BP Chat - Gwen's fanfic - RIII wand order - AD, HG sketches

[Amy Z]

No: HPFGUIDX 14218

I laughed so hard reading that chat!  "I don't imagine I'm very 
popular in Dursley."  LOL!  They should take advantage of it and make 
themselves Harry Potter Central.  Have an annual fair, give out prizes 
for the most Dursleyish participant, etc.

Boo to JKR on not liking cats (she writes Crookshanks admirably for a 
non-cat-lover).  I may never forgive Ron for seriously suggesting 
kicking Mrs. Norris.  Kudos on not liking Jeffrey Archer.  The first 
time I read him I had no idea he was a best-seller--I thought "this is 
awful!"  Then I learned he was hugely successful and I was stunned.  

And congrats to you Brits on having Comic Relief be such a big deal.  
You do this every year?  We don't have anything equivalent except 
Jerry Lewis's telethon for muscular dystrophy (shudder).

I loved her answer on Hermione and Ron.  She is so hilarious!  You 
know she knows we all sit here picking apart every SHIP hint, and that 
non-information like that just drives us crazy.

Dave wrote:

>And McGonnegal is the one who has the hottest sex with her spouse!  
;)

Would that be the veela stripper you mentioned?  (BTW, sorry to 
nitpick, but the European Wizards' Convention of 1748 specifically 
outlawed strip acts by veela.  They were just too dangerous; taverns 
all over the continent had been going up in flames, and something had 
to be done.)

Michelle on Snape's age:

>I think JKR is referring to the year that she is presently writing 
>about, namely 1995-1996, Harry's fifth yearat Hogwarts.  We know that 
>Harry was born in 1980, due to the timeline set down in CoS (the 
>500th anniv. Deathday party).  Otherwise, Lily would have been about 
>15 or 16 when she gave birth to Harry, which seems unlikely.

Harry turns 15 right after GoF.  If Snape is 35 then, and Lily 
would've been just about the same age, then she would've been 20 when 
Harry was born.

But if she means Snape is 35 at the start of the series (I agree this 
probably isn't what she meant), then Lily would've been about 24 when 
Harry was born, not about 16.

Gwen wrote:

>But I
>do think that the first CoS wasn't _exactly_ 50 years before Harry's
>CoS--the characters all say "about" 50 years ago. I think it's much 
more
>likely that the CoS was opened around 1940, thus giving even 
Dumbledore time
>to become enlisted in the fight against Grindlewald and defeating him 
in
>1945.

Right--I agree on the vagueness of the dates (and the longer ago the 
date, the more approximate the "about," IMO).  I think you have some 
wiggle room here.  I just think you're going to have to do what you 
suggest above:  have Dumbledore already at Hogwarts (since he was 
there when the Chamber was opened) and leave for a time to go do his 
WWII/Grindelwald stuff, then come back.  Like Ted Williams.

CMC wrote:

>(2)  Shakespeare has Richard's victims in chronological order
>(from first to final victim); JKR intended to do this in reverse 
>(from latest on back), but of course got the sequence a bit 
>confused.  (A Point for  Shakespeare)

(Irony marker on)  Actually, it's a little-known fact that Shakespeare 
had Buckingham appear *before* Hastings in the first published version 
of the play, causing much confusion among the actors and a 
proliferation of theories among his fans.  Some of the fans were quite 
relieved when a "corrected" version appeared without comment, but 
others were disappointed that Shakespeare hadn't shown his 
characteristic inventiveness and worked around it.  To this day there 
are Hastings Died First Societies in most English-speaking countries. 
(Irony marker off)

>And set the murderous Machiavel to school.
>Can I do this, and cannot get a crown?
>Tut, were it farther off, I'll pluck it down

>(interestingly, the real Machiavelli, born in 1469, was still a child 
>when these events were unfolding)

See?  WS could screw up with the best of them.

>JKR needs to go into recluse mode until the thing is finished. I say 
>we Fed Ex her some Polyjuice Potion, along with a lock of hair from 
>either Thomas Pynchon or JD Salinger. 

I will resist the urge to submit a fanfic of Book 5 in the style of 
J. D. Salinger, ripe though the possibilities are (Lily as Seymour?  
Harry as Zooey?  Dumbledore as Bessie?).

Top notch post on Dumble, CM!

Penny wrote:

>I had planned to
>trim my Hermione FAQ to serve as her character summary in a few weeks
>but perhaps I'll not trim too much since everyone seems to be 
enjoying
>the longer summary.

I vote for the long version.  We're down to the core characters now, 
and they deserve a lot of space.

Penny (short for Pensieve?):

>If you believe that he meant for Harry to find it, you must also 
believe
>that Dumbledore knew Harry would be coming to his office

Yes--I was hoping someone would point this out!  I don't think AD knew 
he was coming, but we can still ask whether Dumbledore glanced around 
the office before leaving Harry alone in it (good idea, the kid's an 
impossible troublemaker), noticed he'd left it ajar, and deliberately 
decided to leave it.

>I read Quidditch through the Ages pool-side

Gee, thanks, Penny.  You made my day.

Amy Z
enduring a day of freezing rain--and still no sign of QTA & FB in my 
mailbox

------------------------------------------------
 "I've told you before, Ron, keep your nose out 
 if you like it the shape it is.  Can't see why
 you would, but--"
                 -HP and the Goblet of Fire 
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