TBAY:Casual Chat with Jo...

[Risti]

No: HPFGUIDX 71199

It was a sunny day at Theory Bay, the storm having finally passed.  
If you looked on the water, you'd see Captains hard at work 
alongside crew members, busily fixing the holes in their ships.  
Over at the S.S. LOLLIPOPS, everyone was busily shining their pretty 
new cannon.  In the yard, many new ships were being made, and if you 
listened carefully, you'd hear people debating over suitable names 
for Ron and Luna's destined love.  Walking along the boardwalk, two 
women, one pushing a baby stroller, were definitely not listening 
that carefully.  In fact, from the looks of things, they were simply 
enjoying a stroll in the sun and some light-hearted conversation.

"So when he asked me if Harry's muggle life would end up mixing with 
his magical life, because of Voldemort, well, I had to tell him 
yes.  I never imagined he'd go off and tell national television that 
muggles got into the magical world.,"  The woman pushing the 
stroller said, rolling her eyes at the end.

"I figured it was something like that, Jo.  I'm glad you didn't go 
and change your plot around just to make it fit what some kid said 
on Oprah," the other woman laughed.

"Oh, I never really was seriously considering that, I was too close 
to finishing at that point, I had other issues to deal with, not the 
least of which were the publishers who would be quite upset if I 
pushed back their publishing schedule again."

"Are you saying that if you weren't almost done, you would have 
considered the idea of muggles invading the wizarding world?" Risti 
teased.  When Jo didn't answer, Risti gawked at her.  "You would 
have, wouldn't you."

"Well, I might have at least considered it, after all, it is an 
interesting idea
" Jo trailed off, not making eye contact.

"I knew it," Risti said shaking her head, "I just knew it.  It was 
bound to happen, all those interviews, all that controversy
"

"What are you talking about?"

"All the questions, all the debate, you listened to it, and it 
affected the way you look at Harry and his world."

"That's a crazy idea!  Harry is the same now as he was when I first 
met him back on that trainride." Jo sounded slightly insulted now.

"That I don't believe, you're a better author then that," Risti 
said, and pulled a rather large hard cover book out of the back of 
the stroller.  "Just look at the size of this, it all makes sense 
now."

"What makes sense?"

"You said in the beginning that this would be shorter then Goblet of 
Fire.  When you look at the plotline, that makes sense.  The 
Ministry's got the prophesy, Voldemort wants the prophesy, they 
confront each other in the end.  Really, it's not that big of a plot 
concept."

"Well when you put it like that it isn't, but it's really not fair 
to say that that's all that happened," Jo said, grabbing the book 
back.

"No, that's not all that happened.  We got introduced to a whole 
host of new strong, female characters," Risti began ticking points 
off on her hand.  "Tonks, Umbridge, Luna, and Bellatrix, to name the 
main ones, not to mention nice appearances by  Madam Bones, Grandma 
Longbottom, and Arabella Figg.  Ginny, Cho, and other female 
students seemed to get a little more attention as well.  After the 
famine comes a flood?"

"Well, uhh, I
"

"There's no shame in it.  You really were lacking in good, strong 
female characters.  You have to be careful though.  As cool as Tonks 
was, she didn't really serve that much purpose within the book.  I 
mean, we all would have enjoyed the book just as much if you'd never 
introduced her, so I hope that you have some plan cooked up that 
will reveal her to be highly significant."

"Of course she's significant!  She's a metamorphmagus," Jo said 
simply.

"Right.  That was very integral to the plotline, but moving on.  
Christmas gifts," Risti said, checking another point off on her hand.

"Christmas gifts?  What on earth are you talking about?" Jo sounded 
really confused now.

"You were questioned at one point about whether or not Harry gave 
out Christmas gifts.  In this book, he obviously did," Risti said, 
looking pleased with herself.

"So?" Jo said, still looking quite confused.

"So you're giving the fans what they want.  Dumbledore finally 
explains why he thought it was a good idea to leave Harry with the 
Dursley's when people everywhere were questioning how this could 
possibly be the best option.  On that topic, we learn that 
Dumbledore is quite capable of making mistakes, not omnipotent as 
I'm sure you knew so many fans believed."

"What is your point with all of this?" Jo asked, stopping suddenly.

"My point?  Three years is a long time.  You had a lot of pressure.  
By the end of the first chapter, I could see that Harry had 
changed.  I don't exactly know how to describe it, but it was more 
then just him suddenly waking up and realizing he was a teenager.  
Harry changed because within your mind, his character evolved, grew 
into something that perhaps it wasn't in previous books.  For the 
first four books, you wrote almost without stopping.  I think for 
the first time since you created the series, you stopped and looked 
back on what you'd done while you were writing this book.  The 
results are a slightly different Harry, and a slightly different 
Harry Potter series.  Oh, and for the record, I happen to like the 
new Harry much better then the old."

~Risti
(For the record, I've been offline for a month, and I'm not sure why 
this is what I've chosen as my first major post back on here, other 
then I haven't been able to wade through all the messages, and I'm 
scared most of my other points have already been debated to death.)