Harry Potter aftermath

[dr4b]

I got here at 10am yesterday due to going to the Everett Aquasox game and taking ninety years to bus back.

I got here at 10:30am today, because I stayed up until 5am finishing Harry Potter. Sigh. Well, next week I will endeavor to get in by 9:30 every day. There won't be baseball so it'll be easier.

It would be too much of a pain for me to remember who has Harry Potter posts I should read now, so if you want me to read a Harry Potter post of yours, please comment and link it.

I'd managed to figure out a good deal of what was going to happen before it happened... except I was wrong about Tonks (I think JKR made her seem like a polyjuiced person as a huge red herring and I caught the hint too early to dispel it), and I didn't realize Rosmerta was under the Imperius Curse. I even actually figured out that Snape was the Half-Blood Prince, and that he was going to kill Dumbledore because Malfoy couldn't. (I wonder, is the typesetting the same in all editions so you turn the page with just the slightest, slightest hope he's not going to kill him, and then you see "Avada Kedavra" at the top of the next in that scene?)

I expected more plot out of that McLaggen chap and out of Blaise Zabini, and the Slughorn parties.

I think I know who RAB is. I suspect most of you do too. I also have a sneaking suspicion I know what the final Horcrux is, although I would have to go back and reread some stuff from the earlier books to be sure. (The more and more she tried to make it look like Tom Riddle was the half-blood prince and the potions book was the last Horcrux, the more I became sure it wasn't. She should know better by now.)

I don't really remember the prophecy, but hm, isn't Draco Malfoy's birthday in June? Something really weird is going to happen in the next book, that's for sure.

I was surprised we didn't see the current incarnation of Voldemort close up in this book; that's gotta be the first since HP3, huh?

Oh yeah, and of course, there are some plotholes all over the place that come about when dealing with a world full of magic. I can't really go there until I reread, I think.

All in all, though, I enjoyed reading this one a LOT more than HP5; looking back on that entry I remember being so horrendously angry and pissed off that I threw the book across the room. This time, I put the book down, stared at the ceiling, and tried to get to sleep amidst all the swirling thoughts in my head as I thought about what to expect in book 7.

Comments

[dr4b]

Your theory is interesting, and makes sense.

Draco has something Voldemort didn't, too: love. I know that's the dorky theme and all, but he obviously loves his family and perhaps even loves his friends and that nitwit Parkinson.

Harry's scar being a final Horcrux would make sense in several ways -- he got those abilities from Voldemort because he had part of his soul in there.

The other reason it makes sense is because Harry would be the Gryffindor item.

I like to say the scar, and not Harry himself, because I don't think he's supposed to die either, but who knows. Removing the scar somehow may very well be the way to destroy the Horcrux, and may be a quest undertaken in the last book.

But on the other hand, is there supposed to be a pattern to the objects? The ring and the locket are both Slytherin's; Hufflepuff's cup, and where do the diary and snake fit in?

Part of the problem is that we don't actually know how Horcruxes work -- I mean, it's obvious Quirrell came across one prior to book 1, right -- or is it?

ack, must think more.

[dvarin.livejournal.com]

I was under the impression that Quirrell was being possessed by the other 2/7 of Voldemort's soul that had not at that time been bound into horcruces, and was just wandering around the earth.

The diary is proof of Voldemort being Slytherin's heir, the snake is a compromise measure so that he could get a sixth horcrux--it was only created as one recently, during book 4.

If Harry (or his scar) is both the fifth horcrux and the intended victim for creating the fifth horcrux, that's kind of weird... maybe it was intended that he be turned into an inferius or something?

[genuinekfc.livejournal.com]

Maybe Voldemort didn't intend for Harry to be the fifth horcrux. Voldemort wasn't expecting Lily to sacrifice herself, so her death created the fifth horcrux in Harry, instead of Harry's death creating a horcrux.

[zaph.livejournal.com]

I keep wondering if you have to intentionally create a Horcrux. It's implied that your soul is definitely diminished if you commit murder, but Dumbledore did say he believed Voldemort reserved the process of creating Horcruxes for 'significant' deaths, which seems to mean you can just let that piece of your soul slip away if you want...

but that would also mean Voldemort has significantly less than 1/7 of his soul, as he has surely committed more than six murders. (also, does it split evenly? Like, does he now have 1/64 of his soul, and maybe each Horcrux is less powerful than the last?)

[genuinekfc.livejournal.com]

Dumbledore suspects he was intending to create a horcrux that night. (There must be something significant linking Godric Griffindor to Godric's Hollow.) If the preparation was already in place, could things have been mucked up by Lily stepping in between Voldemort and Harry?

[dvarin.livejournal.com]

Reading Slughorn's description, I was under the impression that a murder makes a tear in the soul, but in order to actually separate the torn portion and embed it in something else, other intentional magic is necessary.

The word is "torn", not "diminished". Both parts are still there unless you pull one away. I suspect that the tears can heal, or at least scar over eventually, though there is no mention of that in the book.

One wonders if it tears down the middle--if so, then rather than having 1/7th of his soul in his body, after six horcruces Voldemort actually has 1/64 of a soul remaining. I suspect the torn and captured portion is actually fairly small, though, so maybe up to half of his soul still remains in his body and the other half is distributed among six horcruces.

[dvarin.livejournal.com]

Maybe I should read to the end of your comment before proposing something you already mention. [Sigh.]

[cmdr-zoom.livejournal.com]

because I don't think he's supposed to die either, but who knows.

After V is finally defeated, what's left for "the Boy Who Lived"? He's been defined by that all his life. If he does survive Book 7, Harry Potter will have to make a new identity for himself.

[dvarin.livejournal.com]

I suspect that he's going to become the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor at Hogwarts.

[dr4b]

Yeah, I mean, what's the point of being the Boy who Lived, if he dies?