AND GINEVRA IS A GERMAN EQUIVALENT OF "GUINEVERE!" I WIN!!! (of course, there's also the issue of Ginevra di Benci, subject of a painting by Leonardo, and also the Italian word for juniper, a principal component of Gin. *sigh*)

So yeah. "Guinevere." From the Welsh "Gwenhwyfar," which comes from two words that mean white/shining/Holy and cloud/phantom/shadow/smooth (from here.) And in Welsh legend, she was a shape-changer. Do we have an animagus in our future? And Juniper, in herb lore, is used for purification. So we have Lily symbolizing purity and now Juniper. Oh, JKR, no you di-int. This is too easy.

So I just read the sample page of an early draft of Philosopher's Stone, in JKR's nearly impenetrable handwriting. I think I've gone blind. (To see it for yourself, dial the correct number into the phone. Hint: Think OoP.)

And HOLY COW I AM AWESOME. Back when I was writing my miserable excuse for a prequel fic, I blindly guessed that Dean Thomas' dad had been a wizard and that the girl with the "heavy-lidded eyes" was Sirius' sister turned evil. And I had in my notes a mention of a "Frank Longbottom"... was that revealled in Book 4, or am I just that scary? No, it must have been canon. I never would have named him "Frank." (::checks:: Yeah, canon. Okay, now I can breathe.)

And hmm... "Mopsy the Dog-Lover" as Sirius' part-time "owner." Gah, I got so excited at this originally, because Mopsy is the name of one of the rabbits from Beatrix Potter's "The Tale of Peter Rabbit," but I confused this for a split second with "The Tales of Uncle Remus: The Adventures of Brer Rabbit."

Theirloveissodistantlylinkedthroughchildrensliterature.

Question of the Day: Why reuse the name "Mafalda?"