TBAY: Grief Management

[Melody]

No: HPFGUIDX 58412

Once again, as it always seems to occur when a theorist begins to
preach at George's, the door swing open and a small girl runs in out
of the wind.  Making a beeline to the bar, she hops herself on a
barstool and sit on her knees to be able to talk face to face with the
ever amused bartender.

"George, I need a pint of fresh carrot juice to go," Melody said
pulling her cape up around her shoulders.

George reached for a blender to puree the carrots with his special mix
of liquors and raised an eyebrow at the girl as he filled it.

"Oh it is not for me," she fussed.  "Coney is not as fierce with her
bites if I mix that juice with puree sirloin, and I do *not* need her
teething on every theorist that comes by the safe house with OoP
coming out so soon."

Twirling one of her curls around her fingers, Melody sat listening to
the ever present debates in the bar.  Given that Cindy and Abigail are
the loudest in the room, she could not help but listen in as bits of
the conversation reach her.

>"That's right," Cindy said. "OoP will be filled with wonderful
>opportunities for JKR to do the unexpected.  But she won't.  She'll
>go for the safe bet.  The easy way out.  *The Low Hanging Fruit.*
>Like MemoryCharm!Neville.  It would be so much more daring and
>interesting for her to go with ReverseMemoryCharm!Neville or
>one of the other complex Neville theories. But she won't, will she?
>You know she won't.  She'll give us MemoryCharmButtKicking!Neville,
>who is as *PREDICTABLE* as he can possibly be!"

>"Hmmpf."  From Abigail again.  Then she smiled.  "So, what you're
>really hoping to see in OOP is MAGIC DISHWASHER?  I mean, most
>theorists around here agree that it is the least likely theory on the
>Bay."  Abigail continued, smiling innocently.  "Even the MDDT claim
>that there will probably never be support for MD in canon.  If what
>you really want is for JKR to go for the least obvious choice, then
>you must really be hoping that MD pans out."

Melody rolled her eyes and sighed.  "Abigail."

A smile broke out on Abigail's face.  She coyly turned around to face
the small girl and batted her eyes innocently.  "Why, Melody so nice
to see you."

Melody sat back on the barstool, rested an elbow on the bar, and the
side of her head on the hand.  "We may not be around much recently,
but we *are* still here in TBAY."

"Could of fooled me," Cindy snorted.

Melody cut her eyes over to the Captain and broke a smile.  "We have
just been a bit...distracted as of late.  But you have no need to know
what goes on behind the door of the safe house, so Abigail..."

"Yes, Melody," she smiled sweetly.

"Oh stop that!" Melody spat.  "You are fooling *no one* with that big
puppy eyes routine.  Now MD, while it is a knock your socks off far
left punch, it is not outside the scope of possibility.  And that is
what we have all done here.  We are using what we know, how JKR
writes, and created what *we* think she is trying to do.  Now, the
anxiety you feel, and you too Cindy, is the fear that we, the humble
readers and fans of the series, we might just out-think, out-smart,
and out-plot the goddess herself.  That would be so disappointing to us.

"We so want to feel the way we did as HP virgins.  To be awed.
Dazzled.  Out smarted.  Out maneuvered.  But at that time when we read
those first four, we were not as aggressive in our theories back then.
 We did not have as much time to waste..."

"Waste?" Gail asked looking up from her *filk*.

"Oops, did I say waste?" Melody blustered, "I meant pass.  Fill.
Exercise our education and linguistics skills.   And sometimes logic..."

"Logic?" Abigail asked with a raised eyebrow.

Melody cut her a glare.  "You questioning MD's logic?"

"Always," Abigail smiled.  Melody noticed she leaned a bit back out of
sword range.

"Anyway...the anxiety you are feeling Cindy is the desire to feel
alive again as a reader.  To feel that you can read a book like a wide
eye HP virgin again and not a jaded, over-analyzed, literature-fried
HP captain who has been out at sea for far too long and weathered by
its salty air a bit too much.

"You making a crack at the state of my hair, Melody?" Cindy asked
gripping the side of the chair in front of her.

"No sir, Captain," Melody said wide eyed.  "Just saying you have
manned that ship of your so long and so dedicated that you have
traveled far from your original starting point.  Not a bad thing, but
now that you are coming back to the beginning for a visit, you are
getting anxious.  The memories of before are getting to you.  You want
JKR to wow you again.  It might not happen.  Others have wowed you
since, so you are hoping you can still feel that feeling.  That is all."

Cindy turned that chair around and sank down in it resting her head on
the table.  George, in a moment of kindness, tossed the Captain a
pillow.  She sat it under her head and closed her eyes muttering
sleepily, "I just want to be wowed.  Is that too much to ask?  Wow me
JKR.  Please."

Abigail looked at the Captain and back at Melody.  "So, MD is not what
Cindy is wanting?"

"No," Melody said flatly.  "*If* it is MD, Cindy would still be
disappointed I think in a sense.  It means we did figure JKR out and
we did discover her plans.  Cindy would not be shocked or surprised.
She would just think, 'hey, Pip was right.'  Cindy, and I think we
all, want to be still shocked and wonder while we read, 'Why did we
not think of that?  How did we miss that?'  To have *no one* be right.
 Now *that* would be a feat for JKR to pull off."

George came up with Melody's carrot juice for Coney and a blanket for
Cindy.

"Thanks George," Melody smiled springing up to leave.

"No problem, kid," he nodded as he spread the blanket of the Captain's
shoulders.

"Will she be ok?" Abigail asked looking a bit concerned as Cindy said
still muttering to herself into the pillow.

"Yeah, she just needs the patented George's TLC," he grinned largely.
 "She will be her theorizing self again once OoP comes out.  Right now
she is theorized out."


Melody