I GOT MY POTTERMORE EMAIL!!

Rock Cakes and Epic Quotes

This is a dramatic close up of my rock cake in all its splendor. On an unrelated topic, here is an epic quote from a Mugglenet essay: "I think it takes incredible bravery for a writer to make a heroine out of a girl like Hermione Granger; the bookish, nerdish, unpopular girls of the world rejoice in her." This quote is even more awesome since it was being used to show how Harry Potter is better than Twilight.

Chapter 8- The Potions Master

• Quirrell "rescues" Harry and Ron from Filch when they get lost on the first day of school. Any way this could be important? I don't think it really is.
  
• Why do wizards study Astronomy? How is Astronomy any more magical then math or english, and they don't learn those at Hogwarts. The only time they ever use their Astronomy knowledge is in Divination, and they wouldn't learn Astronomy every year just for that.
  
• In Transfiguration, Professor McGonnagall turns a desk into a pig. Doesn't this sort of break all the rules because she is, in a sense, creating life? How much knowledge and power does this pig have? Does it have normal pig instincts? If you were powerful enough at transfiguration could you change a desk to a more complicated life form?
   
• "His turban, he told them, had been given to him by an African Prince as a thank-you for getting rid of a troublesome zombie, but they weren't sure they believed this story." This is sort of like Lockhart, don't you think? Its all lies....
   
• One thing I read today, in the live chat J.K. Rowling did a couple years ago after Deathly Hallows was realesed, somebody asked how was their a curse on the position if Quirrell had tought DADA before Harry's year, something I had been wondering as well. It turns out that Quirrell was the Muggle Studies teacher before he went to Romania! Isn't that cool.
  
• "You are here to learn the subtle science and exact art of potion-making. As there is little foolish wand-waving here, many of you will hardly believe this is magic. I don't expect you will really understand the beauty of the softly simmering cauldron with its shimmering fumes, the delicate power of liquids that creep through human veins, bewitching the mind, ensnaring the senses... I can teach you how to bottle fame, brew glory, even stopper death -- if you aren't as big a bunch of dunderheads as I usually have to teach." I think that is such an epic quote!!!!  I'm trying to figure out what the things are, "bottle fame, brew glory, even stopper death." stopper death comes up in the sixth one... and he could be implying felix felicis for either of the first two.....
  
• Two of the three questons Snape asks Harry at the first potions lesson are brought back up in the sixth book, the Draught of Living Death and bezoars.
  
• What are rock cakes?

Harry Potter's Classmates- Behind the Names

I love name meanings. So I copied from Mugglenet the name meanings for all the characters we met in the last chapter or the next chapter. There are a lot. Yay for Mugglenet.


Binns, Professor - A "bin" is what the British call "a garbage can." Many students consider Professor Binns' information to be rubbish. In Northern England, "Binns" is a slang term for glasses, possibly referring to the professor's academic nature.


Blaise - Blaise was the teacher of Merlin. From the Roman name Blasius, which means "lisping." From the Latin "blaesus." A famous bearer was Blaise Pascal, a French mathematician and philosopher.


Draco - Draco is a constellation that looks like a dragon but is a snake. In Latin, Draco means "dragon." There was also a Greek ruler named Draco who developed a system of severe punishments for the smallest of crimes. "Draconian" means "harsh or cruel." In Romanian, "drac" means "devil."


Filch - Means to "steal."


Filius - In Latin, "filius" means "son." This could perhaps explain why Flitwick is such a short individual.


Flitwick - A town in England. It could also be interpeted as the movement of a wand - flit (to move quickly from one spot to another) and wick (a stick shaped cord of woven fibres).


Ginny - "Ginevra," an Italian female and woman of the people, her name means "Juniper" as in evergreen tree. There is an old myth about a bride named Ginevra, who playfully hid in a trunk on her wedding day. The lid fell, burying her alive; and eventually her skeleton was discovered. This could relate to Ginny being taken into the Chamber of Secrets where her "skeleton would lie forever." However, J.K. Rowling has also said that she picked the name because she wanted something different and special for the only Weasley girl!


Hannah (Abbott) - "Hannah" means "grace."


Hermione - Means "well-born," "earthy," or "stone." Refers to peony-type flowers. The feminine version of Hermes. In Greek mythology, was often known as the patron saint of high magic (no surprise our Hermione is so gifted). She was the daughter of Helen of Troy and King Menelaus of Sparta. In the Aeneid, Hermione was kidnapped by Pyrrhus, but her loving Orestes came and murdered Pyrrhus while he was praying. Hermione is also a character in Shakespeare's A Winter's Tale. The character is accused of adultery and dies before the intermission. At the end of the play she is brought out as a statue, and finally returns to life at the very end of the play. A possible connection to her petrification in Chamber of Secrets?


Longbottom - The name itself is considered quite humorous, but "bottom" is an old word for "staying power." This seems to accurately fit Neville's personality and overall devotion to Harry.


Malfoy - In Latin, "malus" means "bad" and "mal" means "pale." "Mal foi" means "bad faith, an act with bad intentions, or a malicious act" in French. "Mal de foi" means a "loss of faith." The similar French phrase "Mal fait" can be interpeted as "badly made" or "evil deeds." In Portuguese, (J.K. Rowling taught English in Portugal for a few years) "Mal foi" means "was bad" or "is bad." In Arthurian legends, Lancelot (King Arthur's greatest knight and his betrayor) is sometimes called "Le Chevallier Mal Fait" (the "mal fait" knight). "Foy" means "a farewell feast, drink, or gift, as at a wedding."


McGonagall, Professor - The name is Scottish (also written as McGonigle or McGonegal) and is from the Celtic name "Conegal," which means "the bravest." The "Mc" in McGonagall means "son of." The bravery fits well with her first name, Minerva, the goddess of wisdom and war.


Neville - Old French for "from the new farmland.


Padma - Means "lotus" in Sanskrit. In Hindu myth, this was another name of both the hero Rama and the goddess Lakshmi.


Pansy - Type of flower. Derived from the Old French "pensee," which means "thought."


Parvati - Parvati is a Hindu goddess married to the Hindu god, Shiva the Destroyer. She gave birth to a baby boy named Ganesh, whom Shiva beheaded, but replaced the old head with an elephant head after Parvati reamed him out. Sister of the Goddess of the Ganges, Padma. There was a character named "Parvati the Witch" in Salman Rushdie's novel Midnight's Children, in which the names "Padma" and "Patil" were also significant. Parvati means "daughter of the mountain."


Pomona (Sprout) - Pomona is the name of a Roman divinity. According to Edith Hamilton's book Mythology, "she cared for fruits and orchards and that was all she cared for. Her delight was in pruning and grafting and everything that belongs to the garderner's art. She shut herself away from men, alone with her beloved trees, and let no wooer come near her."


Quirinus - The name Quirinus is derived from the words "co-viri," meaning "of two men." Quirinus was applied to Romulus, for whom Rome was named, when he was considered a god. Furthermore, there is a connection between Quirinus and Janus Quirinus, the two-faced god. Janus was the god of both beginnings and endings and was depicted as having one face look forward while the other watched behind, much like our dear professor Quirrell.


Quirrell - Perhaps derived from the word "quarrel," which means "an angry dispute or argument." Also sounds like squirrel, for a nervous, nut-eating rodent that lives in trees. The professor was a scared, shaky man who behaved a lot like one, later an act to cover up his allegiance to Voldemort. Possibly from "querulous" meaning full of "doubts and questions."


Severus - Sever means "to cut off." Snape appears to have "cut off" his ties with the Dark Lord through the first five books, and then with Dumbledore and the Order in Half-Blood Prince. "Severe" means "cruel, strict" - two characteristics that accurately describe the Potions Professor. Sounds very similiar to the Latin word "servus," meaning "servant." Is he still a servant of Voldemort's? In ancient history, Lucius Septimius Severus restored stability to the Roman Empire after the tumultuous reign of Emperor Commodus (See Albus) and the civil wars that erupted in the wake of Commodus' murder. To read more on this story, go here. The name Severus is also mentioned in Mansfield Park by Jane Austen, a favorite book of J.K. Rowling. Additionally, a Saint Severus of Alexandria (Egypt) was martyred along with a Saint Peter and a Saint Leucius for publicly proclaiming the faith around 309 C.E. Severus, Peter, and Lucius - quite a coincidence!


Sprout, Professor - A suitable name for a Herbology teacher. "To sprout" means to "spring up and grow."


Weasley - From J.K. Rowling's site weasels were known to have a bad reputation, especially in Ireland, as an unfortunate animal. And well, the Weasleys are unfortunate because they're poor. J.K. Rowling said: "Ron was the only one of three major characters whose surname never changed; he has been 'Weasley' from start to finish. In Britain and Ireland the weasel has a bad reputation as an unfortunate, even malevolent, animal. However, since childhood I have had a great fondness for the family mustelidae; not so much malignant as maligned, in my opinion." The Weasleys and the weasel both share red hair. The Weasleys live near Ottery St. Catchpole, and it is interesting that a family with weasel in their surname lives near a town that has otter in its name (an otter is a member of the weasel family). Also, in Goblet of Fire, the group all go to Stoatshead Hill to take the Portkey to the Triwizard Tournament. A stoat is another relative of the weasel family.


Ron means advisor to the king. :) and Harry means powerful :) I know Harry was by accident but I wonder about Ron...

Granger - Possibly from the Granger movement in the 1800s, a movement to improve the lives of farmers. Could be a connection to Hermione's desire to start SPEW, a movement to improve the lives of house-elves. A granger was also a very common person, just like Hermione's parents. Granger is the name of a character from the book Fahrenheit 451. He is the leader of a group of intellectuals known as "The Book People," whose goal is the preservation of liturature in the face of their government's efforts to burn and destroy all books. A possible reference to Hermione's fanatical love of books?

Chapter 7- The Sorting Hat

After a long hiatus, I am attempting to revive our chapter by chapters. 

• "Professor McGonagall showed the first years into a small, empty chamber off the hall." There are a ton of empty classrooms in Hogwarts. In the fourth year you learn of some when they practice for the triwizard tournament, and the sheer size of the castle should show for how much empty space their must be. Why is there so much empty space? There are only so many subjects that need classrooms so why was Hogwarts built this big? Did their used to be more magic students?
  
  
  
• "Neville's cloak, which was fastened under his left ear." Why is it fastened under his ear??
  
• Harry asks Ron how they get sorted, and he doesn't know. How, growing up in a wizarding family, does he not know? His whole family would have. Did it just never get mentioned?
  
• This is our first encounter with Peeves and the ghosts. I never understood why Peeves couldn't leave Hogwarts, but I know J.K. Rowling answered it at one point but I can't find where....
  Peeves - "Peeve" means "little devil" or something that "gets on your nerves" (like a pet peeve)."
  I never understood what a poltergeist was, so i just looked it up. It is.... (i had to turn wikipedia to simple english to for me to understand.
  "A Poltergeist is a spirit or ghost is able to move and influence objects. Poltergeists are said to be invisible.Poltergeists are said to bother only one person at a time. This person is called their "focus". Poltergeists will bother only their focus. They are said to only last a few weeks, then will move on to another target. Often poltergeists are reported around children and adolescents. In Harry Potter there is a poltergeist named Peeves. However, Peeves is not a classic poltergeist. He can be seen and does not focus on bothering just one person."
• In Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, on page 671, it says, "Where are you heading if you've got the choice?' James lifted an invisible sword. "Gryffindor, where dwell the brave of heart.' Like my dad." How can James have this phrase, where dwell the brave of heart in his mind. It is indicated that he is quoting something. As far as our knowledge goes, this isn't ever said until after James dies, during the sorting in Harry's first year at Hogwarts when the sorting hat says "You might belong in Gryffindor, Where dwell the brave at heart, Their daring, nerve and chivalry, Set Gryffindors apart." The sorting hat makes a new song every year, so James shouldn't have had that quote in his mind.
  
• The never-solved question, why isn't everyone at Hogwarts fat? They have huge amazing feasts!!
  
• The only time they ever sing the school song!!! I love the school song!!!
  
• The password to the common room is Caput Draconis, which means dragon's head!
  Thats about it I think!!! I only have one more thing to say about this chapter.
  
  Some Background information on the Hogwarts houses. First of all, they all represent the four elements, earth air fire and water if you didn't get that before.
  
•  Gryffindor - "A "griffin" was "a creature in mythology with the body of a lion and the head of an eagle." Also known in Greek Mythology as the "gryphon," it was the protector of a god's gold from mortal men. In Greek, "gryphon" means "protector of wealth." In French "d'or" means "of gold," one of the Gryffindor House colors. The gryffin is fitting, considering lions are characterized as brave and courageous and eagles are desrcibed as being noble birds, all traits of the Gryffindor House. Ravenclaw -"Ravens are known to be smart birds. Makes sense that Ravenclaws are known as wise, quick learners." Hufflepuff- "The name Hufflepuff conjures up images of huffing and puffing. Its resident ghost is the Fat Friar, its head is Professor Sprout (suitably associated with the earth), and its animal, the badger (again, an earthy choice). Interestingly, the French version of the Harry Potter series calls this house Poufsouffle, which in French has very much the same feel as Hufflepuff produces in English. Slytherin- "The name has the idea of snakes in it due to the word “slither”, and remains unchanged in the translations of the Harry Potter series except in French, in which it becomes Serpentard, an obvious development."
  
  
• Ok, I found that interesting. Especially the Hufflepuff bit because i am prejudiced :) This thing is also incredibly interesting, I like it so much that I made emily type it up for me cause she has my copy of the book this quote is from, The Deathly Hallows Lectures: The Hogwarts Professor Explains the Final Harry Potter Adventure by John Granger. (yes, i know, i am nubby to have asked for this for my birthday :) 
  
  
  "The Italian Renaissance is largely about the relations between the four principle cities of the peninsula: Florence, Naples, Venice, and Milan.  Their inability to get along, or even cooperate in shared emergencies, leads to their subjection to France (charles vii, louis xii) and Spain (Ferdinand of Aragon).  "Four rivals in division being vulnerable to takeover"--sound familiar?  I suspect, too, that one of the spurs to Ms Rowling's creation of Quidditch as experienced at Hogwarts was the palio di silena.  Though now a competition between 17 different sections of the city, these passionate horse races, according to Titus Birckhardt in his book on siena, were originally between the principal four quarters of the city." Either this is a huge coincidence, or J.K. Rowling really did her homework!!!

Pottermore!

Here is J.K. Rowling's Pottermore announcement, if you haven't watched it yet...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i5DOKOt7ZF4

What do you think of Pottermore so far? Discuss!!
http://www.pottermore.com

Deathly Hallows Runtime

It has been announced that the runtime for Part 2 will be 125 minutes, or 2 hours and 5 minutes. This is the shortest film in the series.




- Chamber of Secrets: 161 minutes
- Goblet of Fire: 157 minutes
- Half-Blood Prince: 153 minutes
- Sorcerer's Stone: 152 minutes
- Deathly Hallows, Part 1: 147 minutes
- Prisoner of Azkaban: 141 minutes
- Order of the Phoenix: 138 minutes
- Deathly Hallows, Part 2: 125 minutes