Some new OOP thoughts from a second reading

[banjo_ken]

No: HPFGUIDX 64744

I must say I'm enjoying the book even more on my second reading. I'm
starting to think that this just may be my favorite of the series so far.

Anyway, there are a few things that I don't think have been discussed
here yet, so I thought I'd point them out. Has anybody else realized
that Professor Marchbanks (the O.W.L. examiner) is probably about 175
years old? See this quote, from pg. 711 of the US edition:

     "I doubt it," shouted tiny Professor Marchbanks, "not if
Dumbledore doesn't want to be found! I should know....Examined him
personally in Transfiguration and Charms when he did N.E.W.T.s...Did
things with a wand I'd never seen before..."

Considering that Dumbledore is about 155 years old when this takes
place, and he probably took his N.E.W.T.s when he was 18 or so. I
don't think this is just a simple mistake, and Marchbanks really is
supposed to be that old. I would not be at all surprised to see him
again doing something important in the future.

Aside from that I've been thinking a lot about Sirius. I know a lot of
you don't want to hear this, but I'm going to argue from a slightly
different angle. I think that considering who/what they were up
against, the order was very lucky to have only lost one member in that
battle. Given the kind of powerful wizards they were fighting, it's
pretty amazing that Sirius was the only one who didn't survive,
especially when you consider that the order managed to tie up several
important death eaters by the end. As much as it hurts to say this,
the order came away with a very important victory, despite their great
loss. 

I'm still very sad to see Sirius go, but I really think he almost
would have preferred it this way. He had been locked up in his old
house with Kreacher and that portrait of his mother for almost a year.
He was going mad knowing that because he was still a fugitive from the
MoM, he had to keep himself inside. This is just a guess, but I think
it probably occurred to him when he finally went out to help save
Harry that he might not be coming back. He was probably in some way
satisfied that he gave his life to save his godson and be useful to
the order in a way that he never could have been in Grimmauld place.

Ken