Jam tomorrow.

[prillalar]

I missed the LJ poetry and the random polls and there are tracker probs so I can't get the last five eps of FMA that I need. *twitch* But the Harry/Neville is finally starting to work so I should have that and my remix story done in good time.

In the meantime, let us turn to HP, as we so often do. I got to wondering the other day whether Hogwarts has a tuck shop and if not, why not. I did find a reference in PS that seems to indicate there is one:

Harry swallowed and looked around him. He realized he must be in the hospital wing. He was lying in a bed with white linen sheets, and next to him was a table piled high with what looked like half the sweet shop.

I can't imagine that refers to the shop in Hogsmeade, since most of Harry's friends wouldn't be able to go there yet.

So, who runs it? What kind of selection does it have? Why does it never seem to show up in fic? (Or in the books, either.) It's not that I think there should be some whole sweet shop genre, but it would be nifty to see it used now and again.

What things do you think are underused in HP fic? What would it be cool to see in a story?

Comments

[biichan.livejournal.com]

Ooooooh. I never ever thought of that. I bet it's the elves. Except would buying stuff constitute being paid? Hmm.

(Oh, by the way, you might be interested in exaltedkarpoozi, given that Bruno and Boots/Harry Potter drabble you wrote. Which was the coolest thing in fandom.)

[biichan.livejournal.com]

Oooooh! Ooooh! Who runs the trolley on the Hogwarts Express? It could be HER.

Huh. What do the people who work the Hogwarts Express DO during the rest of the year anyway?

[prillalar]

Huh. What do the people who work the Hogwarts Express DO during the rest of the year anyway?

Now *that* is a very good question. There don't seem to be wizarding trains anywhere else and that train only runs at certain times. It seems as though there ought to be some other wizarding travel network.

[ethrosdemon.livejournal.com]

1)Maybe those are the same people who run the Knight Bus, but they suspend the bus for the running of the train.

2)There is a wizarding train network we have no idea about through out the world that runs at odd times, like the Santaland Express, or the Katmandu Local, that the folk who conduct the train skip from place to place, nomads.

3)Working on the HE is a plum job in the Department of Magical Conveyance, and people jockey to get one since you hardly ever work.

[prillalar]

2)There is a wizarding train network we have no idea about through out the world that runs at odd times, like the Santaland Express, or the Katmandu Local, that the folk who conduct the train skip from place to place, nomads.

This is what I'd like to see -- and even more of a regular train system. People have got to get around somehow and not everyone wants to apparate or fly. Though I suppose they could take boring old Muggle trains.

[musesfool.livejournal.com]

They do have the Floo Network.

[lrodell.livejournal.com]

More about Mrs? Ms? Pince? How big *is* their library, anyway? Does she have assistants? Are they human? Visible? Or, like the 'helpful hands' in 'Beauty and the Beast'? Also, what's up with Mrs. Norris? Why's she a missus?^^
Tuck shop=candy store? Maybe someone like Ollivander runs it...not as easy to find as the one for the kids, more high-level candies, and perhaps some unusual ones that kids *shouldn't* have access to^^

[prillalar]

In my jr high and high school libraries, there were always student assistants. That would be cool to see. It might be a sneaky way for Hermione to get access to restricted books, too.

[harriet-spy.livejournal.com]

I'd imagine it doesn't turn up in fic because most Americans have never heard of a tuck shop...even at US boarding schools, that's not what the equivalent institution is called.

[prillalar]

I suppose, yeah. What *is* it called at US boarding schools?

[ellensmithee.livejournal.com]

JKR's never mentioned a tuck shop. That last scene in PS could be a mistake on the part of JKR, since the kids can't actually go to Hogsmeade at that point. She does mention again and again that kids get sweets from home. So maybe his friends gave him stuff from their stashes. Also, "the sweet shop" could mean the institution of sweet shops in general, and not a specific sweet shop at Hogwarts.

But still, they must occasionally need things like new quills, ink, and parchment. What do they do before 3rd year?

[http://users.livejournal.com/ari_/]

possibly they can get that from their respective Head of House?

Or they just have to make sure to bring enough from home, or maybe it's routine for some of the older years to bring back whatever the little ones need when they go to Hogsmeade.

[ethrosdemon.livejournal.com]

Perhaps the prefects are in charge of school supplies, and there is some sort of little market day for them every Tuesday.

[prillalar]

Hmm, you make a good point. But I do find it hard to believe that all these kids have all this candy left at the end of the year. Perhaps I'm thinking about it too much!

But still, they must occasionally need things like new quills, ink, and parchment.

Hermione mentions the student stores cupboard in CoS. It's in relation to potions ingredients, but maybe they can get parchemnt, etc, from there too.

Now I have it in my head that I read about Hermione buying a new quill in Hogsmeade but I can't recall if it was canon or fic!

[wickedcherub.livejournal.com]

I think 'half the sweet shop' is just a figure of speech. I'm sure it means 'half *a* sweet shop'.

I don't think there's a tuck shop at the school. There seems to be an abundance of food, and food seems to come from home too. I don't know what happens to the kids who don't know the way down to the kitchens, though. Also, you find that there seems to be a lot of trading going on amongst the kids.. not only with Fred/George, but for potions and stuff to keep away the monsters.

I'm assuming that Harry got all those sweets from just the kids' stashes.

Speaking of sweets, I'm still wondering why Draco in the Trailer eats a Granny Smith apple. Isn't he more of a sweet person?

[prillalar]

You're probably right. *sigh* But I *want* there to be a tuck shop. *has tantrum*

Speaking of sweets, I'm still wondering why Draco in the Trailer eats a Granny Smith apple. Isn't he more of a sweet person?

Maybe he's had so many sweets he's tired of them. *g* Or maybe his mother sends him treats all the time but he's actually obsessed with dental hygiene so he doesn't eat them himself.

[musesfool.livejournal.com]

He just wants to be a dentist, and everybody makes fun!

[http://users.livejournal.com/_hannelore/]

For us woeful Americans, what's a tuck shop? Is it something like a snack cart? (Which I hadn't seen until college. High school only had those miserable vending machines with the ancient crackers)

I'd be curious to see a school day at Durmstrang or Beauxbatons.

[prillalar]

It's a sweet shop. Some schools have them right there, though not all. I don't think that the term "tuck shop" is unique to a school sweet shop either. But I'm a woeful Canadian so you shouldn't take my word for it. *g*

[musesfool.livejournal.com]

Tuck shop?

Speaking of the infirmary - does Pomfrey have assistants? There seem to be an awful lot of nasty accidents - is she on call 24/7? Do the elves help or are there 6th and 7th year candy stripers we haven't heard about yet?

What about Pince and the library? She must have assistants or some kind of cool magical card catalogue.

And also, what about school supplies? Do parchment and quills magically appear when needed?

[ethrosdemon.livejournal.com]

I was gibbering about the school supplies earlier in this thread.

The candy stripper thing is brilliant. Perhaps people who want to be mediwitches start a special apprenticeship in their sixth year with Pomfrey to see if they really want to do it after all? They get to pull baby teeth, heal bruises, explain girls' periods to them, all the crap jobs.

[ladyvyola.livejournal.com]

That would be candy stripers. Candy Strippers is a well-known "exotic" telegram service based in Knockturn Alley....

[ethrosdemon.livejournal.com]

hahaha. yeah. I'm a typo-menace.

[musesfool.livejournal.com]

I was gibbering about the school supplies earlier in this thread.

I think someone's got to be selling pink and sparkly ink for Lavender et al. And maybe some scented parchment for them to send love notes, etc. *g*

Perhaps people who want to be mediwitches start a special apprenticeship in their sixth year with Pomfrey to see if they really want to do it after all?

It makes sense to me.

And that they'd keep Harry out of their hands, since he's a celebrity, so we've never seen them.

[prillalar]

Student hospital assistants would be cool! Of course there was poor Ron scrubbing bedpans for detention.

[musesfool.livejournal.com]

Maybe the candy stripers normally do that job (by magic) but are happy when some git gets detention and has to do it for them?

[mad_maudlin]

Well, in canon, I want to see the regular dormitory bathrooms...

[prillalar]

Good call. How can we write proper dormitory bathroom sex without this vital information?

[ladyvyola.livejournal.com]

What things do you think are underused in HP fic? What would it be cool to see in a story?

English! Home Economics! Foreign Language!

You know, school stuff.

[musesfool.livejournal.com]

Home Economics!

Potions. (Well, chemistry, really, but the idea of Snape teaching Home Ec makes me laugh hysterically.)

Arithmancy = math

I do dislike that there's no English and no arts at all.

[prillalar]

They don't seem to study any of that. Which is too bad. I wonder if they offer Latin, though -- so many spells seem based on it.