OOP - The Book, in General (some SHIP)

[robintx17]

No: HPFGUIDX 61782

Hi all!

~the usual first time poster disclaimer goes here~
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Hope that's enough!  :)

First, let me say that I have been an HP fan for ages.  Read the 
first book back in 1999 and have re-read them all so many times, it's 
not even funny. 

Like just about everyone on this list, I was waiting with baited 
breath for OOP.  I finished re-reading GofF on Friday night, got up 
super early on Saturday and went to my nearest 24 hour Wal-Mart, 
bought OOP and told hubby not to talk to me for several hours when I 
got home.  

And, I must also admit that I am a read-the-last-page-first kind of 
reader.  Gotta do it, can't stop myself.  :)

I dove into this book with many HOPES, but not really knowing what to 
expect.  I was HOPING for the following:

1)  Sirius would be cleared and Wormtail would get what was coming to 
him.
2)  Snape would finally explain everything to Harry (why he hates 
Harry so much, etc.) and they would become *friends*.
3)  The DADA teacher would be someone with the potential to last more 
than one year.
4)  The Malfoys (Lucius, et al) would get theirs.
5)  Dumbledore would truly explain *everything* to Harry.

What did I get?  Not much of what I was hoping for, but then again, 
oh so much more.

Previous posts have pointed out so many of the good things about this 
book...the Weasley family (all expect Percy), Fred and George 
especially.  I knew they had it in them to do the right thing!  We 
also got to see more of Moody and Lupin (loveable werewolf that he 
is) and meet some fabulous new characters (Luna and Tonks, 
especially) and I can't wait to see what's in store for them in the 
coming books.

As for the relationships, I'm torn on this one.  Harry *needs* to 
find that one girl who is his perfect partner and as much as it pains 
me to say it, I don't think it's Hermione.  Probably not even Cho, 
but I'll tell you one thing, Ginny has definately moved up on the 
candidate list. She's bright, beautiful and obviously able to handle 
herself magically.

I truly am leaning more towards Ron and Hermione ending up together 
in the end.  It's been well established that Ron has a thing for 
Hermione in GofF (jealousy over Viktor Krum) and we are starting to 
see that perhaps Hermione might have a thing for Ron, as well.  On 
page 404 (US edition) it says:

""Good luck, Ron," said Hermione, standing on tiptoe and kissing him 
on the cheek.  "And you, Harry-"

Ron seemed to come to himself slightly as they walked back across the 
Great Hall.  He touched the spot on his face where Hermione had 
kissed him, looking puzzled, as though he was not quite sure what had 
just happened."

I had to re-read that bit several times.  :)  After finishing the 
book (without any more real evidence pointing to Ron and 
Hermione "becoming involved"), I started thinking about what we did 
learn in this book and I started thinking about parallels.  I'm sure 
other people have noticed and written about it here, but here goes:

We are dealing with 4 generations of characters in the books:

1)  Harry's Generation
2)  James and Lily's Generation
3)  Voldemort's Generation
4)  Dumbledore's Generation

We pretty much know who falls into what generation and of course, we 
have characters crossing generations, as well.  In this book, we 
learned more about James' circle of friends and I began to compare 
them to Harry's cirle of friends.  Ron and Sirius are obviously 
counterparts (best friend to Harry and James, respectively).  Then 
we've got Hermione and Lily.  This one is a bit more difficult to see 
right now, but obviously, they are both girls and at some point, Lily 
and James obviously become friends and then "more". Then you've got 
Neville and Peter (Wormtail), both in the circle, but just slightly 
less talented than their friends.  Lupin is a hard one to come up 
with a comparison for in Harry's generation...about the closest I can 
come up with is Ginny...she is also part of the circle, but slightly 
removed because she is a year younger, but both have suffered (Lupin 
a werewolf and Ginny being possessed by Voldemort).  

But then, I started thinking about Ron endng up with Hermione.  That 
makes him more relevant to *James* and puts Harry into the Sirius 
role of "best friend".  (They are both also "the last of their 
line"...Sirius was the last Black and Harry is the last Potter.)  I'm 
wondering if JKR isn't leading us to vicous cycle type thing.  Ron 
and Hermione grow up, marry and have a son or daughter...they are 
killed fighting Voldemort and Harry is left as godfather for their 
child and the circle begins again.  But this time, Harry has been 
where the child is and makes the *right* decisions.  Harry will learn 
from his history.

I think the relationships are the key to the whole puzzle.  JKR has 
this all mapped out in her head, obviously.  It has been shown in all 
of the books that the past has a very definate affect on the 
present.  So, it would follow that what is happening to Harry NOW 
will affect his future and those around him.

The only problem with this is TIME.  JKR has said that she will only 
write 7 books and that would mean that Harry's saga ends with the end 
of his 7th year at Hogwarts.  Ron and Hermione would supposedly also 
be at Hogwarts the same amount of time as Harry and would not marry 
and have a child prior to leaving Hogwarts.  So, maybe it's not about 
an exact parallel.  Or perhaps, due to the war with Voldemort, they 
all leave school early.  I don't really see that happening, though.

Or, perhaps JKR is just leading us down the garden path.  We won't 
truly know until we reach the final page of Book 7.  It's going to a 
fun ride, though.  I just hope it isn't 3 years until Book 6 or I'll 
have to buy new copies of all of my books...they will all be worn out!

Sorry to ramble so long.  Does anyone have any other theories on 
the "parallels"?

Off to re-read OOP.  Y'all have fun!

RobinTX