Sorry I’ve disappeared into Pottermore for the past couple of days. I will be back tomorrow, I think – or possibly Monday – to write up my general thoughts.
In the meantime, I just wanted to let everybody know that on Pottermore, you will have an opportunity to solve Snape’s Logic Puzzle. And when you get to that point in the story, you will find that one of my two final solutions is correct. :)
If you have visited Solving Snape’s Logic Puzzle, then you will know that figuring out the single final solution is impossible without actually seeing the layout of the bottles. You can only narrow it down to two potential positions for the “Forward” potion. (No such problem exists for the “Backward” potion).
I’m not going to reveal right now which one of my two solutions is the correct one. I’d like to give you an opportunity to solve the puzzle for yourself when you get to Pottermore. But I will say this: while it was a solution I anticipated, it was not the solution I expected… though I think it was kind of the solution I was hoping for.
Feel free to use my Logic Puzzle notes when you get to Pottermore. Goodness knows I did!
So…… I’ve been playing on Pottermore since this morning. I have collected all sorts of stuff, read JKR’s additional content (all of it delightful), acquired a wand (Maple wood, unicorn tail hair, 10 3/4 inches, slightly springy), and finally gotten sorted.
When I read up on my wand components, my wand seemed to be a prestigious wand belonging to a high achiever who is exceedingly unlikely to go into the Dark Arts. This made me think: “Prestigious high achiever. Maybe I’m not so Ravenclaw after all. I think I could be moving in the direction of Slytherin.”
Anyway, I did my best to give the Hat my honest answers. And trust me, it’s fairly impossible to tell exactly which questions are going to put you into which House. My first response (an honest one) was clearly moving in the direction of Ravenclaw. But after that, the questions became increasingly murky.
All I can say is that – after reading the House History – the outcome was rather a pleasant surprise! Even though I’m not particularly cut-throat, I am a fairly ambitious high-achiever. And now it looks like I am destined for greatness!
Because…… (skip to the bottom now if you don’t want to read the spoiler)
The title of this post is not a fluke. Merlin was a Slytherin.
So… where are you hoping to get sorted on Pottermore?
This afternoon, @Lord_Voldemort7 proclaimed on Twitter:
#dcquake. Yes, it’s true, I did just rock your world.
I’m tempted, of course, to make some joke about Lord Voldemort being unhappy over not getting his Pottermore email. But I won’t go there because I’ve got something much more important to talk about.
I’m in the earthquake zone, and I felt the house shake and heard books fall off the shelves, and then I searched the basement for my skittish cats and found myself taking phone calls from my sister on the West Coast and my husband in DC – just making sure that everything was okay.
When I finally settled down to eat my lunch, I saw that there was an email in my Inbox.
No… not THAT email. It was an email from the CoS forum letting me know that someone had just replied to a thread that I subscribe to. The thread had lain dormant since last November, and when it first went silent I checked it compulsively to see if there was an update – much like we’re doing currently with a certain Pottermore email.
Today, the update came. And it wasn’t just from someone. It was from Inkwolf.
My working hypothesis is that it was Inkwolf’s update (published about 30 minutes before the quake) – not Voldemort’s displeasure – that caused the earth to tremble.
So, “Who is this Inkwolf?” you ask. “Who is this person who can cause the earth to shake and buildings to evacuate up and down the East Coast?” Amirite?
Oh, Inkwolf is just the author who improbably put Severus Snape on a yacht and sorted Albus Severus Potter into Slytherin. In short, she’s one of the funniest, most inventive HP fanfiction authors out there. And after nearly 10 months since the last installment, she has finally published a new chapter in her The Prince of Hogwarts novella.
“But I don’t read fanfiction!” you say.
Yeah, neither did I… until a CoS forum contest made me write a story. Later, someone pointed me toward Inkwolf’s uproarious Hogwarts Staff Meeting, and I was hooked… at least on Inkwolf. :)
The objections to fanfic are, essentially, that it copies someone else’s characters and world and is therefore stealing. The problem with that argument is that it perfectly describes William Shakespeare – who took all of his main plots and many of his characters from other sources. It’s what he did with them that made them his own creative work. Another problem with the argument – at least as it relates to J.K. Rowling’s characters and world – is that she actively endorses most Harry Potter fanfiction.
In her Pottermore announcement, JKR said that it was the fans’ astounding creativity that inspired her to create Pottermore. I know she reads HP fanfiction because she has spoken about some of her favorites. It’s possible, then, that the fanfiction itself played a role in bringing us Rowling’s newest addition to her world.
So with that out of the way, let me just say that I think reading a bit of Inkwolf would be quite an entertaining diversion while waiting for the Pottermore Welcome email to arrive!
The ASP at Hogwarts: next generation adventures of Albus Severus Potter, Scorpius Malfoy, and a new cast of characters. Often funny, and often serious.
The Prince of Hogwarts: Prequel to The ASP, focusing on the first year of her most popular ASP character: Albert Severus Prince. Reading The ASP first is highly recommended!
Anyway, I think I’m going to take my own advice and go read that new Inkwolf chapter. If you choose to read some Inkwolf too, have fun! And let us know what you think on the Comments thread.
A fifth batch of emails has been sent out, and there’s still not one for me.
So with that in mind, Expecto Patronum! continues the “Waiting for Pottermore” series…
Note: While we continue the never-ending wait for the Pottermore email, we carry on bravely with our discussion of the DH2 movie…
“Severus Snape wasn’t yours,” said Harry. “Snape was Dumbledore’s. Dumbledore’s from the moment you started hunting down my mother.”
I, and a lot of people, waited for that line in the movie…
and it never came.
After thinking about it, though, I have a theory about why the filmmakers cut it.
It was redundant.
In the book, Harry needs to say it out loud (or think it internally) so that the reading audience gets the point of what he sees in the Pensieve. Yet even with several pages of Harry circling around Voldemort, proclaiming that Dumbledore planned his death with Snape, there remains a tiny contingent of readers who still insist that Snape was truly working for Voldemort and that Harry was merely taunting Voldemort with Snape’s loyalties. He didn’t really mean it. *shrug*
In the movie, though, it’s kind of impossible to miss, or explain away, Snape’s true loyalties. Film is a visual medium, and here is what the viewers (and Harry) get to see…
"You have your mother's eyes"
"... and you're special"
"He doesn't need protecting..."
"So... the boy must die?"
Sure, Severus cradling Lily’s body at Godric’s Hollow is extra-canonical. And sure, Severus never actually says “You have your mother’s eyes.” But movie-only viewers don’t have the advantage of reading the text… over and over and over again… and thinking about its implications. They need to have things spelled out visually. And this approach to the backstory does have JKR’s highest blessing:
“They do it perfectly in the film, that was a place I was very glad they were faithful to the book. Snape’s journey is important, it’s such a lynchpin of the books, the plot can’t function without Snape.” ~ J. K. Rowling
After witnessing the series of images from Snape’s demise through the Pensieve memories, the viewing audience has no question that Severus loved Lily from the time he was a child or that he had been working for Dumbledore – and against Voldemort – ever since the Dark Lord started hunting her down. Viewers don’t need Harry to tell them that. And so, in the movie, he doesn’t.
I’m disappointed, of course, to find one of my favorite moments missing. But I’m appeased by the recognition that it was not necessary to show it. How about you?
Luna is now a Gryffindor. Yep, Luna actress (and big HP fan) Evanna Lynch sorted into Gryffindor on Pottermore. (Many thanks to janinavalencia for finding and sharing that information).
Here’s what Evanna tweeted out about the experience:
Ahhhh umm errrrrr…. Just got sorted. Slight identity crisis. Need to sit down and process this… #pottermore
I’m in Gryffindor. #Pottermore #confusion #shock #pride #happiness #LUNADONTLEAVEME!!!
I don’t know what to do. I feel like Jo just told me I’m a man. I’m SO utterly confused.
Gryffindor! Woahhh what an honour! I’m so happy! But confused! But happy! BUT CONFUSED. #Pottermore #farewellravenclaw
Dammit, now I have to change my whole bleedin’ wardrobe!!! #pottermore #butredandgoldarenotmycolours
Sorry for the tweet explosion… I’m just…having a moment. #farewellravenclaw #pottermore #JowhathaveyouDONE?!
Professor Snape (or Colonel Brandon/Alexander Dane/Hans Gruber/ Sheriff of Nottingham) VS. Sherlock Holmes.
and…
Mr. Darcy VS. Barty Crouch, Jr. / The Tenth Doctor
Yikes! Those are choices that really hurt – probably at least as much as the choices the filmmakers had to face in translating the second half of Deathly Hallows to the screen.
Choices that hurt
Let’s say you’re doing a book that fans are passionate about. There are moments that fans have been dying to see…
Fred’s death, for example. Or Snape’s loss of Lily’s friendship. Or Dumbledore’s backstory. Or Snape saving Lupin’s life and telling the portrait not to say “Mudblood.” Or Harry taunting Voldemort with Snape’s true loyalties and giving Riddle one last chance at remorse.
But you’ve got this other audience to account for… the audience that never reads the books and only sees the movies and that could care less about the intricacies of wandlore.
How do you make a movie that gives the book-fans enough of what they want to see and is still comprehensible for the movie-only fans? That’s the dilemma that the filmmakers were faced with. And they left every single one of those “dying-to see” moments out… yet managed to leave most fans feeling satisfied.
Let’s talk about a few of those choices…
The Mudblood Incident
One of the key complaints I’ve heard from one small corner of the fandom is that the film’s portrayal of “The Prince’s Tale” makes Severus Snape look like an innocent victim by failing to present the “Mudblood” incident or its aftermath.
Okay, I personally wanted to see this material on the big screen, but after giving it some thought, I realized that it presents a devil’s snare of potential difficulties. Here is what I wrote about it on the CoS forum:
I would have liked to see them include the “Mudblood” incident too, but in thinking it over, I realized that its inclusion is fraught with all sorts of potential difficulties for other characters – difficulties that I doubt the filmmakers wanted to unleash, particularly given the raw emotional power of Rickman’s overall performance.
As soon as Rickman’s Snape starts showing the depth of his pain, he’s got the audience in the palm of his hand. If the pain had started sooner, beneath the portrait of the Fat Lady [when Lily cut off their friendship], it could have swayed movie-only audience opinion in directions that the filmmakers would not have wanted – like against Lily, for instance. That wouldn’t be fair, since he used the word [Mudblood] on her, but film is an essentially emotional medium, and film audiences love redemption stories – especially when a character is in love. Film audiences generally want to see all but the most monstrous characters given a second chance after they’ve blown it in a big way.
In that context, the filmmakers probably made the right decision to cut the incident. They could not really tell which character(s) would get hurt the most by showing it, and filmmakers like to know exactly what audience impact will be.
There are additional problems with its inclusion as well. David Yates used a portion of SWM (“Snape’s Worst Memory”) in the OotP movie, but he did not incorporate the “Mudblood” incident. Adding it for DH2 would require re-shooting the earlier scene or working some digital magic to insert Lily into it. And that, of course, would mean casting a third actress to play Lily’s part – and getting Alec Hopkin (Teen Snape) back to utter the unforgivable word. (ETA NOTE: The additional material with a third Lily that was originally shot for OotP and then cut would not help since Harry is in the frame – in completely the wrong clothes and without all of the battle grime and gore that we see in TPT).
In addition, I think that the complaint that the exclusion of the Mudblood incident makes Snape look like an innocent victim is a product of very short-sighted thinking. What is most visually striking about the incident (and film is a visual medium) is watching James Potter and the Marauders launch an unprovoked attack on Severus Snape. In all likelihood, including the incident in the film would make Snape look even more like a victim.
Little James is puckishly cute as he runs through the halls tipping over his “victims'” school books.
This James, though, is hardly “cute” as he attempts to remove “Snivelly’s trousers”:
I would humbly submit that the filmmakers just didn’t want to go there with James, particularly given that they will later need to present him sympathetically in the Forest… and there’s really very little story to get the movie-only crowd to buy in to that sympathetic portrayal once the filmmakers re-unleash SWM. It’s hard enough already for many book readers to make the leap of faith into believing that James simply changed, and book readers have information that the movie-onlies don’t possess.
The choice the filmmakers made, then, was to make nobody look very much like the victim, and nobody look very much like the perpetrator. For purposes of the film, it was probably a wise choice.
Weasley Loss and Gain
Some book fans are angry at not seeing Fred die. And one big question many fans have asked is, “How the heck did Percy get there?”
That’s a good question! But there are actually other people whose return is a bit confusing – for instance Cho Chang (what’s she doing there in the Room of Requirement when she graduated the year before?) and Luna Lovegood (how’d she get there ahead of Harry, when she’d last been seen at Shell Cottage?). In the case of the Ravenclaw girls, my assumption is that they are there mainly to answer Harry’s question about the lost diadem. And yes, they are supposed to be there, even if the film never quite lets us know how they arrived.
Percy, though, has one of the book’s more dramatic entrances into the Room of Requirement, and we never see that drama in the film. I do think, though, that the filmmakers’ decision (while perhaps making Percy’s sudden appearance confusing for book fans ) actually makes matters less confusing for the general movie audience. Percy’s estrangement from his family has never become an overt plot point in the films. We do see Percy doing Ministry duties at cross-purposes to Harry and Dumbledore, but that’s about as far as that subplot goes. And let’s face it, without the subplot, many movie-only fans probably don’t really remember who Percy is anyway.
So, that nixes Percy’s big entrance because the big entrance would simply not make sense. And sorry, but if we nix Percy’s big entrance, we also nix witnessing Fred’s death. Yeah, we could still see Fred die, but we wouldn’t see it in the context of his welcoming Percy back into the family and later Percy throwing himself on Fred’s dead body.
If we remove Fred’s death from the context of Percy’s return, we may as well see Fred lying already dead in the Great Hall. And that is the choice the filmmakers made. Rather than go for overkill by showing Fred die on the screen and then show his family mourn, the filmmakers went the more subtle route of showing him already dead, surrounded by his family.
Whether we actually see Fred die or not, this scene still has tremendous emotional impact. I have not gotten past it once without breaking into sobs.
Dumbledore’s Backstory
King’s Cross is a big disappointment to many people. The wandlore, the backstory, Dumbledore’s remorse – all of it is missing.
Most of the essentials, though, were presented in DH1. And when the filmmakers decided (ACK!!!) to negate Grindelwald’s big moment of defiance and remorse, they couldn’t exactly go deeply into the Grindelwald plot in King’s Cross. In fact, I predicted in November that this would happen.
At least Ciaran Hinds’ fabulous performance – bringing to life Aberforth’s hundred years of bitterness – implicitly verifies the depth to which Albus Dumbledore had sunk in his youth. If we want to know more detail about the manner in which Albus’ choices sacrificed his sister’s life, we can always consult the books – or at least the nearest Potter fan. :)
Honestly, though, I did miss the King’s Cross wandlore. I suppose I experienced a bit of it vicariously through the interaction between Harry and Ollivander at Shell Cottage. But after all we’ve seen of the wand, would it truly have been too much information for the general movie audience if Harry had briefly discussed the Elder Wand with Dumbledore?
Well, at nearly 1500 words, this post has now gone on too long (thanks for making it this far with me!). So I think I’ll devote my next DH2 post entirely to the element I missed the most… and why I think it made sense for the filmmakers to cut it.
Note: While we wait for the Pottermore email, we are talking about the DH2 movie…
DH2 covers my favorite half of my favorite book in the entire HP series.
We have the heist at Gringotts, the trip into Hogsmeade, the Battle of Hogwarts, the dip into the Pensieve, Harry’s walk into the Forest, the final duel with Voldemort, and 19 years later.
When I saw this film – 3 times in its first 10 days – my mind, and my emotions, were so completely blown that I couldn’t even write coherently about it. I mean, how do you write about this? …
This spare musical theme plays over the opening title, drawing us into a Hogwarts surrounded by Dementors while a solitary Snape overlooks regimented rows of Hogwarts students marched grimly into the courtyard. Headmaster Snape – one of the “abandoned boys of Hogwarts” – oversees a Hogwarts that is no longer his, but Voldemort’s.
That much I got on first viewing. Then I learned the music’s name: “Lily’s Theme.”
The woman’s voice rising above the drone on the fundamental tones = Lily’s.
Her voice serves as the music of Severus Snape’s soul – his inspiration, the thing that keeps him going despite the darkness surrounding him. And it connects him with Harry Potter, Lily’s son.
In Snape, the Lily theme resembles the echo of a memory, but a memory very much alive inside him. When the lush, full-bodied string section picks up the theme at Dobby’s graveside, though, we see the theme’s full embodiment in Harry.
Lily’s voice returns, growing stronger as Severus Snape slips from life. And her voice again marks Harry’s victory over Voldemort, a victory set in motion by his mother’s sacrifice.
There is an inexpressible quality to all of this. The effect cannot be captured in words – at least not by a writer of my own meager skills. And the movie has inexpressible moments like this in abundance – that stark opening, Snape’s demise, the Pensieve memories – all underscored by Alexandre Desplat’s powerful, often impressionistic score.
This is why it has taken me this long to write about this film. I do analysis, but how do you catch hold of and dissect these moments of the sublime?
I shall attempt to come down to earth in my next DH2 post and just talk about what I liked and didn’t like… and then why the filmmakers may have made some of the choices they made.
Until then, I hope you enjoyed the music I linked to in this post. It truly sets the mood for much of this film.
Well, a third set of Pottermore emails went out today, and I didn’t receive one. So I took the cue from my Waiting for Pottermore Top 10 List and went to Tyson’s Corner tonight to see the very last IMAX 3D showing of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. To tell the truth, it’s better in 2D. But hey, I didn’t have to wait as long to see the 3D version, and it was a rather intimate showing of the film.
Anyway, while I’m off busily writing about DH2, I thought you might find a way to entertain yourselves with this little movie. Enjoy!
ETA: OMG! GMTA!!! I just discovered that The Last Muggle posted this same video yesterday! But I solemnly swear I didn’t steal it from her. I found it in a social group on CoS.
For Harry Potter fans, waiting has always been a part of the game.
We wait months and years for book releases, months and years for movie releases. And now we have worked ourselves up into a massive fandom frenzy, waiting anxiously for the early access opening of a website that most of us never knew existed more than three months ago.
As we await our Welcome emails, we may just need a few distractions…
So, here’s the Expecto Patronum! Top 10 list of things to do while waiting for Pottermore:
10. Refresh your email every 5 seconds, hoping it will make the elusive Pottermore Welcome message arrive in your Inbox that much sooner. _______
9. Set your Web browser to report any small changes to the Pottermore homepage, and then tweet the rumor “OMG! The Chair moved half-an-inch! They must be getting ready to open the site!” _______
8. Find combinations of words to add to the beginning of pottermore.com, just to watch the inevitable redirect:
5. Practice up for your Sorting here…
or here…
or here…
or here…
or even here. _______
4. Join the SnapeGPS Project and find canon phrases to help confused drivers find their way:
Turn onto route… three hundred and ninety four.
Out for a little drive… in the moonlight?
Recalculating… Does anything penetrate that thick skull of yours?
_______
3. Divert yourself by scouring Tumblr for amusing HP GIFs:
_______
2. Go to see Deathly Hallows 2. Just one more… OR two more… OR three more… times. Or perhaps re-read random chapters from the books! _______
1. Remember, if all else fails, there’s always Potter Puppet Pals…
How Expecto Patronum! will spend its time waiting for Pottermore…
Yes, I know that #2 is the tame spot on the list, but I put it there to make a point. This is the next stop for Expecto Patronum!
As soon as I finish writing the end-of-term paper I’m working on, I will be re-visiting the DH2 film… and finally writing my long-awaited review. The first three times I saw the movie, I was just too emotionally overwhelmed to say anything coherent about it. Maybe fourth time will be the charm!
And once that mischief has been managed, I’ll start reading random chapters in the Harry Potter series – at reader request – while we wait for the main doors of Pottermore to open in October.
Of course, once the doors open for early access, I will report whatever I can. But the next big thrust in the re-read will take place once Pottermore is open to everybody and the entire Web can re-read the Harry Potter series from within the Pottermore experience.
So what do you plan to do while we are waiting for Pottermore – short of trading in your HP fandom for something involving Hobbits, or Time Lords, or Cylons, that is?
Expecto Patronum! 
