[HPforGrownups] Wand order: Should there have been a public whoops?

[Penny & Bryce]

No: HPFGUIDX 25926

Hi --

foxmoth at qnet.com wrote:

> Given JKR's predilection for re-using plot devices, that 
>> [saying that Harry wanted to see his father that night & magically
reversed the images in the wand so that his dad came out first]

probably wouldn't fly. I have a feeling we can expect priori to show up
>> again, and at that time it will be very important that Harry not be
>> able to interfere with the way it works.

Now, this I can buy!  Excellent point, Pippin.


> A public whoops! might have made us feel better, but it would 
> only have spoiled the illusion for the 99% of readers who would never
> notice anything was wrong.

Some more thoughts on why a public whoops was definitely needed, IMO. 
With my corporate lawyer hat on .... let's think about this.  Let's 
pretend that *none* of us on this fanatical group or anyone in the media 
had actually seen any of the later, corrected versions.  Assume that all 
of us, being fanatics, had our original GoF and no need to see a later 
version (quite possibly could have happened).  So, none of us know that 
the wand order was just an editorial goof and we continue to assume that 
there is something, something likely *significant,* that will be 
revealed in one of the future books about the night Harry's parents were 
killed.  We speculate off and on for years.  Book 7 comes out, and the 
details about Halloween 1981 in Book 7 don't mesh at all with the Priori 
Incantatum scene from GoF (original version).  How can this be? What's 
going on? We're all mystified.

On investigation, we learn that the original GoF scene was just an 
error, corrected years ago by Scholastic.  See the issue?  Yeah, no 
investor money on the line or anything earth-shaking, but there is 
integrity involved IMO.  HP is a high-profile series, and while you 
might not see press releases about editorial changes in books everyday 
(<g>), there should have been one in this case.  High-profile series, 
over 5 *million* copies affected and a scene that probably affects the 
fundamentals of the entire series.  Yeah, as a lawyer and a fan, I'd say 
a public whoops was needed.

Just my 2 galleons though.

Penny