AND AT THE END - POA

[Jen Reese]

No: HPFGUIDX 166914

All questions from Alla and Sherry:
> 2. <snipped quote about Wendelin the Weird>
> Do you believe that we will learn something different than what was 
> described in this quote about muggles prosecuting wizards and if 
> yes, what wider implications it may have for the end of it all?

Jen:  JKR said there will be 'some' about the Founders and that could
mean info about the beginning of Hogwarts and the split.   Maybe
this would include an explanation for how Slytherin's interest in
teaching children from only magical families morphed into the
pure-blood idealology?  More likely will be information re: 
individual founders through the course of searching for and
destroying the Horcruxes, and the younger generation attempting
to work together and to start healing the divide.

> 4.	Weasleys went to Egypt. There was a lot of speculation that 
> Egypt would be significant in some way later on. Can we still expect 
> it with one book left?

Jen:  I was looking forward to more about Egypt!  Now my hopes
have waned.  Dumbledore didn't mention Egypt being significant
to Voldemort and that sounds like the driving force for Harry
traveling anywhere in DH besides Godric's Hollow.
 
> 5.	Would we ever learn what Remus was doing in those twelve 
> years before he came to Hogwarts?

And why his friends thought he was the spy?  I suspect
we will learn more about his life via his connection to Lily.
I'm picturing Harry going to GH, starting to wonder about
his mum and the time period after he was born.  Lupin
is the one who can fill in at least some of the missing pieces,
and in the course of talking about Lily (and James) he will
likely tell more information about his own life.

>   7.    "Naturally," said Professor McGonagall. "James Potter told 
> Dumbledore that Black would die rather than tell where they were, 
> that Black was planning to go into hiding himself... and yet, 
> Dumbledore remained worried. I remember him offering to be the 
> Potters' Secret-Keeper himself."
> 
> Would we ever learn why James and Lily refused DD's offer to be 
> their secret keeper?

Jen: It's hard to imagine why not DD except we wouldn't have
our story, heh.

I'm guessing their reasoning was something along the lines of how
important Dumbledore was to the entire cause and how having him as
a targeted SK would make it difficult for him to work for the entire WW.
Arguably protecting Harry *would* be safeguaring the WW after LV chose
to target him.  Was it purely and simply trusting Sirius' loyalty so
completely and wanting to keep it among friends and intimates?   

> 9.  Trelawney made a true prophecy in PoA. If we are to believe 
> DD it was her second true prediction. Would any other predictions of 
> hers come true in book 7?

Jen:  I'd like some of them to come true, the one about Harry
living happily ever after specifcially (well except 12 kids,
egad--good luck Ginny!).   I'm still trying to figure out what
JKR is saying about Divination in general throughout the
series.  The prophecies are merely predictions in the sense
of being self-fulfilling, albeit much more dramatic than the ones
Trelawney throws out in class.

I'm thinking the big dramatic Trelawney prediction was
the card reading with the lightning-struck tower, so there won't
be another big piece on her predictions.

> 10.	"If you ever need me, send a word, your owl would find me."
> 
> JKR indicated that there was another reason for Sirius to die 
> besides for Harry to continue journey alone. Would we learn of that 
> in book 7?

Jen:  I've wondered myself right out of speculation on this one.  Although
the curtain thingys on the front cover of the Scholastic DH did cause me to
think more about Harry going behind the Veil.

> 11.	I was thinking about what Dementors will be doing in book 7 
> and in the famous description that Remus gives to Harry one phrase 
> suddenly struck me as strange:
> 
> "If it can, the dementor will feed on you long enough to reduce you 
> to something like itself... soul-less and evil." – POA, ch.10.
> 
> So, what are the effects of the Dementor feeding on someone NOT long 
> enough?

Jen:  Wouldn't that be explained by the people in Azkaban?  People
are left with just the 'worst' parts of themselves and their lives.  I guess that
could lead to a person becoming evil even though the story doesn't
present the possibility with a clear example:  The good people
who go to Azkaban remain good and the bad have remained bad.  
Unless Crouch Jr. really was innocent and it seems a little late to
go back to his story.  (Although I've always wondered what happened
to him; is his body in St. Mungo's now?)


> 12.	How does the famous Life debt works? How it will play out in 
> final confrontation?

No direct comment although I did run across this quote in the 
TLC/MN interview and read it in a slightly different way than
my first reading:

'A: Does she have a life debt to Harry from book two?

JKR: No, not really. Wormtail is different. You know, part of me
would just love to explain the whole thing to you, plot of book
seven, you know, I honestly would.'

Jen:  I wonder if she was diverting attention from an important part
of the plot in DH or she switched to talking about the entire plot
given all the questions she was being asked at the time?  It almost
reads like the mention of life debts ties into the 'whole thing', i.e.
the plot of book 7, in her mind.

> 13.  In OOTP, we learn that DD has written in the past to Petunia.  
> Could the aunt Marge incident have been a time when Vernon wanted to 
> throw out Harry and DD intervened?  If so, will the fact of some type of 
> correspondence between DD and Petunia have some significance for the 
> last book?

Jen:  Significant, yes, although since 'remember my last' referred to the
letter left on the doorstep then it would be letters prior to that one.
I'm hoping for a box of letters under the creaky stair that Petunia will
hand over to Harry when she hears Dumbledore died.  I expect even
she knows enough about the WW to feel fear for her family at the news
and would hope Harry might offer some protection.

Thanks for the questions, Alla & Sherry, now I want to go back and
read POA again.

Jen