I’ll back you up on Flitwick. After Dumbledore’s death in HBP, MacGonagall convenes all of the heads of Houses (Slughorn being invited to represent Slytherin, due to Snape’s unavailability) in the Headmaster’s office to discuss whether the school will stay open. Flitwick is there as the Head of Ravenclaw House.
On the MuggleNet site someone linked to earlier, I found this essay. In short, it suggests that, based on comments by JK Rowlings on her religious beliefs, Harry Potter’s saga is an allegory of Jesus’ sacrifice, with obvious implications for the story’s ending.
Good grief, that would be lame!
Cite?
Preach it! Hagrid can’t be “reinstated” as a wizard, because he never finished school. But I fully expected to see Hagrid back in school in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, taking classes with the kids in addition to his other duties at Hogwarts.
But he wasn’t! No one ever mentioned his wrongful expulsion again, and Hagrid continues to live as a Squib (or near enough to).
I think that’s a requirement here…anytime there’s a thread specifically about the Harry Potter books, someone comes in to complain about the writing.
Back to the OP…not a big plot theory, but it’s something that’s been bothering me for awhile. I’m assuming Harry’s parents were buried; what are the chances that they’ll turn up as inferi (sp?).
Yeah, it’s funny all right. I just think everyone’s overthinking all this.
(shrug) What’re ya gonna do?
Sorry. I didn’t see your post before my previous reply.
I hardly think that opinion needs a cite. I read books 1-5. By OOTP, the writing had gotten substantially worse. Really, more the editing than the writing per se. It was like book 5 wasn’t even edited at all; as if they just took Rowling’s full manuscript and typeset the entire thing, as if they were so desperate and hurried to get the book on the shelves and sell, sell, sell, that they couldn’t be bothered to tighten it up. If you have read the books and don’t see any change from the tight little story told in SS to the bloated thing that was OOTP, you’re being way too indulgent.
As for the bad writing complaints being “a requirement,” I only mentioned that to establish why I have not read the sixth installment, and thus am not completely up to date on plot developments. (I didn’t even know Dumbledore had died.) That’s why I found so many of the predictions upthread bewildering. Otherwise I wouldn’t have mentioned it; I know everyone here wouldn’t care anyway. I came in because I was curious and surprised that no one thinks the ending will be as straightforward as what I proposed above.
I just read the Mugglenet essay about McGonagall being evil all along, and the author does raise some interesting points and seems quite convincing at first glance. But I don’t believe it.
If I look for points in favour, I could find some more not mentioned in the essay: McGonagall dislikes Trelawney so much because Trelawney made a prophecy that brought Lord Voldemort to his downfall. One may assume that McGonagall tried to get Trelawney to reveal the prophecy to her but with no success.
But then, from a logical point of view, I can also find points against - wouldn’t she have been helping the fake Moody in Goblet of Fire? Why would you need the fake Moody to take all these risks in the first place, Voldemort would already have had a spy at Hogwarts, ready to help?
J.K. Rowling has shown too many cases of McGonagall supporting Harry and being in sympathy with him for her to turn around all of a sudden and become a traitor. For example in Prisoner of Azkaban she makes sure that Harry’s Firebolt is carefully examined before he uses it - why would she bother doing that? In Order of the Phoenix, she rushes to Hagrid’s defense when Hagrid is being expelled, and is badly injured - not the behaviour of a Death Eater. In Order of the Phoenix she gets angry on Harry Potter’s behalf and swears she will help him become an Auror - again, why would she do that? She could be a consummate actress, but it doesn’t ring true to me.
I think that given the amount of time JKR has spent on them in the series, the house elves will wind up playing a big time role in this last book. The house elves are seriously powerful magic creatures in their own right. Think about some of the magic Dobby did when he first showed up at Privett Drive or how easily he smacked down Lucious Malfoy, a powerful dark wizard.
With so much emphasis on the power of love and what not in this book series, I think its fairly obvious that Harry and Co., the few people in the wizard world who have treated house elves with respect compasion, will get a big helping hand from the elves.
I LOVED that moment. It gave me the chills. And I do like your theory - that it was a moment of foreshadowing regarding Snape’s ultimate fate. (Of course, the only reason I like Snape is because of Alan Rickman :). )
She’s playing a very deep game, my friend.
Overthinking? Unpossible.
But does Trelawney remember making the prophecy? We see that when she makes real prophecies, she gets the different (read: creepy is how I hear it when I read the books) voice. When taking his exam, Harry hears her make a real prediction, and then she doesn’t remember making it at all.
Tangential geekery:
With or without McGonagall as a DE, can anyone explain the necessity of book four? If McG is the pinnacle DE spy, why would Voldemort need to plant Barty Jr. as Mad-Eye? If she’s not a spy, and Voldemort needed to plant a DE for the purpose of getting Harry to the graveyard, why didn’t he just have Barty go in as Mad-Eye, meet up with Harry on a Hogsmeade weekend now that he’s free to go, and side-arm apparate out with him? If for some reason a portkey was specifically necessary, why jump through all the tournament hoops when he could just portkey up a fanged frisbee or something and toss it to him the first time he’s alone in Moody’s office?
Speaking of the graveyard scene, there’s that line of Voldemort’s about “one, I believe who’s left me forever, one who remains my most loyal servant” and so on. If we imagine Karkaroff, Snape, and Crouch are the three mentioned, the count doesn’t leave room for McGonagall. OTOH, we’re also aware that though many of his followers believe they are close to him, none are truly trusted and none are in his full confidence. In that respect it wouldn’t necessarily go against the grain to imagine that she’s secret even from the rest of the DEs.
I dunno. I think it’s plausible, but it would be one hell of a kick in the teeth if it were true. I think JKR has thrown us some big curveballs, but that they’ve always been at least somewhat foreshadowed. In this case, I think the best you can say is that she’s foreshadowed it by carefully avoiding any mention of possible Voldemort/McG connections–guilt by omission or something.
I wouldn’t worry about it overmuch. Fact of the matter is that every fictional story has someone point to it as a Bible allegory at one point or another. Even in cases such as Lord of the Rings in which the creator specifically denied it.
-Joe
Behold my Wiki-Fu! Flitwick for Ravenclaw, Sprout for Hufflepuff.
No. But let’s imagine McGonagall as a Death Eater - she knows that Trelawney had made a prophecy concerning Harry Potter and Tom Marvolo Riddle aka You-Know-Who aka He Who Must Not Be Named aka Lord Voldemort. She would presumable be trying to wheedle the truth out of Sybill Trelawney, and her efforts would be repeatedly met with a dumb stare and an “I have no idea what you’re talking about, dear Minerva.” It would be enough to drive anyone up the wall, and explain why McGonagall is so contemptuous of Trelawney.
Ya know what’s annoying me right now, in the midst of my reread fiesta? P—foots. There’s three of them. We have:
Padfoot, aka Sirius Black
Proudfoot, an Auror stationed in Hogsmeade
Puddifoot, the proprietress of the eponymous teashop in Hogsmeade.
Just me, or sloppy character naming?
NajaNivea:
Because Harry was mostly protected by Dumbledore; I believe Voldemort even makes a comment to the effect that Harry’s “protected better than he knows.” In the midst of the tournament tasks were the best chance - even above a Hogsmeade weekend - for Harry to be least protected, because it would give Harry an unfair advantage that Karkaroff and Maxime would have objected to, or his absence least noticed, because the maze is so easy to be lost in.
I agree with this – I always remember Sirius telling Harry that the world is not separated into Good People and Death Eaters. This point, in fact, was important enough to make it into the movie when, by necessity, so much was left out. Snape could be both a creep (and I do think he is a creep, frankly) and also dedicated to bringing about the downfall of Voldemort.
I’m going to throw out a couple of my pet theories, just for fun. I’m generally of the opinion that this is Rowling’s story and I’ll be satisfied however she chooses to end it.
That said, I don’t think Harry, Ron or Ginny will die. I think the deaths in this last book are going to be both more (in number – I think lots of secondary and tertiary characters are going to be wearing red robes), and less (emotionally – I don’t think any of the primary characters will die) than in previous books. I have heard that Rowlings said that there was a character she planned to kill, but decided to spare – I think that character is Neville. None of that is really a prediction on my part, though. I do predict, though, that Rowling will choose her secondary and tertiary victims carefully, so as to maximize the emotional impact. So here is my death predication – Charlie Weasley will definately die. Major emotional impact, considering that the character himself has appeared only rarely. I would not be surprised to see Fang sacrifice himself for Hagrid – what offers greater emotional impact than a faithful dog dying for his master?
My other prediction has to do with Petunia. I think it will be revealed that Petunia and Lily were twins (note the matching flower names) and both recieved summons to Hogworts. Petunia was too bigoted and frightened to answer the summons and Lily went on alone. Vernon and Dudley don’t know anything about this, and Dumbledore has held the knowledge over her head in order to force her to give Harry a ‘home’ (and the protection of his mother’s blood).
Man – I can’t wait until Saturday!