*SPOILERS* If you've finished Harry Potter ,post your questions here!

1. At Grimmauld Place, why was the phrase to defeat the anti-Snape charm "I didn't kill you?" (actually it seemed the key word was "kill") Or was it a random phrase, known to the Order but not to Harry? Seems odd, since Harry now owned the place. Or maybe Mad-Eye didn't have time to tell Harry.

2. (this one's kinda rhetorical) How many of you went "uh-oh" when Harry took the telescope from Umbridge's door, leaving a hole in the door? Well, we know Harry's not the bright one of the three...

3. How could Nagini (in Mathilda's body) say "Come" from the next room?

4. Why was Draco so hesitant to identify Harry when asked?

5. Anyone else think that Ariana Dumbledore had been raped by the boys next door? Sounds radical, I know, but it didn't make sense that her father would murder the boys if they had merely "attacked" her. Seems like he would have cursed them or something, but not murder.

Obviously Rowling couldn't write that explicitly, but after reading over that passage a few times I sorta came to that conclusion. I'm not sure about it though.

From Wikipedia: It is not clear from the book what form this attack took. The trauma of this attack made Ariana too afraid to perform magic.

6. Why couldn't Voldemort detect that Harry was alive, and had to have someone else check? (and wasn't it ironic that a mother's love once again saved Harry? :) )

7. I too was wondering where Neville got the sword, until another Lounge thread explained it (thanks!). But how did it get from Griphook back into the Sorting Hat?

8. Did Dumbledore ultimately lie to Harry? (via Snape, that is) He said that Harry had to die, because he was the last Horcrux, and yet Harry lived. Did he know that Harry had to sacrifice himself selflessly for the piece of Voldemort's soul to be removed? Or maybe Dumbledore didn't know that Voldemort's attack would do that, and really did think that Harry had to die?

It seems like Dumbledore would have "explained" that in Harry's dream. Unless maybe Harry didn't know the answer himself, so he couldn't explain it to himself.

9. Awhile back, Rowling said that two died who were going to live, and one lived who was going to die.

a. Who are the two? I'm guessing Lupin and Tonks, since they were so offhandedly referred to :grr:. Their deaths weren't really integral to the plot.

b. Who is the one? I'm guessing Arthur Weasley or Hagrid.

Harry explains that later...that the snake was speaking parselmouth, which Harry understood without realizing what it was.

See, I thought Nagini literally said "Come" in English (since this is when Harry and Hermione were still together). But I guess only Harry heard it.

Seems though that Hermione would have said "Harry, what's that hissing noise?" :P

But only Harry.

I thought he and Hermione were in the front room, and 'Mathilda' moved to the next room and said "Come". Then after they followed her into the next room, then she made the hand gestures indicating that she wanted only Harry to go with her upstairs. I definitely remember the hand gestures occurring when both of them were in 'her' presence.

Did it say that only Harry heard her say "Come"? IIRC we weren't at Harry's POV at that point, but rather still the two of them discovering the disrepair and smell and all.

Either way, seems like Hermione would have reacted to the hissing sound from the next room, where 'Mathilda' was.

Yes, only Harry heard her. I just reread that passage.

So "Come" was after she beckoned him upstairs? I was thinking it was before, while they were still downstairs. My bad.

And did you also re-read the sentence about "meat gone bad"? EWWWWWWWWWWWWW...

1. At Grimmauld Place, why was the phrase to defeat the anti-Snape charm "I didn't kill you?" (actually it seemed the key word was "kill") Or was it a random phrase, known to the Order but not to Harry? Seems odd, since Harry now owned the place. Or maybe Mad-Eye didn't have time to tell Harry.

It would only attack Snape.


2. (this one's kinda rhetorical) How many of you went "uh-oh" when Harry took the telescope from Umbridge's door, leaving a hole in the door? Well, we know Harry's not the bright one of the three...


Me!


3. How could Nagini (in Mathilda's body) say "Come" from the next room?

Harry understands Parseltongue, which is what Nagini spoke to Harry.



4. Why was Draco so hesitant to identify Harry when asked?

Because Draco is scum but not truly evil.


5. Anyone else think that Ariana Dumbledore had been raped by the boys next door? Sounds radical, I know, but it didn't make sense that her father would murder the boys if they had merely "attacked" her. Seems like he would have cursed them or something, but not murder.


Yes.



6. Why couldn't Voldemort detect that Harry was alive, and had to have someone else check? (and wasn't it ironic that a mother's love once again saved Harry? :) )

I noticed the irony, too.



7. I too was wondering where Neville got the sword, until another Lounge thread explained it (thanks!). But how did it get from Griphook back into the Sorting Hat?

It goes to any True Gryffyndor in need.


8. Did Dumbledore ultimately lie to Harry? (via Snape, that is) He said that Harry had to die, because he was the last Horcrux, and yet Harry lived. Did he know that Harry had to sacrifice himself selflessly for the piece of Voldemort's soul to be removed? Or maybe Dumbledore didn't know that Voldemort's attack would do that, and really did think that Harry had to die?

I think he wasn't sure, but knew that Harry had to sacrifice himself "for teh greater good." He was hoping, after V. took Harry's blood to use, that Harry would live.



9. Awhile back, Rowling said that two died who were going to live, and one lived who was going to die.

a. Who are the two? I'm guessing Lupin and Tonks, since they were so offhandedly referred to :grr:. Their deaths weren't really integral to the plot.

b. Who is the one? I'm guessing Arthur Weasley or Hagrid.

???

1. I didn't understand the point of this "protective charm" at all. And didn't Snape actually show up and steal the second page of Lily's letter (and her photo) from Grimmauld Place?

2. I actually didn't notice that!

3. I understood that Nagini was speaking Parseltongue (or possibly that Voldemort was forcing her to make English sounds that she didn't understand, through the Horcrux). Harry could hear the basilisk through walls in the second book. Either way, it is a BIG snake.

4. Draco was turning soft! Like Regulus, he was gung ho for this and then realized he was in over his head.

5. YES. It's not just you and I think that a sexual assault is HEAVILY implied, just by the fact that none of the parties mentioned the nature of the attack. Being beaten up would be bad, but not bad enough to avoid mentioning. Of course young children would not get the adult subtext of this and would think it was just a beating.

6. I think he just didn't want to touch him. It seemed that the curse knocked Voldemort over as well, although the thing dying in Harry's vision was the seventh Horcrux rather than the soul part containing Voldemort's consciousness. Maybe he fell over when Harry used the anchor of Voldemort's body to return. He might have been spooked by randomly falling unconscious.

7. I think the Sorting Hat is something like a portal for the sword. When a True Gryffindor (tm) begs for help from the Hat, it calls the Sword forth from wherever it is.

8. Good question. I do think that one part of the reason why Harry got to return was because he did deliberately intend to die. If Dumbledore had told him, through Snape, that he would not actually die when Voldemort cursed him, then that might have changed things, because Harry would not have actually thought he was sacrificing himself. So yes, that would mean he lied. Wouldn't have been the first time!

9. I agree about the two. Another possibility for the one is that she decided at the last minute to give Harry an out. As soon as it was confirmed that he was #7, I thought "OMG she's actually going to do this" (kill him). I hadn't read the Internet spoilers. There didn't seem to be a way out for him. Of course it might have been long-planned, too.



I've got a question myself now. This is really bothering me.

1. If Voldemort's soul was blown apart when his curse backfired, and it attached a piece to Harry, then it doesn't seem possible he could have made Nagini into a Horcrux some 13 years later. Yet Dumbledore seemed convinced that this was when he did that to the snake. What gives with this? Was he mistaken, or just feeding BS to Harry? It does seem a lot more... reasonable that he would have made the six Horcruxes more or less at the same time, rather than creating 5 and then being like "I'm going to put off making the last one just in case there is a Prophecy about me at some point in the future." It seems to be a given that Nagini was a companion from before his first fall, since she was attached to the demonic baby Voldemort in the fourth book and provided god knows what to help create that body. (That right there seems to be evidence that she was already the Horcrux.) But if he made the snake years earlier, then where was it during his exile? Albania? ...Was that how Wormtail found Voldy, by tracking down the snake?

never intended to make Harry into a Horcrux. The way Dumbledore explained it, it sounded like it was an accident. So the other Horcruxes were created at the very beginning of Voldy's rise to power, but the final Horcrux (Harry) wasn't established until later. As to Nagini's location in the intervening years between Voldy's first fall and second rise, that's a mystery. Maybe the Graunt's old shack?

Can I just say that the way Lupin and Tonks died bothered me a lot? The sacrifices of these 2 important characters was treated as an afterthought and that stinks. Especially since almost every other character that died got a scene showing their passing. That leads me to believe the deaths of the Lupins were tacked on at the last minute. They deserved better.

Voldy never knew about it (which itself is kind of odd, since he possessed Harry at the end of the fifth book, but apparently his soul was so mangled by then and he was in such pain that he didn't notice). As I understood it, ordinarily one would have to cast the Horcrux creation curse in order to make one, but because he had f*cked himself up so badly, he just blew apart without doing that. Which would mean... yes, the snake was "horcruxed" years ago, and Dumbledore was feeding Harry yet more BS when he said "Voldemort intended to make his last one from your death." Maybe it was to plant the idea in Harry's head that he could be #7? It just seems dumb for V. to put it off in the off chance that there would be a prophecy about him. Also Pettigrew was around when Frank Bryce was murdered, and I kinda doubt that V. would have cast that particular spell in Pettigrew's presence or hearing.

And yes, that stinks. We at least deserve to know who killed them and how it was done. There was some rather morbid and disturbing speculation that Fenrir Greyback had gotten Lupin, which I hope wasn't the case. (Was he even mentioned as being on the scene?)

//Edited to clarify: My original issue with Nagini was that it seemed Voldemort's soul was already too unstable for him to further mangle it, since he blew it apart in the failed attack on baby Harry. Yet DD thought (or told Harry that he thought) Voldemort had made a horcrux of Nagini at the beginning of the fourth book after killing the Muggle man. Something doesn't fit and I think the simplest explanation is that Dumbledore was not being honest, either about the time frame when Nagini was imbued with the Voldy part, or the idea that V. intended to use Harry's death for #6.

Even the reaction to their deaths was muted. No sorrow for the newly-orphaned baby? Yes, they deserved better.

I wonder if Rowling will ever reveal the 2 and 1?

Poor baby. At least he had a loving grandmother, who probably cherished him since she lost her daughter and husband during the war. And a godfather who had known his father and who, it seems, took an active part in his life. That way he would have grown up hearing all about both his parents. I wish Harry had kept the Resurrection Stone and passed it on to Teddy, though, so he could meet his parents... Harry himself ultimately had that opportunity. It would only be fair.

It may have been tacked on, but I thought it was interesting that there is another orphan whose parents died fighting Voldemort. The cycle was continued..

was that Voldemort was a shit who was willing to just randomly kill people.

By the time Harry got to Snape and saw Snape just totally napesed by Voldy, he was already just totally overwhelmed by the fact that all these people had died FOR HIM, so HE could live to challenge Voldemort. There was also the sense that HE could stop it.

I agree that I would like more story on how Tonks and Lupin died, but in a war people just get randomly shot down, meaninglessly.

I was bemused by the fact that she really set us up for all these mano-a-mano death matches (like Neville/Bellatrix, Bellatrix/Tonks, Lupin/Greyback, Bill/Greyback, etc.) and at the end she pretty much made it a free for all with any combination at all fair game.

I was further bemused by the fact that of the 4 "Bad Guys" who died (these being Snape, Wormtail, Bellatrix, and Voldy himself), 2 of them were killed by Voldemort. The death toll was heavily weighted towards the side of good guys, but she really balked at killing the kids.

1. Very good point about Snape visiting Grimmauld despite the charm! Didn't realize it until you pointed it out.

6. Your answer is excellent--I too wondered about the nature of the flaky being. And I didn't realize that the curse knocked over Voldemort.

9. Funny thing about Harry being #7--IIRC book 6 kind of glosses over the math. I counted only 6 Horcruxes in book 6. I'll have to go back and look.


Your question: I think your explanation makes more sense. Unless maybe Voldemort thought he needed a "spare" that was kept close to him (since the first 5 were hidden).

When did Dumbledore say that about Voldemort and Nagini?

Dumbledore was misdirecting/lying in book 6 when he was telling Harry that there were six. I suspect he knew what had happened as soon as he realized that Harry was a Parselmouth, way back in book 2. If not even earlier. I remember, in book 6, Harry being all horrified and gasping out, "He made seven Horcruxes?" during that chapter, and Dumbledore immediately said, "No, six." Ah, the irony of it. And Dumbledore said in book 6 that he thought it was Frank Bryce's murder that Voldemort used for Nagini.

FTR:

1. Diary
2. Peverell ring
3. Slytherin locket
4. Hufflepuff cup
5. Ravenclaw diadem
6. Nagini
7. Harry Potter
(8. Voldemort himself)

:hi:

It does indeed seem odd that V would have created five within a short span of time.

From Wikipedia:
In Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Dumbledore states that he believes it is likely that Voldemort created six Horcruxes from six important murders, and kept the remaining portion of his soul within his body, thus keeping his soul in seven places.

Now you've got me thinking, when were the Horcruxes created?

Diary: Not sure. Who was murdered to make it a Horcrux? Moaning Myrtle (in 1943), perhaps? But she was killed by the basilisk, not by Tom Riddle.

Ring: 1942, when Tom Riddle killed his father and grandparents

Locket and cup: 1945, when Riddle killed Hepzibah Smith.

Diadem: Not sure. Riddle found its location (tree in Albania) from Helena Ravenclaw's ghost while he was at Hogwarts (1938-1946). Presumably he acquired the diadem itself soon after. Who was murdered to make it a Horcrux?

Harry (inadvertantly): 1980

Nagini: Per Dumbledore, in 1994. But as you point out, very odd that V would wait almost 50 years between his 5th and 6th Horcruxes.

I used to think it was impossible that Myrtle could have been the death for the diary, because Tom would've been a fifth year and hadn't had the Conversation with his professor yet. But since that conversation is now supposed to have been just a way for him to find out if one could have multiple horcruxes, it's entirely possible that he knew how to do it before then (and could've already created one). Tom's intent would also have been an issue, whether he intended to murder her when he called up the basilisk, or if her death was an accident. I imagine that if she wasn't the death used, then Tom Riddle Sr. almost certainly was, because in book 2 the Riddle phantom said he was 16 years old. (OK, some 16-year-olds get their driver's licenses as their rite of passage. Different strokes, I guess. :P)

The ring: He was still wearing it when he had the conversation with Slughorn. It may or may not have been a horcrux by then. I'm not taking Dumbledore's word at face value anymore when it has to do with horcruxes. But Tom was definitely not wearing it by the time he worked for Borgin and Burkes, ca. 1945. The HBP book also says that the Riddle who worked there looked slightly more gaunt (har, har) and angular, so it's implied he had at least one. Two if he had already made the diary.

The locket: He stole this in the mid- to late-1940s, but didn't hide it until 1979, when he took Kreacher to the island with him. Perhaps he had just heard the Prophecy and didn't want to have this item lying around. There is no way to identify who he killed for it.

The cup: Stolen at the same time as the locket. I suspect that he killed Hepzibah Smith for this murder and framed her house elf for it with a modified memory, just as he had done with his uncle Morfin. It seems a "suitable" murder for a Hufflepuff artifact. He was definitely on the scene when she was killed, because he ran off with the items.

The diadem: Researched at Hogwarts, stolen at an unknown time, turned into a Horcrux before he returned to Hogwarts to "ask for the Defense Against the Dark Arts job" in the mid-1950s. He dropped it off at the school in this same meeting.

The snake: Who knows? I do not buy the 1994 date for this, for the three reasons I've stated plus an additional one I thought of: (1) Voldy's soul was unstable enough to break apart of its own volition in 1981, so I don't see how he could have fragmented it further 14 years later. (2) Pettigrew was at hand and I can't see him casting the Horcrux curse when the rat could hear it. (3) Why would he wait 30 years after making 5 others in a short period of time, approximately a decade, which he most definitely did? And (4) in the scene in book 4 when Voldemort's wand was regurgitating its past spells, there was no spell that could've fit the Horcrux spell. It went straight from a Cruciatus Curse (I think) to the shade of Bryce, whereas if there had been a Horcrux, that should have been an intermediate spell.

Harry: Halloween 1981, actually.

He even said so to Ron.

1. I think Snape went into Sirius' room after his death but BEFORE Dumbledore died.

9. I think the Lupin/Tonks deaths were a last minute thing, but it does carry on the whole godfather of an orphan theme, and the end if the book makes it sound like Harry did a much better job as godfather than Sirius did. I think the one was Harry, to be honest.

;)

At least Sirius gave Harry his first broomstick, as well as that spiffy Firebolt.

dg

maybe he was the one who set up the "anti-Snape" booby traps & picked up the letter & picture before he left. :think:

dg

the first one would tie his tongue so he would not be able to talk about it, but not necessarily prevent him from entering. (I think Hermione says at one point that had Snape been there the tongue tying would have prevented him from leading other Death Eaters there.)

The second one probably wouldn't have bothered Snape, since he killed Dumbledore at D's own request. When they were first explaining the charms, didn't they say they put them there "in case" Snape really had turned? So since he hadn't they might not have worked.

Or, perhaps as someone said up thread, he was in Sirius's room after Sirius's death but before Dumbledore's.

I think the distinction was made very clearly between what Snape did (which was, arguably, assisted suicide) and *killing* in the malicious/murderous/soul-breaking sense. So Snape could say "I did not kill you" and not lie.

?

He imitated the sounds Harry made when opening the locket. He said it took severl tries to ge it right.

Doesn't mean I'm speaking French. That just struck me as wrong--oh, yeah, I imitated some sounds and suddenly I'm speaking the language.

they'll know what you mean even if you're just repeating something you've heard and have no clue what you're saying.

It is difficult to type with one hand blocking half the screen! :rofl:

1. Assuming the charm was set up by the Order, none of them knew that Snape didn't kill Albus (Voldemort's cursed ring did), so much as speed things along. So he could say "I didn't kill you" and still be truthful.

2. Didn't really think about it.

3. The same way the Basilisk could talk to Harry, through walls.

4. I think Draco had either started hedging his bets by then, or was simply terrified of the idea of being the one responsible for the Death Eaters making the call to Voldemort.

5. Didn't really think about it.

6. Wasn't the link between them broken at that point?

7. Same way it got there when Harry needed it, I'd guess.

8. Probably. For the greater good, & so that Harry wouldn't have gone in all cocky. Knowing he was going to die was Harry's motive for activating the charm on the ring, and the results gave him the courage he needed to follow through.

9. Dunno.

yes, exactly

I see now that my question could be construed as "Couldn't he sense Harry's mind?". But what I really meant was, "Couldn't Voldemort detect if someone is alive, the way he detects if anyone is lying to him?"

Of course, he might have been in a bit of psychic shock after the attack, so his Spidey-sense wasn't working right :P

4. Because not only was Draco having second thoughts, even since the end of book #6, but also since his family was already in disfavor, I think he didn't want to be responsible. keep in mind, however, that he still wanted to capture Harry at the end.

5. Agree.

6. I think Voldemort was afraid of Harry and had always been. When he fell down after the curse, I think it scared him even more.

8. yes. I think Harry had to think he was going to die, and that there was a chance he would, for the magic to work - the same magic which his mother did to allow Harry to live in the first place. You notice that after this, the Crucio spells do not affect Harry at all - which I took as (a) because Harry was the true owner of the Wand of Power (or whatever it was called), and (b) he made himself invincible to Voldemort's attacks through the act of sacrifice.

9. I think Harry was originally going to die and that Neville was going to finish the job. I also agree that Tonks and Lupin were the additional deaths, but perhaps to show that Ted would grow up with similar but better circumstances than Harry had.



Loved this series.

never learned that memory charm (to erase memories).

However she did that in GoF or some other book with her parents.

Tut-tut-tut, JK....

I don't remember her saying she'd never learned how to do a memory charm, but she alters her parents' memories before hiding them, and she "obliviates" Xeno's memory to protect him, so Rowling had her using memory charms. Maybe it was a specific charm she said she'd never learned? I vaguely remember something about a spell she never learned or could never master, but I don't remember which spell.

1-- That's explained pretty clearly. The house was abandoned as a headquarters after Sirius was killed. Mad Eye put the anti-Snape protection curses on it after Dumbledore's death. Plenty of time for Snape to peruse the place, especially since Creature had been sent to Hogwarts. As for the curse being negated by saying "I didn't kill you," one would suppose that the curse was linked to the denial being true. Also, one would suppose that the curse was fairly standard, so that adult wizards could figure out the denial. Harry figured it out, half on instinct, half on luck. (or all on Rowling's contrivance. :) )

2-- Yeah.

3--Parseltongue

4--That's my favorite. Draco was so spooked by Voldemort's cruelty and the danger to him and his family that he wasn't sure where his loyalties were anymore. Just as he had hesitated to kill Dumbledore, he knew if he identified Hermione or Harry, he'd have cast his lot entirely with Dumbledore, and caused their deaths, too. He wasn't ready to do that. On the other hand, he didn't want to cast his lot with Harry, either. So, he acted unsure. Typical bully--when it all became real, he couldn't do it.

5--Not really. I got the idea they damaged her by beating her. Maybe head trauma, maybe just terror to suffer that pain again because of her magic. A father whose daughter has been severely beaten would be murderous. Rowling may have meant rape, or she may have left it vague so the reader could fill in their worst fears.

6--Good question. Voldemort's magic seemed to have more limits when he went against Harry, and his little soul fragment was dead--not that Voldemort knew it was there, or he wouldn't have killed Harry.

Why couldn't he tell that Harry was in his thoughts? Why couldn't he use those thoughts to trap Harry, as he did "Order of the Phoenix?" It's not surprising that he'd order an underling to check Harry, though. Voldemort liked to use his power.

7--It was magic. :) How'd the hat get the sword the first time? It obviously wasn't in the hat, or some of those first years would not have made it past the sorting.

8--No. Harry died. Dumbledore told the truth. He left off the part where Harry might be able to come back. In the dream/afterlife sequence, Dumbledore says he thought Harry might survive, implying he wasn't sure of the outcome. Plus, the death had to be willing, and if Harry knew he wouldn't die, he could hardly willingly die.

My question, though, is why did Harry's death have to be willing, and without resistance? Was that part of the Horcrux thing, are was it to put his mother's protection spell on all his friends, as he told Voldemort he had done? And were his friends actually protected like that, or was Harry bluffing Voldemort, referring only to the protection he had been providing against Voldemort's spells while he was invisible?

9--I don't know what you're talking about. :) About Lupin and Tonks, she killed a lot of characters, I think, just to show how bloody and horrible war was. Plus, she had to drive Harry to a despair where he'd accept his fate. Seeing Remus and Tonks dead when he hadn't expected it, after the adrenaline of battle had faded, was effective. And the impact on the reader was to make him or her unsure of how far Rowling would go. Once you saw Tonks and Lupin dead, alongside Fred, and with the suspicion that Hagrid had died, then later even poor little Collin Creevey, you weren't sure anyone would live. You weren't even sure Voldemort would be defeated.

I didn't like that they died, but I thought it was an effective way to further shock the reader, and rattle their expectations. I agree, there deaths weren't integral to the plot. She just used them to advance her own goals. Mean, isn't she?

One more question: since owls could find anyone, even when they were hiding with protection spells (like Sirius), how come no one could send an owl to Harry in the woods? And how come Voldemort couldn't send an owl and then follow it?

I'm guessing there are spells/charms that hide one from owls, and that Hermione was smart enough to include one in her protection spells.

Sirius' may have been specific to allow only owls from Harry.

Why was Draco so hesitant to identify Harry when asked?

Because Harry was hit in the face by a hex fired by Hermione which made his face swell up.

Pg 446 "Harry looked around at the other two, now mere outlines in the darkness. He saw Hermoine point her wand not toward the outside, but into his face; there was a bang, a burst of white light, and he buckled in agony, unable to see. He could feel his face swelling rapidly under his hands as heavy footfalls surrounded him."

the other thing was the wand he was carrying, it was the blackthorn wand not his holly and phoenix wand.

That's why they had to pull in Draco.

But Draco knew who he was. His hesitation was for other reasons. Hence my question.

Did Dumbledore ultimately lie to Harry? (via Snape, that is) He said that Harry had to die, because he was the last Horcrux, and yet Harry lived. Did he know that Harry had to sacrifice himself selflessly for the piece of Voldemort's soul to be removed? Or maybe Dumbledore didn't know that Voldemort's attack would do that, and really did think that Harry had to die?

It seems like Dumbledore would have "explained" that in Harry's dream. Unless maybe Harry didn't know the answer himself, so he couldn't explain it to himself.

Remember in GoF when Dumbledore asked Harry for all the details of Voldemort's return? When Harry mentioned that his blood had been used in the spell, Dumbledore's eyes lit up. At the time, I thought JKR might be setting us up for the possibility of Dumbledore being on the dark side, but in retrospect, I think he realized that now Harry might be able to survive being killed by Voldemort. But he really did have to be killed to get rid of the horcrux, I think.

Seriously? :shrug:

This makes him wiser than he was assholic. He was not enough of an asshole to think that he could do it all (once he reached adulthood), and not enough of an asshole to sit back and let Harry do it all alone.

1) The order people thought snape had betrayed dumbledore. Hence the vengeful ghost thing. Snape could evade it because a)he's smart and b) he's didn't really murder dumbledore. They weren't expecting Harry to go back there, anyway. (they weren't sure the charms would hold etc).

2)I didn't think about the hole, but it was pretty obvious she'd notice she was missing her magic eye sooner or later

3)parseltongue. you don't have to be in the same room to talk to someone

4)Fear/unwillingness to kill classmates

5)i didn't think so. Any attack that left a child traumatized and unstable for the rest of her life would probably upset a father. Rape isn't the only bad thing that can happen to a child; kids can be cruel in lots of ways.

6) How would he know if harry was alive once harry had the power to stop V from possessing him?

7) Umm. Magic. The sword was enchanted so any true griffendor could pull it out of the hat in a time of need, goblin sense of ownership be damned.

8) He did die, he had just mastered death because he was the true owner of the deathly hallows

9) no clue. irrelevant to me really.

I'm serious. That's the one thing that bothers me somewhat about the book. When Harry finished with Snape's memory and got to his feet, ready to die, I thought that was incredibly poignant. The whole trip through the forest, the thing with the Snitch/Resurrection Stone was amazing. He died--amazing. Then there was this whole "near-death experience" with Dumbledore that seemed a little cheap, almost (not quite) like some kind of deus ex machina. I would have been perfectly happy (well, sad for Harry, but happy with the series overall) had both Harry and Voldemort died, Voldemort dying because Harry died because their lives were so intertwined. Of course, had Rowling wanted to do this, she would have had Harry off Nagini (and so the last Horcrux) just before Voldemort kills him. That ending would have been amazing.

But she had to have a happy(ish) ending. Oh well. It wasn't so corny as it could have been. I personally thought she'd kill both Harry and Voldemort, but nope.

:shrug:

I mean, really. Thousands of kids would be traumatized. She wouldn't do something so mean.

n/t