How Border's nefarious plot succeeded or why I probably should have had HP delivered

[smg01]

I went to Border's at 9:00 on Friday for the release party. Got a relatively early line number. Left me nearly three hours to wander about the store. Picked up and Agatha Christie book. Also a Ngaio Marsh book. And The Time Traveler's Wife. And the season one dvds for Stargate SG-1. I suppose you could say I had some self control in the sense that I forced myself to put back the Jim Croce cd and the Inspector Lynley dvds. *sigh*

I commented elsewhere that for me one of the (non plot related) delights of this series has been watching the way J.K. Rowling has grown as a writer. If you go back to her first book it's really noticeable how far she's come. I kept remarking to myself as I read #6, that I thought that this one was her best writing yet. It feels to me like she gets better with each book. It seems like she makes a conscious effort to keep developing her skills as she goes, and I think that's admirable.

I was glad to see the speculations and explanations for how Snape really hasn't betrayed Dumbledore. He's not likable. But I want to believe that he's on the right side. And that it was Dumbledore's belief in him that is part of what kept him from rejoining with Voldemort. I definately agree that Dumbledore, above everything else, was determined to keep Draco from having blood on his hands. I actually felt pity for Draco. He clearly didn't want to do the task that Voldemort set for him. I saw him as someone caught in a trap that he couldn't figure out how to escape. I think there may be hope for him yet.

I got a little teary when Dumbledore got teary at Harry declaring himself "Dumbledore's man" through and through. And then when he repeated that to the minister after the funeral. I felt a little lost at the end with so much up in the air. I spent all of Sunday saying I can't believe Dumbledore is gone. I would like to believe that he's going to pull a Gandalf and reappear, but I don't think that's going to happen. I can't wait to see how it's all resolved.

Comments

[amberlynne.livejournal.com]

A friend I work with was convinced it was going to be Dumbledore who died in this one and he repeated it over and over for weeks! I was like, whatever! Then I re-read all the previous books and started to get worried he was right, because people just kept saying how everything was fine was long as Dumbledore was there to lead them.

I decided it wasn't true because, come on! Dumbledore! But when he made Harry promise to do whatever he said, even if he died, I knew it was coming. I started crying right then and I didn't stop until 30 minutes after I finished the damn book. Lord that was hard.

Yeah, I believe that Snape is still on the good side, while I still *hate* him with a passion of a thousand burning suns. I mean, he knows that Harry dealt with the same things when he was a kid, he knows what that poor boy has had to deal with and he is still unbelievable cruel to him. And I cannot forgive him for fucking up the Oculmency lessons in Book5 because that pretty much led to Sirius dying. I realize that he has to be distant to keep his cover and all but DAMN!

One thing I wondered about is how much influence he had over Harry finding that potions book. It seems to me that it's a weird thing for him to keep lying around for some other professor to find. It was his mother's and then his, you would think he would keep it with him all the time. Did he and Dumbledore plan for Harry to find it?

[suzannemarie.livejournal.com]

I was just convinced that Dumbledore was untouchable as far as being killed off. But in thinking it over, this was probably set up as early as book 1 when he made the decision to destroy the Sorcerer's Stone. He was not afraid to die--or at any rate, not desperate to live forever. I was worried that the injury that he had at the start of the book would be a creeping sort of thing that eventually did him in. I never saw the Avada Kedavra curse coming.

[amberlynne.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I thought that about his hand as well. The curse totally knocked me back. I think I might have slapped the book, actually. And there was a moment where I felt just like Harry probably would. All, HA! I was right! Snape is a bad bad man. Heh.

Man do I love those books.

[rgreeneyes.livejournal.com]

Ok on the silly side of the story. did Ron and Hermione actually get together? It was a bit late when I finished reading.


I wonder how much Harry thinking he saw a Pheonix rise from the pillar that Dumbledore's body was on, has to do with the 7th book.

My hope is that Dumbledore's ghost at least comes back. I'm wondering if they will be at Hogworts next book. I was disappointed that Cedric's ghost wasn't there this year. (Can't wait for movie four this Nov.)

I can't believe that Dumbledore is really gone.

[datawhorevoyeur.livejournal.com]

Dumbledore went into a portrait in the Headmaster's office, but he was asleep, right?. Now, does this mean he's really dead, or can one hide in a portrait?

[rgreeneyes.livejournal.com]

Hmmm...I don't remember him being asleep, but I was surprised he didn't say anything. Maybe it was a really good hoax pulled to make voldemort come out of hiding?

[gttygrl.livejournal.com]

The portrait kind of bothered me. Does this mean that portraits in the wizard world aren't actually painted? Does everyone who dies automatically have a portrait of themselves suddenly appear? Does a part of their soul/spirit/personality become trapped or infused in the portrait, making them similar to ghosts?

Or maybe this portrait was painted at an earlier time and held in storage until Dumbledore died, when it could magically take its place among its peers?

Eh. Too many questions, not enough answers.

[suzannemarie.livejournal.com]

It's seems to be some sort of magical thing. The other former headmasters seemed to interact with Dumbledore or others in his office from time to time. It's like the essence of the person is in the moving "photograph." And some of the former headmasters had portraits in two locations and could go back and forth. It seems to me that I remember in one of the books someone who also had their portrait hanging at the Ministry reported back to Dumbledore about events there. And the former headmaster that was related to Sirius could go back and forth between Hogwarts and the Black estate.

[mircalla35.livejournal.com]

That's true. All of the Headmasters (and mistresses) of Hogwarts apparently have portraits made, and those portraits hang in the office, and I believe that they are required to obey the current headmaster (er, mistress); Phineas Nigellus had to report back and forth from the Black house, although he grumbled about it. So I'm assuming that we will hear from Dumbledore via the portrait, but the impression that I got is that the portraits' interactions with living humans are rather limited.

[suzannemarie.livejournal.com]

I can't help that the mention of the phoenix was somehow important. Maybe it was just a representation of the grace and greatness of Dumbledore in life, but phoenixes rise from the ashes. Maybe there's a clue there somehow. The phoenix and Dumbledore have seemed sort of tied together in the past.

Yet at the same time, the phoenix's lament and subsequent departure did seem to seal the deal that Dumbledore is truly gone.

I'm still a little bit in the land of denial regarding Dumbledore dying.

aaargh!

[suzannemarie.livejournal.com]

can't help that the mention = can't help buth think that the mention

[rgreeneyes.livejournal.com]

I wonder why no one ever asks Fawks to heal people. Wouldn't his tears fix Bill's face?

[mircalla35.livejournal.com]

Oh, now *that's* interesting. He was able to heal Harry's wound in CoS, which was inflicted by a magical dark creature as well. Huh.

[rgreeneyes.livejournal.com]

I know. I guess J.K. chose to over look that.

[suzannemarie.livejournal.com]

I suspect phoenixes might be kinda like centaurs: you don't really ask them to do anything. What they do or don't do will be of their own choosing. Or in a related thought, Dumbledore is likely the only person who has "asking" privileges when it comes to Fawkes.

[rgreeneyes.livejournal.com]

true. I can't remember did Fawkes help out Aurther when he had the snake bite?

I bet the Centaurs play a big part in book 7.

I'm listening to the book and I just noticed that Dumbledore mentioned the new precautions at the school. I wonder if they made it look like Dumbledore was killed. Maybe the school was able to hide him or something, and it just looked like he was killed by the curse. I can hope anyway.

[mircalla35.livejournal.com]

Good point.

[mircalla35.livejournal.com]

Dude. I was so in love with this book I cannot even properly articulate the love. And that despite the fact that several of my long-standing theories either went 'splodey or just didn't materialize at all. :)

I also think that Snape is still on the "right side", although I don't consider him a good person, and I think that he's doing things for his own rather twisted and warped reasons, but I *do* think that Dumbledore wanted Snape to kill him, in part to save Draco from having to do so (and can I just tell you how happy I am that Draco is *finally* becoming a more 3-dimensional character? I got a little sick of him being such a stock bully-type.) Was that the run-on-iest run-on sentence of all time? No? :)

I think that Dumbledore knew he was going to die, and that, since it was going to happen anyway, having Snape do it not only kept the blood of Draco's hands, it cemented Snape's position with the Death Eaters. I think that they were communicating via Legimancy during the tower scene, and that Dumbledore was pleading with Snape to kill him, rather than to spare him.

I was fairly certain that Dumbledore was going to die at some point -- it's part of the classic hero arc, that as the end gets closer the hero loses his mentor-figure(s) and has to, at the end, face the big bad evil on his own (like in Buffy; her mother dies, Giles moves away, yadda yadda, Star Wars, Obi Wan, yadda etc.) I actually thought Dumbledore was going to die in OotP. Ooops. But they got there eventually. But even though it wasn't a huge surprise, I still cried like a baby. :) Dumbledore!!! I'd lost some faith in him during OotP, but he was so wonderful in this book! *sob*

Will be spamming everyone like crazy over the next week or so. I apologize in advance.

[suzannemarie.livejournal.com]

I didn't have time to reread the other books prior to this one. But I think I'm going to have to carve out time to do so. The more I think about it, the more I think that Rowling has done some pretty elegant plotting with this series. (I think she may have introduced so many good characters and plot strings that she's having trouble giving them all their due, but that doesn't really bother me much.)

I thought Dumbledore was especially affecting at the top of the tower. Even as he knew his death was coming, his energy was devoted to saving Harry and saving Draco. I'm a little teary even thinking about it, but he was Hogwarts Headmaster to the last: looking out for the best interests in his students.

The more I think about it, the more I think that it's probably most likely that Snape is still working in opposition to Voldemort. After all, if he were truly going back to the dark side, I'm not sure that he would have just stupefied Flitwick before taking off for the tower. Wouldn't he have just as soon killed him too if he were truly working for Voldemort again? Others have raised the point the Dumbledore and Snape may have been communicating nonverbally at the top of the tower. I think there's some merit to that theory. We see things from Harry's perspective, but there was undoubtedly more going on there.

Also, the more I think about it, the more it occurs to me that there are some real similarities in the Snape's and Harry's personalities. They're both extremely stubborn, convinced they're right, convinced the other is flawed and pretending to be something they're not, and unwilling to listen to anyone who has something good to say about the other.

[mircalla35.livejournal.com]

Yeah, the Legimancy theory isn't my own, but I like it. And I agree with you on the plotting -- so many things became clearer in this book, things that Rowling set up a long time ago. Especially events in Chamber of Secrets. I also really admire how Rowling has grown as an author and how well she's drawing everything together. This book had its flaws, certainly, but in many ways I feel that it's the best one yet.