posted
I'm thinking that it'd be more likely to be a part-human character.
IIRC, there hasn't been any mention of royalty in the wizarding world... so for JKR to suddenly, in book 6, say, "Oh, right, they've got princes and princesses, what, didn't I mention that before?" would seem a bit arbitrary. But if she says, well, here's a human/giant like Hagrid, and he's the half-blood prince... that'd seem more plausible, since we don't know much about the organization of giants, and it's possible that they do have princes. Same goes for werewolves, vampires, goblins, centaurs, elves, etc...
Posts: 2911 | Registered: Aug 2001
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posted
Also, it just feels right. There's definitely something exalted about Hagrid. He's simple and humble, but he's got such a magnanimous spirit. I love how he loves all these disgusting and dangerous creatures that make everyone else just go ewwww. He goes awwwww. <laughs> And I love how tenderly he watched over Harry from babyhood, and how much care he took trying to get through to his own brother. Hagrid has been my favorite character for a long time, so it totally seems right to me that he should be a prince.
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posted
But she did answer. Put in the form of a syllogism; Tom Riddle is Voldemort, Voldemort is not the Half-Blood Prince, Therefore, Tom Riddle is not the Half-Blood Prince.
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posted
I also heard that we are going to learn a lot more about Harry's mother and where all Harry's money comes from Posts: 295 | Registered: Jul 2004
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posted
I dunno, I think it might be a new character. In about all the books a new character is created and always turns out to be a very important one. My vote goes for the character that doesn't exist yet...
Posts: 853 | Registered: Feb 2004
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posted
I'm starting to wonder. This huge deal is made about Lily, and how she died to save Harry. In interviews J.K. Rowling has said that Lily is going to be very important in future books. What about James though? Didn't he die to save Harry too? Or was his love less potent because he died trying to protect both Harry and Lily? Whatever happened to Harry's grandparents, any of them? Lily and James couldn't have been more than 23 or so when they had Harry, and it seems weird that both pairs of grandparents would have died prematurely.
I've been on a Harry Potter kick for the last few days, can you tell?
Posts: 4655 | Registered: Jan 2002
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posted
I think that James fought, knowing he would die. So he was sacrificing himself, but really only by risking his life (even though it was a risk with an almost certain foregone conclusion).
My take on Lily is that she outright traded her life for Harry's. I could see that making a big difference magically.
posted
Slightly creepier question - Crabbe and Goyle both appear when Voldemort is reborn at the end of GoF.
Are these the same Crabbe and Goyle who serve as Malfoy's henchmen?
If so, just what are they? It seems unlikely they could have been Death Eaters at the time of Voldemort's rampage and still pass as gradeschool children.
As for the James/Lily question - I think there are two seperate deaths here. James died flinging himself at Voldemort, independently of Lily who actively sacrificed herself to the Death Magic leveled at Harry.
As I understand the sequence of events, Voldemort kills James while James is trying to buy time for Lily and Harry to flee. Voldemort then targets Harry when Lily "sacrifices herself" - since she appears at the end of GoF along with the other ghosts of people slain by Voldemort's wand, we know Voldemort's wand was the instrument of her death, intentional or not.
posted
Unrelated comment: There's a question on her website about why Dumbledore says "Remember my last" to Petunia, and here's what she said:
quote: Dumbledore is referring to his last letter, which means, of course, the letter he left upon the Dursley's doorstep when Harry was one year old. But why then (you may well ask) did he not just say 'remember my letter?' Why did he say my last letter? Why obviously because there were letters before that...
posted
Not necessarily - it is entirely possible Dumbledore simply used an imprecise phrasing.
However, since Petunia grew up with Lily, it is entirely possible that Dumbledore was counting the other letters sent to the "?" Household as previous correspondence.
We also know that Dumbledore had ulterior motives for placing the boy with the Dursleys, beyond wanting to keep him safe from the massive attention he would receive upon re-entering the Wizard world.
posted
I can't imagine, for something as important as that statement, that J.K> Rowling didn't pick her words very carefully.
Posts: 4655 | Registered: Jan 2002
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I'm looking forward to 2005... it sounds like there'll probably be the new Harry Potter book, and a new Outlander book by Diana Gabaldon, and A Feast for Crows... (they probably won't be out until summer at least, but I'm guessing that all 3 will be out sometime next year!)
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quote:The release date for Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (HBP) has not yet been announced, but Veritaserum's speculation is summer 2006. All of the Harry Potter books have been released in the summer, and this trend is not likely to change. At an August 15, 2004 Book Festival in Edinburgh, Rowling stated that she is "just over halfway through" writing the book. On November 11, 2002, Rowling announced that she was finished writing the fifth book, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. However, the book was not released for more than seven months after this announcement. The process of writing the Half-Blood Prince started more than a year ago, and while writing the second half of the book will most likely go faster than the first half, it would be a huge push to have the book ready for release by summer 2005.
quote:But she did answer. Put in the form of a syllogism; Tom Riddle is Voldemort, Voldemort is not the Half-Blood Prince, Therefore, Tom Riddle is not the Half-Blood Prince.
That's jumping to conclusions right here Posts: 5700 | Registered: Feb 2002
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posted
Dudley?? He's pure muggle....... unless.....petunia is a witch and has rejected her witchness....hmmmm Posts: 295 | Registered: Jul 2004
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posted
From what is implied in the books, Lily Potter's family is familiar with witchcraft-- remember, Petunia reports that her parents were pleased that Lily got accepted into Hogwarts. (I could be misremembering. They may have just been pleased that she had access to magic)
If that's so, then maybe Lily's family is old wizarding blood (where are Harry's grandfolks, anyway. . .); and Petunia is (as far as we know) a Squib; and Dudley is a half-blood.
Maybe.
:shrug:
Can't wait for the book to come out though!
Posts: 14554 | Registered: Dec 1999
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posted
Harry is a part blood. Dumbledore says so in OotP. So either Lily or James has to be muggleborn. This is why we really need to know about James' parents. The only time they're mentioned, that I can think of, is when Sirius says he stayed with the Potters after he ran away from home.
However, I don't think Lily's parents being pleased means much. I mean, if she were wizardborn, it would be pretty much assumed. In Neville's case they weren't sure if he was a squib, but Lily doesn't sound nearly as inept, and I think if she had grown up in a wizarding family there wouldn't be any question she was going to Hogwarts. On the other hand, Hermione's parents were very pleased she got in the Hogwarts, which I think makes more sense.
Posts: 4655 | Registered: Jan 2002
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posted
This is from J.K. Rowling at the Edinburgh Book Festival (link):
quote:Is Aunt Petunia a Squib?
Good question. No, she is not, but—[Laughter]. No, she is not a Squib. She is a Muggle, but—[Laughter]. You will have to read the other books. You might have got the impression that there is a little bit more to Aunt Petunia than meets the eye, and you will find out what it is. She is not a squib, although that is a very good guess. Oh, I am giving a lot away here. I am being shockingly indiscreet.
So I guess she isn't a squb.
EDIT - To add link
[ November 29, 2004, 01:25 PM: Message edited by: solo ]
Posts: 1336 | Registered: Mar 2002
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quote:I thought that I would give you something though, rather than get to the end of today and think that I have not given you a lot. There are two questions that I have never been asked but that I should have been asked, if you know what I mean. If you want to speculate on anything, you should speculate on these two things, which will point you in the right direction. The first question that I have never been asked—it has probably been asked in a chatroom but no one has ever asked me—is, “Why didn’t Voldemort die?” Not, “Why did Harry live?” but, “Why didn’t Voldemort die?” The killing curse rebounded, so he should have died. Why didn’t he? At the end of Goblet of Fire he says that one or more of the steps that he took enabled him to survive. You should be wondering what he did to make sure that he did not die—I will put it that way. I don’t think that it is guessable. It may be—someone could guess it—but you should be asking yourself that question, particularly now that you know about the prophesy. I’d better stop there or I will really incriminate myself. The other question that I am surprised no one has asked me since Phoenix came out—I thought that people would—is why Dumbledore did not kill or try to kill Voldemort in the scene in the ministry. I know that I am giving a lot away to people who have not read the book. Although Dumbledore gives a kind of reason to Voldemort, it is not the real reason. When I mentioned that question to my husband—I told Neil that I was going to mention it to you—he said that it was because Dumbledore knows that there are two more books to come. As you can see, we are on the same literary wavelength. [Laughter]. That is not the answer; Dumbledore knows something slightly more profound than that. If you want to wonder about anything, I would advise you to concentrate on those two questions. That might take you a little bit further.
No. [Laughter]. What you see is what you get. I am happy to say that he is definitely a character without much back story. He is just Dudley. The next book, Half Blood Prince, is the least that you see of the Dursleys. You see them quite briefly. You see them a bit more in the final book, but you don’t get a lot of Dudley in book six—very few lines. I am sorry if there are Dudley fans out there, but I think you need to look at your priorities if it is Dudley that you are looking forward to. [Laughter].
posted
Based on this question and response I think that Voldemort has a Half-Blood child who is the prince:
quote:Has Voldemort or Tom Riddle ever cared for or loved anyone?
Now, that’s a cracking question to end with—very good. No, never. [Laughter.] If he had, he couldn’t possibly be what he is. You will find out a lot more about that. It is a good question, because it leads us rather neatly to Half Blood Prince, although I repeat for the millionth time that Voldemort is not the half blood prince, which is what a lot of people thought. He is definitely, definitely not.
That or it's Prince William comes to Hogwarts and we find out that Diana was a witch.
Posts: 1336 | Registered: Mar 2002
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I think it was ketchupqueen who didn't like the casting of Cedric. I agree. I was surprised.
I am aching to know Aunt Petunia's history, there are so many possibilities and questions. How much does she know about the wizarding world and how come she rememebers details she claims she could clearly like to forget? How many letters has she recieved from Dumbledore- could she have been/be a secret keeper for someone?
Why does she agree to do this? What's in it for her?
One thing that bugs me about inter-wizarding and muggle marriages is how and where do they meet? As far as we've seen, except for those of muggle parents, the wizarding world keeps largely to itself- many people don't even know about things like electricity, how can get have a relationship with a muggle?
Posts: 8473 | Registered: Apr 2003
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posted
Well, Ron's said early on that if wizards hadn't married muggles, they all would have died out. And the only 100% wizarding villiage in England is Hogsmeade. Or we can have situations like Riddle's mother who seemed to have rejected her witchness and lived among muggles. So it makes sense that wizards have to interact with muggles at some point in their lives.
Posts: 4089 | Registered: Apr 2003
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posted
Hm. I know you're right. I guess in the world we see in the books the interaction is never important so we never see it.
Posts: 8473 | Registered: Apr 2003
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posted
re: the long quote from a few posts back... Here's a random suggestion that you should take with a grain of salt because it's been years since I've read the books (I read each when they came out, and only a few have been re-read in that time).
Maybe Dumbledore didn't kill Voldemort because part of Vold's protection was to halt the kill spell and create a reflect around himself. If he dies, the kill will reflect back _again_ to Harry. If Dumbledore kills Vold, he wouldn't have the strength to protect Harry and Harry's not strong enough to protect himself. But if Harry ends up killing Voldemort, then Dumbledore can throw a protect around Harry with all his strength.
Shrug. That's my random thought.
Posts: 1261 | Registered: Apr 2004
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posted
Well, Dumbledore knows about the prophecy, doesn't he? So he knows that he can't kill Voldemort, only Harry can. So trying to kill Voldemort would probably just end up with Dumbledore dying and Dumbledore couldn't die yet, because he really needed to train Harry.
posted
I don't know...I thought it became pretty clear in the OoP that while Neville had once had the possibility of being the child of the prophesy, that wasn't true any longer.
Posts: 5948 | Registered: Jun 2001
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posted
Through Dumbledore's iterpretation. He could be wrong; he has before. While I do think that Harry is the prophesy child, and thus will either kill or be killed be Voldemort, I also think that Neville will have a significant part to play.
It just seems that he's gotten a lot of book space given to him and his backstory to just become "the kid that could have been the hero."
Posts: 450 | Registered: Nov 2004
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posted
No, Voldemort doesn't know the whole prophecy. That's what OotP was about. He only knows that "the one with the power to defeat the dark lord will be born as the seventh month ends" or something like that; he doesn't know "for either must die at the hands of the other for neither can live while the other survives" or whatever.
And yes, those quotes were from memory.
Does anyone else think Harry goes all noble-sacrifice-like and winds up killing Voldemort but dying as well? I kind of like that scenario.
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