Where's that Big Reveal in DH?

[Zara]

No: HPFGUIDX 180046

> Mike:
> And yet there was a good ship LOLLIPOPS floating in Theory Bay as 
> early as 2002. At the end of book 5 we knew that Dumbledore had a 
> Plan in mind for Harry. Those Puppetmaster!DD threads were around 
> since the release of OotP in 2003.
> 
> Contrast that with:
> By the end of PS/SS we knew that LV was after Harry and that DD 
knew 
> the reason but wasn't telling. After PoA we knew that Trelawney had 
> just made her *second* true prophesy that Dumbledore was aware of. 
> Yet how many people put those clues together and predicted DD knew 
> Trelawney's *first* prophesy was about Harry and LV? There were 
three 
> years, the most between any books, from GoF to OotP for this 
> prediction. Yet it came as a big surprise to me. Same goes for 
Sirius 
> dying in book 5.

zgirnius:
Sorry Mike. Search on "prophecy" before 2003. Voldemort could give 
Lily a chance to live because the prophecy that motivated him to hunt 
the Potters, did not apply to her. And that prophecy was likely the 
first true prophecy by Trelawney.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/45180

for example, refers to some of these theories, I did not find the 
original posts expounding them.

If Sirius dying counts as a big surprise of OotP...DH was full of 
them. Did you predict Hedwig? Dobby? the Lupins? Fred? To readers not 
in the fandom, I believe DH had plenty of twists. For another,  
Regulus, motivated to sacrifice himself because Voldemort tortured 
his House Elf, who ends up leading the elves into battle against 
Voldemort. (That last bit, I do not recall reading on any of the 
three fora on which I discus HP). Nor do I recall, in the many 
discussions of who would be DADA/Headmaster in DH, anyone suggesting 
the winning combo of Professor Carrow, and Headmaster Snape, both 
appointed, effectively, by LV. Because I don't recall heavy 
discussion of the fall of the Ministry and what LV would do once in 
power, either.

Grindelwald and Dumbledore having been best of friends, a 
relationship which broke up after it resulted in the death of 
Dumbledore's sister: that surprised me, too. "Puppetmaster" and the 
Snape theories I had of course seen before, but, on DD anyway, I 
found the way it was all put together a nice surprise. 

I agree that to a careful reader Snape's story and puppetmaster would 
not have been a shocking surprise, but disagree this is a flaw in DH. 
Both this and puppetmaster are too big to just drop as surprises in 
the final book - these are major characters we have gotten to know 
over the six books of the series, so the clues have to have been 
there. In fact, Book 1 already has plenty of clues for both.