Preparing

[Barry Arrowsmith]

A mere - what? 44 days to go, is it?
No signs of concern? All parts maintaining an even strain?
Good.

Bet there're a few out there re-reading the series, just to 
refresh their memories and ensure that what they believe to
be facts haven't been contaminated by past posts on the sites
that might have been a touch cavalier in the treatment of 
strict canon. Plus there's always the possibility that a last 
minute blinding light of revelation may bathe one in a 
coruscating nimbus, giving one the opportunity to pip Jo at 
the post with the low-down on what it's all been about.

Might happen; might have happened already, if we but knew it.
 Jo has claimed it hasn't - well, to paraphrase Mandy, she would
say that, wouldn't she? Besides, there are so many sites and 
such an enormous number of posts that keeping track of them
all seems a physical impossibility. The odds are that somewhere,
on an unregarded nerdish site in a dusty corner of the web, a 
spotty 15 year old has cracked it. 
Well done, that fan! Have a peanut.

Apart from yearnings for a surfeit of blood n'guts to round 
off the series (hopefully including a Weasley cull, bloody Luna, 
that creep Creevey, most of the DEs [with a spectacular carpet-
chewing performance from Bella] these additional to the 
extirpation of Voldy, the tragic demise of Lupin, the squelching
of Peter, Snape expiring with a curled lip and a "Get on with it, 
Potter!" and Harry ending up as a plain, ordinary Muggle) I'm not
too fussed about the finale. Yeah, I know, most of those aren't 
going to happen anyway. 
But I can dream. 

No, like most senile old fools, I live in the past, so it's the 
clearing up of the aggravating blank bits in the back-story that
interest me most. What happened to the Founders - particularly 
Sally; what happened (if anything) to Tom in the Chamber; the 
prophecy in the pub; Godric's Hollow; the 24 hours, and above 
all - motivations. What it was that set the various characters on 
the courses that they took, especially DD and Snape.

So as preparation for the final installment I've been reviewing 
my old posts, checking old theories and rationalisations, sorting
'em out into overtaken by canon, might still be applicable, and 
the just plain loopy. There's an awful lot that I'd forgotten about,
almost makes me wish book 7 could be postponed for a few 
months so that old ideas could be re-vamped or further developed
- almost being the operative word. 

Since most of my theoretical stuff is disproportionately about 
motivations and the lacunae, it hasn't been so subject to the 
wipe-outs that the forecasting fans have risked at the appearance
of each new volume. Up to now, what started as puzzling gaps 
and silences have generally remained as such, with just the 
occasional snippet thrown in by our author to further whet our 
appetites. Hopefully that's all done and dusted, and it's time for 
the final assessment, and I reckon that Hurricane Jo which blew 
through with GoF will seem like a halcyon breeze compared to 
the devastation likely next month.

Lot of minor-ish ideas amongst those old posts, but I'll be 
watching to see how three theories in particular fare: 
Puppetmaster!DD, 
Possession Theory and 
Blackwidower/Snape!Son. 
You'll have your own favourites, no doubt.

Oh, and in one old post there was an aside that's niggled a 
bit since re-reading - just who carved the serpent on the tap 
in Myrtle's bathroom and why?
Sally can't have done it, which means that Tom found the 
entrance without it and had no need for it thereafter, 
not even while in possession of Ginny - unless he knew there'd 
be someone, someday who would follow in his footsteps.

Kneasy