As anyone who knows me can tell, I ♥ Harry Potter. I totally geek out whenever I talk about them. So, I will use this page to talk about specific points, ideas, clues, and theories, so, a warning to anybody who hasn't read all five books, or seen all three movies go no further! I also deal in low grade not so spoilerish clues and hints to upcoming books, but never any hard core pre book spoilers.





JK Rowling at the Edinburgh Book Festival

One thing I love about JK Rowling living in England is that since they're 8 hours ahead, I get everything just that much faster! Today she gave a reading and answered questions at a book festival in her home town and there were some intersting answers out of it. Some ideas were confirmed and some new ones brought up.
I was totally right with my theory that Aberforth is the Hog's Head bartender, go me. Nice to know I can get something right, although personally I thought it was a little obvious. Dumbledore's patronus is a phoenix, not really a suprise there, but interesting info anyway. And, it was repeated once again that Petunia is a MUGGLE. I really hate when a theory or idea is disproved, but for some reason people won't let it go, they keep trying to convince me that it's true! Rowling has said many times that Petunia is a MUGGLE, MUGGLE AND ALL MUGGLE! Get over it please! Sorry about that, anyway.
She also mentioned Hagrid's brother, but I sure hope that story line gets more interesting. She says "Grawp is obviously the very stupidest thing that Hagrid ever brought home." and I definately agree with that. I don't know what it is, but the whole thing with the giants is quite dull to me. Whenever they were talked about or Grawp was around, my eyes just glazed over.
Well, the most interesting portion of the chat was toward the end. Somebody asks a Snape question: "Can he see the Thestrals, and if so, why? Also, is he a pure blood wizard?" I myself have lately wondered if Snape was a pureblood, and was glad to see somebody ask it. Although she doesn't answer directly, she says "Snape’s ancestry is hinted at. He was a Death Eater, so clearly he is no Muggle born, because Muggle borns are not allowed to be Death Eaters, except in rare circumstances." I realized this makes sense and should have been obvious, but hey, I'm busy, I can't think of everything here! If you want to get technical, she didn't mention half bloods, so he could still be that, but I don't think so. But, interestingly, is the rare circumstances of muggleborns, maybe this is a hint that there is one lurking around?Who could it be? Peter maybe? We don't really know anything about him, and he would be let in only because of his info on the Potters. I will have to make a mental note of that tidbit for now. As for the part about the Thestrals, well, I figured he could, for the same reasons that Rowling herself points out: "He can see Thestrals, but in my imagination most of the older people at Hogwarts would be able to see them because, obviously, as you go through life you do lose people and understand what death is. But you must not forget that Snape was a Death Eater. He will have seen things that…" I figured since all the adults lived through the last war, they'd all have seen someone they knew get taken down. But, I found it so very interesting that she cuts off before she talks too much about stuff Snape has seen or done in the Death Eater days. She stops talking here to ask a question. I will definately have to put that down in the mental file as well, for safe keeping.
Last but not least, she left us with some food for thought. She says: "There are two questions that I have never been asked but that I should have been asked, if you know what I mean. If you want to speculate on anything, you should speculate on these two things, which will point you in the right direction." then goes on to state the questions as "“Why didn’t Voldemort die?” Not, “Why did Harry live?” but, “Why didn’t Voldemort die?”" and "is why Dumbledore did not kill or try to kill Voldemort in the scene in the ministry". Very interesting. As for the first one, Voldemort did talk a little in Goblet of Fire that he took many precautions and underwent transformations to ensure that he would never die, and I believed this to be the reason why. Rowling does mention this as being the reason, but that we should speculate on what he did to himself to make this happen. I never really thought about what he might have done to himself, but it's clear that I should start! As for the second one I believed that Dumbledore never did anything becuase of the prophecy. Even if I don't know if it's as straight forward Dumbledore obviously believes what it says (or his interpretation anyway). Since he thinks that Harry is the only one who can defeate Voldemort, he didn't even bother, becuase who knows what could have happened. Dumbledore doesn't know if anything he throws at Voldemort could have bounced right back and blasted his ass. But, again, this obviously needs more of my attention becuase Rowling says "Although Dumbledore gives a kind of reason to Voldemort, it is not the real reason." and then " That is not the answer; Dumbledore knows something slightly more profound than that." More profound hmm? Interesting choice of words.

Random questions and/or theories:

1. What is Snape's damage anyway?
Wouldn't I be the genius if I could answer that! There's plenty wrong there but nobody really seems to have any real info on what's going on there. Why did he join and then subsequently leave the Death Eaters? Sorry, don't know that either! There is an annoyingly popular theory that Snape had a thing for Lily, and I sure hope that's not true, becuase I really hate that idea, but some people think that he turned to Dumbledore to help her after he found out about the prophecy. Me, my theory is that he was actually fiends with Regulus when they were both in the Death Eaters, that they were pretty good friends, and maybe they both decided to try and get out, but we all know what happened to Regulus when he tried to leave. So Snape decided to be a spy instead, since, if Voldemort is dead, you don't have to work for him any more! Although I am quite in love with this theory, I have doubts as to it's ability to survive since Regulus doesn't seem to be thought about by anybody but me, but we'll see.

2. What's up with that damn prophecy?
Yeah, well, I've seen that prophecy quoted and argued about so much, I could probably recite that thing in my sleep. Very tricky, and if I've learned anything from watching Buffy, it's that prophecies are never what they appear, so don't ever trust them! Although, me, I'm much more interested on how Voldemort found out. We all know there was an eavesdropper when it happened, but if they were caught soon enough to have heard the beginning, how come they were allowed to leave with the information? Was there a fight, did the Death Eater barely escape? How come he didn't get a little memory spell on his ass? Who was it that over heard anyway? Is it somebody we know? Probably. It's all very suspicious to me.

3. Who's going to die/live in the end?
Yeah, well, since Sirius was killed off, it's all downhill from here! I should have know, once I declare how much I like a character, that person immediately goes down (this is Stephen King's favorite passtime, he does it every time). So, of course I should have seen Sirius' death coming amile away when I said to my friend "I don't care who dies, as long as it's not Sirius!" But, that's in the past, and I have to get over it. I don't know if Harry will die, I don't want him to, but I think he might. I don't think Ron and Hermione will die, but there are so many Weasleys I'd be extremely suprised if we didn't shave off at least a couple. I don't want the twins to die, but I could totally see them going out in a blaze of dueling glory, like how they left Hogwarts.(In a strange twist, I got this idea when Moody was showing Harry the picture of the old order and mentioned Gideon and Fabian Prewitt dying. For some reason that put an image of the twins in my head, and now, come to find out, the Prewitt brothers were their uncles.) Dumbledore will probably croak, but I think Remus might make it, we can't kill off everybody from that generation! I think Pettigrew might live, just to piss me off. Bellatrix is so going to die! Between Harry and Neville, both of them are going to be gunning for that crazy bitch! Lucius might make it, he's slick enough to do it, but bad enough to where he might get killed off. I would so love to see him and Snape in a duel! that would be awesome!

4. If Voldemort never tried to get into Hogwarts during the first war, will he try for it this time?
Oh yeah, I can totally see a big Graduation Day style fight go down, students and teachers running around, getting blasted left and right! Carnage at it's finest. Although the Department of Mysteries will most likely show up again, but who knows how.

5. How much does Petunia really know about wizards?
I don't know, but it's obviously more than she's telling.

6.What did Dudley see when then Dementors came near him?
Wouldn't we like to know!

7.What's going to happen at the Ministry now that Fudge won't be in charge any more?
I have no idea who the new Minister is going to be. A lot of people are voting for Arthur, but I don't think he has enough pull to go so far up the ranks so fast, but wouldn't that just piss Percy off? ha!(as a newly inserted side note, JKR has confirmed that Arthur will not be the new Minister, so I was right) I'm sure that Fudge will get fired from office rather than killed or anything, but once he's outed, all bets are off and I wouldn't be suprised if he got himself dead soon enough.

8.What exactly happened during the incident where James saved Snape's life?
One of the most debated topics out there is this very subject. We have so little information to go on, and what we do know doesn't seem to add up. I do believe that Sirius would send Snape into the Shrieking Shack to get back at him, although knowing Sirius he didn't think through the serious concequenses of what could have happened, Snape getting a scare was definately the best case scenario here. But why did Snape take Sirius at his word? If your mortal enemy told you how you could get information on something he was doing wrong, would you believe him? Did Snape think that Sirius would have hugs and puppies waiting for him on the other side of that tunnel? Snape is no dummy so it makes me wonder why he even followed Sirius' advice. And how did James find out?

Well, there's always more questions than answers around here, so for now, those are the big ones that I'm going to throw out there. If you have a question, theory, idea, dorky fanfic, or just want to tell me how much of a super geek I am, feel free to leave a message on my guestbook, or email me.

Some cool Harry Potter links

JKRowling.com: J.K. Rowlings official site. Very cool looking and well done, she is very active in the online community and posts things all herself. Any info you get is always true and finding the fun hidden stuff is always a good time. Check in regularly for book six updates!

Harry Potter News site: A really up to date and informative site that gets all the Harry Potter related news pretty quick! I check it regularly for updates

MuggleNet: a really nice looking site with lots of book and movie updates, pictures, info, and essays to check out.

Fanfic site: I actually have a love/hate relationship with fanfic. I like looking at it, and seeing what kind of scary new ideas can think up or what kind of insanely unlikely pairs people can make, but I never actually read any because almost all of those people are bad writers. And it's mostly just an excuse to get your favorite two characters to have skanky sex (not that that's always a bad thing!)I also have a fondness for interesting crossover stories, and if I was a better writer, I have an idea or two of my own for some Buffy/Harry Potter adventures!

Harry Potter Lexicon: a really awesome site that has anything ever mentioned on Harry Potter in some kind of list or order. People, places, beasts, spells, everything you needed to know,it's all documented right here. Really great site for looking up facts without going through your books page by page!




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