from?

[OldMotherCrow]

Originally Posted by The_Green_Woods

It looks like the Hogwarts toilets are flushed into the lake.

I wonder how the judges agreed to hold the second task there? Hostages would be kept in the lake for a longer time, time when people were flushing toilets into them? That's frankly pretty disgusting.

Plus what about the creatures that lived there? Were people okay with dumping everything into the lake and does anyone know if the lake was a fresh water one. I had always thought it was until this registered. Then I wondered from where Hogwarts and the town of Hogsmeade got their drinking water from?

I don't worry too much about it, since Hogwarts castle is itself highly magical, and it may well take care of transfiguring waste products that it produces before expelling them into the surrounding countryside. Its not really a level of detail that the books delved into.

[Dedalus Diggle]

The lake is vast. I am pretty sure it is freshwater - a typical Scottish loch. What with the herds of sheep and cattle and the scattering of towns and farmsteads, these lochs have had waste washing into them for centuries, and remain clean. The bacteria, etc. of the loch eat it up and are in turn eaten. That's a wonderful natural process, that nearly all wastes are food for something else, and thence are worked back through the food chain again and again. Hogwarts is the size of a large town, but not even a very small city. You would not want to hang out at the end of the sewage pipe, but further than 100 feet or so, the effluent will be neutralized and diluted enough so as to not be an issue.

Originally Posted by Voldemort_Jones

in DH Hermione says to Ron

"i could slash you through with this sword and youd die but your soul would remain untouched"

Ron is Ginger

they don't have souls

Not funny.

[purplehawk]

Originally Posted by Dedalus Diggle

The lake is vast. I am pretty sure it is freshwater - a typical Scottish loch. What with the herds of sheep and cattle and the scattering of towns and farmsteads, these lochs have had waste washing into them for centuries, and remain clean. The bacteria, etc. of the loch eat it up and are in turn eaten. That's a wonderful natural process, that nearly all wastes are food for something else, and thence are worked back through the food chain again and again. Hogwarts is the size of a large town, but not even a very small city. You would not want to hang out at the end of the sewage pipe, but further than 100 feet or so, the effluent will be neutralized and diluted enough so as to not be an issue.

Thanks for this post. I was feeling rather yucky after the question was raised.

[twinsrule26]

Originally Posted by Dedalus Diggle

The lake is vast. I am pretty sure it is freshwater - a typical Scottish loch. What with the herds of sheep and cattle and the scattering of towns and farmsteads, these lochs have had waste washing into them for centuries, and remain clean. The bacteria, etc. of the loch eat it up and are in turn eaten. That's a wonderful natural process, that nearly all wastes are food for something else, and thence are worked back through the food chain again and again. Hogwarts is the size of a large town, but not even a very small city. You would not want to hang out at the end of the sewage pipe, but further than 100 feet or so, the effluent will be neutralized and diluted enough so as to not be an issue.

Just to add ,many large lakes have their own currents flowing around in them and can just like oceans and seas be affected by lunar tidal pull .Whenever and wherever a river or large stream enters a lake it sets up currents that can move sediments about and spread them over vast areas thus diluting them to safe levels.

[The_Green_Woods]

Thanks for all the answers. Makes me feel better. I was feeling rather yucky myself.

[twinsrule26]

I've been thinking about the answers about the lake on this page . I think it is possible that after 1000 years of Hogwarts sewers emptying into the lake, the lake's flora , fauna and micro organisms ,could have adapted to and grown dependent upon the Hogwarts sewer discharge to keep them alive and well fed.

Ok new Question. The centaurs live in the forest, do they have a village or houses in there, or are they like a herd of horses and just roam around wherever they feel like ?

[Dedalus Diggle]

Of course, all we see is them roaming about. We can only speculate about their domesticity. Even horses, though, in a climate like that would need and seek shelter part of the year. It would make sense that beings with the intelligance and ability to create accomodations for themselves would do so. Perhaps they are troglodytes, but that seems unwise and uncomfortable with hooves. We never see the females, but they must be around someplace, which suggests settlements/homes of some sort - unless they are more people-averse than the males are. One other clue from the books would be that the merpeople have rude villages, though they live similarly close to the elements. My vote is for them having built shelters of some sort, deep in the forest, perhaps adjacent to caves for better storm protection and a warmer location during the coldest weather.

[wolfbrother]

Speaking of centaurs, can they use wands? What about elves, goblins etc? If I remember correctly, goblins are denied use of wands which implies that they _can_ do magic with a wand.

[twinsrule26]

Originally Posted by wolfbrother

Speaking of centaurs, can they use wands? What about elves, goblins etc? If I remember correctly, goblins are denied use of wands which implies that they _can_ do magic with a wand.

We never see Centaurs using wands so there is no way to say yes or no .
Elves don't seem to need a wand to channel their magical abilities .They seem to get along fine without them.
Goblins as you say are denied wands .This leads me to think that they could use a wand if they had one. There were Goblin rebellions . That leads me to think ,that if you're fighting wizards who have wands ,then you must be able to do strong magic without a wand, to have a chance to live through that fight .

[twinsrule26]

Help.

Somewhere in HBP I think it is, Slughorn says he used house elves as food tasters, but I can't find it can somebody give me the chptr.or page?

[purplehawk]

It's in the chapter "After the Burial."

[MrSleepyHead]

Page 485, American paperback

HBP, Ch. 22, After the Burial, Pg. 485, American, PB Slughorn uncorked one of the bottles of wine he had brought. "I have had it all tested for poison," he assured Harry, pouring most of the first bottle into one of Hagrid's bucket-sized mugs and handing it to Hagrid. "Had a house-elf taste every bottle after what happened to your poor friend Rupert." Harry saw, in his mind's eye, the expression on Hermione's face if she ever heard about this abuse of house-elves, and decided never to mention it to her.