July 2007 Archives

Despite being in the middle-of-nowhere Pennsylvania, Ben and I managed to find a B&N that had a midnight celebration, only to find ourselves at the end of an hour-long line! Well, 24 hours later, I had consumed the last installment of Harry Potter. A full-fledged review comes later; below is my initial take and prediction results.

Alright, time for some predictions. I didn't so so badly last time, let's see how I do with the final installment. Few of these ideas are my own, I'm just endorsing the one's I think are correct.

Easy Ones
1. Who is R.A.B.? Regulus Black, of course. I was somewhat proud of myself for figuring this out while reading Book 6 when it came out. The real question is whether he is actually dead. JK said he is, but I'm not 100% sure since she always said "we wouldn't be hearing anything from him" and we did. I'm going with "dead" but keeping an open mind.
2. Hogwarts will re-open. Harry needs it for a base of operations.
3. "Deathly Hallows" refers to the Horcruxes.

   Horcruxes (beside the Diary and the Ring -- leaving 4)
   

4. The locket; well I guess we know that already. My real prediction is that it's still in Grimauld place and that Mundungus Fletcher was (like the cleaning crew) unable to remove it. Oh, and also we find out the Kreacher helped Regulus get the locket in the first place.
   
5. Hufflepuff's goblet. Certainly Voldemort prized it enough to kill for it. But where is it hidden? Juding from the book cover, I'm going to guess that it's hidden amongst tons of treasure.
   
6. Harry. Harry (or his scar) is a horcrux. Chicklet passed along a hint that Harry might be descendent from Godric Gryffindor (on Lily's side!) -- check out his green eyes. So, Harry would count as "something of Gryffindor's".
   
7. And the last Horcrux omething of Ravenclaw's? Unfortunately, JK has not made Rowena "Wizard of the Month" yet (check back in August)...so we really don't have a clue as to what the horcux might be. Well, I'm sure we have "clues", and from all the rumors, I'm going with "wand." Maybe Olivander has it? Maybe Voldemort will use it to fight Harry to avoid Priori Incantatem?
   
8. One more note: the invisibility cloak was passed down to Harry from James who got it from his father. JK wants us to note that Dumbledore specifically retrieve the cloak from the house the night Harry's parents were murdered. I think Voldemort may have been trying to use the cloak as a horcrux...could it be that Harry is related to GG on both sides of his family? (Well, almost assuredly not, I'm just hedging here). Plus, Dumbledore mentions the sword in his office as GG's only relic, so the cloak was probably never GG's. I'll stick with the cloak-as-wannabe-horcrux prediction though.

   The Big Questions
   

9. Snape is good. The overarching story lines of the series has been mistrust of Snape which then turns out to be misguided. After re-reading HBP, and noting the anguish on Snape's face after he...does the unspeakable action...I think Dumbledore sacrificed himself so that Snape could get deeper inside Voldemort's circle.

10. Harry defeats Voldemort. More on that below.

    Artifacts
    

11. Sirius's mirror. Going waaaaay out on a limb, I think Regulus may have embedded instructions for finding/destroying the horcux in the mirror.
    
12. Sirius's motorcycle. We'll find out that it's engine somehow became a part of Mr. Weasley's Ford Anglia.

    Characters
    

13. James & Lilly Potter. We still don't know what they did for a living, and I think JK said that we'd find out in this book. I think Lilly was a healer at St. Mungo's, given that she cared so much about everyone, even annoying acquaintences like Severus. Plus, her potions and charms knowledge would come in quite handy. At this point, I don't have a concrete prediction on James' short career.
    
14. Petunia. I think the biggest revalation with her is that her family is not completely Muggle. Or something like that. If, as JK says, Petunia will never do magic, then what could her big secret be? On this one, I'm stumped.
    
15. Mrs. Figg. With Petunia out of the way, that leaves Mrs. Figg as the most likely elderly character to "do magic late in life" (as JK said would happen).
    
16. Dudley. We'll learn what he "saw" when he faced the Dementors.
    
17. Fawkes. Either Dumbledore left him to Harry, or Harry's loyalty and bravery will call Fawkes back to him.
    
18. McGonagall. Will live and get to be Headmistriss for more than one year.
    
19. Percy. Still a git, but a living git.
    
20. Luna. Will live and become editor of the Quibbler.
    
21. Fred and George. Live and successfully continue their joke shop (including branches in Hogsmead and France).
    
22. Tonks and Lupin. Enjoy a few months of bliss together before they both die fighting Death Eaters.
    
23. Mr. and Mrs. Weasley. Both live (because I want them to?). They'll have gone through enough (see below...).
    
24. Wormtail. About as dead as you can possibly get! But first he repays the life debt he owes Harry.
    
25. Neville and Bellatrix. Neville finally comes into his own! He doesn't kill Bella, as there are "fates worse than death." This fight will be "to the pain" and (I really hope) Neville leaves Ms. Lestrange "wallowing in freakish missery forever." Oh, and then goes on to become a magical gardener :)
    
26. Hagrid. I think this Hagrid will be the "fake big death". It's really hard to kill Hagrid, and I think it'll appear he's dead before he resurges back to life.
    
27. Draco. Either he or his father dies at the hands of YNH. Maybe Voldemort lets 'Cissa pick. Draco is a bit more accessible at the moment, so I'm guessing he bites the dust.
    
28. Snape. Turns out to be good, and actually saves the day by protecting the trio/quartet from Voldemort's worst. Snape then weaken's Voldemort so Harry can finish the Dark Lord off, sacrificing himself in the process.
    
29. Voldemort. Vanquished by a power he knows not....love. Just don't ask me exactly how that one's going to work.
    
30. Ginny. Does not start accompanying Harry on his adventures until after Christmas. She then goes off to join a quidditch team and lives happily ever after with Harry.
    
31. Hermione. Lives and becomes Headmistress of Hogwarts. Serves the school well for many decades.
    
32. Ron. Dead. It sucks, but I think it's going to happen. Very sad for everyone all around.
    
33. Harry. I don't think he actually kills Voldemort -- I think he might trick Voldemort so that YNK kills himself or really fouls up and ends up dying "by accident". Anyway, Harry lives and becomes Head Auror, rounding up bad folk left and right.

Soon it will be all over. Que triste. What a great run. Of course HP will "only be gone when none are loyal to" the series. Thankfully, and this is one prediction I'm sure of, that will never happen. :-)

I travelled to New York to watch the midnight showing of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix on IMAX 3-D with Seth42 last night. Unlike Martian687's experience, few theater-goers were dressed in Potter-verse costumes. Mostly it was 20-something artists and grad students. The text "below the fold" is spoiler-rific, but the following is my overall take on the film.

Just like the book, this film is much darker than the previous Harry Potter installments. I think they did a fantastic job with Harry's dreams, and I though Dan Radcliffe played the role extremely convincingly. The movie also moved quickly -- it was much less chapter-y than say Chamber of Secrets and did not include the extended passage-of-time sequences that peppered Azkaban. The director also did a nice job of using Prophet headlines to demonstrate public sentiment. Taken together, the main thrust of the story moved quite rapidly, and since the writers left out many non-essential parts (job well done!), that left plenty of time for the climax. Unfortunately, and this is my biggest gripe, they did not use this time to actually play out all of the book's final chapters. They really skimped on the MoM fights and a few of what I though were the best final scenes.

Moving on to movie-specific parts, the writers did come up with some great lines that added to the film's comedic value. Unfortunatley, the score (by Nicholas Hooper) could not even come close to comparing with the prior brilliance of John Williams. Casting was great: Imelda Staunton, while not looking exactly like my vision of Umbridge, emulated the character's speech patterns nicely. And, Evanna Lynch truly was Loony Luna Lovegood -- I agree with JK's one-word assessment: "perfect". And I can't believe I'm saying this, but I thought Emma Watson's (Hermione) performance was a bit weak.

All in all, a great film. I'm not quite sure it tops Azkaban for "Best Potter Movie So Far", but well worth at least one theater visit.

After about a decade of high school, college, and pick-up sports, my cleats finally gave way last Thursday. Amazingly, both the left and right gave out in the same pick-up soccer game (though maybe one was torn first making me favor the other foot). The last softball game I played in those shoes was something to talk about though. After our starting pitcher gave up 6 runs in the first inning, I came in and pitched 6 straight innings of shutout softball. I got out of jams with a runner on third and less than two outs twice.

Unfortunately, my first softball game in my new cleats (a pair of black and white Umbros) did not go as well. Our previously solid defense (to which I owed so much of my previous win) faltered, and that combined with some poor pitching decisions on my part led to a 14-17 loss. It's amazing how easily you can give up 17 runs in softball. But I have a chance for revenge this evening.

As for my soccer abilities, I've played once with the new boots, and they'll take some getting used to. They provide a good amount of traction though.

Speaking of ends of eras, the release of Deathly Hallows is quickly approaching. My predictions will be up next week, but for now I wanted to highlight something JK said recently. For years, the final word of Book 7 had been "scar". This fact gave me supreme confidence that Harry lived -- I can't imagine how to finish a book by speaking of a characteristic of a dead person. (Maybe I'm just not creative.) But, JK has now revealed that "scar" is not the last word of Deathly Hallows. Could this spell trouble for Harry? I would still guess not, as I'm sure the ending did not change so dramatically in the last year to kill off Harry when he originally lived....but now I'm not so sure.

After softball I'm off to NYC for a midnight showing of "Phoenix" with Seth & Co. -- IMAX 3D, baby!

Bush commuted Libby's jail sentence today; apparently lying to and obstructing the FBI in a national security investigation is only worthy of a fine. As much as this is great news for Scooter, how much does it suck to be Judith Miller today? She willingly went to jail for 85 days to protect Libby. In fact, she went above and beyond the call of duty (cf., Matthew Cooper) as Libby had signed a waiver for Miller to testify but Miller was worried that the waiver had been "coerced." So she stayed in jail until Scooter called her personally and told her to testify. And now Libby, who actually perpetrated the crimes, gets off with probation.