Favorite Thing February Flop.

=(

Yes. I've flunked.

BUT to make up for my lack of posts (sorry, I've been really busy this weekend), I'm going to write all the ones I missed, because they are just too awesome to pass up.

Heres what I missed,

1. The color purple in all situations

2. Significance of the numbers in Harry Potter

and 3. How to become president, (what you've been waiting for, the only tips you'll ever need to know) I'm gonna do this one later.

Starting with purple. Purple is the color between red and blue. Though it is between red and blue, the boy and girl colors, it is considered a more feminine color, and when genderized (genderize - to give an object a gender. Example - "the letter 8 is a boy."), it is considered a girl.

Purple is the color of many things. clothes, books, furniture, accessories, walls, people.

There is also the song "Start Wearing Purple."

Lets not get into that.

Purple is also the color of the Luisburg Barracudas. Yes.

We won the finals.

Anyway, Significance of numbers in Harry Potter. You might think this is very random, and that only a true geek would look into this. Well, both of those are true. I am a true Harry Potter Nerd.

I was actually going to do, "The significance of the number 14," for the 14th, but really, theres nothing interesting about 14. "Uuuh...Its after 13?" Yeah. Lame. So I just guessed that you would all like it better if I did something truly interesting.

So I stumbled across this forum where there was a thread about "significance of numbers in the Harry Potter books," and it just about blue my mind away.

They opened with this,

Dumbledore's pocket watch had 12 hands. The number 12 is also "running bits". No. 12 Grimmauld Place, 12 Christmas trees in Great Hall, 12 OWLs, many important events happening at "midnight", Sirius being imprisoned for 12 years, etc., etc.

That's a lot of 12's to be more than just coincidence. Is there a significance to the number 12?Are there any other numbers that stand out as potentially significant?

The number 13 is also prevalent throughout the series.
-Trelawny's reluctance to sit down to Christmas dinner because it would make 13 and whenever 13 dine together, the first to rise is the first to die
-Harry recieved his first ever birthday card when he turned 13
-The "villain" of each book makes an appearance in chapter 13
-In OOTP, there were 13 people eating when Harry first had dinner at Grimmauld Place. Sirius was the first to rise. Guess who bit it.
Thirteen is not considered a very lucky number; quite the opposite, actually. Rowling doesn't seem to be going against this shared logic in her books either. With the exception of Harry getting his first birthday card, bad things tend to involve the number thirteen.

Well, the number 12 has to be significant in relation to something, not just anything. What I mean, is that the number 12 is mentioned a lot, and in different circumstances, yet the only way to figure out the significance is to match potential meanings of 12 (and there are a whole lot of them) with parts of the story. If the meaning of 12 resonates with the story, we might be able to make a case.

Personally, I feel like 12 is a very difficult one, because there are so many 12s:
12 Apostles
12 months in gregorian calendar
12 signs of the zodiac (both the western and the chinese)
Shia Islam awaits the 12th Imam
12 tribes of Israel
12 things on a dozen

hen, when I read OotP, I got so surprized!!!!
No. 12 Grimmauld Place !!!! 12 doors in the circular room of DoM!!!!
There were 12 Death Eaters who came to get the prophecy from Harry!!!

Harry's wand. The core contains his initials H P .Holly and Phoenix feather and is eleven inches which was his age when he bought it.

Nicholas Flamel died right before his 666th birthday.

We see the three and four a lot. The four houses with one founding father no longer in the foal. Three is company in the HP world. With Harry and friends and Draco and friends. I found this on runespoors which I thought was interesting.

From..
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them
by Newt Scamander

Runespoors
Once a favorite pet of Dark Wizards. The runespoor has is a snake with three heads. Runespoors rarely live to a vast age, as each head contains an independent brain serving a different purpose, and they tend to attack each other. The right head is the planner, the middle head is the dreamer, and the left head is the critic.

There are also twelve main subjects taught at Hogwarts:
1. Ancient Runes
2. Arithmancy
3. Astronomy
4. Care of Magical Creatures
5. Charms
6. Defense Against the Dark Arts
7. Divination
8. Herbology
9. History of Magic
10. Muggle Studies
11. Potions
12. Transfiguration

Yes, there were 12 doors and 12 death eaters at DoM.

JKR sometimes use the word "dozen" instead of 12. I don't know if it is intentional or unintentional.
Any other 12?
Book 1: DD uses "Outputters" for 12 lamps in Privet Drive.
Book 3: Aunt Marge has 12 bulldogs.
Book 3: Harry and Hermione travels with Time-Turner and must return by the time clock strikes 12 (midnight).
Book 4: Yule Ball, there were 12 tables in the Great Hall.
Book 5: Harry's disciplinary hearing was Aug. 12.
Platform 9 and 3/4:
People say that 12 x 3/4 =9
Why does JKR like 12??? I really want to know.

Also note that 6-2-4-4-2 spells magic on the phone, all parts of 12. I've noticed 7s too, but don't remember where. How many of the order flew Harry to #12?

12 uses of Dragon's Blood - the 12th of which is oven cleaner

Harry gets a letter stuck in each of a dozen eggs in SS

12 foot mountain troll!

In COS when Fudge comes to take Hagrid to Azkaban, he mentions that the order has the signatures of all 12 governors.

Found some more "neat" numbers (I'm in the process of rereading GoF).
- Mrs. Weasley buys harry 12 rolls of parchment with his dress robes
- The Bulgarians want to add another 12 seats to the topbox
- There are 9 in the Weasley family (Ginny, Ron, Fred, George, Percy, Bill, Charlie, Mr. Weasley, Mrs. Weasley)
- 9 people go to Platform 9.75 to see them off (Ginny, Harry, Ron, Fred, George, Bill, Charlie, Mrs. Weasley, Hermione)
- The Beauxbatons Coat of Arms = 2 crossed wands emitting 3 stars each = 6 stars and 2 wands...6x2=12
I mention the 9s, because in LoTR Tolkein makes a Fellowship of 9 very deliberately. It's a good number for a fellowship.
Well, that's it for now. Certainly is fun to find these. :dance:
EDIT: forgot one. The sorting hat's song has 9 stanzas/verses(?) of 4 lines each = 36 lines which is a multiple of 12.

ss:"On Friday, no less than 12 letters arrived for Harry";"You're worth 12 of Malfoy"; Flitwick told me that I got 112% on my exam"
COS:"But when I was twelve I was just as much of a nobody as you are now.";"You'll be back with your dear Mudblood mother soon, Harry...She bought you twelve years of borrowed time..."
POA:::"Harry was trying to remember page twelve of his book: A charm to cure reluctant reversers";"the magical community lives in fear of a massacre like that of twelve years ago, when Black murdered thirteen people with a single curse."; Black was in Azkaban for 12 years; Buckbeak had a 12 foot wingspan
GOF:::"the bulgarians are insisting we add another twelve seats to the top box";the dementor in the maze was 12 feet tall

Wow these people are really nerds.

But its so cool!

-Michelle