passwords

[Athena Appleton]

This is really more of an observation thread than a theory thread... if it needs to be moved into the Books section you guys can...

Anyway...

I was thinking about the importance of the passwords in the books. Some of them are obvious, like Sir Cadogan whole thing with having to change up passwords repeatedly ultimately led to Sirius being able to enter Gryffindor Tower. Sirius didn't know the password on Halloween, and the Fat Lady got all messed up... In Chamber of Secrets, the trio realizes that the person who stole the diary is in Gryffindor, because no one else would know the password...

Then there are the kinda obvious ones, like the mimbulus mimbletonia served, at least partly, to remind us that Neville's birthday is right around the same time as Harry's.

But the other night I came across a paragraph in GoF, when Ron and Harry are walking up to Gryffindor Tower, and Ron stops mid-thought and says the password. Seems meaningless.

But the password at the time was "Balderdash," which I found out for sure by using a thesaurus, means "nonsense." The paragraph was when he says that Dumbledore has always done things his own way, and Moody is always getting into trouble anyway, acting first and thinking later. He reminds Harry of the dustbins and then says "Balderdash" immediately afterward.

This struck me as odd (finally, upon my, like, twenty-seventh time reading it), and I realized that that was a VERY obscure clue about Moody. What everyone thought about what happened with Moody and the dustbins was, indeed, nonsense. They didn't know it, and we didn't know it, but Moody was actually making more sense that night than he had for a long time.

Anyway... I don't really care to look through all the books right now, things are hectic around here... but if anyone else notices somewhere else that the password provide some hint or insight to the story, post it here.

[Ferrus]

I´m at loss for words... How did you spot THAT? I´m seriously beggining to believe that you ARE JKR and your post theories just so that we poor mortals can realise the finer points of your books...

[Athena Appleton]

wow, ferrus is at a loss for words... I'm flattered!

[Ferrus]

ferrus is at a loss for words

Aww you give me too much credit Athena!

*ahem* Back to topic: Right now I can´t remember any meaningful passwords, but I´ll look into it...

[Dumbledores Master]

I knew it shes JKR!!!

anyway back to the point. Very good observation there how did you get it??? How does Mimbulus Mimbletonia let us know Harry and Neville have close together b-days?

[Alice I]

I knew it shes JKR!!!

anyway back to the point. Very good observation there how did you get it??? How does Mimbulus Mimbletonia let us know Harry and Neville have close together b-days?

Neville got the plant for his birthday.

[Athena Appleton]

yeah... up to that time, we never knew that Neville had a birthday sometime in the summer... and when he caught the train to Hogwarts, he had this ugly nasty plant that he'd just gotton for his birthday. Since the students are in school through at least most of June, that drastically narrowed down the time frame his birthday could have been to July and August. Everytime they say the password Mimbulus Mimbletonia, or whatever the heck it's called, it refers back to Neville's birthday gift (don't know about y'all, but if those were real plants, I wouldn't ever be able to hear those words again without thinking "Neville's birthday")... turns out later in the book that Neville's birthday is of pretty big significance.

[Gower]

The password in Cos to the slytherin common room was pure blood, which I suppose pretty obviously shows that they place a high emphasis on having "pure"blood.
The password to gryfindor tower was also balderdash when Harry just became one of the school champions. He walked up to the portrait hole and the fat lady said something like, "whose become school champion then?" to which he replies,"Balderdash" which I suppose it is in a way, because he wasn't the school champion, he had his name submitted under another school.

[Athena Appleton]

good spot...

the one, I think it's in P/SS is giving me fits... I suppose not all of the passwords have significant meanings, but there's one that is downright evil sounding, very odd for Gryffindor. I think it's something about Draconis or something like that... I'll have to look it up. If anyone knows the one I'm talking about, tell me where it is!

[Alice I]

That one is Caput Draconis.
It is the first password in the book and Percy says it to the Fat Lady when he takes the first years up to the towwr for the first time.

[Nobby]

Caput Draconis means head snake/dragon! Could this be forshadowing harry encounter with the basilisk in CoS (it is known as the king of the serpents) or maybe his encounter with Voldemort in PS who as heir of Slytherin could be referred to as Head snake!


Another good question, why is it a Gryffindor Password? (why not slyhterin)

or

Maybe Percy's invovlement in this password might give us a clue about future books?

[Alice I]

Caput Draconis means head snake/dragon!

Thanks Nobby, I tried to look that up last night when I posted the password but came up empty.

Maybe Percy's invovlement in this password might give us a clue about future books?

I have to disagree with you here.
Percy's involvement with the password is because he was the Prefect taking the first years to their dormatories.
The Fat Lady is the one who came up with the password so I would look to her before looking to Percy for a subliminal connection

[Athena Appleton]

I just had an interesting thought.

Before I knew that "caput" meant "head," I was saying it like "ka-put," and where I'm from that would be a slang word for "over" (like "it's kaput" or "it's all over")... so if you read it from that perspective, thinking that Rowling may have been mixing meanings, which she's done on a number of occasions, that would mean that the dragon (or snake) is over, finished, obsolete... a nice foreshadowing of what Harry is to become.

[Alice I]

True but that is assuming that Rowlings is familiar with the slang version kaput.
As for her style of sneaking hints in it would definatly make sense for her to do something like that.

[Athena Appleton]

i thought just about everyone is at least aware (even if they never use) the slang version of kaput... and we do know that rowling has used all kinds of hints, from several different countries, so I think it means something like "the end of the snake"

so there.