Here’s a question, when Harry and Cho first kiss, it says that Harry got back into the common room half an hour later, does this mean he was making out with Cho for half and hour, cause that doesn’t sound like Harry.
Probably Cho cried for ten minutes, then after she left, Harry stayed in the meeting room for a bit and/or walked off his agitation for a total of twenty more minutes.
What parallels are there, besides hair color? Not arguing, just wondering.
About Neville being the one:
If I remember correctly, the prophacy claims that the choosen one would be born in late July to parents who defeated Voldemort three times. There were three children born who fit that description. But how I interpret it, it doesn’t mean that any one of them could be IT, but it means that whoever is IT is one of those three. (I hope that made sense). So the way I see it, Voldemort just got lucky that the first one he went after was the right one, which Harry obviously is, otherwise Voldemort would’ve been able to kill him. Neville being born at the same time just means that he was someone who could have fit the prophacy but didn’t, and doesn’t mean that he has any special powers or anything.
I wonder what happened to the third possibility. Maybe Voldemort got to him before Harry…
Whereas I did mention it fully two days earlier (page three of this thread, quarter of the way down). Hmmph.
Don’t mind me, I’ll just sit here in the corner posting for my own amusement. 
Oh, and wisp00 it’s not parents who have defeated Voldemort three times; it’s parents who have defied him three times. A fine distinction, perhaps, but I feel it’s significant enough to insist upon it. Be nice if Rowling would let us in on the details of the Potters and Longbottoms defying Voldemort thrice; that could be some pretty impressive stuff.
And there were only two babies that fit the bill of the prophecy, not three.
Hmm… I read the book a couple of days ago, some some first impessions, clouded by the fact that I’m hazy on the actual details.
And now I realise I don’t know where to start, or even how to organise my thougfhts, so I’ll just rant for a while.
Lets see…Tonks! How cool was she? I really liked her - she made me grin with near every line of dialouge, mostly because she seems so familiar - smart school-leavers who are doing what they always wanted to, and having a hell of a good time about it. Likewise Ginny impressesed me no end. Cool!Ginny beats Crush!Ginny hands down anytime.
Umbridge was so well written. The epitome of malicious bureaucracy she had me in tears of rage with decree after decree… mind you, the subversive tactics of the teachers were fantastic.
Fred and George. My heroes. Love 'em.
I’m out of time, so I’ll have to wrap up this unstructured rambling…
…and, one last thing, who is the head of Ravenclaw? I don’t even know if it’s ever been referenced…
Yeah, who is the head of Ravenclaw? I’ve read the previous four books far more times than anyone should, and I don’t think it’s ever been mentioned. I doubt it’s Binns, or we’d have found out. Flitwick seems sort of unlikely. Is it Sinistra? She’s always being mentioned, but she never really seem to do much of anything.
I didn’t see that stated in Goblet of Fire, which I checked this morning. I’ll have to reread the end of Phoenix again and see…
I always thought Flitwick was the head of Ravenclaw. I can’t think of a reference to give you, though… 
Dumbledore said two children.
No, the Dark Lord “Marked him his equal” - Harry is the best because Voldemort chose him. Yes, its ironic: Voldemort made his own worst enemy.
Neville could have been the one spoken of in the prohecy. But Voldemort didn’t choose him. The Dark Lord chose the one he saw asa real threat - the one most like himself. And what came out was one very much like himself - Harry Potter. And Neville doesn’t have any special power.
Again, not just when he’s in the dwelling. It renews him for a year.
I competely missed that. What parallels are you referring to? They have very different families (Lily is Muggle-born with Muggle siblings, Ginny is magical-born with magical siblings). But, they’re both a year behind a Potter, living in Griffindor (or was Lily a Ravenclaw? I don’t think so…).
I agree with Munch - I don’t see how Ginny and Lily are alike. This is not to say I think your conclusion is wrong. Though it may not be right, I see Ginny is growing up and she and Harry will likely become lifelong friends. The sort of friendship that leads to marriage and all is by no means a foregone conclusion, but is likely to occur. However, this will not happen in the series, really: it ends when Harry is 17 going on 18, after all, so they’d be a little young. Anyway, Harry cannot truly live unless and until he kills Voldemort.
I can vaguely see a personality connection between the Ginny of OotP and Lily, in that they both acted as the voice of reason for their respective Potters (although Lily was obviously far more vehement about it… and with good reason), but I don’t think that is enough to call the two characters “parallels.” I certainly hope not- the Harry-crazed Ginny of previous books annoyed me quite a bit, and I was very relieved when she started showing an independent streak in OotP.
Was is just me, or did anyone else visualize Kingsley as Cobra Bubbles from Lilo and Stich?
No, I visualized him as Mace Windu.
That’s quite a strained analogy, which I didn’t see at all. But if that fits your political viewpoint, go right ahead :p.
This book was really about people not facing the problems in front of them. Fudge and Umbridge wanted to put their fingers in their ears and not see the Voldemort was back. I don’t think you can make a parallel to any administration in the last 50 years to this. Rather, I think, if you want to use a historical analogy, Fudge is Nevile Chamberlain and Dumbledore is Winston Churchill.
I think people are missing something here. It wasn’t Voldemort that chose which kid to go after, but fate did. It was a prophacy so Voldemort COULDN’T go after Neville. It was pre-ordained that he’d go after Harry (Neville’s parents were already mad, so really who was there to sacrifice themself for him? Granny?). You don’t make choices in a prophacy, it just happens.
OK… first of all. It practically took me as long to read this thread as it did to read the book. This is like those stupid Matrix threads. 
I finished the book a few days ago, I really liked it. I am having a hard time trying to decide whether I liked it or GoF better. (PoA still being my favorite) The upside on this one is better than GoF, but GoF never really tread water like this one did from about page 50-200.
Mostly, thoughts I had about this book have been stated. I can only second how extremely well Rowling fleshed out the characters in this book. Some of the characters were left a little thin on this one (Hagrid), but I think mostly because they are already filled in. So she focuses a little more on the new or previously underdeveloped characters.
-Professor Umbridge was fantastically written. She was so frustrating, I was nearly driven to rage at how mad she made me. This of course, is both great writing/and the makings of a wonderful bad guy. That quill that she used to punish Harry was, simply, evil.
-Harry finally stops “taking things in stride”. I mean, come on, if anybody has an excuse to be emotionally disturbed its this kid. 15 years of living with the Dursley’s FINALLY seems to come to a boiling point when its coupled with frustration over his friends and the lack of news AND teen angst. His emotional ups and downs seem very realistic for a teenager. Especially one who has had his emotions fairly repressed for a good deal of his life. So, while its frustrating to us that he can’t have a better handle over his emotions, I think its realistic that now that he has found out he can express them, he has a very hard time bottling them back up again. I think this is just a long winded way of saying, I think she is spot on with Harry’s emotional development and it was extremely interesting.
-Dumbledore is a bad ass. Somebody asked why he looked frightened at one point during his battle with Voldemort. I don’t think he was frightened for himself, I think he realized at that point that Voldemort was going to try to channel himself through Harry and was more scared for Harry at that point.
-Sirius’ death to me is like the death in Dead Poets Society. The actual death didn’t effect me much. The reaction, however, got me all emotional.
-The Romance beween Cho and Harry just made me laugh. I think I’m in the minority in that I still kinda want them to get together. But I think Harry is pretty much over her now. I will say he handled things with much more grace than I did at 15. (Or now for that matter)
-"…When he had a competant defense against dark arts teacher…" BWAHAHAHAHA
Thats all I can think of for now… I really did like it. I’m a little spoiled because I didn’t get into the series into after GoF came out. So I only had to wait a little under 2 years for this book. Now I’ve got to wait it out like the rest of you. I’m totally already jonesin’ for the next one! Rowling will make such bank on book 6 its not even funny.
I thought that the Death Room was pretty obviously an execution chamber. Note the similarity to the room where Harry was tried.
Still, I wish that Rowling would have had someone say what the arch was. I suspect that we haven’t seen the last of this room, however, so we’ll probably get some answers in book six or seven.
As for why Sirius and the Death Eaters aren’t afraid of being sent thru the “death arch,” perhaps the death penalty has been abolished. It could be that no one is sentenced to death anymore, but the MoM has never gotten around to dismantling the arch. Maybe the Dementor’s Kiss was developed as an alternative to capitol punishment. Or as a replacement when it was ended.
I was saddened by Sirius’ death, but not too much. Any of the “teaser” deaths (Mr. Weasley, Hagrid, Hermione, Ron) or Dumbledore’s death would have been a major tragedy. I’m sad because it was such a loss for Harry. Sirius was Harry’s hope that Harry might be able to leave the Dursleys’ house and never look back. He was the father Harry never had.
I had totally forgotten about Sirius’ present. I’m surprised that finding it didn’t make Harry feel guilty all over again. If I was Rowling (and it’s probably good that I’m not, 'cause the books would really suck 
) I’d have had Harry try the mirror at some earlier point, only to find that the transmissions weren’t secure – that Umbridge could detect them, or there was some other reason why he couldnt use it until after the Queen Mother of Evil Bitches was given the boot.
Of course, Rowling always leaves loose ends to tie up in future books. Maybe this will be explained in book 6.
I was surprised when Umbridge turned up in the hospital wing at the end. When the centaurs dragged her off into the forest, I figured that she was history. We would never see her again, and somewhere on the last page of tomorrow’s Daily Prophet, after the front page article saying “VOLDEMORT IS ALIVE! :eek: :eek: :eek:”, Harry, Ron, and Hermione would read a little one-paragarph article saying that Umbridge had disappeared without trace, and Dumbledore was being appointed Headmaster to replace her.
I suppose it’s just as well that she’s still alive. Umbridge is too good of a villain to kill after just one book.
Have read the thread now will drop some more comments and questions.
The book was wonderful until it actually got down to business. The last eighth or so as somone mentioned was completely rushed and felt like she had either made some huge last minute changes or had just lost control entirely. I sometimes wonder if authors/filmakers nowadays aren’t under the influence of their fans to too great a deal. For example, everyone hated Jar-Jar, Jar-Jar got 5 minutes in the next film. In this case could it be that the internet speculation was much too close to what she had actually written, so she changed it (for the worst) at the last minute?
Ron and Hermione will clearly end up together for the long run. Even Harry makes the comparison to Mr. and Mrs. Weasley. By the same note, I think Harry will ultimatly end up with Ginny, thus truely becoming a part of the Weasley family, a son-in-law.
I don’t know íf it is me or the book, but does it not seem that the characters in the latest book are written much more in the tone of the films characters? I realise that the films also influence Rowling, it would be impossible for them not to, but I thought Harry was much more Daniel-like and Hagrid was also much more Coltrains-Hagridy.
I am stunned at how thick the MoM muggle relations department is. Why they aren’t all (or a majority) muggle-born wizards is a mystery to me. Weasely has worked there for years and doesn’t have a hang of english money? I have been to greece for two weeks and gotten the hang of theirs, what is the problem?
Loved that Ginny has a personality. Much needed and appreceiated. Same goes for Neville.
I was sorely dissapointed that no injury was healed by placing it in the “time reversal glass” (the egg to bird one) like the death-eaters head. A quick swipe through the “glass” should have reversed any damage. They didn’t even use it to fix Nevs wand!
Ok, here is the bit I don’t get. The whole book focussed on “We can’t let Voldemort get the weapon”. The weapon turns out to be the prophesy. The only bit of the prophesy that he hasn’t already heard is the bit that says that he would himself choose his nemesis by marking him, and he has already done that, so what’s the big bloody deal? So what if he hears the prophesy? And how in gods name can it be referred to as a “weapon”? Somone clear that up for me plz?
The only people who referred to it as a weapon were the kids. I don’t think any of the Order referred to it as such.