death to capslock

Well, it is his signature spell, I guess. Surely he would have learned something better by the end of the 4th year though?

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sorry, I should have indicated better that the sentence was a quote from chapter 34 of GoF that gives us an idea of how many death eaters were present.

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No problem! Serves me right for not having a copy of the book on hand.

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Interesting... especially since I have spent my entire adult life as an impoverished student/minimum wage worker. I can't imagine living that dangerously.

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madderbrad.livejournal.com

I got the impression that Voldemort died mostly because it was the last book and he was supposed to die, not because he actually messed up.

Oh yeah.

I'm always entertained by those fans who protest that their 'Jo' didn't make any errors at all in lining up Harry and Voldemort for the big finale, because, after all, everyone KNEW that it had to finish that way. Who cares about whether the author actually orchestrated that final meeting in a fashion that made sense?

It's one of the "we'll give poor Jo a free pass" excuses that makes me slightly nauseous to this day.

Almost makes you feel sorry for him- the main villain is supposed to have a cool and memorable exit, right?

Yeah. Instead it was the opposite:

Worst. Villain. EVER.

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Well, yes. Frankly, I'm more inclined to think it was bad managment amplified by no really clear idea of the value of money than anything to do with the "war effort".

Sirius probably blew most of his legacy on his flat (which was probably purchased rather than rented) and the motorcycle.

James probably dropped a bundle on purchasing and/or setting up the house in Godric's Hollow to his and Lily's liking. The notion that there was an Potter ancestral family estate appears to be *pure* fanon, and I suspect that there wasn't anything of the sort. There was a vault full of gold, certainly. There *might* have been an income, but the fact that Harry's fortune was described (in canon or not, but certainly by Rowling) as being enough to see him through school suggests that if there ever was, it ended with James.

What appears clear from the glimpses we got of them, they were young, and feckless, and disinclined to take advice from elders. Financially, that's a remedy for disaster.

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madderbrad.livejournal.com

Ah, I see. And I skipped right past that in my skim of that chapter just a few minutes ago.

Okay, that's a great quote, and supports Oryx nicely for the issue of how many DEs were around in the 'first' Voldemort 'war'. I can't really argue that there were a hundred DEs present, even Harry would have supplied a bigger number in that case.

And I'm pretty sure we're led to believe that ALL of Riddle's DEs were supposed to turn up at the graveyard. (Not like the case where Oryx is trying to show that they all showed up at the 7P fight above Privet drive.)

Thank you for the quote!

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With the publishers' marketing department trumpeting to the skies that the book is *for children* all the while. Rowling seems to have used the difference as an excuse for lazy scene-setting.

It seems kind of a pity that "oh it's just for kids so it's OK if everything isn't internally consistent" seems to be a pretty common excuse among a lot of children's writers. Kids can actually be pretty sharp, and to shrug off this sort of thing seems a bit patronizing, really.

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madderbrad.livejournal.com

Danny Sparks came up with a neat quote from one of the graveyard chapters which supports your figure of approximately forty for the number of DEs left over from the end of the 'first Voldemort war'; she posted it elsewhere in this LJ thread.

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Who cares about whether the author actually orchestrated that final meeting in a fashion that made sense?

And if IIRC, it was made even worse by the fact that everybody else was just standing around and watching the two of them go at it. War, what war? This is more like a high school brawl.

It's one of the "we'll give poor Jo a free pass" excuses that makes me slightly nauseous to this day.

Especially since it seems to me that most other authors don't get this kind of free pass, and because she has gotten enough free passes for a years' worth of trips to Disney World. Admittedly, I gave her quite a few myself though before I came to my senses.

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Worst. Villain. EVER.

For some reason this scenario makes me think of the old elementary school taunt: I'm rubber and you're glue... This is probably not the right kind of feeling for the climax of a series.

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Though notice he repeated a NEWTs year - which means that as opposed to people like Charlie Weasley or the twins he cared enough about post-OWLs education to try and make up for failure (or perhaps he stayed an extra year to take a second chance at his NEWTs and improve his grades). Go Marcus!

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I suspect that that might enter into the equation, but of course she also, from lack of forethought and poor choices, managed to slide to just about as close to the bottom as is it is possible to do under the British social system. Nice young girls with good educations are not supposed to end up on welfare with a child to raise, and no qualifications for a proper job.

Plus, although the series seems to have taken off like a bomb and started doing very well for her, fairly quickly, it didn't generate that much actual money until the 2nd or 3rd book was out, and the *real* money only started rolling in once Warners started courting her. I suspect she feels she *earned* her money.

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To be honest, it's a term that hasn't been that much in use since the closing of canon. Very much so during the 3-year summer, yes, and off and on since then. But now that we have the whole set, not so often. Rather disheartening to try to compile them, actually. Can't blame people for not wanting to try.

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The notion that there was an Potter ancestral family estate appears to be *pure* fanon, and I suspect that there wasn't anything of the sort.

It comes from Albus implying that the Potters came by the cloak by inheritance, all the way back from Ignotus, who canonically was buried in Godric's Hollow.

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----I suspect she feels she *earned* her money.

Probably true. But if she manages the money well, her children will never have to work.

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I was thinking that as well, but then I remembered that the Gaunts had the locket and the ring, but their fortune was otherwise long gone.

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Yes. And doesn't translate out in into anything like an estate. Athough it is possible that the cottage where they died was family property.

Of course, a large part of the part of the "estate" conviction was generated by Albus's observation that Harry and Draco's having taken each other in instant dislike mirrored of James and Severus's relationship. Knowing what we know now, James would have been playing the Draco role in that generation. And the Malfoys *do* have an estate. It doesn't really follow that the Potters did as well, but James was certainly playing the priviliged pureblood card, on stage where we all saw him do it, and it contributes toward the impression that *of course* there was a mansion.

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Regardless of fortune, there must have at least been the home, and enough to support not just their own son but for a couple of summers also accomodate his friend who was used to Black family standards.

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But Bill was Head Boy too! (And I bet Molly got her obsession with her children being prefects from somewhere.)

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----ing. The notion that there was an Potter ancestral family estate appears to be *pure* fanon, and I suspect that there wasn't anything of the sort.

I think fans got the notion from the first movie. The amount of gold in Harry's vault in the first movie would lead one to believe that he was filthy rich.

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