Underground Lake #25 - A Letter

[navygreen]

Discussion for The Underground Lake #25 - A Letter by Brandon Ford.

[P K]

Hmmm...interesting questions. I particularly enjoyed the one about dung/Umbridge. Good luck to Brandon on getting them answered.

[Desraelda]

As to #1 ... Remember when Cuaron wanted to put a graveyard into movie #3 and she wouldn't let him because he had put it in the wrong place? She said she's always known where the graveyard is. That indicates to me that (1) the graveyard is significant and we will see it (hopefully on 7/16) and (2) she probably does have a map.

Good questions. Hopefully, she'll clear up the mystery of the lost day.

[16ftGrawp]

She said before that she doesn't have a map of the inside of Hogwarts, but she does have one of the outside.

--- Great Editorial ---

[red_dragon311]

Ok I am going on record as saying that THESE questions should have been voted on not the ones we got to pick from. half the ones we voted on, where...well, we could learn anything from them.

exp

the wormtail one, where was wormtail, red herring, THAT is a very good question.

[PCAP928]

Love the editorial really great good luck on getting the questions answered

[QueenLindzi]

I think in an interview with Alfonso Cuaron, JKR gave him a map of the grounds after she told him about the graveyard. It would be interesting to look at.

These questions are quite good. Vampires were mentioned in Book 3 and probably in others which makes me question if we will see them. I hope so. I think it was Seamus Finnigan who suggested that their next DADA teacher would be a vampire.

I think in HBP, we will finally find out what the creatures Voldemort will send for the "army of creatures whom all fear". There is a Dark Mark on the back of the cover which, in my opinion, gives the most away. I think that this will be the book that those creatures will be introduced especially since the real war is starting.

I agree with red_dragon311 and wonder what Wormtail is really up to. I think that I remember JKR saying something about how we will find out where he was in the next book.

[EthanL90]

Great questions! Queen Lindzi, I'm pretty sure you can see the map at Harry Potter lexicon. They showed it on the HP DVD and I guess the lexicon got a screenshot of it. It's just the outside but it's cool to look at.

[AngelOfHell90]

Great questions, I hope some of them get answered!

[GryffinofHope]

well, here we go

1.she said theres no map, its magic, so it can't be done, constantly changing, so the inside is impossible,

13.Karkaroff went to Hogwarst, in book 4, im pretty sure it says he returned to hogwarts, so he would have been english, but moved to bulgaria later or soemthing like that

15. i believe she said France because she is a French teacher in an interview

19. JK says theres 1000 students at hogwarts, that seems a little big though...

[QueenLindzi]

Thanks, EthanL90! I'll take a look at it.

As for question #16, I think we will see Fleur and Krum again. As Fleur Delacour herself said, "We will see each uzzer again, I 'ope. I am 'oping to get a job 'ere, to improve my Eenglish." In PoA, Lupin told Harry that they will see each other again and that proved true. I think we will for sure see Fleur and Krum soon. It will help boost International Cooperation. I hope they will join the Order! Last I heard, Bill was teaching her English. Maybe she will be in the Order soon enough.

[Takwin]

There may be nearly 1000 students at Hogwarts. In OotP Ch. 12, Harry yells at Umbridge while thirty classmates stare (pg. 246). This means there are thirty one students in the class. And if I remember correctly, the class is composed only of Gryffindors. Mulitply by seven years and four houses to get a grand total of 868 students at Hogwarts.

[Kandybar]

Number 19 has always driven me crazy....if there's 1000 students at Hogwarts, that's ~250 per house (since the Sorting Hat chooses by character traits, it can be assumed that some years there's more Hufflepuffs than Slytherins, and so forth), and approximately 35 or 36 kids per year in each house, where are the other 25 Gryffindors in Harry's year that we never hear about? We have five boys: Harry, Ron, Neville, Dean, Seamus; and three girls: Hermoine, Lavender, and Parvati. Where is everyone else, and why do the trio never interact with them, even in classes?

[Dyrnwyn]

1) Other people have answered this well enough, I just wanted to say how cool it would be to have one.
2) We've heard about vampire laws a little when Percy starts ranting, and even though he doesn't finish it's made perfectly clear that you can't just go attack vampires just because you hate them.
3) From canon it sounds like an appointment, because they wanted Dumbledore, but when he said no it apparantly just went straight to Fudge.
4) The Wizengamot seems like the wizard equivalent of the Supreme Court.
5) That is most likely just a typo/error/mistake/etc. The way the world became a giant party when Harry took him down, I'd say he was pretty violent right up to the end.
6) We've definitely got dementors, giants, goblins if he can persuade them, trolls if they aren't deemed too stupid, and there's always the possibility of vampires and/or werewolves. Then some of the think Lupin taught in third year. Seems like enough, doesn't it?
7) Dissendium appeared as instruction BEFORE Harry even said it. Therefore a Patronus most likely wouldn't. Harry and Hermione are another story. Lupin didn't mention it, but he would have seen. Either time travel is too complex for the Map to track, or Lupin realized what happened and knew he couldn't say anything, explaining even further his comment that "the map is never wrong".
8) Because Mr. Weasley works in the Ministry! Regardless of what Department he's in, he'll have known what was going on. This is reinforced by his claim earlier in the book that "the ministry has pulled us all of our regular jobs to look for him (Sirius)". This shows that the whole Ministry is in on everything (Except the DOM, of course).
9) This one is alot harder because we don't know exactly how much authority the ministry has over Hogwarts. They've all got to be pretty extreme.
10) This is probably a force-of-habit typo. Usually, when you put something in quotations, you're going to be starting with a capital letter. Not always, but this could easily have led to this.
11) I actually have no answer for this. Wow.
12) Something tells me that's not how it works, what with the planets. I read a brilliant theory once that it keeps track of his time travel, which is part of the theory, him time travelling alot. Personally the planets lead me believe it might have something to do with the centaurs's form of Divination. Centaurs hate wizards in general- perhaps this leads to their respect for Dumbledore?
13) What says he's from Bulgaria? We only know he was headmaster of Durmstrang AFTER he was released. Nothing says that's what he did before being a Death Eater. Even so, he was clearly caught in ENGLAND committing murders in.... ENGLAND!
14) I think he made his move in England only (at most, the U.K.), because it would be foolish to scatter your forces like that. Eleven years and there was still heavy resistance. Seems like he needed to be pretty focused.
15) Someone said JKR claimed it was because she was a French teacher. I never heard this, but I'll assume it's true. Bulgaria may have just been geographically convenient, being a good distance apart from each of the other two.
16) Definitely not Fleur, she's been mentioned again already and she's local now. Krum clearly hates Karkaroff, and though this may just be to make it clear to us that Krum's not a bad guy, I think it means we'll be seeing him again as well, possibly as a member of the Order.
17) No answer again.
18) The dragon thing is just a rumor, you know. As in, might not be true. How are goblins getting past a dragon? How will it survive down there?
19) I've stopped worrying about this one, because frankly I don't think it makes any plot-significant difference.
20) Personally, I read all your articles on that and it's good stuff.
21) I once submitted an editorial on this but it wasn't accepted. James and Voldemort WERE dueling, though I doubt this would be enough. It also occurred to me that other than his little scar, HARRY WAS TOTALLY FINE. If the house collapsed... you'd think he'd be in some trouble. This could be some magical defense from baby Harry, but if not, what happened? Maybe he was moved while someone else destroyed the house, and then put back.
22) Looks good to me, but like the Lost Day, I really have no right to say more than that.
23) The book states clearly where everything is, and I don't remember there being an unexplained level. Also, isn't the atrium level one? That would make a possible unexplained level somewhere else (I don't have my book next to me).
24) I definitely think you're right about this one, he does seem fairly unbothered by this knowledge.
25) I think Harry will have one of his "real dreams" where he sees Voldemort breaking them out, and torturing the living daylights out of them for failing to defeat 6 students, outnumbering them 2-1. Doesn't reflect too well on their abilities, does it?

Sorry if my attempts offended anyone, because they're bound to make me seem arrogant. Really, I'm not arrogant, I just have too much free time

[cenzonico]

Brandon
Take heart old bean! Your questions deserve to be answered. I'm sure it's nothing personal if they don't get answered personally. People you are associated with are going to have the pleasure, maybe you should ask one of them to carry a personal letter. What the hell? What's the worst that could happen? No one delivers it? JKR accidentally loses it?

What's the best thing that could happen? She would answer them!

Go for it bro. Stranger things have happened. Maybe you don't even need to send the letter. But ....

[muggle2005]

Awseome idea to get Jo's attention. who knows, maybe she'll answer some. I would like to know a few myself, and your very obsevervant with the Dung thing.

[NeonDisease]

The 1000 Students things seems accurate (aside from the fact that JKR confirmed this). I spent time a few days ago calculating this very thing. In PoA during the finaly Quidditch game it says (I'm paraphrasing, no ready copy of the book here) that three-fourths of the crowd were wearing scarlet in support of Gryffindor, while the other ~200 were wearing green. So that's about 800 total, or 200 per House, about 28 or 29 students per House per year. If the gender ratio is approx. 50/50, 14 will be male. 4 boys live in Harry's dormitory, so if there are two other male Harry's-year dormitories, they will each house 5 boys (or more, or less, I'm just estimating for simplicity's sake).

Now, that leaves us with 3 dormitory rooms per gender per year per House. That's quite a lot of rooms with four-poster beds! 168, in fact, if I've done my math right (feel free to correct!). If each House Common Room has two spiral staircases (boys' and girls'), then each one has 21 rooms branching off of it. Those must be pretty long staircases. 42 rooms total, per House. It makes more sense, now, to think about the "Common Room Party" scenes in which the Gryffindor common room is described as very noisy and very crowded. 200 people in a small space could definately make enough noise to rouse McGonagall!

Thanks for reading through my ramblings! I'm statistics-oriented, so I enjoy thinking about these things.


4 Days!

[technophobe]

I have to say, "Thank you" for not asking those tired questions we normally hear! I get bored with them, I can't imagine how JKR feels...

I must say, the whole "Lost Day" thing intrigues me, as well. Heck, the whole Voldy-attacking-the-Potters intrigues me. Not to mention confuses.

I think you could perhaps be on to something with No. 11: uses of dragon blood. That was on Dumbledore's Chocolate Frogy card right? Hey, it worked for the whole Nick Flamel plot line, it could happen again!

[PhoenixFire]

Ok, I loved the questions. I think a couple of them have been answered though. Beauxbatons and Drumstrang, along with Hogwarts, make up the three largest wizarding schools (pg. 165 UK edition OotP). Also, I think JK has stated that we will see at least Fleur in the future, but I don't know about Krum (but, he seemed to want to come back to Hogwarts).
But, what really made me sit up and take notice was Question number 8 I think - WHY DID MOODY SAY THAT ABOUT RON'S DAD?!?!?!

UK Edition OotP Page 188:
"'Er' said Ron tentatively, 'my dad told me about one...is it called the Imperius curse, or something?"
"'Ah, yes,' said Moody appreciately. 'Your father would know that one. Gave the Ministry a lot of trouble at one time, the Imperius Curse.'

When I first read it - I thought - well Mr. Weasley works for the Ministry that is why he knew about it - that is before we find out who Moody really is. Was Arthur under the curse? Hmm, that is really an interesting quesion to ponder.

[RJLupin3_14]

Is there any proof Durmstrang is in Bulgaria? Krum plays for Bulgaria, but think of say, US baseball. Just because you play for the NY Yankees doesn't mean you're from New York. For all we know they could be from Japan, or Cuba...Anyway, my opinion is that Durmstrang is in Northern Europe or Russia. Hermione says it's from a very cold place (think North!), and they arrive in fur clothing in GOF. Most of the time when you're from warmer places you don't wear heavy fur clothing! For the geographically challenged, Bulgaria doesn't meet the northern requirement. It's in southeastern Europe, near the Black and Caspian Seas (directly north of Greece and Turkey...not cold-weather places!). My guess is somewhere in Russia east of St. Petersburg. That's a pure guess, though (that's due to cold, and the names of the people...Karkaroff is especially difficult to spell and Russian sounding).