# Illogic of Harry Potter's Choice at the End of Book 6 **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 16, 2006, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/illogic-of-harry-potters-choice-at-the-end-of-book-6/380731 "2006-11-16T20:40:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Revenant\_Threshold](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f1d935/32.png) [@Revenant\_Threshold](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revenant_Threshold)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2006, 3:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/illogic-of-harry-potters-choice-at-the-end-of-book-6/380731/41 "2006-11-18T03:39:16Z")
[QUOTE=eleanorigby] I do hope she does the encyclopedia that she mentions a few times in that site. I hold out for _Hogwarts: A History_ just because it’s quoted so often. [/QUOTE] Ah, but will you read it? 😉 I’m in the useful position of having none of my theories about future HP books be correct. I’ve been guessing what would happen next since PoA, and I’ve never come close to the truth. So for me it’s less a case of “What could happen?” and more “If I think it might happen, it won’t happen”. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2006, 3:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/illogic-of-harry-potters-choice-at-the-end-of-book-6/380731/42 "2006-11-18T03:47:49Z")
[QUOTE=Sutremaine] I can’t tell if this is sarcasm or not. It smells like it, but I’m not sure. [/QUOTE] It’s not. Not that I claim any kind of insight into what’s going on inside Rowling’s head. But the possibilities do seem ever so tempting to a writer! ---
**Author:** ![gredbioz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/6a8cbe/32.png) [@gredbioz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gredbioz)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2006, 4:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/illogic-of-harry-potters-choice-at-the-end-of-book-6/380731/43 "2006-11-18T04:22:13Z")
[QUOTE=elfkin477] I’ve always thought that Petunia was a squib. I’m prepared to be proven wrong next July. [/QUOTE] A squib is the non-magical child of magical parents. Are you somehow suggesting that Lily’s parents are magical but hid it from her (and the rest of wizarding society) their entire life? ---
**Author:** ![kittenblue](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ba8739/32.png) [@kittenblue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kittenblue)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2006, 8:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/illogic-of-harry-potters-choice-at-the-end-of-book-6/380731/44 "2006-11-18T08:18:38Z")
Whose wedding? I must have missed something somewhere…must go back and re-read. ---
**Author:** ![manx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/65b543/32.png) [@manx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/manx)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2006, 11:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/illogic-of-harry-potters-choice-at-the-end-of-book-6/380731/45 "2006-11-18T11:33:28Z")
[QUOTE=kittenblue] Whose wedding? I must have missed something somewhere…must go back and re-read. [/QUOTE] Bill Weasley & Fleur’s. I think all that action is going to take place off-camera, so to speak, and that the book will be pared right down to the horocrux-hunt. I hope not, because I love all the extra detail (book five is my favourite, probably just because there’s so damn much of it) ---
**Author:** ![eleanorigby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee7513/32.png) [@eleanorigby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eleanorigby)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2006, 11:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/illogic-of-harry-potters-choice-at-the-end-of-book-6/380731/46 "2006-11-18T11:39:53Z")
[QUOTE=Revenant Threshold] Ah, but will you read it? 😉 I’m in the useful position of having none of my theories about future HP books be correct. I’ve been guessing what would happen next since PoA, and I’ve never come close to the truth. So for me it’s less a case of “What could happen?” and more “If I think it might happen, it won’t happen”. [/QUOTE] Sure, I’d read it. I read the History of Quidditch and the Magical Beasts one-only once, but my kids loved them. Rowling mentions in her site that there is a not often mentioned OotP character who will be key in book 7. Short of rereading books 5 and 6, I cannot recall who that might be. Anyone have any ideas? Someone somewhere (I surfed quite a bit yesterday) said it might be AD’s crazy brother. For no good reason, that strikes me as unlikely. AD is gone, no need to set up a surrgate for Harry. Off to work-with Muggles, sadly. ---
**Author:** ![twiceshy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/53a042/32.png) [@twiceshy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twiceshy)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2006, 2:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/illogic-of-harry-potters-choice-at-the-end-of-book-6/380731/47 "2006-11-18T14:31:37Z")
[QUOTE=eleanorigby] Rowling mentions in her site that there is a not often mentioned OotP character who will be key in book 7. Short of rereading books 5 and 6, I cannot recall who that might be. Anyone have any ideas?. [/QUOTE] I have been wondering if it might be Neville’s mother. If I am remembering write she gives him candy wrappers everytime he goes to see her. I think she is trying to tell him something. ---
**Author:** ![twiceshy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/53a042/32.png) [@twiceshy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twiceshy)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2006, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/illogic-of-harry-potters-choice-at-the-end-of-book-6/380731/48 "2006-11-18T14:32:50Z")
[QUOTE=twiceshy] I have been wondering if it might be Neville’s mother. If I am remembering write she gives him candy wrappers everytime he goes to see her. I think she is trying to tell him something. [/QUOTE] write=right I forgot to hit preview. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Rysto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ecccb3/32.png) [@Rysto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rysto)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2006, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/illogic-of-harry-potters-choice-at-the-end-of-book-6/380731/49 "2006-11-18T18:18:37Z")
[JKR has shot that one down, too.](http://www.mugglenet.com/jkrinterview3.shtml) > [@](#): > > MA: Our next winner question is from Delaney Monaghan, who is six years old, via her mother, Vanessa Monaghan. They’re from Canberra, Australia. “What is the significance, if any of the gum wrappers that Mrs. Longbottom keeps giving Neville?” > > ES: Quick, go on the record [with what you think] before she answers - > > MA: I think they’re a sad mark of an insane woman. > > JKR: That was also asked of me this morning. That idea was one of the very few that was inspired by a real event. I was told what, to me, was a very sad story by someone I know about their elderly mother who had Alzheimer’s, and the elderly mother was in a closed ward. She was very severely demented and no longer recognized her son, but he went faithfully to visit her twice a week, and he used to take her sweets. That was their point of connection; she had a sweet tooth. She recognized him as the sweet-giver. That was very poignant to me. So I embroidered the story. Neville gives his mother what she wants, and (it makes me sad to think of it) she wants to give something back to him, but what she gives back to him is essentially worthless. But he still takes it as worth something because she’s trying to give, so it does mean something, in emotional terms. > > But, the theories on the sweet wrappers, are really out there. > > ES: You can’t blame them. > > JKR: I mean she’s not trying to pass him secret messages. ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2006, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/illogic-of-harry-potters-choice-at-the-end-of-book-6/380731/50 "2006-11-19T00:58:10Z")
[QUOTE=gredbioz] A squib is the non-magical child of magical parents. Are you somehow suggesting that Lily’s parents are magical but hid it from her (and the rest of wizarding society) their entire life? [/QUOTE] I was thinking more of them having always been a magical family but Petunia not wanting anyone, especially Vernon, to know about it, so she’s closeted the family, so to speak. There’s never any mention of her parents, so they’re either dead or MIA, probably for years since they were already out of the picture by the time one-year-old Harry needed a home. They may well have died before she even met Veron. ---
**Author:** ![Queen\_Bruin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/e274bd/32.png) [@Queen\_Bruin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Queen_Bruin)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2006, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/illogic-of-harry-potters-choice-at-the-end-of-book-6/380731/51 "2006-11-19T01:24:29Z")
[Here’s](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Order_of_the_Phoenix_%28Harry_Potter%29#Members_of_the_Order_of_the_Phoenix) a list on Wikipedia of surviving OotP members by the end of Book 6. I’m personally holding out for Kingsley being the key guy. And of course he should be played by Samuel L. Jackson. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Rysto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ecccb3/32.png) [@Rysto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rysto)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2006, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/illogic-of-harry-potters-choice-at-the-end-of-book-6/380731/52 "2006-11-19T01:31:09Z")
[QUOTE=elfkin477] I was thinking more of them having always been a magical family but Petunia not wanting anyone, especially Vernon, to know about it, so she’s closeted the family, so to speak. There’s never any mention of her parents, so they’re either dead or MIA, probably for years since they were already out of the picture by the time one-year-old Harry needed a home. They may well have died before she even met Veron. [/QUOTE] If the Evans were magical, Harry wouldn’t be a half-blood, he’d be a pure-blood. There are plenty of references to Lily being Muggle-born in the books. ---
**Author:** ![Revenant\_Threshold](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f1d935/32.png) [@Revenant\_Threshold](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revenant_Threshold)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2006, 1:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/illogic-of-harry-potters-choice-at-the-end-of-book-6/380731/53 "2006-11-19T01:36:57Z")
[QUOTE=The Sausage Creature] I’m personally holding out for Kingsley being the key guy. And of course he should be played by Samuel L. Jackson. 😃 [/QUOTE] Parseltongue, motherfucker! Do you speak it? ---
**Author:** ![eleanorigby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee7513/32.png) [@eleanorigby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eleanorigby)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2006, 12:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/illogic-of-harry-potters-choice-at-the-end-of-book-6/380731/54 "2006-11-19T12:00:29Z")
[QUOTE=Revenant Threshold] Parseltongue, motherfucker! Do you speak it? [/QUOTE] “I am so sick of these motherfucking snakes in this motherfucking house!” 😃 Maybe Doge or Dibley? But then, Rowling has to provide background on the character etc, which slows down the plot, which adds to the length of this book, which must be the size of the New York phone book by now… ---
**Author:** ![The\_Octagon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/5f9b8f/32.png) [@The\_Octagon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Octagon)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2006, 1:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/illogic-of-harry-potters-choice-at-the-end-of-book-6/380731/55 "2006-11-19T13:22:03Z")
[QUOTE=eleanorigby] Sure, I’d read it. I read the History of Quidditch and the Magical Beasts one-only once, but my kids loved them. Rowling mentions in her site that there is a not often mentioned OotP character who will be key in book 7. Short of rereading books 5 and 6, I cannot recall who that might be. Anyone have any ideas? Someone somewhere (I surfed quite a bit yesterday) said it might be AD’s crazy brother. For no good reason, that strikes me as unlikely. AD is gone, no need to set up a surrgate for Harry. Off to work-with Muggles, sadly. [/QUOTE] I figured it was pretty likely Aberforth Dumbledore would figure heavily into the next book. The little cameo with Mundungus and the mention by Moody seem to be foreshadowing his appearance, and the comments by Albus Dumbledore about not being able to read (and.. farm animals? I think) sound like red herrings, or great inside jokes. ---
**Author:** ![Rysto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ecccb3/32.png) [@Rysto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rysto)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2006, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/illogic-of-harry-potters-choice-at-the-end-of-book-6/380731/56 "2006-11-19T18:27:59Z")
[QUOTE=The Octagon] I figured it was pretty likely Aberforth Dumbledore would figure heavily into the next book. The little cameo with Mundungus and the mention by Moody seem to be foreshadowing his appearance, and the comments by Albus Dumbledore about not being able to read ( **and.. farm animals? I think** ) sound like red herrings, or great inside jokes. [/QUOTE] Inappropriate charms on a goat. :eek: ---
**Author:** ![eleanorigby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee7513/32.png) [@eleanorigby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eleanorigby)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2006, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/illogic-of-harry-potters-choice-at-the-end-of-book-6/380731/57 "2006-11-20T15:29:33Z")
See…the whole Aberforth thing. I think he might well enter into the book and plot, but not as an advisor to HP. Aberforth seems to be too much of a free spirit to dedicate himself to any cause. He did not come to the funeral, IMS. I would be concerned that HP would want to rely on AD2. Book 6 makes a big deal out of reiterating all those who stood up for HP with Voldermort. And now, HP faces him, because there is no one else and it is time. I can see AD2 working as some kind of mole ala Mundungus. And I am allowing myself to hope that Neville does not die and that he plays a key role. \ ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2006, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/illogic-of-harry-potters-choice-at-the-end-of-book-6/380731/58 "2006-11-20T17:53:12Z")
> [@](#): > > And I am allowing myself to hope that Neville does not die and that he plays a key role. \ Well, I would be willing to bet at least that he’ll play a key role. If he does die, it’ll be heroically, and doing something Very Great and Important. And he’d hopefully do some big things before then, too. And who knows, maybe he does live after all. It wouldn’t be the first time that Rowling has surprised us. ---
**Author:** ![Fretful\_Porpentine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fretful_porpentine/32/2873_2.png) [@Fretful\_Porpentine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fretful_Porpentine)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2006, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/illogic-of-harry-potters-choice-at-the-end-of-book-6/380731/59 "2006-11-20T18:40:17Z")
> [@](#): > > He did not come to the funeral, IMS. Aberforth most certainly did come to the funeral – Harry knows him as the barman at the Hog’s Head, who is specifically mentioned as being there toward the end of the long paragraph listing all the guests (p. 641 in the American edition). Count me as another vote for Aberforth being the mysterious-but-important Order member that JKR has mentioned in interviews. ---
**Author:** ![Revenant\_Threshold](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f1d935/32.png) [@Revenant\_Threshold](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revenant_Threshold)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2006, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/illogic-of-harry-potters-choice-at-the-end-of-book-6/380731/60 "2006-11-20T18:42:31Z")
[QUOTE=Rysto] Inappropriate charms on a goat. :eek: [/QUOTE] Which begs the question; What would be an _appropriate_ charm on a goat? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/illogic-of-harry-potters-choice-at-the-end-of-book-6/380731.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/illogic-of-harry-potters-choice-at-the-end-of-book-6/380731.md?page=4)