The opening chapter of book six

[antoshachekhonte]

No: HPFGUIDX 121381


JMM wrote:
> Didn't she say some place that she was thinking of a chapter or had written a chapter 
that was the explanation of what happened at Godrick's Hollow and it didn't work for the 
first book?  This may be what she is talking about.
> 
> JMM

Antosha:

That's what I was thinking. This is the greatest unknown in the series, the pivotal scene 
out of which everything has sprung. It makes sense that she's been tempted to use it many 
times, and it makes sense that she's (wisely, if cruelly) held it back.

Also, it's about the only scene that I can think of that would fit kizor0's excellent criteria.

Think about it from the point of view of PS/SS: We see a scene in which a young couple is 
at home, at peace, when suddenly Senor Psychopath shows up and all hell breaks loose. 
We see the couple die, and LV tries to kill the baby... but fails, and is (apparently) 
destroyed. Then little 
Harry is picked up by the Jolly Green Giant....

And wakes up in his cupboard ten years later, dreaming of flashes of green light and flying 
on a motorcycle. Perfect. Not as good a first chapter for PS/SS as the one she wrote, and 
one that would have given away far too much, but very serviceable. 

PoA? We'd get the same scene, only now Harry knows what he's watching, and we get the 
(misdirected) introduction of Sirius-as-Secret-Keeper. Again, it gives away too much, but 
it works.

OotP? Well, given that Harry has just survived the resurrection of LV, it makes perfect 
sense that he might have a dream/vision of the old dude's destruction. If it segued into a 
dream of the Graveyard, we'd understand why Dudley is teasing Harry about calling out for 
his 'boyfriend' Cedric. It would have given us a vision of happy-couple!Potters, which 
might have made the scene of the two of them yelling at each other in the Pensieve scene 
more poignant... but it might also have made for one too many flashbacks in a single 
volume, even one as massive as OotP.

Now, if GH!flashback IS the famous floating first chapter, what does that tell us about 
HBP???

Antosha, whose speculative editorial circuits are now fried....