New places, minor characters,a minor illumination

[pigwidgeon37 at yahoo.it]

No: HPFGUIDX 21251

Caius Marcius wrote:
"This also ties into the "new places" thread - I think Dumbledore 
will 
perish, but he is too important a character to be finished off before 
Book Seven. since he's already been removed once as Hogwarts 
Headmaster, he won't be temporarily removed again."

Not only is he too important a character, but he's also *the* 
carismatic leader- who could possibly take his place if he died too 
soon? JKR would already have had to build up a character who'd be up 
to his level, if se wanted to finish him off in book 5. Because 
nobody on Dumbledore's side is a personality accepted by everybody 
else, everybody's got a little smirk on his/her character: Severus 
was a DE and some important people like Sirius and Remus don't trust 
him; Sirius' name is not yet cleaned and few people would trust 
*him*, Lupin's a werewolf (big sigh!), Moody's a bit too crazy, 
McGonagall is no leader ec.etc., you can tick everybody off the 
possible leaders' list. So obviously, some character has to be made 
credible as a leader during book 5 and Dumbledore, IMO can't die 
before book 6, or the anti-V. communiy would fall apart.

still Caius Marcius:

"what I think more likely: We already know that Voldy intends to move 
on Azkaban to liberate his supporters, and to enlist the Dementors on 
his side. I see Voldy securing Azkaban as his base of operations, and 
then doing a raid on MOM (stil locked in deep official denial of the 
Dark Lord's return) with all the advantages of surprise, and taking 
as hostage a large number of MOM officials, including Cornelius 
Fudge, Diggory, etc. as well as - teh emotional kicker - Percy and 
Arthur Weasley.  They are all taken to Azkaban and held hostage, 
under sadistic Dementor guards.  Dumbledore organizes a rescue 
operation headed by the two wizards who have mastered the Patronus 
charm: Remus Lupin & Harry Potter."

I'd categorize that one clearly under "Die Hard IV" and cast Bruce 
Willis for Remus Lupin!!!!(Hans Gruber from part 1 returning, because 
he's really Snape/Alan Rickman and the jump out of the window hasn't 
hurt him in the least, because he's changed into a vulture, hiding on 
the hat of Nevile's grandmother)

My favourite minor character is the ministry wizard from the 
department of experimental magic, Gilbert Wimple, who can't get rid 
of his horns.

I'm reading GoF for the millionth time and was just about to post an 
SOS, shamefuly asking everybody whether they could explain what the 
heck a Bong-sewer was (GoF, chapter 19, Hagrid says it when Madame 
Mxime steps out of the carriage), when I suddenly realized it 
meant "bon soir"!!

Susanna (who's glad not to have studied at Howarts because she would 
have developed huge crushes on Snape *and* Lupin and therefore 
undergone a severe crisis of schizophrenia)