ps – dwight rules. i have pictures of him hanging up in my cubicle, right next to pics of snape, haha.

pps – you guys should totally do an office podcast.

By the way, welcome, Neville! Glad to have you hear and commenting!

All I can say is, Give it time. Greg and I finally convinced my 34 year old sister to read Harry Potter (her kids have read it but she refused) and over the past 2 months it is all she has been talking about. She called me up today and said, “Slughorn just gave harry the memory! I can’t believe it is going to be over soon, I am so sad!”. So there, she is converted. Let’s make a deal, if your husband agrees to read the Potter books, we’ll let him (and you) come on the podcast for an interview. Good idea?

Anyway, so much to respond to, I hope I don’t forget anything.

Dan- as far as JKR not having to tie things up in book 7- although I agree with you that it is her prerogative wehther she decides to tie things up neatly or leave us hanging, I just can’t see her leaving things hanging. Let’s face it, JK Rowling has some of the most vocal/involved fans out there. If she has decided that she is ONLY writing 7 books, that is what she will write. I don’t think she will want to open things up majorly for speculation. This is the reason a lot of people think she will kill Harry. I don’t want to think about or discuss that scenario though now. My heart can’t take it

Oh, let us know if you decide to camp out with your son! What a great dad you must be!

Steph- Thanks for the comments. I don’t think you’ve commented here before, so welcome, we are so glad to hear from you. I agree with you completely about the Dursley’s representing the fantasy/fairy tale aspect of the series. “What kid has not felt that she was misunderstood and not treated fairly and imagined what she would do if she had power?” I loved this. It is so true!

P.S. Don’t tell anyone because I might lose all credibility, but I really don’t have my own Deathly Hallows theory. Greg and I have talked about it since we heard the title and he solidified our discussions and laid out the theory. Some of the details have been my thoughts but besides that I can’t think of any other theory (I haven’t really wanted to either, because I like this one). So while I LOVE the idea of a formal debate, it will have to be on a different topic since I “am firmly in the Harry Potter Prognostications Deathly Hallows Theory” Camp.

Janice- I actually just re-read the Department of Mysteries part of OoTP this morning (speaking of OoTP, I am rethinking my ordering of the books, I actually liked it better after having read this time…Not sure what I should do) and you are correct, Voldemort did possess Harry, but as Dumbledore said in HBP, “Voldemort cannot possess you without enduring Mortal Agony.” Why is that? I think it is because of the love that Harry still carries in him from Lily. I seem to remember that Harry was ready to die when Voldemort was possessing him. Was he thinking of the people he loved? I can’t remember. Alas, I am going to have to go back and re-re-re-read that again.

Great podcast as usual.

Couple of thoughts on the discussion:

It would make practical sense for Dumbledore to want Harry to go back to the Dursley’s until his 17th birthday, to take advantage of the protection until he is of age. Once he comes of age, the protection expires, but at that point, at least he can do magic without breaking wizarding law. If he jumped the gun and ran around using magic underage, he’d probably just wind up getting hassled by Ministry bureacrats, which wouldn’t be good. (But Ron and Hermione will already be of age when they go with him, so they will be able to use magic legally at the Dursley’s – I imagine that may offer a little comic relief!)

The discussion of the spell and LV touching Harry and all that was interesting. I had understood the Ministry scene differently. I thought LV posessed Harry, not just touched him, which I thought was something different. My interpretation was that the use of Harrry’s blood negated part of the spell and allowed LV to touch Harry, but at the Ministry, he tried to actually posess Harry, and was able to do it until Harry thought of people he loved, at which point the posession was driven out. So it was actually Harry’s emotion of love that made it intolerable for LV to posess him, which is why I thought Dumbledore said later that “it was your heart that saved you”. That was the way I read it, anyway.

As for the Dursley’s and Harry playing the “hero” to save them if need be, of course you’re right. Harry already saved Dudley’s life once, from the Dementors in the alley, so I think we can assume he’ll behave in a similar manner if they’re threatened again.

And it wouldn’t suprise me if the Dursley’s got attacked in Book 7. If so, I would guess either they all live, they all die, or just Dudley survives. I could see more inter-generational love/protection playing out here – Petunia and Vernon die trying to save Dudley, and Harry manages to save Dudley but not his Aunt and Uncle, and Dudley doesn’t appreciate that Harry did the best he could and blames him, something like that. Maybe. Or, maybe Harry just walks away from them for good, and they live on but fade into irrelevance, as archetypes of the kind of small, narrow people hero have to rise above.

We’ll see, I guess!

Ok thats it…probably too much. Once again I enjoy your podcasts.
Steph

2) I do agree with others about the levels; perhaps consider testing the audio with the mic at different distances from your mouths. Then you can also use run the uncompressed WAV through the Levelator from Gigavox; highly recommended!

3) You seem to assume that JKR is going to wrap things up very neatly in book 7, specifically here with the Dursleys. I don’t necessarily agree with that; she may opt to leave somethings unfinished and doesn’t/shouldn’t have an obligation to do so. Or should she? Just because it’s the last book doesn’t mean that everything needs to be tied up. Please discuss.

4) Last night we were at the mall in a northwestern suburb of Cincinnati, and the bookstore there was taking reserve orders for book 7. I’ve thought about taking our 9-1/2 year old and camping out the night before the book arrives – I’ve never done anything like that before.

I think Greg is entirely wrong in judging Dumbledore’s behavior at the Dursley’s (HBP) in a negative light. The Dursley’s were entirely deserving of the harsh treatment they were given. While it is true that I would not want a glass to knock me on the head every few seconds, you’ve got to make allowances for JKR’s use of humour in the novels.

Great podcast.