The letter Harry gets in OotP specifically mentions the Patronus Charm.

 

On the matter of Dumbledore being gay (homosexually inclined).

Do you think that it was a cop-out for JKR to announce it later on when it was safe instead of putting it in the actual book if she wanted to make a statement? Or do you think that doesn't matter and the actual important thing is that she said it at all to give credence to the fact that being gay is okay? Or do you think she didn't think about it until late in the series? Or do you think that she planned it, and wanted to put it in the books, but since we were reading about things Harry's point-of-view in limited third person that it just didn't work out to make it fit into the story?

Please don't link fics with Dumbledore/Grindelwald slash though because I don't really want to read about it even if it's totally cool I just wanted to know your thoughts on things like that where there's a statement about an issue that might or might not end up in a book.

EDITING BECAUSE I READ THE FIRST POST IN THE THREAD AND I'M NOT SURE IF MY ORIGINAL QUESTION IS BAD BECAUSE IT'S NOT SPECIFIC ENOUGH!

New question - Do we have a way of knowing who was older, Dumbledore or Grindelwald?

 

I think the first question would probably be a thread on its own (or not worth asking at all, depending on your point of view). Age wise though, as far as I know there's no specific detail, but I don't think there's going to be more than two years difference between them at most.

 

Thanks Shinysavage! I agree that they're probably pretty close in age but it would be interesting if we knew because the dynamics back then if one of them was say 18 and the other was 16 might be interesting since for wizards that would be one overage and one underage, but I guess it doesn't really matter, and I've read some estimates somewhere about how old they are, and really that's more interesting.

The first might be it's own full thread and I was interested because it came up in a conversation I was having with a friend the other day and we talked about it and I basically felt that it was as cop out but he told me it wasn't and that he was just glad she said anything at all and not to nitpick and then I got curious about other opinions but I can make another thread for it later sorry to clutter this one up!

And yeah, Dumbledore and Grindelwald were implied to be pretty close in age and buddies, along with, uhm, Doge? I think was about their age, and of course Aberforth wasn't too much younger.

 

According to Hp-Lexicon, Dumbledore is two years older than Grindelwald. Dumbledore was born in 1881, while Grindelwald was born in 1883.

Sources:Albus Dumbledore, Gellert Grindelwald.

EDIT: As for Doge and Aberforth, Doge was in the same year with Dumbledore (according to DH) and Aberforth was born between 1883-1884.

 

Thanks MoltenCheese! That's actually pretty interesting in terms of deviousness, because at that age two years can matter, and it means that Grindelwald was devious enough at a younger age to mess with Dumbledore, and ... thanks!

 

So... Dumbledore was always a manther even before he met Snape.

 

What's a mather?

Edit: No, I'm not having the thread derailed. If you (everyone) have a question or a direct answer regarding HP Canon, ask; otherwise DON'T POST. -Sesc

 

At Hogwarts, are bathrooms/showers connected to dormitories? How does this work?

 

Lockhart's book signing happened in August (Harry arrived in the Burrow on the morning of August 4th), so less than a month before the beginning of Hogwarts.

Source: HP Lexicon timeline

 

Harry receives the Hogwarts letter about a week after arriving, and the same day Hermione writes them that she'll go to London "next Wednesday." So I'd say about two weeks after he arrived, between August 15th and 20th.

 

Did the books ever once use the world nee (like Narcissa Malfoy nee Malfoy)? It's one of those things that seems perfectly harmless and reasonable in FanFics, but I doubt was ever actually used in Canon. Can anyone verify it for me?

 

No, never used in canon. One of those fanfic things that somehow spread massively.

 

Was the size/length of the Basilisk from CoS ever mentioned? If so, does anyone recall what the number is?

 

I remember it as either 60 feet or 60 meters, seeing as it is British, I'd assume meters

 

I'd doubt it's meters, that would make close to 200 feet, the one in the movie wasn't even that long and movies don't understate things.

According to a quick google search the skin was 20 feet long,

and the wiki is saying they could grow up to 50 feet. Not sure where they get that information from, Fantastic Beasts maybe.

Don't have my book, but if you use the skin as an indication to the size of the CoS basilisk it is quite a bit smaller then what seems to be the maximum length the species can grow to.

 

Thickness is more the issue. Considering it traveled through pipes in the walls all across the castle I would imagin it would be hard to be much bigger the 6-8 inches. Who builds pipes 3 feet across? Maybe as the master pipe to the lake but not through out the whole school.

 

We're talking magic here. The pipes could be bigger on the inside.