OOP: Beginning at the Dursleys (was: OOtP A tad disappointed)

[Matthew Huston]

No: HPFGUIDX 64905

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Dicentra spectabilis"
<dicentra at x> wrote:

> If you're referring to the fact that the novels begin and end at the
> Dursleys, with Harry going to school in the middle, then yeah, we're
> getting the same thing over and over.  On the other hand, I found
OoP
> to be radically different from the rest.  We had no central mystery
to
> solve.  No one was unveiled at the end to be different from his/her
> apparent identity.  Harry didn't win the Quidditch cup for
Gryffindor
> (and he played only in one game).  

The mystery in this novel was the dreams he was having about the dark
hallway that ended in a locked door. This was a continuation from GoF
about *one* of the mysteries as to why Harry was dreaming a little
dream about Voldie/Nagini/Wormtail. And as in GoF the explaination cam
onl near the very end. In GoF Dumbledore revealed that Harry and
Vold-o-rama were connected in a deeper way, and that Harry was seeing
what Voldie was up to. 

In OOtP the mystery of the hall and door were slowly revealed as Harry
kept dreaming, and was following Vold's progress as he and his agents
got deeper into the Department of Mysteries.
 
> But given that Harry really ought to finish school (so he can
become a
> fully qualified wizard) and until then he needs to return to the
> Dursleys once a year so his mother's blood can protect him, we're
> going to get that basic framework.  At least, we have in the first
> five.  Who knows what 6 and 7 have in store?

But then again, he did leave this awesome protection twice, in both
CoS and GoF, for the protection of the Weasley household. So, this
must mean that it's not really a certainty that he return to the
Dursley's house every time. Yet JKR had done so for 5 books, when it
was clear that she didn't really have to. If the Weasley's could have
protected him, then the hq of the Order could have been way more than
adequate (it being unplotable, invisible unless you knew the address,
AND under Secret Keeper bounds as well).

> I still think it's funny though: some people complain because OoP is
> too different, others because it's too much the same.  It's a good
> thing JKR is writing to please herself -- she'd go nuts if she
> listened to her fans.

Well you're on the wrong board to get away from people
complaining..lol. Literature by it's nature is up for criticism, be it
JKR, JRR Tolkien, Stephen King, or whoever.

If people are bored by her presentation of the same formula over and
over then they may give up. Not the adults, but the children. I kept
reading, despite the things I've mentioned here. But if she just keeps
setting up the same framework that merely subsitutes "a prophecy" for
"a diary", and "Death Eaters" for "A basilisk", then even I - reader
of many kinds and genre of novel might get sick and tired and give up.