HBP: misc. observations (SPOILERS)

[Richard]

This message was meant to have been my first post-HBP contribution and my 
etymology post started off as a section here, but it got too long and so I 
made it a separate message. In lieu of spoiler space, a few words about my 
acquisition and reading of the new book.

I posted when I was leaving the house that I was afraid that there'd be far 
fewer people waiting at midnight than Birmingham's 2 million population 
would warrant. I'm happy to report that I was wrong. I took some photos, 
but they've not worked very well, so I'm not putting them up, but when I 
got to the central shopping area at about 11.40 there was a queue of about 
300 outside the main Watersone's (going half-way round the block), about 
200 outside the second Waterstone's (these two shops are about 100 yards 
apart), about 100 outside Borders (or rather, the mall in which it is 
located) and well over 150 people outside WH Smith's (my own destination). 
I joined the queue, and by the time the shop opened 15 mins later, there 
were as many people behind me as in  front of me! There were huge whoops 
and applause as the first person in each shop walked out with their books; 
I got mine at around 12.40 and started reading immediately, while walking home.

Another thing I feared was that I'd be as disappointed as I was with OotP 
and wouldn't be sufficiently motivated to read the book through in one 
sitting: wrong again. The mound of sarnies was long gone when I was still 
up at 7.30 with about 150 pages to go (I'm not a great speed-reader and I 
deliberately didn't want to rush this one anyway) but despite popping more 
Pro Pluses* than is probably good for me, I could feel my eyes closing too 
much and my concentration wondering (I think I'm getting old; as recently 
as a couple of months ago, I was able to stay up for 48 hours straight 
working on a project that needed completing). I decided to go to bed for a 
few hours, and woke up again at 11.30, made a big pot of coffee and resumed 
reading. I was done by about 3pm but family life took over and I've not 
really had much time to think about the book since then.

http://www.mypharmacy.co.uk/alternative_medicines/medicines/p/pro_plus/pro_p 
lus.htm

Oh well, I think that's enough for spoiler space coverage, so down to 
various observations in no particular order. Some of these may have been 
raised already, although I shall attempt to avoid repeating what others 
have said.

I shocked myself about an hour into reading with the realisation that JKR 
(or her editors) have taken on board one of the major criticisms of OotP on 
board, and laid off the adverbs. Over the next few pages, I was actually 
taking mental note of the adverbs I encountered and counted only two on 
each page. I don't know about anyone else, but this made the book a 
considerably more satisfying read. Even so, there were a few silly ones 
(which I remember noticing, but can't cite right now).

Funniest line: "There's no need to call me 'sir', professor". (p. 171 UK 
ed). That had me in hysterics, and still makes me LOL every time I think 
about it. If they cut it from the movie version, I shall personally 
throttle the screenwriter.

Did I miss something, or is there an editorial non-sequitur? A few pages 
into ch. 14 (Felix Felicitis), just after an off-the-page Transfiguration 
lesson, the Gryffindor common room is full of Hermione's canaries. Where 
did they come from (apart from Hermione's wand)? (UK ed p. 266)

Again, did I miss something, or did the spelling of Phineas change halfway 
through HBP? I didn't take notes while reading and can't find it right now, 
but I could swear that I saw someone called "Finius" mentioned towards the 
end of the book (or maybe I was just getting tired).


A few unsolved mysteries/unanswered questions:
How *did* Dumbledore get his arm withered/blackened/hurt/whatever? He went 
to great trouble throughout the book to tell us it's a tale worth telling, 
and we never got it!

Why is Lucius still in prison, given the Dementors have left? What's 
keeping him there, and why haven't the DEs (with or without Voldie's 
permission) got him out yet?

What was Draco doing in Myrtle's bathroom? My immediate suspicion was that 
he was trying to get into the Chamber of Secrets, but assuming that 
JKR  meant us to think that, she never gave us a plausible reason for his 
being there. It's miles from the RoR - if he wanted to bawl, why not do it 
in the RoR?

Snape. Ah, there's a topic, so I'll keep it short. For the record, IMO he's 
on the side of the angels. So much of the continuing narrative is about our 
(readers') perceptions not being the same as Harry's, although we're told 
everything he sees (at least, everything important). Someone mentioned 
along the way (it may have been on the Hog's Head list rather than here) 
that Harry has to be right about Snape at least once in the course of the 
books. Well, as far as we know, he has been right once: when he surmised 
that Snape's job in the Order is to spy on the DEs.

Snape 2. There's been some discussion about when he came back to Dumbledore 
("back"? Does that mean he started off as "Dumbledore's man", to quote 
Sluggy, then became a DE, and then returned?) and why Dumbledore trusts him 
implicitly. A few people have mentioned Snape's "remorse". However, the 
quote is: "I believe it to be the greatest regret of his life and the 
reason that he returned" (UK ed. p. 513). This is NOT the reason why 
Dumbledore trusts him, though. For starters, there's Dumbledore's (and 
JKR's) favourite get-out clause: "I believe". Dumbledore isn't going to 
have his life (quite literally, it seems) and his mission depend on an "I 
believe". He is *certain* that Snape is loyal, and we're no closer to 
knowing why he's so certain than we were when we first set eyed on the 
greasy-haired git. Sure, we have ideas and theories, but they're not even 
"I believe"s. Most of them are "I hope"s or "I dream"s.

Talking of "I believe" (and variants), next item (not about Snape, sorry). 
:-) UK ed. 531, in the cave:  "I can only conclude that this potion is 
supposed to be drunk." [...]  "Yes, I think so: Only by drinking it can I 
empty the basin and see what lies in its depths." I know Hermione has said 
that wizards aren't good at logic, but Dumbledore has made a HUGE leap 
there which I can't really follow. Why does he conclude that the liquid 
needs necessarily to be *drunk*? Why can't it just be spilled out over the 
floor? He gives no indication of knowing the first thing about the liquid 
itself (although he explains how it's being protected), yet he immediately 
assumes that it has to be drunk. Why not conjure a bucket as well as the 
goblet, and decant the liquid into the bucket to see what happens before 
risking his life (why's he so sure that its effects won't be 
instantaneous?)  on drinking the damn stuff?

The message from R.A.B. (UK ed. p. 569) : whoever it is (I also immediately 
suspected Regulus, and assume we're all right - when we've had initials to 
date, we've had a good idea who they belonged to) must have been a 
Voldy-supporter, if not a fully-fledged DE. The only person outside those 
ranks to have referred to the "Dark Lord" is Trelawney, who wasn't quite 
herself when she said it. If it was Regulus, then Sirius is wrong about yet 
another person. OotP: "Regulus] panicked about what he was being asked to 
do and tried to back out." It seems like he did a lot more than "try to 
back out". It looks like he's the first person to have taken positive steps 
to limit Voldy's power.

Am I only person who suspected (sod that, I didn't "suspect", I *knew*) 
immediately that Harry's ruse with giving Ron the Felix Felicis was just 
that - a ruse? I don't recall my thought processes at the time, but it just 
seemed so downright *dishonourable* after the admonitions about sporting 
events for Harry to consider doing it for real. And as he said, it was a 
question of confidence, not ability.

And talking of Ron, next item: if you ask me, Ron's all fixed up for all 
three of his dreams in the Mirror of Erised to come true: Head Boy (with 
Draco out of the way, and Harry not going back to Hogwarts full time - 
although I'm sure that he'll turn up at various points in his Book Seven 
adventures - there are no other candidates), Captain of the Gryffindor 
Quidditch team (he'll be the longest-serving team member!), so that leaves 
the House Cup: will there be a House Cup competition, given that probably 
half the pupils won't be back, and the Gryffindor hour-glass is wrecked? Or 
will the remaining pupils be re-sorted into fewer than four Houses?

Furthermore, assuming Minerva becomes full-time Headmistress, who takes 
over as Head of Gryffindor? And will Sluggy be back as Head of Slytherin?

And talking of the late Headmaster, a couple of observations: first, 
regarding the AK which (supposedly) offed him. OK, we had a green bolt of 
light (canon thus far limits green flashes to AK), but the spell picked him 
off the ground and threw him over the parapet (he was slumping towards the 
floor at the time). While this is the first "on-screen" AK (with Cedric, we 
only had audio, no picture), the impression given was that he just slumped 
to the ground rather than being tossed into the air. (Note also what we 
know of the Riddles). This sounds definitely fishy to me, or is JKR 
suffering movie contamination (viz. Expelliarmuses in both CoS and PoA)?

Second, regarding the funeral. While we have no internal canon for it, JKR 
is on record with the info that Aberforth, Albus's dear bro, is the Hog's 
Head barkeep. Why didn't he show up for the funeral? Surely he'd have had a 
place, and given one of the speeches?

Which leads me on to AKs: I remain unconvinced, despite JKR's best efforts, 
that whilst Voldy had no reason to kill Lily, he spared her only because he 
didn't "need" her to die for his Hor-thingy. He doesn't seem to be bothered 
about how many AKs he casts, and my opinion hasn't changed that he'd have 
been better off dropping her on the spot, instead of talking to her.

And on that cheery note, I think I'll finish for now. I'm sure I'll have 
other thoughts, but in the meantime, it's 3am and time I went to bed.

--
Richard, who's surprised at the percentage of his Sunday he's spent talking 
HP instead of enjoying the sunshine.