Questions and Anticipation

I just finished re-reading book #6 - The Half Blood Prince last night. I had forgotten a lot and it was good to go through it again. I have so many questions and even more so thanks to Ashley's lists and can't understand how we are going to possibly get all of the answers and all of the loose ends tied up in this final installment! Can it really be the end?! I am very eager to see how it all will unfold, but at the same time, I really want to kind of take my time, because of the finality of it all. It will be hard to avoid any talk as people finish up at their own pace, but I'm sure I will be eager to join in the conversations, too. I've asked some of these of Ashley and Megan already, but thought I'd post anyway. . .

*What does Dumbledore see when he's drinking the potion at the horcrux and crying out? Is it significant?

*Why can't Dumbledore do anything in the end without his wand? There had been mention before that great wizards could do certain things without the use of their wand - was he that weakened?

*Why didn't Harry try to do something non verbally? He'd successfully managed to refill Slughorn & Hagrid's glasses earlier and he had his wand, right?

*I still think Snape is going to somehow prove to be a good guy - somehow twisted, maybe, but nonetheless working under Dumbledore's orders. I think he had to kill Dumbledore because of the unbreakable vow he took with Narcissa at the beginning of the book and Dumbledore accepted this (their fight was about how Snape just needed to accept what was done was done and move on, making sure to fulfill the vow when the time came) and was prepared and was "begging" for him to kill him in the end, not begging to be spared or for his life. I still want to know what he had done that made Dumbledore trust him so intensely, though.

*I'd completely forgotten Harry wasn't going to come back to Hogwarts. That sounds so out of place. But his quest will take us to the places we need to go to get all of the answers, I suppose.

*It's interesting there will be a wedding in the midst of everything. Bringing up that event in the closing lines of the book makes me wonder if it's more significant, somehow. It definitely is a celebration of love. . .hmm.

HP review - major spoilers alert

I have to agree a lot with what Ashley said in her review so poignantly and in fact found it hard not to add my own thoughts already in her comments section, but thought I'd do my own post anyway on the movie. While, I went into it knowing that some of the reviews had been bad - claiming poor CGI or "slow points" and reading the first few words of Ashley's review before I had to tear myself away so as not to become completely disillusioned or be allowed to have my own thoughts - and with an understanding that the movies cannot possibly capture everything within the 800+ pages of complex emotional turmoil and intricate story lines, I still walked away feeling very let down, disappointed and just confused. Why had they made such drastic changes in the characters or plot? Gone were any references whatsoever to Mundangus, The Quibbler, unicorns, the bigger impact of the Centaurs, Draco Malfoy, essentially Percy Weasley, Quidditch (while I'm not too disappointed in that, overall - the fact that Harry was permanently banned and Ron was on the team, were two rather large stories wrapped around it, suddenly missing) Pensieve (now, I haven't seen the 4th movie, so I don't know what was left out previously - the Pensieve, Dobby, Winky, scenes on the Hogwarts Express, Rita Skeeter, Harry giving Fred & George his Triwizard winnings?) Gone were Hermione's constant nagging to Harry to keep practicing Occulmancy, but his struggle to really want to see behind the door and overwhelming impact of those dreams and the connection he had with Voldemort. Just so much emotion and relationships were glanced over and I felt like Ron and Hermione could have just been any other fellow classmates, not really knowing what a great impact they have in Harry's life. I did think they were building up Ginny's powers and her stealing looks at Harry a bit. She's really cute and I like Fred & George, too. I LOVED Luna, too. She was really great and just as glazed and misty as Rowling penned her. Overall, I'm still glad I saw it, in a way, just wish it had been longer and done a better job. If you haven't read the books, I'm not sure it wasn't slightly entertaining. Emily still seemed to have a good time, having only seen one or two of the movies and despite the fact I kept leaning over to her saying, "that's NOT how it happened!" She was a bit lost at times and I think the movie jumped around too much, that if you hadn't read the books, you really would have been lost! Not enough was explained or was just glanced over. And you really loose all of the emotional impact or significance that's building. One funny moment, though, was in the beginning of the movie, Harry had arrived at the OOTP headquarters and was talking seriously to Ron and Hermione when suddenly Fred & George Apparate behind him. Emily jumped 10 feet out of her chair and squealed SO loudly. It was hilarious. The whole theater had been so quiet (waiting for the movie to still actually start or explain something) and now was laughing at her! The guy next to us fell asleep in the middle, too, slumped over in the chair. So, I guess he agrees there were some slow parts. Here's hopping Rowling can redeem and validate our great anticipation and enthusiasm for the last installment and have continued Potter allegiance to the bitter end, despite dreadful movie renderings.

HP questions

Ok, so I know Ashley has much more involved pondering about Harry Potter on her blog, but after re-reading (I'm just starting book #6) I did have a few questions of my own I wanted to bring up. Clearly, if you have not read the HP books and intend to, stop reading, as I do not want to be responsible for ruining anything for anyone). I tend to ask questions like this often and Greg tries to tell me not to question so much (like feasibility in 24, etc.) but in ways I enjoy picking out inconsistencies. I always liked to notice those things in TV shows or movies where the door that had been left open was mysteriously shut in the next frame/shot or the rumpled bow tie was more or less so in the next angle, etc. I thought it would be a neat job to be in charge of thinking those things through and making sure they were done correctly. Then, I found out it was actually a real job and that was pretty cool, too! Anyway, back to my own quandaries. . .

(1) Hermione continues to proclaim that you can't Apparate or Disapparate within Hogwarts, but don't the house elves *snap* around, even within Hogwarts? And if they can. . .?

(2) Why didn't Harry notice the Thestrals at the end of book 4, right after he saw Cedric die? There was a passage talking about getting back on the horseless carriages to go back to the Hogwarts Express when going home for the summer, so it just seems odd to me that it wasn't until Book 5 that he notices them.

(3) I wonder why Rowling didn't make a bigger deal (guilt trip) for Harry to use the 2-way mirror to contact Sirius in book 5. He discovers it at the very end while trying to deal with his death, but it just makes him think he'll still be able to contact him, not that he should have thought to open it before and use it rather than Umbridge's fire and he would have been able to actually get through to him and not Kreacher (which obviously, would have altered the events of the book dramatically) but I'm just surprised, as much as she delves into his emotions and inner struggles and turmoil, that it wasn't a realization for him or addressed at all.

(4) Who can be my date to go see OOTP in the theatre? I'm really intrigued to go see it soon, because I know everyone (that is nowhere near me, physically, unfortunately) will be talking about it and I think it will be a really good one. I realized, though, that I have only seen 3 of the movies, I think! So, I had wanted to re-watch those as well, but I'm just not sure that I will be able to hold off seeing the movie that long, now that it's out! It'd be nice to see one in the theatre for a change!