OoP clues?

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 157954

It seems to me that we're in desperate need of a new topic again, so
here's my attempt to start a new thread. JKR has indicated that we
should look at OoP, which she concedes is a little too long, for clues:

JKR: <snip> My feeling is that Phoenix is overlong, but I challenge
anyone to find the obvious place to cut. There are places that I would
prune, now, looking back, but they wouldn't add up to a hugely reduced
book, because my feeling is you need what's in there. You need what's
in there if I'm going to play fair for the reader in the resolution in
book seven. One of the reasons "Phoenix" is so long is that I had to
move Harry around a lot, physically. There were places he had to go he
had never been before, and that took time — to get him there, to get
him away. That was the longest non-Hogwarts stretch in any of the
books, and that's really what bumps up the length. I'm trying to think
of specifics, it's hard.

ES: Any subplots that you think could have been left out, in hindsight?

JKR: I find it very hard to pinpoint any because I feel that they were
necessary. How can any of us judge? Even I, until seven's finished,
will not be able to look back really accurately and say, "That was
discursive." <snip>

Carol resumes:
So all the subplots are necessary for the resolution--house elfs and
boggarts and all. What do those who think Phoenix is a "bad" book with
a lot of wasted pages think should have been cut because it won't play
a part in book seven? And what do OoP's defenders think will prove to
be important besides the locket that won't open and the Veil and the
Love Room in the DoM?

It seems to me that we've said all we can say for the moment about HBP
and it might be fun to look at a different book, one for which the
mystery (Voldemort's "weapon") seems to be fully resolved, and see
what's introduced there that might prove important. Kreacher, for one.
And maybe Tonks' abilities as a Metamorphmagus. And how about Ragnok
the goblin? <winks at KJ>

Anyone want to volunteer a list of Book 5 subplots that need to be
resolved in Book 7 and speculations on where JKR might take them?

Carol, who wouldn't mind endlessly debating Snape but reluctantly
concedes that there's more to the HP books than Sevvie