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Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

raebird — Sun, 22 Jul 2007 21:04:50 GMT

I was right about (I like being right):
Ron and Hermione (though that was a given)

Snape being loyal to Dumbledore and dying (also easy to assume)

The Gray Lady helping Harry find the Ravenclaw Horcrux (though I guessed she might be Roweena Ravenclaw; I say close enough!)

Harry surviving

Snape and Lily (though I missed some of the details)

Fred dying

When we heard that Mundungus had come up with the decoy plan, I correctly guessed that it had really come from Snape.

ETA: Oh, and I correctly predicted that Kreacher was the one who helped Regulus get the locket, and the one who helped Harry recover it.

I loved:
Dudley's gratitude

The Harry decoy plot

Hermione's purse

Ron's ghoul

Harry, Ron, and Hermione successfully breaking into the Ministry, Gringotts, and Hogwarts.

Aberforth

The way you get into the Ravenclaw common room

Everything that had anything to do with Luna, her house, the friendships she apparently developed with Dean and Ollivander, everything.

Badass Scruffy Leader Neville

Percy's return, and the fact that Percy wanted to return a long time ago

McGonagall in the fight

Harry saving Malfoy's life

The Malfoys' quiet defection

The glimpse of Snape's backstory

Molly defeating Bellatrix in a fierce duel

That Harry didn't destroy any of the Horcruxes in this book himself (except, in a way, himself, through his willingness to face death). Harry destroyed the diary in the Chamber of Secrets. But the rest were destroyed by Dumbledore, Ron, Hermione, Crabbe, and Neville.

Seeing Dumbledore's flaws and complexities

There were some lines of dialogue here and there that made me crack up laughing. Of course I don't remember what they were now.

Dumbledore suspecting they Sort too soon.

ETA: I was also pleased with the witch Hermione impersonated at the Ministry. Just because I could never read her signature in the letters she sent to Harry in the past, and it bothered me that I couldn't tell what her name was. Now I know (though I don't remember). Now I'm able to know.

Hurt, but in the very best way:
Hedwig's death

Hermione's protection of her parents

Muggle-borns on the run

Harry's burial of and mourning for Dobby

Fred's death

Harry walking determinedly to his own death, all "Prophecy Girl," but with his dead loved ones surrounding him as he went. I didn't believe for a second that he was really going to die, but it was still so powerful because he believed it.

Quibbles:
Much of the beginning part of the book dragged for me. A lot of the Trio (sometimes Duo) sitting around not knowing what to do, punctuated by anxiety-ridden action scenes.

Wandlore. Interesting in small doses, but there was just. so. much. I know way more about wandlore than I care to, thanks.

I couldn't get invested in the whole Deathly Hallows plot. I got more interested once we actually heard about them from Aberforth and Albus, and understanding that the point was for Harry to be the better man who can resist their temptation. But up until then? Didn't care. Thought they were a pointless distraction from the things that really mattered in the fight against Voldemort. Which they were, when you get right down to it. They only matter as insight into Dumbledore's flaws.

I wanted to see more of Snape, sooner in the book. I was so impatient for his backstory and vindication, I didn't want to have to wait as long as I did.

Why were the Unforgivable curses apparently not so unforgivable when Harry and other members of the Order used them? I would have liked to at least see more shock, remorse, trepidation, or something. But maybe it was there and I was just reading too fast, since these things did occur during major action scenes.

I still don't understand why Voldemort didn't make another Horcrux after he learned the diary had been destroyed, and yet more Horcruxes after he found out about the ring, locket, and cup. Wasn't the whole point to have his soul in seven parts? Not to have his soul neatly measured into parts of approximately 0.1429 times (one seventh) the size of a normal human soul? Why wasn't that explained away?

Also, what was the object Voldemort brought with him to the Potters' house, intending to make into a Horcrux with Harry's death as a baby? Dumbledore said that his failure to make a Horcrux then was the reason he made Nagini one when restored to his body. But Dumbledore knew that Voldemort *had* inadvertently made Harry into a Horcrux with that curse, so Dumbledore would have believed that Nagini was the sixth one only because the Diary was destroyed (because up until Harry's foray into the Chamber of Secrets, there were already six, Harry being one), but Voldemort wouldn't. I'm still really hung up on this seven-part or one-seventh question.

Overall Impression:

It was a satisfying ending to the series. A much more stressful read than I expected. I liked it a lot. I laughed, I cried, I was occasionally bored out of my mind.

The epilogue was cheesy as hell, but I didn't really mind it. I'll just skip over it on future rereads, I suspect. I was happier with the ending before I turned the page and found out that there was an epilogue. The one thing that saves it for me, though, was Harry saying that Snape was the bravest man he ever knew. Oh, man.

Harry Potter: Thoughts from Books 4-6, Predictions for Book 7 (Eeeee!)

raebird — Fri, 06 Jul 2007 16:47:04 GMT

I've finished my most recent reread of Harry Potter books 4-6. And I have thoughts and predictions! So here they are. If you care to review, here are my previous thoughts and predictions after reading book 6 for the first time, and after rereading the whole series last year. In this post, my thoughts are arranged according to a few key questions I've been wondering about. I discuss some of my predictions for book 7 throughout. I've included a list of all my predictions at the end, arranged according to my level of confidence. Here goes.

Why doesn't Harry have any relatives other than the Dursleys?

I'm wondering why Harry doesn't have any grandparents. Lily and James were still fairly young when they died. Why were their parents already dead? On one level, they were obviously dead because there had to be some plot device for Harry to be raised by the most hateful and atrocious Muggles possible. But I still find it odd. I wonder if maybe Voldemort killed Mr. & Mrs. Evans and the senior Mr. & Mrs. Potter in an effort to get to Lily and James. If he did kill Mr. & Mrs. Evans, that would help explain some of the Dursleys' bias against the wizarding world; they blamed "all that dangerous nonsense" for the deaths of Petunia's parents. I hope there will at least be some mention of Harry's grandparents in the final book.

What exactly happened on the night that Lily and James died?
We know that Voldemort heard about part of the prophecy from Snape. We know that he got Wormtail to betray the Potters' location. We know that Voldemort went into the house. The house ended up rubble, Lily and James ended up dead, Harry ended up scarred, and Voldemort ended up weakened and disembodied. We know from Harry's memories and Voldemort's statements that Voldemort didn't intend to kill Lily that night but only did so because she was protecting Harry. We suspect that Voldemort intended to create his sixth and final Horcrux with the curse that should have killed Harry.

We don't really know exactly what went on inside the house, though.

Specifically, I'm questioning when and why Voldemort killed James. The assumption has been that Voldemort killed James first, fighting his way toward Harry, and then killed Lily because she stood in the way. But why would Voldemort kill James first but say later that he didn't intend to kill Lily (and not say anything about his intentions toward James)? There's also the issue of the Priori Incantatum thing that happened in the graveyard after Voldemort got his body back: James emerged from Voldemort's wand before Lily did. They were supposed to come out in reverse order of their deaths. Did James really die after Lily did? And if so, how and why did it happen that way?

Here's one scenario I'm thinking about. Voldemort went to the Potters' house, alone, and bringing some significant object with him because he intended to make it a Horcrux with Harry's death curse. Voldemort encountered James first and successfully Stunned or otherwise overpowered him to get him out of his way, but didn't kill him. Voldemort disarmed Lily and offered her the chance to give Harry up (because Voldemort has issues about his own mother abandoning him, yes?), but she still protected Harry, so Voldemort killed Lily. When Voldemort tried to kill Harry, the curse rebounded, and he was weakened. In desperation, as the life force drained from his body, Voldemort cast the Avada Kedavra and Horcrux-making spell upon James.

I'm not totally sure if that would work, since Voldemort might have lost his physical body very quickly and might not have been able to hold a wand anymore. But it sort of fits the evidence, if you assume that Harry's dementor-induced memories might not be totally accurate. And it's a pretty cool twist on the things we think we know. Plus, ow, this would hurt for Harry to find out. It would mean not just that his mother died only because she tried to save his life, but that his father died only because she succeeded.

I also have an idea of what the intended (possibly realized) object for the Horcrux curse was, as I'll discuss in the next section.

What and where are the remaining Horcruxes?
This is obviously a very important question for the plot of book 7.

To review, the six Horcruxes that Dumbledore knew and believed to exist are the following:
1.Tom Riddle's diary (Harry destroyed it in the Chamber of Secrets.)
2. Marvolo's ring (Dumbledore found it at the Gaunt house and destroyed the Horcrux.)
3. Slytherin's locket (Was probably the real Horcrux that once was in the cave, removed by R.A.B.)
4. Hufflepuff's Cup (location unknown)
5. Something of Ravenclaw's or Gryffindor's (location or locations unknown)
6. Would have been some object that Voldemort meant to make into a Horcrux when killing baby Harry; instead, Dumbledore thinks Nagini became the sixth Horcrux after Voldemort got his body back.

I think Dumbledore made a few mistakes in constructing this list. Here's the list as I see it, with details added based on informed speculation:

1. Tom Riddle's diary (Harry destroyed it in the Chamber of Secrets.)
2. Marvolo's ring (Dumbledore found it at the Gaunt house and destroyed the Horcrux.)

I don't have anything to add to the first two at this point.

3. Slytherin's locket.
Naturally, I believe this was the real Horcrux that was once in the cave, and that it was removed by Regulus Black with the help of Kreacher. I think it's probably still in Kreacher's possession. It might have been stolen and sold by Mundungus Fletcher, but I think Kreacher probably had it hidden in his little den, and Mundungus wouldn't have looked there.

4. Hufflepuff's Cup
I don't know where this one is located. One wild guess, though, is that Regulus also successfully retrieved this one, and had it at Grimmauld Place. Mundungus stole it and ended up attempting to sell it back to the Smith family, for whom it was a precious missing heirloom. Zacharias Smith will help Harry find it. Maybe Mundungus first tried to sell it to the Bones family, who might also be descended from Helga Hufflepuff, and Susan Bones knows about it and mentions it to Ginny. It's a little out there, but I know Mundungus's thievery has to be important somehow, and I just have a hunch that he didn't steal the locket. And it fits with the theme of inter-house cooperation and uniting against a common enemy.

5. Something of Ravenclaw's.
No clue on what this one might be, or where. But I do believe that Voldemort succeeded in finding something of Ravenclaw's even though Dumbledore wasn't aware of any known relics.

I do have some wild speculation about how Harry will find out, though! In HBP, after Ron is poisoned and recovering in the hospital wing, there is a random reference to a female ghost who seems to serve no purpose at all:

"Hagrid stopped talking as the ghost of a long-haired woman drifted serenely past, then resumed in a hoarse whisper..." (HBP, p. 404)

Could she be Roweena Ravenclaw? Or are any of the House ghosts female? Is she the Bloody Baron's girlfriend? (I feel like the Bloody Baron still has some story to tell.) Whoever she is, I think she'll turn up again. I think she was somehow involved, when Voldemort came to ask Dumbledore for the DADA teaching job, with Voldemort learning where to get a Ravenclaw relic.

6. Gryffindor's sword.
Yes, the sword that is currently located in the headmaster's office at Hogwarts. I think Dumbledore made a mistake with this one.

"I cannot answer for whether he ever managed to find anything of Ravenclaw's. I am confident, however, that the only known relic of Gyrffindor remains safe." Dumbledore pointed his blackened fingers to the wall behind him, where a ruby-encrusted sword reposed within a glass case.

I think Dumbledore found the sword in the wreckage of the Potter house at Godric Hollow and surmised, correctly, that Voldemort brought it to the house intending to make it into a Horcrux upon murdering Harry. But I think, as I described above, that Voldemort succeeded in making the sword a Horcrux when he killed James instead. Dumbledore believed the sword to have remained safe because it has remained in his possession for the sixteen years since that day.

7. Nagini.
Dumbledore believed that Voldemort made Nagini into a Horcrux as soon as he was strong and corporeal enough to hold a wand again because he had only successfully made five Horcruxes prior to losing power. I think he had already made six. But one of them, the diary, was destroyed. I think Voldemort made Nagini into a Horcrux only after he learned from Malfoy that the diary was gone. Then he knew that he had only five Horcruxes remaining, and needed another. If Voldemort didn't make a Horcrux on the night he tried to kill Harry, and Dumbledore was correct about when and why he made Nagini into a Horcrux, then I think Voldemort must have made yet another Horcrux after Nagini when he found out that the diary had been destroyed.

What is Snape's story?
Ah, Snape. The most interesting and complex character of the series. As I discussed after reading HBP the first time, I'm convinced that he's not evil, and his love for Lily Evans was what made him switch over to the good side.

In that post about Snape loving Lily, I linked to somebody else's post suggesting that Snape and Lily actually dated when they were at Hogwarts, and that most of the writing in the Prince's potions book was actually Lily's. I still think that theory is plausible, but I still don't totally buy it. I am thinking now that the potions tricks and instructions in Snape's book were Lily's tricks--but only because Snape was obsessed with Lily and watched and copied down everything that she did. It would explain why Slughorn talked so much about what an exceptional Potions student Lily was, and never said any such thing about Snape. At his Christmas party, he seemed to begin to say that even Snape wasn't as good as Lily, but he cut himself off because he saw Snape approaching. Snape had a one-sided obsession with Lily and watched everything she did; he wasn't naturally as good at Potions as she was, but he learned from her.

Moving from the subject of teenage Snape at Hogwarts to Death Eater Snape, I want to consider exactly how and when he switched sides, over to the Order of the Phoenix. He must have switched sides some time before Voldemort attacked the Potters and lost his powers. For one thing, Dumbledore said that Snape had worked as a double agent when Voldemort was in power. For another, a lot of Death Eaters claimed to switch allegiances, or pretended to have been under the Imperius Curse, after Voldemort lost power. Snape must have had a more convincing claim.

So he switched sides well before Halloween of 1981, the night when the Potters died. And he switched sides after overhearing part of Trelawney's prophecy in the Hog's Head and delivering the information to Voldemort. I haven't been able to find specific reference to the date of the prophecy, other than the fact that it was shortly before Harry was born (July 31, 1980). It makes sense that it was probably over the summer, as that would be a reasonable time for Dumbledore to be interviewing potential new teachers (and to be pondering canceling the subject of Divination altogether). That potentially gives Snape a little bit more than a year to work as a double agent for the Order of the Phoenix, after Voldemort had been in power for a decade and was still gaining strength. That's a pretty substantial length of time. And it's at a time when the scrappy little Order of the Phoenix needed a spy against Voldemort much more than Voldemort needed a spy against the Order.

So that's another piece of why I'm convinced that Snape was working for the Order. Add that to the fact that I think he loved Lily, and to the fact that I'm sure he killed Dumbledore because Dumbledore planned for that to happen.

Jumping ahead to the future, I want to think about what happens to Snape next. How will Harry ever learn that Snape was really on the Order's side, and that Dumbledore planned for Snape to kill him? It could be something as simple as Veritaserum, but that's not very elegant. I think, since it's a question of proving loyalty to Dumbledore and to the Order of the Phoenix, the proof will be in the phoenix himself--Fawkes. Fawkes will help Snape or try to protect him or mourn for him if he dies, or something. And Harry will believe Fawkes. He'd probably still doubt Veritaserum, as he'd think that Snape would be able to create some kind of antiserum.

I think it's very likely that Snape will die. He's not much of a happily-ever-after character. And if he dies fighting against Voldemort, as I think he will, that will also vouch for his true loyalties and redeem his misdeeds.

My Predictions:
(I'm pretty damn certain of this first group. I'll be shocked if I'm wrong.)
Snape is not evil. He killed Dumbledore because Dumbledore wanted him to do it.
Hermione and Ron will finally admit they're attracted to one another.
Kreacher helped Regulus Black get the locket Horcrux.
Voldemort did find something of Ravenclaw's and turned it into a Horcrux.
At least one Horcrux is at Hogwarts.
Voldemort made another Horcrux after he learned that the diary had been destroyed.
Harry won't die.

(I'm moderately confident with this second group. I could be wrong, but I doubt it.)
Kreacher still has the locket.
Gryffindor's sword is a Horcrux.
Snape loved Lily.
Snape watched what Lily did in Potions and copied her tricks into his textbook.
Neville and Luna will be a couple.
We'll learn something about Harry's grandparents. (Yay for incredibly vague predictions!)
Fawkes will help prove that Snape was loyal to Dumbledore all along.

(This group devolves into hunches and wild speculation. But they're still moderately informed hunches and evidence-based wild speculation! So they could happen.)
Voldemort killed Lily before he killed James.
Voldemort made a Horcrux when he killed James.
A ghost at Hogwarts will be instrumental in Harry's finding one of the remaining Horcruxes.
Zacharias Smith will somehow be involved in locating the Hufflepuff Cup Horcrux that once belonged to Hepzibah Smith.
Mundungus stole the Hufflepuff Cup.
Snape will die in the effort to defeat Voldemort.
Fred Weasley will die. Or George. But my money's on Fred because he's the more outgoing one.

Okay. Is it July 21 yet?

raebird — Sun, 06 Aug 2006 00:12:20 GMT

So, yesterday I finished rereading the whole Harry Potter series thus far. And I'm wholeheartedly standing by what I posted about HBP last year. And I also just had a small and very belated flash of insight about HBP.

So it's widely accepted that R.A.B., the taker of the locket horcrux, was Regulus Black, yes? Makes sense. One thing I didn't notice until this reread, though, was that after they had taken the locket in the cave, Dumbeldore said that one man could not have done that alone. So who was helping Regulus, and why haven't they ever mentioned it to anyone? We know it couldn't have been a fully-qualified witch or wizard because Dumbledore said that the little boat that took them across the lake would only allow one wizard, and that it was sensitive to the amount of magic that wizard possessed, which was why Harry, as a 16-year-old, could go in the boat with Dumbledore. So Regulus's helper would have to have been underage, or a Muggle, or a Squib. Still, what happened to them? Did Regulus make his helper drink the potion, then kill his helper? (How horrible!) Did the helper get out safely, only to be killed by Voldemort like Regulus was? (Did Voldemort actually kill Regulus, do we know, or might it have been the potion?) If the helper survived, why keep quiet about that whole horcrux hunting thing? And how is Harry going to find this person in the next book so he can find out it was Regulus and find the real horcrux locket that we can reasonably assume hasn't been destroyed yet?

Then I realized what I'm sure many have realized before me: Duh. No. His helper was Kreacher. House elf magic is different from wizards' magic, and Voldemort would underestimate house elves just like he underestimates youth, so Kreacher could have gone on the boat. Regulus would have ordered Kreacher to force him to drink all of the potion (who else would have been loyal enough, but still wouldn't have continued to hunt horcruxes after Regulus died?), and he would have ordered Kreacher not to tell anyone (or at least, none of the Death Eaters) what he was doing. And since Kreacher is Harry's now, there's sure to be an opportunity for Harry to make Kreacher tell him what he knows.

One unrelated thing I noticed on this reread that just makes me love JKR a lot is the way she writes the relationships between people and their pets. It's mostly all little touches, but they strike me as kind of unique in the fact that they aren't really necessary but are there anyway. In the earlier books, most of the little entertaining bits of detail are either ultimately clues to the overarching plot of the book or are in some way world-building for the whole HP universe. In PoA, there are also lots of pet moments that turn out to be plot clues. But then in the later books, there are these little moments of pet business (Crookshanks batting at some magical trick, hopping up on someone's lap, etc.) that have nothing to do with the overarching plot. They're just little moments. I love that. There's probably never going to be any plot reason for the existence of Pygmy Puffs. They're just cute. I love that, too.

And, you know, Fawkes is going to be important again, right? Right.

A Firefly/Serenity wishlist-like thing.

raebird — Sat, 03 Dec 2005 21:45:37 GMT

An anonymous commenter over at serenity_santa asked if sunbrae and I would post wish lists so that people might do something for us in appreciation of our running the community. Which, hey, is nice, but I'm totally not doing this to receive gifts. I'm doing this because I have a nearly-obsessive love of giving gifts and of organizing, so coordinating a bunch other people giving gifts to each other is some amazing fannish crack to me, yum.

But then I start thinking, what do I want in the Fireflyverse? And it occurs to me that I'm filled with wants. I want more of this world. When I first watched the DVDs, nearly two years ago, I wanted more of this world, but at the time I sought it out by burrowing deeper into the DVDs, rewatching, recruiting new fans, screencapping the episodes, making icons, not thinking at all outside the span of those thirteen episodes if I could avoid it. The whole time I knew Serenity was in the works, I kind of ignored it. And then the reality of Serenity changed it all. I want more of this world, and I want more than is already on those four discs on constant rotation through my DVD player.

So I'm going to tell you about some of the things I want to see from that world, most of which have formed themselves into something resembling fic prompts. I don't have any serious expectation that people are going to write these for me, but if they do inspire something, I'd love to see it. Most of my ideas are quite spoilery for Serenity. And they are as follows:

Earth That Was
"Earth-That-Was could no longer sustain our numbers, we were so many." That's the opening line of Serenity, of course, and it's an intriguing one, especially since it's not necessarily the same as the Firefly expression of the same historical events ("Earth got used up."). Is that just the difference between dream-memory Osiris schoolteacher- and frontier vernacular? Alliance-written history books that don't want to scare people with tales of natural disaster? Mal never knew any better and never much cared to?

I'm reading it as new information. Because I always figured that if Earth "got used up" that meant Earth couldn't support human life anymore and was a big oceanic mess of melted ice caps, greenhouse gases, and mega-cockroaches. But if Earth could merely "no longer sustain our numbers," then perhaps it was not yet so irreparably damaged at that point that it couldn't sustain other numbers. Fewer. And I don't really believe that all those unsustainable billions upon billions of likely-starving people could afford passage on a spaceship out of here. I don't really believe they ever bothered to build enough spaceships to transport billions upon billions of people out of here. I mean, sure, some were probably taken as slaves or indentured labor for terraforming the new planets. But the weak and starving ones, when the new planets couldn't grow food yet? Not so much.

Basically what I'm getting at here is this: Who inherited the Earth? Was it only those in dire poverty, or maybe a few eccentric rich folks who didn't want to leave the planet behind and could afford their own fancy food plantations (plus a lifetime supply of canned goods)? Small enclaves of intentional community food communes? Or did Earth become a kind of penal colony by default, where all the criminals who couldn't strongarm their way onto a transport were left to fend for themselves, alongside the severely mentally ill? Or all of the above? How did they cope, what are they doing a couple hundred years later, and how can somebody work all this into a harsh, rich, dark, plausible, plotty fic involving the crew of Serenity? Seriously, I'm dying to have a coherent set of answers to these questions. Or if you can't write it to involve the Serenity crew, how about an excerpt from a history textbook in the classrooms of Earth-That-Remained?

I want more of my crew.
I love the whole crew of Firefly and all their various dynamics. I love their bantering and bickering and humor and affection. I love Kaylee being at the heart of it, and as such I really want to see stories of the whole crew set during the series, when Kaylee was at her classic Kaylee-est. (I thought the changes in Kaylee between the series and the movie were effective for subtly telling us a lot about what had been happening emotionally among the crew in the intervening time. But seeing Kaylee so much thinner--even though Jewel Staite is gorgeous at any weight, Kaylee should be soft and round--and even expressing pessimistic thoughts, well, it wasn't a very happy development.) I love moments when they all feel like family, in every sense of that word.

Speaking of family...
Wash and Zoe. The two of them would make one beautiful baby. I want to meet that child. I'm sure there must be dozens of fics by now where Zoe was pregnant at the end of Serenity. I've sought out and read none so far, so I'd appreciate it if anybody could rec me any that are particularly well-written and in-character. Or write me a new one. It can be set soon after Serenity or years in the future, but I want to see River playing with the child, very much (or Jayne!), and I don't want it to be pure fluff. Keep the emotional gravity of the situation and the reality of their lives as thieves, even if it's very much in the background.

Also speaking of family (sort of)...
I want to see the Firefly crew with a pet. They do have a history of taking in strays, after all, so this lends itself to some sort of character reflection on Simon and River's role within the crew. I'd also be interested in seeing this tied into the half-formed idea I have that Saffron is a cat. (Not literally, but--it's a half-formed idea. I don't know how to explain it. Everything about her is just so feline. Run with it, or smile and nod.) Or, Jayne + yippy dog = comedy gold. There are many ways to approach this.

Inara
Or, to take a very different tack, I'm nursing a very new, mild obsession with Inara. I love the Mal/Inara relationship and their tension, but I'm accustomed to approaching it from a Mal POV, so this newfound Inara infatuation is helping me open up to it from a different angle. I also love her relationships, romantic or friendship, with other members of the crew, like Kaylee or Simon. And I'm so intrigued by the cut scenes in the Official Visual Companion, particularly the part where we find out that she began her Companion training at the age of twelve. Twelve! That's so young, both to be choosing a career and to be dedicating yourself to missing out on so many of the traditional rites of adolescence and reaching sexual maturity. I want to know about Inara's childhood, her parents, who decided on her career path and when and why, and what (if any) non-professional experiences with love and romance she's had before coming to Serenity. (But you'll have a hard time convincing me that she's been seriously, deeply in love before. Maybe avoided opportunities. I don't know. I'm not writing this.)

Also, she's way pretty. Icons are great. Unreadable text is great for some people, but I am not one of those people. I'm sure I'll be making a bunch of Inara icons eventually, but I have a lot on my plate right now, so it probably won't be soon.

That's all I can think of right now. And please do keep in mind that I don't expect any of this. If any of it inspires anybody, though, I'd be immensely thrilled to see any of my tiny ideas come to fruition.

Serenity PSA

raebird — Wed, 20 Jul 2005 15:35:04 GMT

The Serenity international trailer is online, and it is awesome. So awesome, and so much better than the first trailer. If you've already seen the movie, go watch it and feel the love. If you're a Firefly fan who hasn't seen the movie yet, be warned that it's a bit more spoilery than the original trailer. Some of it is the same footage from the first trailer, though, and it doesn't give away the ending or plot twists, exactly--just more of the beginning and middleparts, and some dialogue you may or may not prefer to see for the first time in the actual film. If you're not (yet) a Firefly fan and don't expect to be rewatching the trailer obsessively, then go see this! It's a great teaser for the movie.

The Half-Blood Prince

raebird — Tue, 19 Jul 2005 22:42:55 GMT

So, as I mentioned earlier, I think Snape was in love with Lily. Why? Simply because it elegantly and cleanly ties up a lot of loose ends.

Initially, I didn't think so. From the pensieve scene in OotP where Lily makes James stop taunting Snape, only to have Snape turn on Lily and call her a mudblood, I thought he was a pureblood Muggle-hater of the Malfoy variety.

But now we know he's a half-blood. And calling himself "The Half-Blood Prince" suggests that he might even consider that a point of pride. Or at the very least, it's not something he's actively trying to deny. He probably adopted the anti-Muggle language when it suited him in school because he was, in Sirius's words, "Lucius Malfoy's lapdog." And so he didn't insult Lily because he really hated her or the fact that she was Muggle-born; he just deeply resented being humiliated in front of the girl he liked and pitied by her for it.

Snape being in love with Lily provides an explanation for a lot of his actions that are otherwise confusing or contradictory. We can assume that Snape initially fell in with the Death Eaters because they were his friends (or idols) in school. But then he switched sides and came to work for Dumbledore. Why? Because of an upsurge of shiny, pure moral character? Maybe. Or maybe he felt guilty that what he'd done, revealing the prophecy to Voldemort, had turned out to put Lily's life in danger.

It better explains why Snape hates Harry so much. If Snape has been horrible to Harry just because of his grudge against James and for no other reason, well, that's really remarkably petty of him. (Admittedly, I thought this was the case up until this morning.) But if he loved Lily, then his behavior toward Harry is more understandable (though not excusable, IMO) as Snape acting out his pain at the loss of the woman he loved, at his guilt over causing her death, at the disgust of having to see her eyes in the body of his own childhood tormentor (who was also the person who ended up with the woman he loved).

Most importantly, I think, it is thematically pitch-perfect for the goodness in Snape (assuming you're not of the mindset that he's really deeply evil) to be rooted in love. Love is what makes Harry stronger than Voldemort. And I think it's primarily because Snape's goodness is based in love that he has been able to hide from Voldemort that he has been on Dumbledore's side all this time. As Dumbledore said, Voldemort always underestimates the value of love, the power of love-magic. So when Voldemort looks at Snape, he may see the bitterness and pain of unrequited and lost love, but Voldemort has never loved anybody. So he thinks that's all it is. But Voldemort underestimates love, and that fact is one of his greatest weaknesses. Because of that, Snape has been able to act as a double agent all this time because on a certain level Voldemort is truly blind to the goodness in him. Elegant, see?

Snape is still a grey character in my eyes. I think if things had gone only slightly differently in his life, he could have stayed fully on Voldemort's side. But something changed him, and I think it makes the most sense for that something to have been love. And he's still an asshole. Even though Snape loving Lily better explains his treatment of Harry, it doesn't excuse it. He's a grownup, so he should learn to snap out of his old resentments and treat Harry fairly. But the depth of that resentment seems more in proportion to the offense this way.

And I think that's about it. But sunbrae linked me to this post which posits another really interesting dimension to the idea of Snape/Lily. I'm not entirely convinced that it's going to play out that way, but it's certainly plausible and a fascinating idea.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

raebird — Tue, 19 Jul 2005 00:28:15 GMT

First, some brief character and relationship comments, followed by the long theorizing you've seen a million times by now. But this time written by me!

Relationships
Harry/Ginny. Awww. Coming into this book, I had no real investment in any romantic relationships in the series. I was, perhaps, poised to like Harry/Ginny, though, if somebody sold me on it. Because I was already a little in love with Ginny, so seeing Harry develop those feelings wasn't much of a stretch. And so I was sold on it. I love them.

Ron/Hermione. I’m starting to like them. I was fairly indifferent to the idea before, although they were obviously inevitable. I’m actually surprised I haven’t seen anyone on my flist mention the possibility that they may have actually hooked up in this book. I mean, I think it just depends on whether they drank the Felix potion before or after going to find Ginny. If they drank it while they were alone together, well. They were at a point where they only needed a little nudge and good luck.

Harry and Dumbledore. Harry and Dumbledore interaction is just one of my very favorite things, so this book was pressing all my buttons. Sniffleyay.

Tonks/Lupin. Again, with my indifference to ‘ships in this series, but near the very beginning, when somebody said something about Molly wishing Bill would marry Tonks instead of Fleur, I thought, “No, Tonks should be with Lupin. Lupin needs love.” So, hey. I was surprised.

Other character comments
Neville. Like many others, I thought and hoped we’d see more of Neville this book. I was particularly looking forward to seeing Neville finally get really skilled at magic (even more so than he had with his participation in the D.A.). I was all geekily excited at the end of OotP when he said he’d been using his dad’s old wand this whole time, because I figured with a new one better suited to him, he’d discover he was really talented. And maybe he did and he is, but all of that happened in the background and we didn’t get to see it.

Luna. She annoyed me a little in OotP, but she was great in this book. Just—love, love, love. And I love that Harry and Ron have both grown to appreciate her just as she is.

And now, the bulk of my post, which I title Why I Know Snape Isn't Evil. Most of you have probably seen a lot of this before, but anyway, here are all my arguments in one place.

Dumbledore was planning for his own death and Snape’s “betrayal” throughout the book.
He tied up loose ends. At the Dursleys’ he asked for Harry to be taken in once more. A reasonable request, but unreasonably early, in July. It’s like he knew he might not get another chance.

Dumbledore’s communication with Harry was vastly different in this book than in the others. Previously, Dumbledore generally only gave Harry full, useful explanations of things after a particular incident where that information could have come in handy. When he told him things in advance, these things were veiled hints or little winks. (Mentioning that he once found a room full of chamber pots in the middle of the night…) In this book, he tells Harry very detailed things that will be useful to know later, but not yet. It smacks of grooming Harry to face Voldemort without him; he’s teaching him everything he needs to know, as though Dumbledore won’t be around later to answer his questions after the fact. Dumbledore was convinced that Harry was the Chosen One, that defeating Voldemort was ultimately Harry’s task (with help from his friends and allies). Implicitly, then, Dumbledore did not believe himself to be singularly essential to the task of defeating Voldemort once he had taught Harry all he needed to know, and all he possessed in his own memory that might help him.

Dumbledore hired Snape for the DADA post with full knowledge that there was an actual curse on that job. Ergo, he knew that Snape would not be coming back after this year, and so he must have given him the job for some strategic purpose.

Dumbledore's hand never healed all year, which suggests that he had a weakened resistance to magical maladies and curses--more reason to expect that death was imminent. More reason for Dumbledore to think of ways to put his death to a strategic purpose that would help his own side in the war, and not just give Voldemort a little thrill.

Dumbledore knew that Malfoy was supposed to try to kill him. Presumably, Snape had told him that. Unless you assume Snape is completely evil, Snape must have also told him about the Unbreakable Vow. And if Dumbledore knew about the Vow, then he had to know that a Malfoy-Dumbledore-Snape confrontation was likely to happen (unless Malfoy managed to off Dumbledore without help, which would be much less likely). In such a confrontation, it is not possible for both Snape and Dumbledore to walk away alive. It is possible for Malfoy to walk away as a murderer or as a (relative) innocent. Again, assuming Snape was not actually evil, Snape was more valuable to the Order as a deeply undercover double agent than Dumbledore was as a weakening old man who had already taught Harry all he needed to know. Strategically, non-evil Snape killing Dumbledore was the best move, and it also prevented Malfoy from doing the Unforgivable.

The events of that night, before and after Dumbledore's death, are consistent with such a plan.
Dumbledore was probably dying anyway. Even with his weakening health, Dumbledore drank the potion in the cave (which he suggested might be a gradual poison) and insisted that Harry not drink any of it. And he grew weaker as the night went on.

Even while trying to talk Draco down, Dumbledore still insisted that he trusted Snape completely. And then in the split second after Snape came up on the roof, he suddenly changed his mind? I don’t think so. You could argue that he read Snape’s mind, but Snape is an extremely skilled Occlumens—and after fifteen years of deception he’s suddenly giving Dumbledore access to his “true, evil” feelings because why, exactly? It doesn’t make sense.

Snape and Dumbledore made eye contact before Dumbledore began pleading. Both men are accomplished Legilimens; Dumbledore was most likely telling Snape that it was time to follow through with the plan, honor his Unbreakable Vow, kill him, continue to attempt to save Malfoy from turning truly evil, and take the Death Eaters away from Hogwarts before more innocent lives are lost.

Dumbledore begged. I believe Dumbledore is far too dignified to beg for his life. (“After all, to the well-organized mind, death is the next great adventure.”) I believe Dumbledore was begging Snape to go through with the plan. Snape didn’t want to kill Dumbledore; Dumbledore had been Snape’s own salvation from evil. The look of pain and hatred on his face was, in part, loathing of the task he had to perform. And, in part, deep hatred was necessary for the Unforgivable curse to work, as Bellatrix had told Harry in the Ministry in OotP. So I think Snape had to focus on something or someone he truly hated in order to complete his task, and that accounted for his expression, too.

Apart from killing Dumbledore, Snape didn’t do anything notably evil that night. (Or ever, as far as we’ve seen, except for reporting the partial-prophecy to Voldemort seventeen years ago.) In fact, he did a lot to protect the good guys that night. When Flitwick came down to his office to tell him about the fighting, Snape made an instant decision to go and (at least appear to) fight on the Death Eaters’ side. If his true allegiance was with the Death Eaters (and he was rushing off to out himself as evil anyway), the easiest thing for him to do would be to use the element of surprise and kill Flitwick on the spot, followed by Hermione and Luna who were just outside. Instead, he only stunned Flitwick and asked Hermione and Luna to attend to him—thereby keeping them completely out of harm’s way. Snape also stopped the Death Eaters from killing Harry with the best, most believable excuse that did not blow his cover: Voldemort wants to kill Harry himself. And Snape would not allow Harry to utter an Unforgivable curse, and until he got all riled up about being called a coward (and justifiably so, if you accept that he’d just done something extremely brave and difficult for him), he didn’t send any serious curses Harry’s way, either.

Thematic Connections to earlier books.
The whole theory also works quite well for me on the level at which events in this book call back to the previous books. Dumbledore planning his death fits with the way he explained death in terms of Nicholas Flamel. Dumbledore's sacrifice also parallel's Ron's game of wizard chess in Sorcerer's Stone; Dumbledore played his role in the game but sacrificed himself when he was no longer necessary so that the more essential players on his side (Harry and Snape) could go on. Throughout HBP, many times, Dumbledore also said things along the lines of, "Sorry for my immodesty, but I am quite extremely clever." And that's true, and JKR wants us to remember that it's true. He's not just full of himself, and he's not a dupe. This is the man who, within moments of learning that Sirius was innocent, concocted the plan for Harry and Hermione to save both Sirius and Buckbeak with the time turner; strategically plotting his own death to get Snape in closer with Voldemort (and attempt to save Draco from true evil) is actually *less* complicated, and he had more time to think it through and prepare.

My reaction to all this.
Wow. Wow, and wow again. This was my reading of the events as they unfolded, I think mostly because I noticed Dumbledore preparing for his death during the course of the book, and because Snape being evil is just too obvious for me. (The only time in the whole series when I ever thought he might be was during chapter 2 of this book, when he took the Unbreakable Vow.) I'm so impressed with Snape as a character, that he was able to go through with killing Dumbledore. It must have been excruciatingly difficult for him to do. To Snape, Dumbledore must represent his own salvation. Not many people get the chance to turn against Voldemort. Everyone else who has ever done it has died. Snape is alive because Dumbeldore trusted him and valued him as a double agent. I respect Snape for this, a lot. I still don't *like* Snape. I still think he's a petty, nasty asshole for the way he's treated Harry because of a schoolyard grudge against Harry's father. But even though he's not at all a nice man, I'm deeply impressed that he's proving himself (to me) to be so unflinchingly good.

I kept waiting for JKR to reveal the twist, that Snape wasn't really evil, at the end of this book. I thought she'd tie up the loose ends and impress us with the cleverness of the scheme. But she didn't, which impresses me that much more. It's funny, too. A bunch of the posts on my flist are a bit blasé about the fact that Snape is not really evil and it's all a ruse, blah blah blah, stay tuned for the Snape Redemption Hour (and insist that no one over the age of twelve bought the idea that Snape was actually evil). A few people are impressed with it like I am. (I also don't think Snape redemption is in the cards, because, again, he didn't do anything wrong (recently), apart from being an asshole. And he is, was, and ever shall be an asshole. I think the truth of his non-evilness will have to come out eventually, but that's not redemption so much as revelation.) And then there's a bunch of "OMGWTF Snape is evil!" So, you know. Apparently it was ambiguous enough. Yay, ambiguity! Yay, debate! I'm having so much fun with this. Even though I'm completely right, and the "Snape is evil" people are completely wrong. :P

On the whole, I loved this book--possibly the best of all of them, considering how much analysis I've dedicated to it, though I'd have to read again to make that pronouncement official. All the Dumbledore and Ginny stuff is right up my alley, and I just love the way Harry is maturing, the person he is becoming. Add all that to the twistyness and ambiguity, and this is a great book in my eyes.