[SPOILER ALERT] Just finished reading HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS

[derby378]

Whoa.

What can I say? It's been a wild ride.

But here's a sentiment that I'm sure many of you share: Why couldn't J.K. Rowling let an editor review the manuscript? I mean, seriously, I understand that she was trying to accentuate some of the things Harry was going through, but it seems like Rowling could still communicate the isolation and pathos without constantly backtracking over herself.

On the other hand, Rowling stuffed Deathly Hallows with a whole bunch of adult-oriented themes - including an especially brutal rape and coming to terms with one's own impending death - and handled them all very delicately so as not to completely overwhelm her primary audience.

But does anyone think that Rowling deliberately left the series open? What about the final fate of the Resurrection Stone? Is this a back-door for Voldemort to come back, or is he trapped in the afterlife in that twisted wreck of a soul?

Your thoughts?

[Danger Mouse]

1. brutal rape?

did i...miss something? or am i being dumb and forgetting something?

[derby378]

2. It apparently happened to Dumbledore's sister, Ariana

And she was all of six years old. Aberforth explained it to Harry this way:

When my sister was six years old, she was attacked, set upon, by three Muggle boys. They'd seen her doing magic, spying through the back garden hedge: She was a kid, she couldn't control it...They forced their way through the hedge, and when she couldn't show them the trick, they got a bit carried away trying to stop the little freak doing it.

It destroyed her, what they did: She was never right again.

In retaliation, Percival, Ariana's father, attacked the three Muggle boys with such ferocity that he was locked up in Azkaban for it.

Few things can cause such a horrid case of PTSD in children as sexual assault, although I'm sure certain forms of conventional physical torture could do it, too. I just tried to put two and two together.

[Danger Mouse]

3. At the best, horrid physical torture...

at worst, brutal rape...
wow.
hadn't thought of it that way.

[derby378]

4. Your sigline says it best... :)

If there was anyone who deserved to be feasted on by Nagini, it was the three Muggle boys who brutalized Ariana.

Although Bellatrix would have been an excellent candidate, too...

"Hey, snake! Din-din!"

[Danger Mouse]

5. That would've been a satisfactory way to see Bellatrix shuffle off this mortal coil...

though I daresay the pure humiliation of being killed by Molly Weasley was comeuppance enough.

[derby378]

6. Boo-yah! Death at the hands of a "blood-traitor!"

:rofl:

[Danger Mouse]

7. and not only a blood-traitor...

but one from perhaps the most looked-down upon of all wizarding families.

[derby378]

9. Almost like Compton busting a cap in Beverly Hills

I do love that Molly Weasley. You don't want to get on her bad side, though.

[dubeskin]

8. I thought Rowling really expressed Harry's isolation well

Towards the end when he was walking to go kill himself, I really felt like I was Harry, and I thought Rowling really did a great job in expressing how Harry was different. I also did like the fact that she made it kid friendly, though I noticed that this book was very dark, and could be the most, controvertial, for lack of a better word, due to the strong and debatable topic of death.

Possibly she left it open. But I think that she's done. An eighth book isn't really neccessary. Most everything was wrapped up in Deathly Hallows. If Rowling were to make another book, it could potentially need to be followed by another short series. I thought with the little epilogue it gave the impression that literally "All was well" and that anything bad, i.e. death eaters, voldemort, etc., had been vanquished from their world forever, or at least during Harry's life.

[Danger Mouse]

10. all was well...

but it's certain that there will be problems in the future.
at least some of the death eaters probably escaped, and i'd be interested to know what happened to dolohov and greyback...

[derby378]

11. Not to mention the dementors

They sided with Voldemort. Can they ever be trusted to guard Azkaban again? I noticed that nobody seemed to know any way to "kill" a dementor, either...

[Danger Mouse]

12. with kingsley in charge of the ministry of magic, even if just on a temporary basis...

i'm sure he tossed umbridge in there (Azkaban), and made sure the dementors were never used in that way again. dumbledore was opposed to using the dementors from the very start.
In book 6, Snape seemed to indicate that there was more than one way to handle a dementor (aside from a patronus charm) so it's uncertain if they can be 'killed' or not.