Beginning of OotP (Re: How hard would it be..)

[GulPlum]

No: HPFGUIDX 53833

Risti wrote, on another subject, which I intend to take in a different 
direction:

>I think that the book will begin differently, and will begin 
>earlier.  I've been reading through GoF, and I was on page 197, not even 
>at Hogwarts yet, when I realized that the main reason that book is so much 
>bigger then the others is because so much more happens before Harry even 
>gets to school.  With OOTP supposed to be even bigger, I don't think its 
>outrageous to assume that it must begin even earlier.

Absolutely. As may people have suggested, now that he's back, Voldemort 
isn't going to wait until 1st September to make his presence felt. I for 
one fully expect the "meat" of the story to start very quickly, even while 
Harry is still at the Dursleys'.  However, I don't expect much to have 
happened between the return from Hogwarts at the end of the fourth year at 
the beginning of July (the third task was on the 24th June, and there's a 
reference to the school year ending two weeks later), and Harry's birthday.

The first words of GoF's last chapter are "When he looked back, even a 
month later...".This would indicate that JKR considers Harry's eye-view of 
that month to have been covered, so the narrative of OotP won't start 
before 24th July (if we take "month" literally).

Of course, this doesn't mean that something very important hasn't happened 
during that month (or at least the two weeks since Harry's return to the 
Dursleys) - it's just that Harry doesn't know it yet. As I said at the top, 
I don't expect Voldemort to be waiting patiently, so the very first page of 
the book, even before Harry's birthday (I assume that the first or second 
chapter will focus on 31st July as usual) could feature some dangerous omen...

And of course there's the issue of that boy lying in the flower bed...

--
GulPlum AKA Richard, who's just uploaded an MP3 of a Robbie Coltrane 
interview on TV this evening to http://plum.cream.org/HP/misc/index.htm