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We're all backed up at dreamwidth, should the worst happen to LJ. Thanks gingerbred for the kind tuition! -
DTCL community backup
There is a chance that sites hosted in Russia won't be accessible from outside Russia at some point in the near future. LiveJournal is hosted in Russia. Not in Russia: me, and probably a lot of other DTCL members ( Read more... ) -
Since he didn't blame the mailer daemon...
Prisoner of Azkaban does a good impression of being one of the best-constructed books of the series, as long as you are willing to smile and nod at time-travel shenanigans (which you pretty much have to in any book where time travel appears). But these gaping chasms keep opening up every time I poke at it. For example, Sirius and the mail ( Read more... ) -
The Cunning-Man and the Hopping Pot
Even before the Statute of Secrecy, there was pressure from both the magical and Muggle worlds against being publicly known as a witch or wizard. However, lots of magical families probably made their livings by performing minor magics for their neighbors. They couldn’t all be re-trained at once even if the wizarding world could immediately create ( Read more... ) -
Allies the Order never made
We hear of several Order members’ missions-mostly unsuccessful-to convince various groups not to join Voldemort, and perhaps fight him instead. Remus tries “reasoned argument” with the werewolves, Hagrid and Maxime give gifts to the Gurg of the giants, and Charlie maybe talks to his dragon-handler friends. Dumbledore himself has apparently been ( Read more... ) -
Friendly with the local barman
One bit in the memory of Voldemort's job interview that has always bothered me is Dumbledore's statement that he knows which Death Eaters are waiting at the Hog's Head because he's friendly with the local barman. Voldemort has just returned to Britain, no doubt planning terrible things...and Dumbledore immediately outs his brother as a spy? WTF? ( Read more... ) -
How did the wizarding public know Voldemort's powers were broken on Halloween?
I was trying to think of a reason for a rebounding Killing Curse to make Voldemort’s body disappear (no luck so far) when I thought of an entirely different question: with no body and no witnesses (other than Harry, who probably didn’t know more than a few words), why was the wizarding public so quick to believe Voldemort had been defeated?( Read more... ) -
Expecto il padrino
A bit of silliness.
I stumbled across the blog post "The meaning of Expecto Patronum: From Hogwarts to Ancient Rome," which discusses the meaning of "patronus" in ancient Rome, and notes that a patron is more like a (legal) Mafia don bribing officials to protect you from the law than a sparkly representation of your soul protecting you against ( Read more... ) -
Sirius and those bikini posters
For a long time, I saw Sirius’s posters of Muggle women in bathing suits as a typical teen thing, with irritating his parents by sticking the posters on permanently (permanently for wizards with no imagination, anyway) as a bonus. But I wasn’t giving him enough credit. The girlie posters are direct threat the to entire value system and prestige of ( Read more... )