[the_old_crowd]

[Stephanie Keener]

Sorry -- I forgot a subject line.  Not that one would really fit anyway,
it's just miscellaneous OotP thoughts. 
 -- Steph

-----Original Message-----
From: Stephanie Keener 
Sent: Thursday, June 26, 2003 11:23 AM
To: the_old_crowd at yahoogroups.com
Subject: [the_old_crowd] 


Okay, I've finally got a few minutes to vent.

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Overall, I thought the book was very good. But, I don't think it's my
favorite. So dark and chilling... I don't think JKR's ruined anything for
future books either, there are still some big mysteries: I.e. the possible
Red Herring of Neville being the one who must vanquish Voldemort. And the
prophecy was worded in a confusing way -- I'm with Scott on that one.  I
think there's going to be much more Petunia stuff come out - I don't believe
for an instance that she knew about dementors because she heard James tell
Lilly once (and what was she doing hanging out with James and Lilly anyway).
Snape. We still don't really know what he's up to with his spying (is he at
least part vampire?). And some little fun mysteries left too: Mrs.. Norris,
really smart cat or permanently transfigured ex-lover of Mr.. Filch?

Here are my big re-actions pre reread:

1) I didn't expect it to be Sirius. I had McGonagall pegged. It's definitely
one of the hardest literary deaths I've ever endured. (There's only one
really, where I had to put the book down and walk away because I was so mad
that someone had died.) But in hindsight, I also don't feel like Sirius was
cut down in his prime. He was cut down in his prime when he was wrongly
imprisoned, and it was Azkaban, not death, that robbed him of any really
fruitful adult life he might have had. I'm with Kim in that I think "death
wish" is maybe to strong a term, and I'm not able to be totally articulate
and not contradictory of even myself with this train of thought. But I think
that Sirius, basically imprisoned again, was ready to get out there and
sacrifice himself if it came to that. I also think that Azkaban left him
emotionally immature about the possibility of his dying - he had that
teenager's arrogance about life (That can't happen to me!) and lived it that
way. Plus, he probably had that hopeless feeling that even if he did die, it
wouldn't really matter anyway. After all, Sirius knew that that Harry would
be cared for if he died (he was in the room when Lupin assured Molly that
they would look after the Wesleys (and Harry) if something awful happened to
she and Arthur). Furthermore, given all the arguments he had with Molly
about Harry and the fact that Lupin was often having to step in there as the
Voice of Reason - Sirius had to recognize that maybe he wasn't really
handling the Parenting Gig all that well. It's the old "are you your kid's
parent or their friend argument". Sirius was Harry's friend, as Herimone
points out when she says that Sirius is living vicariously through them.
Lots of this has to do with Sirius being cooped up all that time - and I
have to say that I'm pissed off at Dumbledore for not letting him out. Hey,
Dung was out there in drag - surely Sirius could have done something to
disguise himself. And no, I don't think we've seen the last of him - surely
getting blasted through the Long Black Veil in corporeal form does something
special to your death -- weather you were dead when you went through or not.

2) Flints. Hope I'm not harping on stuff other folks have mentioned, and
just missed.   And these are maybe not Flints, exactly, but things that JKR
didn't really think through:

a)Yeah, there's the whole James as Head Boy without being Prefect thing
(now, even if Lupin did step down, say, after the Snape-Sees-Lupin-As-Wolf
episode, don't you think one of them would mentioned it in that conversation
at the dinner table when Ron and Hermione are first made prefects?).
b)Thestrals. Well, didn't Harry see Lilly die? And even if it did take
Cedric's death to set off Seeing The Thestrals, then shouldn't he have seen
them when that left Hogwarts at the end of Fourth year? c)The Marauder's
Map. How did Harry get it back? Did I miss something? Didn't Dumbledore have
it at the end of GoF? 

3) Centaur's are turds. That's really all I have to say there. Pardon my
foul language.

4) Ginny. I'm in the Ginny Rocks camp. And did you notice that she swore!
And dating all those boys (okay, not all those boys, but she does seem a
little racy-er than the other girls at Hogwarts)! She'll be kissing on Roger
Davies if we don't watch out. Go Ginny. 

5) Tonks. I think she should get together with Lupin. 

Running away, ducking curses as I go....

Stephanie





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