h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I've never really cared for Harry, but I am a huge fan of the books.

I've read up to chapter 32 of the book and I have been loving every page. Rowling really evolves her characters and even the whole world Harry knows and ... it's wonderful and I can't wait to finish it.

She introduces new faces that have been there all along, or ... certainly are meant to ...

I've written more about this in my blog and hope you'll be kind enough to trip over the cyberspace light fantastic and read on: http://denver.yourhub.com/Denver/Blogs/Arts-Entertainment/Literature/Books/Blog~338083.aspx

I am of course hoping for a lot of Harry Potter hits. Please Digg if you have a Digg account -- search for "Harry Potter never fluffed my cloak" and you will find it.

Many thanks and I look forward to seeing what all of you think of Harry Potter, the character, this last book, the many relationships Rowling has developed ... thanks again.

I'm up to chapter 26, but I've looked ahead at some later sections. I will soon write down some of my thoughts about "Deathly Hallows." There have been a lot of reader comments at Amazon.Com, nd I'd like to comment on some of the most often-raised objections to the book.

Stay tuned.

(There are things about the main character that I don't like, but I'm beginning to think that it's his immaturity that counts against him the most. He grows quite a lot in the last book. He will be a fine man someday.)

Pauly! Thank you for pointing out the immaturity issue. I hadn't given that enough thought.

If I was a 17-year-old protagonist with Harry's background and experience, I don't know how well-loved I'd be.

I think I'm most like Luna Lovegood, with a touch of Hermione. Oh, I wish I was as knowledgeable as her!

I think I agree with you about the immaturity issue and needing to give Harry time to grow up ...

Thanks for taking the time to comment. I can't wait to read your thoughts on the book. This is pretty exciting stuff for me.

We may have to allow spoilers in this thread.

For instance, I think the weakest part in the whole plot is the idea that anyone could kill the horcrux part of Harry Potter without killing Harry himelf. I was rather happy to see that awful snake Najimba beheaded. Watching Snape died was rather sad, especially in retrospect, when you find out how much he loved Lily Potter, and felt betrayed when she chose James Potter instead of him.

Another weak part of the plot is having Dumbledore's brother be the pub-owner in Hogsmeade. How would he have managed to escape detection by Voldemort's forces? They should have been spying on him, yet he was able to have a secret tunnel into Hogwarts behind the picture of his sister, Ariana. The tunnel wasn't even on the Marauder's Map.

But I'll let these small flaws go, because the author has put together such an amazing story.

Yes -- spoilers there must be!

Hadn't thought of those flaws ...

The tunnel, I think, is a product of the room of requirement. Do you remember when we were told that Neville was using the room and needed food, so he asked for food and THEN the tunnel appeared?

As for Dumbeldore's brother, herrmmm ... He could have magical powers that could have gone undetected ... or, what I thought, was that he'd been the pub owner either all along or for a good deal of time. He said that The Leaky Cauldron was being used by the Death Eaters ... was it to transport contraband or something?

And that the Death Eaters were relying on him, because he kept his mouth shut for them.

They could HAVE been spying on him, and he did his best to ensure that they would not suspect him of helping Harry. And the Death Eaters were probably not at all interested in the portrait of Ariana. They were probably disgusted by his devotion to his sister. Still, he IS Dumbledore's brother, so that should have raised suspicion. How could the Death Eaters NOT have done a background check?

Well, the brothers did have their falling out. It was Aberforth who gave Albus his broken nose, after all. So maybe they counted on that bitter bit of family history. And they needed Aberforth to cooperate with them, for that contraband thing.

Perhaps they never even saw the portrait. Or, if they tried inspecting it, the portrait did not cooperate with the Death Eaters.

I also thought it rocked to see that snake beheaded. Seems that might have been the most perilous destruction of any of the horcruxes. Although each one was destroyed with a good amount of risk. Neville's greatest risks, were, to a degree, dealing with Voldemort, who had so cruelly killed his parents.

If anyone but Harry deserved to kill Voldemort, perhaps it was Neville, who got the next best thing. And a scary creature at that. I can't remember what Neville's bogey (?) was, what his greatest fear was ... do you? Was it his grandmother?

Oh and his grandmother simply rocked, as well. That was a fantastic detail.

Finally learning the complexity of Snape was very good. Maybe one of the best, and also saddest, parts of the book. I never really gave up hope that he really was helping to bring down Voldemort.

Yes, some of my favorite parts involved Harry's parents. The letter and the photo. Snape's memories ... I like seeing Sirius and Lupin and Harry's parents when they were alive, when they were young. Each time, it's been a bit of a treat.

Now I've got to go back and reread some of the earlier books, because the things mentioned in them will have new meaning because of the final book.

I feel much the same, but I'd rather wait to experience them with one of my kids, if ever I have any ...

I'd still like to know what exactly Aberforth did with the goat...

I think Aberforth *was* the goat.

I kept wondering where all these extremely elderly witches and wizards came from in DH. Do elderly witches use magic so they
don't have to enter nursing homes? Is there an anti-incontinence spell?

Ha ha ha. I would think so.

So these elderly wizards and witches include Doge (Dodge?), Aberforth, Neville's grandmother (who was always, in a way, around), the woman who wrote Hogwarts: A History ...

I've started reading Equal Rites, by Terry Pratchett. When one character asks a witch how wizards like to be buried, she said one word: "Relunctantly."

Found that rather brilliant, meself.

Parrferrs and Pauly

There's also Aunt Muriel, who aggravates the rest of the Weasley Family. Professor McGonagal is also "up there in years," according to J K Rowlings. Professor Slughorn is likely no Spring chicken, for that matter. Ollivander has been plying his trade for a long time. The German wandmaker, and the German rival of Dumbledore are elderly.

I have been meditating on the question of who killed Voldemort. This depends on how the fate of the seven horcruxes was decided.

The first horcrux was Tom Riddle's diary, which was stabbed (by Harry) with a basilisk tooth in "Chamber of Secrets")

The second horcrux was the ring/resurrection stone, which Dumbledore destroyed, releasing horrible curse that would have killed him within a year.

The third horcrux was a locket which Voldemort had immersed in a horrible liquid in an urn on an island in a cave. R.A. Black and Kreacher brought a fake locket to replace it with. Kreacher disapparated with the locket, putting it in the kitchen cupboard of Grimmauld House. Black, meanwhile, died trying to escape from the island. Mundungo stole the locket from the cupboard, and sold it to Delores Umbritch, who kept it in her room at the Ministry of Magic. Harry used polyjuice to get into her office and remove it. At last, when Snape's doe Patronus brought Harry the sword of Gryffendor, Harry had the means of destroying the locket. He let Ron have the honor of destroying it with the swprd.

The fourth horcrux was a tiara, which was hidden in an out-of-the-way back room at hogwarts. Harry, Ron, and Hermione got in a battle with Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle. The horcrux was destroyed by Malfoy's fiendfire, which is lethal to horcruxes.

The fifth horcrux was Harry Potter himself, dating back to the night when Voldemort killed his parents and inadvertently placed the horcrux in Harry. This horcrux was destroyed by Voldemort in the scene where Harry surrendered to him.

The sixth horcrux was Najimi, Voldemort's snake. Neville Longbottom sliced Najimi's head off with the Sword of Gryffendore.

The last horcrux was the remaining shred of soul in Voldemort. Voldemort sent a killing curse at Harry, but it bounced back and killed Voldemort instead.

So, Harry killed 1/7 of Voldemort (the diary). Likewise for Ron (the locket), Dumbledore (the ring/stone), and Neville (the snake). Voldemort killed 2/7 of himself (the 2 final duels). Malfoy killed 1/7 of Voldemort (the fiendfire and the tiara).

I'm sure you've been dying to have all this explained to you.

I left out the Hufflepuff Trophy that was in Narcissa Malfoy's vault at Gringotts. Ron and Hermione killed it with basilisk fangs.


The author said recently that Ron and Harry ended up as aurors at the Ministry of Magic. Hermione works in the department that enforces magical laws. I still think she will/should be headmaster/mistress of Hogwarts some day.

Now that I've had time to think about it, the epilogue ensures us that none of Harry or Ron's children will be squibbs. All are going to Hogwarts, so they all have magical powers.

One last thing: before "Deathly Hallows" was published, the author said that a squibb would, under terrible duress, perform magic of some sort. Can anyone think which character that might be?

You're awesome, Pauly! It's fun to read these posts ...

One correction, though ... the locket was taken from Umbrich, not from her office.

<>

I hadn't thought about the squib factor. However, in an interview I read, Rowling said that Hermione and Ron had three kids ... I think? http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/19959323/

Actually, I may have mis-remembered the interview. But either couple could have additional children we aren't told about .. .sneaky authors ...

As for the squib under duress, I can only think of Ariana, but that's not right. Who was the guy in Hogwarts who watched the halls? He was a squib, wasn't he? For some reason I think he went into battle, too ... Filch, eh?

That locket adventure was long and complicated.

... yes. I was ...

And IT was!

A friend of mine began reading the book and he thinks Rowling created a plothole with Harry's evacuation of the Dursleys.

His thoughts are that the Trace is mostly an excuse for the elaborate evacuation and the deaths of Hedwig and Mad Eye. Harry has to use magic to defend himself while they are leaving.

And then, when everyone's in the Burrows, everyone uses magic without concern for being detected by the MoM, although it was repeated again and again that they could not use magic at the Dursley's because they'd be detected.

How is the magic protecting our heroes at the Burrows different from Lily Potter's magic that kept Harry safe as long as he called the Dursley's house home.

He wants to know why Harry couldn't have just used magic to get out of the Dursley's? The Trace meant that he couldn't use magic, and for some reason, people around Harry couldn't use it either.

When Harry ends up using magic, it's not a big deal. And at the Burrows, there seems to be no consequences to everyone around him using magic ...

"Why not use magic to get out of there? Who cares if Harry gets in trouble, they're already hiding from Voldemort, where he can't find them. I'm sure the MoM can't find him and who cares?"

He thinks it seems Rowling killed off two characters for no reason. The logic of it doesn't gel for him. He says he doesn't like potholes ...

But then he hasn't read all the book ...

Did anybody else wonder about that when they were reading, too?