Book mistake / wand order stuff

[Simon J. Branford]

No: HPFGUIDX 5512

Penny wrote: "The message below came from a member of the PoU message group.
She asserted last night that the wand order "problem" was a mistake and had
been corrected in subsequent editions of GoF.  She posted what purport to be
"corrected" passages to this scene from GoF.  I asked her to email me
privately regarding her source as the topic is OT for the PoU group. Her
response is below.  As you can see she isn't a member of our group and
doesn't seem to plan on joining."

In response to the message, and having an hour to waste in central Oxford
between lecture and class, I went and had a look at some different printings
of GoF in various bookshops today. I found that the passage has yet to be
changed. This is based on 1st to 7th printings of the UK version (I found a
1st edition in one of the bookshops - I was amazed that you could still buy
these - I would have thought that would all have been sold by now).


Penny wrote: "I just re-read through the "corrected passage" and also wanted
to note that "untidy-haired" doesn't seem like correct usage to me."
The corrected passage is supposedly: "And he came... first his head, then
his body... tall and untidy-haired like Harry, the smoky, shadowy form of
James Potter blossomed for the end of Voldemort's wand, fell to the ground,
and straightened like his wife."

I think it could be solved by having the sentence as (i.e. a little word
reordering and adding of commas): "And he came... first his head, then his
body... tall and, like Harry, untidy-haired, the smoky, shadowy form of
James Potter blossomed for the end of Voldemort's wand, fell to the ground,
and straightened like his wife."

If the mistake has been 'corrected' by Scholastic then it could be that JKR
did not write the correction and that they have just altered it, assuming
the passage to be incorrect.


Penny wrote: "I'm not sure if JKR has addressed this at all in interviews
since the release of GoF -- does anyone else recall if she's been asked &
enigmatically refused to answer (or am I making that up)?"

I cannot remember it being asked in any of the recent interviews.

Simon