HarryPotterQuestions

It seems that every time I reread the Harry Potter books I think of questions I'd like to have answered. Although some of them have, in fact, been answered on JK Rowling's website, some I still wonder about and some just can't be answered yet. I thought I'd post them here and see if anyone has any opinions on them...

Who is the Half-Blood Prince?

My opinion: I think it's Snape. There's a lot about Snape that we don't know, like...what is his ancestry? Why did he join the Death Eaters? Why did he leave the Death Eaters and turn spy? And most of all, why does Dumbledore trust him so much? I think the time is ripe for JK Rowling to develop his character a bit more. Also, she's said that the sixth book is based on a plot she originally had in the second book, but thought it would fit better in the sixth book, which makes me think it might be about a character we already know.

How is it that James Potter was Head Boy, but not a prefect?

My opinion: I don't know much about the prefect system, having gone to public schools in the US, but I have the impression that you have to be a prefect in order to be head boy. Correct me if I'm wrong! I think that either JK Rowling changed her mind on the direction of James's character, or perhaps Hagrid's memory isn't all that great. I prefer to think it's the latter. Maybe Hagrid's fine opinion of James colored his memory and he thought James was Head Boy in retrospect, when he really wasn't. Plus, Lily seems like the Head Girl type, so maybe Hagrid remembered it of both of them when it was really just Lily.

Where were Hagrid and Harry the day after Harry's parents were killed?

My opinion: This one really bothers me, although I think there might be answers in the new book as Rowling has hinted the first chapter is about that night. The conversation they have in front of the Dursleys' makes it look as if Hagrid rescued Harry, borrowed the motorcycle from Sirius, and headed straight for Little Whinging. But surely Harry wasn't in the demolished house for an entire day - wouldn't a Death Eater have come to finish him off? Or wouldn't someone else have found him? So maybe Hagrid got Harry the night before and hid out for a day...but then when would he have told Professor McGonagall he was going to Privet Drive? I just don't know...

What happened to Voldemort's wand while he didn't have a body?

My opinion: It must have wound up in Harry's parents' house after the curse rebounded on him, so how did he get it back after Wormtail found him? If Hagrid was the first on the scene, to get Harry, wouldn't he have tried to find the wand to keep it in some sort of safekeeping? And if a Death Eater got there first and snagged the wand, why didn't he grab Harry? The best guess I can make is that Wormtail was there, to show Voldemort the house, and he went in after everything happened and grabbed the wand. Perhaps he was too frightened to kill or take Harry.

What house was Wormtail in?

My opinion: Surely he wasn't in Gryffindor. He wasn't brave in any way I can think of. It seems likeliest he was a Slytherin, or maybe a Hufflepuff. But it doesn't seem like students from different houses form deep friendships, so why would he be so close with Moony, Padfoot and Prongs? But then, I'm assuming the three of them were Gryffindors. Has that ever been said in the books? For that matter, what house was Lily in?

I've got more questions that I'll post as they occur to me, probably next time I read or listen to the books. If you have questions you'd like me to post here, e-mail me.

Who is Harry going to end up with?

My opinion: I sure hope it's Ginny. I've thought so since the very beginning, even though he never really noticed her. The whole Cho thing didn't work out too well, and we all know who Hermione will end up with. In the fifth book, Ginny really started to evolve into an extraordinary character. That just makes her even better for Harry, although she was always right for him in my opinion.

More from me: My web page and my blog

Instead of putting suspected dark wizards on trial, why didn't the Ministry just look at their arms to see if they had the Dark Mark?

My opinion: Surely they knew about the Dark Mark tattoo, since they would have had that information from Snape. So wouldn't its absence on Sirius's arm or its presence on Lucius Malfoy's arm give away their innocence or guilt? My guess is that, as Karkaroff says, it gets darker when Voldemort gets stronger...maybe it actually disappeared when he lost power.

So if the dark mark thing didn't work, why not give them Veritaserum?

My opinion: I think there's probably a wizarding equivalent of the Fifth Amendment - a right against self-incrimination. Perhaps some people volunteer to take it in order to clear themselves. But I bet they wouldn't be forced to take it.

What did Harry's parents do for a living?

My opinion: I think it was something nefarious. One of the Easter Eggs on JK Rowling's site suggests that she originally made them thieves, although that changed before the final revision of Sorcerer's Stone. It must have been something lucrative, seeing as how Harry got quite an inheritance. I think JK Rowling will continue the disillusionment she started in Order of the Phoenix when Harry realized his father wasn't the saint he thought he was. I also think there's a theme in the books that you don't have to be law-abiding to be good - Fred and George's antics, for example, as well as Harry, Ron and Hermione's adventures. Not to mention, James' personality seems to lend itself toward an unsavory career. So I think all this sets it up for Harry to discover his parents were some sort of lawbreakers. Either that or they were aurors.

When Barty Crouch Jr. was killed and Wormtail escaped before they could give testimony, why not use Dumbledore's Pensieve to show what happened?

My opinion: With Crouch, Dumbledore heard his confession. Couldn't he have just "replayed" the scene for Fudge using his Pensieve? And with Wormtail's escape, they could have extracted the memory of the scene in the Shrieking Shack from any of the witnesses' heads in order to clear Sirius. I suppose the real reason this didn't happen is that JK Rowling didn't think of it. But a possible within-the-storyline explanation would be nice. Perhaps the Pensieve doesn't always report accurately - maybe it's colored by the perceptions of the person whose memories are drawn out. In that case, though, how could Harry hear the conversation of his dad et al. in Snape's memory when Snape was immersed in his OWL paper? Wouldn't Snape have tuned all that out, and thus Harry wouldn't have been able to hear it? Or was their conversation something Snape "filled in"?

WARNING: This page is chock full of spoilers. Don't read it unless you've enjoyed all SIX Harry Potter books already.

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ANSWERED (sort of)!!!

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