TBAY: Waiting for the Last Can(n)on

[or.phan_ann]

No: HPFGUIDX 172130

Just then the door of the George opens and for a moment the cruel
reality of the Bay intrudes, the howling of the winds and a swirl of
dust from the gathering storm. Then Mooseming (with her handy
spoiler-repelling tinhat) and Ann (freshly relieved of her
Harbourmaster's licence by Sincher Phlote) roll in, arm in arm,
belting out the old Bay favorite "Ship Over Troubled Water": 

Float on, sailorgirl,
Float on by,
Your time has come to sink
The last book is in your hands 
See how it ends!

With a hearty bellow of 'Quadruple rums and keep 'em coming, George!'
they force their way to a pair of stools and join the conversation. 

'Theory Bay worthless, Ceridwen?' scoffs Ann. 'Just a monument to the
victors and some hovercraft-shaped ruins?(1) You might as well say the
list itself is useless. No, TBAY'll last as long as we do. Look at all
that great discussion pre-OotP. Sure, the Fourth Man Avery stuff is
sunk, but there's plenty of stuff that's still interesting. Someone
mentioned Elkins earlier, who's got all her old posts archived at
http://www.theennead.com/elkins/hp/, and lots of it's still worth
reading.'

A chorus of boos (for they are out of tomatoes) greets this shameless
plugging. 'Give us a theory!' shouts someone.

'All right,' says Mooseming, 'Here's one we thought of outside.
Dumbledore is another character from the future... Voldemort! He's
redeemed in DH and goes back in time after Hermione points out that he
has no recorded relatives.'

'We have another!' yells Ann, downing her Rum. 'Regulus Black isn't
R.A.B., because lots of people are! Regulus found the Cave and went
and fetched his friends to help him sort it out. Maybe a dozen of
them. And they all got to the little island by *flying on their
broomsticks* from the shore, shared the potion, and took the Locket.
None of them drank enough for it to leave any permanent scars, so of
course there isn't any evidence for it!'

A moment of seriousness redeemed by daft speculation, the party goes
on. Who knows what the next crazy theory to rear its head may be? 

Ann, who used to drink quadruple rums in real life - ah, student days...

(1) Debbie put this into Ceridwen's mouth in 172033.