"Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince" out tomorrow!

[Sandman]

Finished it!

Spoiler:

Snape isn't good. There's no secret plan. He's just an evil SOB, plain and simple.

[GePap]

Originally posted by Imran Siddiqui

Spoiler:

But, you have to admit that both are living while both are surviving at the moment. True Voldemort thinks that Harry will come back and kill him, but both are living and surviving. Unless the difference in the words means anything

Spoiler:

I think there is definitelly a distinct difference between the two. And if that were to be true, the prophesy would only be true for Voldermort, NOT HARRY, since as long as Harry lived, Voldermort would live. No, I think the prophesy is clear, and the "Harry is a Hoxcrux" notion adds a horrible complication that would only undermine the story.

Spoiler:

Shock and surprise are similar, most surprises do end up being shocking. Anyway, if you find out about a surprise party that doesn't mean that the party isn't a surprise party anymore. The people throwing it believe it is a surprise to you. I think Rowling intends them as surprise endings and her younger readers may not catch the symbolism of a wise teacher dying. I think Harry dying would fit in with the plot. Missing 7th year means he can't be an auror (IIRC), so what does he do after defeating Voldemort? The only alternative is that Hogwarts is canceled for a year and Harry goes back to complete his schooling with everyone else... of course that screams sequal and I'm not sure Rowling would want that

Spoiler:

I did not say if you found out about a surprise party, but if you suspected it. IUf you suspect something, it is hardly shocking. Once I came to suspect it had to be Dumbledore, I sure as hell did not find his death, nor who did it, in any way shocking. As for him and his future:
1. Killing Voldermort would be such a act that I seriously doubt anyone would care about the technicaliy of not having taken his N.E.W.T.S. if Harry the great Hero and chosen one decided to be an Auror. I mean, come on.
2. The story line is for young adults. A story about adult Harry Potter would not be of particular interest.
3. Even if Harry dies, the possible number of spinn-offs are endless. If Rowling ever wanted she could write the Story of a Young Albus Dumbledore, or the time when James and Lilly were in school. She could have Ron and Hermione marry, have a child, and follow him or her through Hogwarts, with a few glimpses of Uncle Potter. The story works because the backstory is so well developed. That being the case killing the protagonist would do nothing to end the possible pull for more Potterverse stories.

Spoiler:

There is a split second when Voldemort realizes the curse didn't work on the boy and is backfiring. He'd may have tried to force his severed soul (from killing Lily) anywhere and find Harry in front of him. And from what it sounds like, Lily and James were top Aurors, who had helped foil Voldemort in the past

Spoiler:

NOw you are just making stuff up. First, yes, James and Lilly were Aurors, but there are lot of those-what made them special was their child, making thier Child special. Second, no we don;t know how making a Hoxcrux, how splitting the soul works, but we do have what Dumbledore says, and its pretty clear from what he says that given what was happening to Voldermort after the curse failed, that at that spot putting a piece of his own soul would fail. BESIDES, if Lilly's love could be such as to stop the Ave Kedrava curse (something seemingly impossible), then how on Earth would it be unable to stop probably and equally foul and dangerous and powerful dark magic act as planting a bit of his evil soul? Yeah, some shield....
No, the idea Harry is a hoxcrux might be tempting, but it in inconsistent with what we have been told

Spoiler:

If X number of readers could have told Harry to use his mirror to speak to Sirius in OotP, why would Harry forget, when he'd been given it by Sirius and would have remembered it best. Because we are a fourth wall that can go back and see what leads up to things. It isn't like horcruxes really stand out, except when made to stand out, like the protection surrounding the locket.

Spoiler:

Harry has shown himself to be clueless and not a genius by any means countless times. Albus Dumbledore, the greatest Wizzard of his time, the man who ususally has a very good graps of everything going on while Harry and everyone else save Voldermort is clueless, is quite a different character.

As for Hoxcruxes, again, what we know about them, or have seen of them make the notion that Harry has a bit of Voldermort's soul in him improbable at best.

[GePap]

Originally posted by Imran Siddiqui

Spoiler:

Indeed... me and my friends first though Draco's task was to kill Harry. However, even if Snape makes the Unbreakable Vow, that doesn't preclude Snape dying.

Spoiler:

How, when Snape makes it clear at the beginning that Voldermort had already made clear Potter was his? Why say this if Malfoy had been given thos instructions?

And then, even if you discounted that, the very fact that Malfoy does nothing when he has the best chance to kill Harry ever in the train, you should have let that theory drop

[Imran Siddiqui]

Point 1:

Spoiler:

If the words are different "living" meaning able to live a normal life as opposed to "surviving", then the prophesy only applies to Harry, cause Voldemort will never have a normal life to live. The prophecy is not very clear, except for the fact we know that Harry will have to face Voldemort because that's been the jist of the stories. It isn't clear why, say, Dumbledore couldn't defeat Voldemort from that prophecy.

Point 2:

Spoiler:

Have you seen the people who run the Ministry of Magic? Scrimgeour is not much better than Fudge. They all seem to be sticklers for the rules. And knowing what we know about Harry, if Scrimgeour offers to waive the requirement for N.E.W.T.'s, Harry would probably decline the Auror job (ie, a reasonable belief that Scrimgeour would turn Harry's joining to mean that the Ministry was doing good during the war).

You have to be on DRUGS if you think that there would be no interest in an adult Harry Potter series because the books are for 'young teens'. You don't sell 8 million copies (in the US) in one day because of young teens alone. And even young teens grow up and would want to see Harry deal with the life as an adult.

The sidestories are intriguing, but hold no where NEAR the same pull. Rowling could outsource the Adventures of Ron & Hermione or Neville's Quest, but there is no way she'd be able to avoid questions about writing adult Harry stories herself. Outsourcing that would be seen as sacreligous (though she may not care)

Point 3:

Spoiler:

I believe in OotP there was reference made that James and Lily had stopped Voldemort twice before. They seemed to be one of the big time Aurors of the time. Them on the Longbottoms seemed to be cream of the crop.

And Voldemort not being able to send his split soul after being hit with the rebounded curse, doesn't preclude him from sending it after realizing it was going to rebound.

Horcruxes seem to be even darker magic than the Killing Curse (Hell, the restricted book on dark magic wouldn't even discuss it). The protection Lily placed on Harry may not have been strong enough to repel the evil of a horcrux.

Like I said, it's plausible. Maybe you consider it unlikely, but I can see how some can make the argument

Point 4:

Spoiler:

Dumbledore himself has shown himself not to be omniscient and capable of making HUGE errors. The obvious is at the end of OotP when Dumbledore realizes he made a big mistake in keeping information from Harry, which may have led to the death of Sirius. He also let it slide that the Triwizard Cup at the end of GoF was a portkey to Voldemort's resurrection point.

The guy has done things indicating errors in judgment. Most of time he may be on the ball, but not always.

And we really don't know much about horcruxes. We know it is risky to put it in a living thing, but we don't know what happens if you do. We don't know how Nagini reacts to having a bit of Voldemort's soul... if it does react to it.

Point 5:

Spoiler:

Snape says Potter is for the Dark Lord at the END, not beginning.

And yes, Draco's mission is not killing Potter, found out on the train, but that indicates that it wasn't obvious that Draco's mission was to off Dumbledore and Snape's Unbreakable Vow was for that as well. Also, it wasn't clear if Snape would let himself die so that Dumbledore would live... or just die of other causes

[DinoDoc]

If Snape is Evil, why did he save Potter in the first book?

[GePap]

Originally posted by DinoDoc
If Snape is Evil, why did he save Potter in the first book?

[devil's advocate]
Cause Voldermort wants Potter for his own.
[/devil's advocate]

[Kuciwalker]

How would he know Voldemort is still alive?

[Imran Siddiqui]

Yeah, as you well know I can construct an argument to defend just about anything (whether it works or not is a different subject). However, on the Snape really being evil and then saving Potter, I can't. No one knew Voldy was still alive at that point (well, except Quirrell). The only explination is that Snape is like a dry drunk. He's been off the juice so long, so he's good, but when he gets a taste of the bad stuff (Voldemort back, DADA teacher) he can't resist. Even that is unsatisfying to some degree.

[GePap]

Originally posted by Kuciwalker
How would he know Voldemort is still alive?

Voldermort wasn't really 'alive then', now was he?

At the same time, he answer's Dino's question in the book, does he not, when Ballatrix asks him.

[DinoDoc]

Originally posted by GePap
At the same time, he answer's Dino's question in the book, does he not, when Ballatrix asks him.

What was the answer?

[Kuciwalker]

Yes.

[GePap]

Originally posted by DinoDoc
What was the answer?

Essentially, Killing Potter would blow his cover and to gather intelligence on Potter.

[Kuciwalker]

Not quite. That he didn't know Voldemort was alive, and therefore why should he consign himself to Azkaban for killing Potter to no end?

[Imran Siddiqui]

Well also he was charged with spying on Dumbledore and that was far more useful way to serve the Dark Lord than being in Azkaban (which Bellatrix thought was the proper way to show allegiance to Voldemort).

[DinoDoc]

Originally posted by GePap
Essentially, Killing Potter would blow his cover and to gather intelligence on Potter.

How would simply not uttering the counter to Quirrell's (I believe that is his name) curse during the match in the first book blow his cover?