Standing On Boxes

Going on vacation for a week? Visiting family? Not a bad way to spend the time. Gets me away from work for a week. But no internet access and the long drive there and back again? Not so much fun…

And not finishing HP Book 5 like I’d planned… at least I won’t have to worry about Book 6 spoilers for the next week…

Cracked windshield… lower left… fortunately the crack is between the layers of glass… and not in my field of vision. I’m not sure if this one is covered by my insurance… it happened while the the car was sitting still… and I’m leaving Saturday… so I don’t think I’ll be able to get it fixed until I get back… hopefully it won’t get worse (I’ve marked it so I can see if it grows)… and hopefully I’ll have the money to get it fixed…

Tried to replace the OBC… got a working one off of eBay… it didn’t work either… there must be a fuse I don’t know about that isn’t working… or it isn’t seated completely.

Dave Winer released his new open source OPML editor (OPML is an Outliner format (using XML)) this week. Very interesting gadget. He built it on top of “Frontier”, the same thing “Userland” used as the basis for “Manila” and “Radio”

The first useful thing in it is the browser-less, outliner based Blog tool.
He’d also put up a test blog server, on top of Frontier that uses OPML files, so people can test out his ideas. I’ve been playing:

http://blogs.opml.org/acs/

Much easier to use than a browser based tool.

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

This is the longest of the six books. 800+ pages. I’m just going to run quickly through it. (Otherwise I’ll never get to Book 6 before Saturday).

Once more, we start out with an alienated Harry. And it doesn’t get any better. I think Dumbledore makes a big mistake not involving Harry right from the beginning but waiting until he’s in danger.

Who sent Aunt Petunia that Howler? She obviously knows more about the wizarding world than we originally thought. Was she a squib?

Nymphadora Tonks wanders onto the Potter stage. We find out a couple chapters later that she’s related to Sirus Black (And that he’s related to the Weasleys – I wonder if Tonks is related to the Weasleys? Sirius says all pure-blood wizards are related – does that mean he’s related to Harry? Not necessarily. It isn’t clear how far back(generations) your relatives have to be before you are considered a “pure-blood”. )

And the infamous “underage magic” trial is ahead of us.

Don’t forget that Harry is only 15 when this book starts. He’s feeling persecuted AND he’s suffering from the beginnings of teenager angst. Not a good combination. Throw in Sirius Black, who’s been cooped up in that house for months… and good things are certainly not going to happen.

Putting Harry on trial in front of the Wizengamot for underage magic usage. Dumbledore wasn’t impressed. The Ministry of Magic must be falling apart.

We first meet Umbridge (Or do we? I wonder if she was one of the witches at the trials Harry saw in Dumbledore’s pensieve?)

Harry manages to not feel too put out over not getting to be a Prefect. A little bit of maturity. One wonders why Draco Malfoy got to be one. That’s a bad idea…

We finally meet Luna Lovegood – of the dirty blonde hair, light eyebrows, and bulging eyes (Hmmm… crossover territory – maybe Buffy is related to Luna? Has that ever been done?). Luna doesn’t seem to care what everyone thinks about her… but is very defensive of her father and his magazine (The Quibbler).

Why can Luna see those horse things (We haven’t gotten the name for them yet)? Who does she know who died (I think her mother but I haven’t gotten to that part of the story yet) ? As soon as we know what it takes to see one we know why Harry can.

Yikes… Umbridge as the new D.A.D.A. professor.

Harry! Temper! Getting banned from Quidditch for life? Not sure how Umbridge managed that…

So… Ron (Keeper) and Ginny (Seeker) both make the Quidditch team…

Ginny’s personality is really developing now that we’re into Book 5. Luna is still a little flaky. But Neville seems to be coming along.

I don’t recall any fics that actually have the info about getting into St. Mungo’s correct (if at all)

The Room of Requirement that Harry and Co. are using for “Dumbledore’s Army” is interesting. But different….

So… anyone think Umbridge fired Trelawney first because she thought it would make the biggest spectacle?

(After re-reading the whole thing) In my fic crossover series, “Red Raider” I thought I would list the characters I use (canon characters from those fandoms) in chronological order:

Red Raider Story	Characters
Highlander
The Apprentice	Amanda, Duncan, Joe Dawson, Methos, Cassandra
Immortal Encounter	Amanda
Girl in a Bar	Amanda
The Other Girl	Amanda
Tomb Raider
Red Raider Prologue	Lara Croft, Hillary, Bryce
Working Vacation	Lara Croft, Hillary, Bryce
Girl in a Bar	Lara Croft
China Blonde	Lara Croft, Hillary, Bryce
Red Raider Part I – Pilgrimage	Lara Croft, Hillary, Bryce
Eerie, Indiana
The Apprentice	Simon and Marshall
Harry Potter
Girl in a Bar	Ginny, Hermione, Ron Weasley, Bill Weasley
Rock-n-Roll Girl	Ginny, Hermione, Percy Weasley, Ron Weasley, Arthur and Molly Weasley, Lucius Malfoy
A Girl and Her Toys	Ginny
The Other Girl	Ginny, Hermione, Weasleys (Arthur, Molly,?), Luna Lovegood
Tonks, Just Tonks	Ginny, Hermione, Tonks, Percy Weasley, Albus Dumbledore
The Envelope	Albus Dumbledore, Sybill Trelawney
Percy	Hermione, Ginny
Other Things
Note:Harry Potter, Fred, George, and Charlie Weasley haven’t appeared directly yet but they are definitely alive during the course of this series. There just hasn’t been a good reason for them to show up. And make no assumptions about anyone else who hasn’t ever been mentioned.

Note: A character appearing in a story doesn’t mean they can’t be dead FOLLOWING that story. But you at least know they were alive at that point. And that if they die in canon, that my story is AU from that point. (This would be the HP and the HBP disclaimer. Events in that story (HP Book 6) won’t change events in this crossover that have already occurred.)

I actually have a much more extensive list of characters in my stories that I use when writing. These are just the crossover characters that aren’t OC’s.

I haven’t done much, if any, fic writing while I’ve been engaged in my Potter-fest. And even then it has been a story I hadn’t planned to spend much time on until Fall. And now I’ve got this scene for that story ( “The Other Girl”) running through my head… maybe I’ll get it out on paper before I lose it…

Not sure what part of the story it is in though… The story goes on a road trip in part IV – Buffy, Ginny, Dawn, and Faith going to a few choice locations around the world – London, LA, Seacover, and back to Cleveland. I’ve started writing the London part… the Seacover part depends on a completely different story. The LA part is the one I have a scene for… I’m finally going to bring Angel and Spike into this story… and possibly Wesley (if I haven’t killed him off… can’t remember…)

But before I get too far… I need to finish re-reading the whole series… so many things I’ve forgotten… I’m approx. 1/3 thru it (It hasn’t been a complete Potterage this week…) but I keep finding small things to fix as I read it (which requires fixing 4 different versions – TtH, my blog, my original text, and my eBook version) so it is taking longer to read the 94K words of fic (approx. length of a short novel)…

And once we get into August… I’m on vacation and THEN I need to work more on my Bond fic. (My current fic writing plans for August are to JUST focus on that fic)

(Reading the whole Potter series is taking longer than I thought it would… probably because I’ve read it several times before… new books go faster than old friends…)

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

I’m sensing a trend in the book title naming scheme…

734 pages? Longest so far. I think this one must have gotten a little out of hand… Or it was a 2 for the price of one kind of deal. (Okay… I get it… the first few chapters are full of a lot of information from the first 3 books. Reminding continuing readers of previous events and making it possible to read this book if you haven’t read the others without being completely lost. The book could use a diet… make it a hundred or two pages shorter)

I’d completely forgotten the first chapter… some Tom Riddle background… but only if you know Voldemort was ‘Tom Riddle’ and grew up in an orphanage… and now I think we have the first true example of Harry getting a “Voldemort dream”. His scar has bothered him in the past but those were just hints of what is to come…

Hmm… Mr. Weasley tends to take advantage of his being in the Ministry – examples – getting the Dursley’s fireplace temporarily hooked up to the Floo network so they can get Harry. Getting tickets to the World Quidditch Cup…

Some people thoughts as we move to the Burrow for the rest of the summer -

• Harry thinks Bill Weasley is “cool”, not at all what he expected from a former “Head Boy” (Very un-Percy like)
• Percy wears glasses. You would think that wizards could fix eyesight (Of course, Harry wears them also) but the only things they seem to be able to fix so far with magic are the major life-threatening things — but not things related to genetics. (And yes, I know that idea won’t hold up… completely.)
• Weasley sizes – Ginny is short; Bill, Percy, and Ron are ‘long and lanky’; Charlie, Fred & George are shorter and stocky.
• Ginny seems to have outgrown her shyness around Harry at this point.

Why do I get the feeling that Harry has forgotten all about how Ron got his owl ‘Pig’ – in fact, I think he forgot all about the owl until he ended back at the Burrow. (Pigwidgeon was named by Ginny..)

Our (Harry) first real introduction to Portkeys and Apparating (Apparating came up in the previous story) and usage issues.

Four wizard families apparently live in the Ottery St.Catchpole area – but we don’t meet them all. I believe this is the first mention of the Lovegood family (We didn’t get to see the sorting ceremony for Ginny’s year and Luna hasn’t been mentioned yet that I remember.). Something I missed – that the Weasley’s and Lovegoods are “neighbors”. But they must not socialize. Wizards seem to have isolated homes.

The World Quidditch Cup (WQC)

They expected 100,000 fans to show up for the 422nd World Quidditch Cup Finals (A single game)

Another violent depiction of a game… but I think it is actually shorter than the Hogwarts games we’ve seen depicted in the previous books. And anti-climactic after someone tells Harry that the LAST WQC game lasted 5 days… this one lasted just a couple hours.

The team mascots (Ireland – leprechauns; Bulgaria – Veela (Almost like sirens who turn into bird-like creatures)) cause a lot of problems during the game. Fighting each other, distracting the fans and game officials.

Hermione and Ron meet their first house elf. And we can see the roots of Hermione’s desire to “free” the house elves and promote elf-rights when she sees how this particular elf (Winky) is treated by everyone.

Other stuff so far…

The Weasley family clock is a different kind of contraption. It’s not a timekeeper but wizards do use watches/clocks.

Harry wrote to Sirius that summer AFTER getting several letters from him… and only because he couldn’t ask anyone else about his scar hurting… though no mention of the dream.

Dress robes? With frilly sleeves/collars – poor Ron!

Okay, Harry didn’t want the Weasley’s to know how much money he has (He’s embarrassed by it all) but he has no problem with Mrs. Weasley taking money out of his vault to pay for his school supplies (While they are at the Quidditch Cup). Maybe it was just Ron he didn’t want to embarrass? I’m sure they realize he has money by now…

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And finally, 1/5 of the way into this installment, we get to the important stuff… the train to Hogwarts and the start of the school year.

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Some tidbits looking back from my lofty middle of the book position…

Apparently siblings don’t always end up in the same House – The Patil twins in Harry’s year being a good example.. even if the Weasley’s all ended up in the same House.

Finally… the infamous “bouncing ferret” episode. “Mad Eyed Moody” (M.E.M.) turns Draco Malfoy into a ferret when he tried to curse Harry behind his back after Draco and Harry exchanged a few “So’s your mother” style insults (Actually, Draco was insulting Ron’s mother and Harry came to his defense)

CONSTANT VIGILANCE

The three “Unforgivable Curses” M.E.M. shows Harry’s D.D.A. class:

• Imperious Curse – “Imperio” (Mind Control) – Ron remembered his father talking about this.
• Cruciatus Curse – “Crucio” (Pain) – Neville is bothered by it. We find out later why.
• Killing Kurse – “Avada Kedarva” (Killing) – Harry hadn’t really understood what it meant until now.

Enter S.P.E.W. – “Society for the Promotion of Elfish Welfare” – Hermione starts to learn that helping people (house elves) when they don’t want it can be difficult but she doesn’t give up.

House symbols:

Gryffindor – Lion
Ravenclaw – Eagle
Hufflepuff – Badger
Slytherin – Snake

The Tri-Wizard Tournament

(Guess what the rest of the book is about…)

No Quidditch Cup this year. Good thing Oliver Wood had already finished Hogwarts… he would have died. Harry, Fred and George certainly aren’t happy.

A few people tried to fool the “Age Line” that Dumbledore put around the Goblet of Fire (It’s made out of wood) up to keep anyone under 17 out of the tournament.

Gryffindor – Fred and George
Ravenclaw – (Miss) Fawcett
Hufflepuff – (Mr.) Summers

Curious that no Slytherin tried to get past it. (Or wasn’t caught) I think one of them would have succeeded Do they know something?

The ‘champions’

Hogwarts

Harry Potter and Cedric Diggory

Beauxbatons

[ French Wizarding School]

Fleur Delacour

Durmstrang

[ Northern European school that teaches Dark arts]

Victor Krum
(Ron hero worships him because of his Quidditch skills (He played for Bulgaria in the World Quidditch Cup))

Yet another “Let’s have Harry be disliked/persecuted by his classmates” term when Harry’s name somehow gets into the Goblet and he gets chosen along with Cedric (Only supposed to be one per school). (Speculation by someone (M.E.M.) that someone tricked the Goblet into thinking there was a fourth School and entered Harry’s name under that fictitious school name)

The First Task Announcement (The task was on November 24th)

Wands weighed and tested by Ollivander (with light color commentary) :

Victor – hornbeam with a dragonheart core
Fleur – rosewood with a veela hair core (from her grandmother)
Cedric – Ash with a unicorn tail hair core
Harry – hasn’t changed.

Lots of cheating to find out what the task is before it happens. Harry told Cedric because he didn’t think it was fair that everyone else knew what the task was.

The dragons for the 1st task:

1. Sweedish Short Snout (Cedric)
2. Common Welsh Green (Fleur)
3. Chinese Fireball (Victor)
4. Hungarian Horntail (Harry)

Of course Harry got the toughest one. It should be interesting how they do this whole scene in the next HP movie.

The golden dragon eggs have clues in them for the second task on Feb. 24th,at 9:30AM.

The Second Task – But first the Yule Ball, a traditional part of the Tri-Wizard Tournament.

Harry and Ron’s attempts to get partners for the Ball… kind of amusing. Harry’s first choice was Cho but she was already going with Cedric Diggory. And Ron, after being turned down by Fleur Delacour, notices that Hermione is a “girl” and not just their best friend after she already had a date.

And Neville… he asked Ginny (who said yes because she was too young to go otherwise and she would never have another chance since the Tournament is every 5 years… so the next time it occurs will be after she’s left Hogwarts)

So he asks Pavarti Patil in desperation… and she said yes… but what about Ron – will her sister agree to go with him? We’ll see…

Ahh… of course, for Ron and Harry it isn’t the most fun they’ve ever had… they basically ignore their dates after a couple dances… and Ron sulks because hermione sems to be having fun with Victor Krum.

But at least Harry finds out how to understand the strange sounds from his golden egg. Cedric tells him. But it takes a few weeks before he tries his suggestion because he was jealous/upset that Cho went to the Ball with Cedric.

I don’t think it was a good idea for Harry to let M.E.M. keep his map. (As we find out at the end when we find out that it wasn’t really Mad Eye Moody.)

The third task, the maze, seemed kind of lame. And finding out it was fixed so that Harry would win…

The scene with Voldemort… did Voldemort know Snape was a spy? Barty Crouch/M.E.M. knew (I think) but he never had a chance to tell anyone…

So… we know why none of the Death Eaters interfered with the short almost-duel between Harry and Voldemort… there was some sort of shield around them…

Cornelius Fudge once more does his best to quickly get rid of a Voldemort supporter – Barty Crouch – before anyone can really question him and prove Voldemort is back. I wonder why. Was Fudge a Death Eater? Or under the Imperius Curse. Or just a bit too interested in self preservation… though bringing a dementor into Hogwarts without asking Dumbledore seems a bit risky.

Will I find out in Book 6?

And who does Rite Skeeter really work for? Did she intentionally start the smear campaign against Harry Potter at this point so no one would believe him or was it a coincidence? And did Hermione really let her go when they got back to London?

Need to take a break from the Potter fest…

(Note: The T, who finished it on Thursday, felt Book 6 left her with more questions
than answers and wondered how the last book was going to even be possible. )

Got a review today for my “Faith at Hogwarts at Christmas” fic … very unexpected… but every so often someone will wander across my fics on TtH and ff.net and toss a comment my way… long after the fic was written… I’m not sure how they find them…

Also, someone has been working their way thru the fics on my blog this week…(I can see that someone has been reading them but not who unless they leave a comment.)

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

Which prisoner are we talking about here? Certainly not Hagrid… though he was last seen on his way there we know he must have gotten out. (I must have missed him getting out in the last book… we find out somewhere here that he was in Azkaban for 2 months)
[As Don points out... I did miss Hagrid's return. During the celebration after Harry and Ron rescued Ginny from the Chamber of Secrets. Oops. Probably not the last thing I'll get wrong as I continue this pre-Book 6 refresher/trek thru the series]

Once more dear friends… we venture to Hogwarts and another fun filled year.

Or we will soon… but first… it’s Harry’s thirteenth birthday, Ron is with his family in Egypt, and Hermione is in France… and the summer is already half over… and what’s up with that book? The one from Hagrid…

Harry just can’t catch a break can he… a week with not-really-his-Aunt Marge (and her dog “Ripper”) before she insults his parents and he “blows” her up (like a balloon). And then his wild ride on the Knight Bus to Charing Cross Road/The Leaky Caldron and a strange visit with Minister Fudge.

And now we know what Ron’s new wand (bought using some of the money his father won that summer) is – willow with a unicorn hair core. We only know what his hand-me-down one was made of (ash) because of comments by JKR. Still no in-story description of Hermione’s wand.

Signs that Harry is a practical person — he refrains from going on a spending spree the 2 weeks or so he spends at the Leaky Caldron after the “Aunt Marge Incident” – he works on his homework during the day, he manages to not buy that Firebolt broomstick. The angst hasn’t quite hit him yet… he is still fairly “innocent”…

[that summer before their third year] Hermione got a tan while in France… Ron just got more freckles.

Dementors, on the train… we find out that they seem to be attracted to Harry (he faints) and Ginny hasn’t recovered perfectly from her possession the year before (they get to her also, but she doesn’t faint).

First Divinations lesson — In hindsight – some of the things Ron sees in the tea leaves seem very prophetic. And you have to wonder about Dumbledore’s sanity when he has Hagrid teaching the “Care of Magical Creatures” class. Ron, Hermione, and Harry certainly aren’t too happy about it. And they are friends with Hagrid.

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Okay… halfway thru… what do we have?

• Hermione is acting weird and Harry and Ron have no idea what is going on…
• Crookshanks seems to know something they don’t. Is ‘she’ just a cat? If we were told that already I’ve missed it… hmmm. (Trying to read this fresh when you’ve read it several times before… and know how things turn out… I seem to be focusing on the trivia)
• A few firsts for Harry:
  • First taste of butterbeer on his first trip to Hogsmeade (He sneaks out)
  • He first notices “girls” (Cho Chang during the Quidditch match with Ravenclaw)

I really didn’t remember that the Whomping Willow destroyed his first broom…

We don’t know who the ‘marauders’ mentioned on the map are yet… But Harry is starting to learn more about his father and friends… especially Sirius Black (Who’s described as James Potter’s best friend. )

Has Hermione figured out that Lupin is a werewolf already? A good chance… she did write that essay on werewolves that Snape inflicted on them… and look how she starts to loose it (sanity/perspective/reality) as the year hurtles to a close…

Between her course overload (Sounds like a very Willow-ish thing to do…) and the problems with Buckbeak… I think it’s understandable that she took it out on Malfoy.

So… Harry and the rest of the Gryffindors finally win the Quidditch Cup. In a no-holds-barred fight to the finish with the Slytherin team… Quidditch seems to be a very violent sport… especially when half the players are just kids…

And Harry is certainly still a kid. Proof? Just look at the incident outside the Shrieking Shack which results in him losing the magic map.

Lots of subtext of the Snape hates the “marauders” sort leaking out all over… (I haven’t seen proof yet that they – James Potter, Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, and Peter Pettingrew – called their “gang” “The Marauders” – I believe it is just fanon. In fact, I think the map is the first place we see that mentioned in the series. But it IS useful shorthand to refer to all four of them… though I think it was really James Potter and Sirius Black with their groupies Remus and Peter and near the end of their time at Hogwarts – their “biker babe” – Lily Evans (I’m sure there’s a better term for her part in the informal “gang” (which might just be more fanon – we’ll see as I get further into the story and we learn more about James and Lily))

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Okay… the last quarter of the book just flew by… a lot more action – or it at least feels that way – packed into a short period than the first two books.

Hmmm… Percy seems to already be headed towards his destiny as the “black sheep” of the Weasley family. Between exams and his goal to reform Magical Law enforcement following Sirius Black’s escape…

Snape was extra obnoxious/evil-like in this story. Is his hatred of Remus Lupin JUST because of that practical joke when they both were going to school at Hogwarts or does the werewolf bit play into that?

Eddies in the Space-Time Continuum

Hermione and the Time Twister… and large quantities of that cure-all – chocolate.

So that’s how Ron got that owl he has later on…

Justice and due process doesn’t seem to have much of a part in the wizarding world. The government seems to work with a large dose of intimidation and cronyism.

At least Harry got the map and his invisibility cloak back at the end… and the note from his godfather so he can go to Hogsmeade next year… and an invitation to visit the Burrow and go to the Quidditch World Cup.

The not-quite-a-small-fry got her copy of Book 6 today (Wednesday morning) (I had it sent to her in NY via Amazon). She’s already read through Chapter 11 (in an afternoon). She’ll be done with it before I finish Book 2. Of course, she’s on summer vacation and I have to work….

We’ll see what she thinks about the end… I’ve heard vague spoilers but nothing concrete yet (And no, I don’t want to be spoiled…)

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

As we jump into the second book…

Harry isn’t having a good summer. Did he ever? The Dursleys and their treatment of Harry seems way over the top. Cinder-harry.

We meet our first house elf. They must stay hidden at Hogwarts. Or they at least avoid the First Years. I’m surprised no-one has even mentioned them to him yet.

This underage magic thing… Dobby, the house elf, must be able to make his magic “look” like Harry’s. Either that or the Ministry’s magic detection spells are a bit broken (Or someone is out to get Harry in a subtle, destroy his life kind of way. Not like the blatant Voldemort attack the year before.) (Looks like this is explained in Book 6 – I’ll have to remember to look for it)

Ah… the infamous flying car… just how far is Ottery St. Catchpole from No. 4, Privet Drive in Surrey?

Harry’s first experience with other Wizard things happens that summer – his first sight/visit to a wizard house, first garden gnomes, etc.

Garden seems to be a general catch-phrase for “back yard” – shrubs, trees, lawn, and such. Not a vegetable garden like I thought. (I actually have a book, a travelogue, that contains quite a bit of info about English gardens that I picked up when writing a story so I could be reasonably accurate… but I’d never connected it with the Weasley’s back yard…)

Arthur Weasley must actually have had some power at some point if he “wrote” the law about misuse of Muggle artifacts.

We find out that Ginny isn’t shy – according to Ron anyway – she’s never quiet – unless she’s around Harry Potter. This is the year she’s to go to Hogwarts… let’s keep an eye on her…

Seems to be an odd combination of magic and non-magic going on in the Weasley household. They have chickens…

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Side comment: Oddly enough, there was a discussion about the books on one of the political blogs I read ( <– left link)… and there seemed to be some concern that wizards mostly seem to work for the government. But thinking about that… it isn’t quite true but it does seem to be their major industry. Everything seems to be in support of hiding their world from Muggles. But were does the money to do that come from originally? Flammel’s Philosopher’s Stone couldn’t possibly “create” enough gold to support an entire community of Wizards…

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I was thinking that JKR had some space-time continuum problems… and I KNOW I’m not the first person to notice “;->”… Harry got to Hogwarts AFTER Bill and Charlie Weasley had graduated. That is clear. Bill (who is the eldest Weasley sibling) was Head Boy and Charlie Quidditch Captain.

(As pointed out by Don in a comment…) I seem to be deriving dates in a confused fashion. I was confusing House Cup and Quidditch Cup… Gryffindor hadn’t won the Quidditch Cup since Charlie left (I could have sworn I read that was 6 years before Harry started…). The Slytherin’s had won the House cup for the last 6 years – until Harry’s first year. I was mixing them together… which doesn’t really work out.

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If one were to cheat – and check out JKR’s website… she gives us the difference in ages between the Weasley siblings:

(very roughly – the approximate years they were born. See JKR’s website or the HP Lexicon for exact dates)
Ginny: 1981 (6-7 months younger than Buffy)
Ron: 1980 (Older than Harry, Younger than Hermione)
Fred and George: 1978
Percy: 1976
Charlie: 1973
Bill: 1971

This can then be used to clear up the Cup confusion… maybe some other time. We also know Hermione is 6 months older than Ron (Thanks to JKR for the info.)

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The Dursley’s live in Surrey. So does the canonical Lara Croft. I don’t think they’ll ever meet.

Bad Ron!

It was HIS idea to take the flying car… and he did so well the year before. And that broken wand… is important later in the story…

Harry is embarrassed that he has money but the Weasley’s don’t. But I think the “poorness” of the Weasleys is due in large part to all those children. 5 of them at home at one time (Ginny, Ron, Fred, George, and Percy) They have plenty of money for “fun stuff” like chocolate frogs (Ron said he had over 500 over them at one point), and sports memorabilia (in Ron’s room).

Did Harry win any points with Ginny by giving her those books he got from Lockhart?
Were they even on Ginny’s book list?

Our first howler…

Gilderoy Lockhart is a serious pain… letting Cornish pixies loose? (8 inch high blue critters that fly and bite)

No one seems to take Ginny’s crush on Harry seriously..assuming that that is what it was… and Ginny apparently is a cat person. She gets upset at what happens to Mrs. Norris.

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Okay, a few tidbits before I move on to the next book…

Poor Ginny… getting possessed by Tom Riddle. Nice to see she survived it though. But Lucius Malfoy got away with giving her the cursed diary in the first place.

Gryffindor won the House Cup again… not really a surprise. And we find out why Hagrid was expelled from Hogwarts…

Harry finally visits Dumbledore’s office, 200 pages into the book, and a second visit at the end.

What happens to the Chamber now? Does it get locked up again? Do they put it on the Hogwarts Tour schedule?

And Ginny tells everyone that Percy has a girlfriend…

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone

(Why yes, I do have the American/US edition of this book. How did you guess. It’s a bit worn. Very ‘read’ looking. 1st US Edition – 38th printing if I read it correctly. Someday it’ll fall apart completely. I read it to my daughter – six years ago – I think?)

Right from when they meet on Harry’s eleventh birthday, Hagrid seems to be the High Priest/Fan Number One of the Potter cult. His attitude already bugs me and I’m only a third of the way through the book.

Pg. 84-85 – There are apparently only three wand cores used by Ollivanders in their wands. (Not that we ever see more than one ‘Ollivander’ employee – but Mr. Ollivander himself keeps saying “we”.) Any more is non-canon (Fanfic writers, of the BtVS crossover sort, like to add in vampire blood, slayer hair, and other BtVS related things. Not an issue in my one HP crossover since none of the BtVS characters (OC or not) in that fic series will be getting wands if I can help it.)

• unicorn hairs
• phoenix tail feathers
• heartstrings of dragons

Assorted different kinds of wood: beech-wood, ebony, maple, holly, yew, oak, willow, mahogany.

• Harry’s – holly and phoenix feathers
• Voldemort’s – yew and phoenix feathers
• Hagrid – oak
• Lily Potter – willow
• James Potter – mahogany
• Ron Weasley – pg. 105 – unicorn hair (Charlie Weasley’s old wand)
• Hermione? No idea…

Notice how we only find out the wand core of a few select wands at this point?

Wand length and flexibility also seems to be a factor in wizarding wand use/power… or so Mr. Ollivander seems to imply. And how many wands does he sell if he charges Harry 7 galleons for his wand… and still stay in business?

I’ll comment on other wand makers as we find out about them later in the series.

Ron seems to be Harry’s guide to things wizarding…

Let’s not forget they (Harry, Ron, and Hermione (and Neville, Draco, etc) are only 11 when this book starts.

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Is it a trio or is it really a foursome? Half way through the first book… and Neville has so far had as much ‘screen time’ with Ron and Harry as Hermione.

Okay… running around the castle in a pink bathrobe? Poor Hermione… but did anyone notice that she grabs Harry’s wand and uses it to unlock a door? The first instance of a witch/wizard being able to use someone else’s wand? Can everyone do that? We’ll see… maybe.

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Poor Neville… how many times will he get caught up in problems caused by Harry Potter and Co. So far, we have:

• Getting beat up by Crabb and Goyle at the Quidditch match
• Getting detention and losing 50 points because he tried to warn Harry about Malfoy

Unicorn blood? Ew… and why was Hermione embarrassed by the Centaurs? She’s not even a teenager yet…

The second half of the book is going by very quickly…

Interesting how they suspect Snape of badness… something they never really get over…

Nearing the end… Ron Weasley seems to be the practical one/voice of reason. Whenever Hermione and Harry are freaking out or have no idea what to do next… Ron rescues them.

Not many thoughts at the end…

Harry doesn’t see much of Dumbledore or even his office his first year…

Seems like an innocent tale at this point… we know evil Voldemort is out there but Harry and Co. don’t seem too concerned yet.

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[20-Jul-2005]
Before I forget – Hmmm… it was very nice of Hagrid to put together that photo album for Harry (He contacted friends of Harry’s parents… so the pictures won’t be too personal… just the kind you share with friends.)

Okay… JKR’s website has info on Hermione and Ron’s wands – wood and core. But that might be considered cheating to mention it here…

Okay… I actually bought a copy of the new Harry Potter book. But I want to reread the first five books first. It’s been a while… so some thoughts this week as I reread it all…

Note: These will simply be my semi-random observations and comments. For real in-depth Harry Potter info (Including spoilers for Book Six) check out the Harry Potter Lexicon

It’ll take me a week or so to read them…

The New Adventures of Pippi Longstocking (1988)

Caught a few minutes somewhere in the middle earlier today… thought I would check it out when it was on again, from the beginning. The opening musical number… and the other songs…? Turned the channel after five minutes.

I remember a Pippi movie from years ago…I’m not sure if that was one of the ones with Inger Nilsson as Pippi but they were fun to watch… this newer one was atrocious…
(Though the actress who played Pippi, Tami Erin, seems to have aged well… and her hair is really red.)

I think I’ll watch The Thomas Crown Affair again… or maybe something else? El Mariachi is on…

I subscribed to “Sports Illustrated” this spring… one of those ‘on a whim’ kinds of things… it certainly wasn’t for the subscription premium…. a DVD containing this year’s “Making of the SI Swimsuit Calendar”…

Finally decided to watch it… to get it off of my “unwatched DVD’s I’ve paid for” list. It’s a mixed bag… other than the purpose behind the whole enterprise (beautiful women in swimsuits of the skimpy sort… to sell a sports magazine…) some of the models and most of the photographers actually appear intelligent when they are talking about what they are doing… but not enough to keep the sound turned on… especially during the inane narration from the hosts.

Not exactly a high quality documentary – It’s a watch once, out of the corner of one eye while doing something else kind of thing…