2nd reading of GOF:A shock!(spoiler)

[oldhermionefan]

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No: HPFGUIDX C5027
From: oldhermionefan
Subject: 2nd reading of GOF:A shock!(spoiler)
Date: 7/24/00 11:24 pm  (ET)

Howdy HP fans! I haven't posted about my reading
GOF yet, so let this be my first. I must(before
talking about the 2nd time), confess how I allowed
my own first reading to be spoiled! This was stupid and had me thinking
that it wasn't as good
as I now know it to be!!

First of all, I started reading(not with an open
mind)but with a mindset pursuaded that what I had
read(an important character would die)was going to
be true! In the Dallas paper there were essay contests asking what kids
thought would happen(who
would die)and this might surprise you...the majority thought Dumbledore
would croak it!

Second, I read some reviews and from one writer
saying it wasn't a main character but someone who
was a good student(he was called this early on)
caused me to guess from the beginning it was Cedric!! Before that however
I cheated! I looked
at the last page to make sure my favorite character wasn't dead!

Sometimes you read a review and learn too much,
but is possible to read too little of a review.
Here's the really silly part:An Austin review said
this:something about a six word incantation that
could make JKR the most hated woman in the world
"and then Harry Potter woke up!"

They went on to say she would never pen the words
and undercut the fantasy and integrity of her narrative. Wouldn't pull
a Wizard of oz movie:Dudley you were a mean boy named Draco...
for instance. After all, Baum's Oz was a real place, just like Hogwarts.

Unfortunately(and this happened sometime during
the tri-wizard tourney that I read it)I stopped
reading after the words in the review "and then
Harry Potter woke up" and believed the author of
the review was saying that a major portion of what
took place in GOF(and perhaps the earlier books)
was ONLY A DREAM! Crazy, but I had myself believing it! Remember a whole
season of the show
Dallas was a dream Pam Ewing had(dispicable) or
the way Newhart ended by saying the entire Newhart
series was a dream that Bob Hartley(from the Bob
Newhart Show)had(this is one of my favorite comic
moments in sitcom history<inspired and brilliant!>

But this would be all wrong for Harry!!! So the
rest of the book was read hurredly and inattentively(after all, if it
was only a dream)
doing great damage to my enjoyment of it. By the
time I realized everything was real, it was too
late. Done myself out of a good time!!
I also allowed my self to be too bugged that it
was not someone important dead, and only Cedric.

So I immediately took the task of re-reading it
and I can't describe how much better it was the
second time!!!

The shock I had second time through was that I
actually cried for the "unimportant" Cedric!!
It first got me when Harry talked of Cedric being
willing to give up such an important triumph in
Hufflepuff history, because Harry had helped him
out! Then I realised it was not his fault that we
didn't know him better. After all, JKR has concentrated on Slytherin
and Gryffendor not Hufflepuff or Ravenclaw!!! So, the 2nd time I was
saddened by what happened to Diggory and surprised
that I was.

A number of reviews have called this the best Potter yet, but as much
as I enjoyed it over the
first reading and it has tons of moments and scenes I love, for me it
is just below my personal
favorite(POA)by the width of a unicorn hair!
My two cents. Take care y'all!!

old hermione fan