Chapter 7: The Will of Albus Dumbledore

I seem to be reading really slowly today for some reason.

Well, Scrimgeour has served the purpose of James Bond's Q and has doubtless unknowingly given the trio everything they'll need for their quest. I do wonder why the Putter-Outer is suddenly called a Deluminator now?

Current theory: Scrimgeour is Voldy's Ministry insider, either willingly or through Imperius. Perhaps this is why Remus and Tonks need to leave suddenly?

I don't know what's up with the H/G stuff though. I don't care that much about shipping in the first place anyway.

I feel like I should be theorizing more, but I'm quite happy at this point to read on and see what happens.

Chapter 6: The Ghoul in Pyjamas

Wow, a lot of information here, I don't know if I remember all of it.

Hermione using Accio to get the Horcrux books was clever - I've said before that Harry should have used Accio to solve ALL the Triwizard tasks, so it always amuses me to see it used in new and unexpected ways.

Also, the way Hermione got her parents out of the way, and the titular ghoul in the pyjamas. I can't decide whether these will come up later or whether they're just plot devices. It is good to see the ghoul actually being used though, I didn't expect that.

I feel like I should have more to say here but I don't ATM.

Chapter 5: Fallen Warrior

Well, we've lost Hedwig (unless she's going to make a surprise reappearance at a crucial moment - I've always felt she hadn't been fully used yet) and Mad-Eye. That's two deaths, which I think is the confirmed number for this book?

And Fred and George are no longer identical, just moments after they made us laugh by saying they're identical. Ouch, JKR!

The best I can do to explain Harry's wand's behaviour at this point is the Dumbledore = Fawkes theory.

Oh, and Tonks's parents call her Dora! Gold star for Fernwithy!

Chapter 4: The Seven Potters

Well. That was a dizzying action scene! I doubt I caught even half of what happened on the first read-through. That's the problem with good action scenes - you read them frantically and then you miss stuff.

"Fred and George turned to each other and said 'Wow - we're identical!'" That made me LOL.

So we're going to meet Tonks's parents! I hope this doesn't joss Fernwithy's universe.

Fanfic called the idea of multiple people Polyjuiced as Harry - I thought seven Potters referred to relatives of Harry's

Chapter 3: The Dursleys Departing

Dude! Dudley is developing a mind of his own! And since the Dursleys are going into wizarding protection, we'll doubtlessget to find out more about Petunia later on.

Surely the change of plans to which Hestia refers is Voldemort's doing, so I expect to see a skirmish shortly.

I wish it had been clearer in the first chapter whether the either or both of the two possible departure dates the Death Eaters were talking about was before or after Harry's 17th birthday. Edit: turns out it was, I was just reading too fast.

Chapter 2: In Memoriam

Well, I (and the majority of fandom, I'd guess) never guessed Dumbledore's family background. Fanon seemed to generally have him as an orphan and I was blindly accepting that.

The cause of Ariana Dumbledore's death and the fragment of mirror are surely important later on.

Wild theory of the moment: Sirius took his mirror behind the veil with him, and is now sharing it with Dumbledore and anyone else who might want to talk to Harry.

Callback: Dumbledore mentioned several times in previous books that he has ways of moving around/making himself invisible that other peope do not. Surely this will come into play.

Also, POS: Dumbledore is flying to London when he suddenly "realizes" that she should have stayed at Hogwarts. Why does he realize this?

Chapter 1: The Dark Lord Ascending

Oooh! Death Eaters!

So a new name is introduced almost right away: Yaxley. Is he the big blond death eater? Is he one of those two people who were present at Dumbledore's assassination and whom Dumbledore addressed by first name?

Also, we meet the Muggle Studies prof. You know, despite all my rereads and looking for clues, I NEVER realized that the Muggle Studies prof was the only one whose name we didn't know!

My first thought is why is Voldemort trying to kill Harry now, right at the beginning of the book? Then I realized Voldemort doesn't know he's at the very beginning of a book. That would be particularly evil of Voldy, wouldn't it, to ruin the whole carefully ingrained structure of a Harry Potter book?

Wishful thinking: Voldy makes an attempt on Harry's life on Saturday as scheduled. Harry and the Order manage to kill Voldy during this attempt. Then we have a nice happy fun whimsical year at Hogwarts.

End of Harry Potter spoilers

There are no Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows spoilers below this post. Everything below here was written before I started the book.

Got it!!!!!

I got the children's edition instead of the adult edition, but who cares? Onwards!

What I want to happen tomorrow

Regardless of what happens to Harry, regardless of who lives and who dies, even regardless of whether Hogwarts reopens (and the prospect of it not reopening is what was most upsetting to me in HBP, because I want to go back to Hogwarts and if Harry doesn't I won't get to either!)...

Tomorrow I want to be completely gobsmacked. I want to be knocked off my feet by plot twists neither I nor anyone else anticipated. I want to find myself shouting "Go JKR!" when something mentioned in passing books ago suddenly becomes key. I want to find myself laughing hysterically - Eddie Izzard-calibre, disturb-the-neighbours laughs - at least twice, and chuckling quietly to myself dozens of times as the whimsy of the wizarding world is mentioned in passing. I want to be literally on the edge of my seat for the last hundred pages or so, frantically reading and turning pages as fast as I can to find out what happens next, my noble attempts at liveblogging turning to crap because I'm in too much suspense to pause between chapters. Then, as I finish the last page, even though I'm saying goodbye to Harry forever, I want to be able to collapse back on my bed, making a sound only mi cielito has ever heard me hear, from the sheer satisfaction of a well-executed and emotionally satisfying story. I want to be unable to tear myself away from Sugarquill for the rest of the weekend (and maybe even try to sneak on at work next week) because I just have so much to say. I want to be eagerly craving a full reread so I can see all the clues in retrospect. I want for my daydreams to once again put me in the wizarding world, as Rowena Ravenclaw or Harry's Mary Sue or some other random character we haven't met yet. I want to be inspired to write fanfiction, even though it will end up being complete crap that will never see the light of day. I want to go to bed hoping my dreams will take me back to Hogwarts.

I don't want to cry, but if I do cry I want it to be worth the tears. I don't want to have to go to wine or comedy to recover from my tears, I want the emotional process to be self-sustaining. When I head back to work, I want to be at peace, even if I'm full-to-bursting with spoilers and theories and fanfiction.

You've done it before, Ms. Rowling. Do it again, please, just one last time.

Clever JKR!

Dumbledore talking about Merope Gaunt: "Of course, it is possible that her unrequited love and the attendant despair sapped her of her powers."

WHICH IS EXACTLY WHAT HAPPENED TO TONKS!!!

Note to everyone who reads me using a feed reader

On July 21, I plan to liveblog Harry Potter. I expect this to take place during an 8-10 hour period on the day itself. I will be providing appropriate spoiler warnings and spoiler space on my blog itself like I did last time, but the entries will probably show up in your feeds without anything to stop you from seeing them.

So if you're using Bloglines or Google Reader or something similar, and for some reason you might be reading blogs but not wanting Harry Potter spoilers, you may want to remove me from your reading list until you're done reading HP yourself.

More things to come up later in Potter

- The McKinnons
- The Impervius charm (used to keep rain off faces during Quidditch, but is mentioned a lot)
- Broken watches/clocks are mentioned a lot, and the Time Turners haven't really contributed to the series as a whole yet. (They played a major role in POA, but surely there was another way to introduce the fact that Sirius is innocent and tell us about MWPP.)

Temporal anomalies

On Star Trek, whenever they realize they're caught in some kind of temporal loop, someone always suggests that they go back, and someone else always says no, we can't go around second-guessing ourselves, turning back might be the very thing that triggers it.

But it always ends up that turning back would have been the right decision, doesn't it?

Economics makes my brain hurt

They say that the introduction of a land transfer tax will kill Toronto's housing market, which makes sense.

But if the new tax does burst the bubble, wouldn't it become easier to buy post-bubble?

And if it does become easier to buy post-bubble, wouldn't that revitalize the housing market?

Thus rebuilding the bubble?

Etc. etc. etc.?

Metaphor extreme stress test

We're all familiar with the melting pot vs. tossed salad metaphor for multicultural integration. In the melting pot, heat is applied forcing everything to melt together into a pile of homogenous brown mush. In the tossed salad, everything is left to its own devices and allowed to retain its unique characteristics, thus contributing to a yummier and more interesting whole.

I just realized this metaphor stands up to extreme stress, because:

If you leave a tossed salad alone for long enough, it will eventually turn into a pile of homogenous brown mush! But it won't be very yummy then, so you have to keep adding fresh ingredients.

Sociolinguistics

1. In French, the word droit means "right" (as in human rights) and it also encompasses part of the meaning of the English word "law". I wonder if this overlap leads to a different perception of law and rights as compared with how these concepts are perceived by people for whom they are two completely separate words?

2. In Iceland, your surname is based on your father's name - it is literally translated as [father's]son or [father's]daughter. In Russia, patronymics are used in a certain register of address - those of us who have studied French (or Spanish or German or Polish) would perceive it as a third level of formality between tu and vous (or tú/usted, or du/sie, or ty/pan(i) respectively). I wonder if this everyday necessity of knowing your father's name affects cultural attitudes towards people who don't know who their father is? Or cultural attitudes towards creating children who don't know who their father is?

Teach me how to use my ipod please!

A while back, when I was trying to figure out how to do something else, I stumbled upon instructions on how to get your ipod video to play back only the audio of a video. But now I can't find it. Anyone know how?

Way to go JKR!

I just notice that while Hermione is pondering how Rita Skeeter could have overheard the post-second-task conversation between her and Victor, she is in the process of grinding up some scarab beetles in potions class!

(Also, why was Madam Pince unable to find out about Gillyweed? Shouldn't a librarian's research skills be up to that?)