J.K. Rowling tweets "How would HP books look from Draco's perspective

[dracasadiablo.livejournal.com]

https://twitter.com/jk_rowling/status/475975334597492736


I'm mostly numb to JKR more questionable interview / pottermore / whatever HP cannon "explanations".
And I understand that she might have done this one just to show how much attention she pays to fandom. What with tweeting answers to fans and following HP tag on Thumblr.
But this still annoyed me.
Even if you are tying to be funny and don't really like the character you've written: this still shows a incredible disdain and lack of understanding of Draco and people who like him or find him sympathetic.

Comments

[sunnyskywalker]

Severus Snape and the Entitled Gryffindors? Or maybe Severus Snape and the Man With Two Faces, to borrow from a chapter title, since he both spends a good chunk of the year watching Quirrell and at least temporarily returns to being a double agent himself.

Blanking on anything better than "the brats that attacked the classroom," unless he wants to be harsher and call them delinquents. Severus Snape and the Bottle-Blond Coworker? Severus Snape and the Glory Hound?

Severus Snape and the Return of the Marauders -- yes, that year must have been like a recurring nightmare! I suppose there's "...and the Shrieking Shack" or "...and the Grim" (hey, he did die there in the end), but neither of those encapsulates as much as "...the Return of the Marauders." (Except maybe The Marauders Strike Back, if you go the joke title route.)

I really like Severus Snape and the Darkening Mark. That's the real plot of the book behind the Triwizard distraction, the growing threat of Voldemort's return. Heck, even the real book could more accurately have been called Harry Potter and the Dark Mark! (I mean, the goblet? The Tournament, sure, that took up page space, but the goblet was a cameo appearance and barely relevant!)

Severus Snape and the Lazy Occlumency student is sadly all too accurate, and also names the problem that leads to the book's climax. Um. Maybe Severus Snape and the Subverted Mind?

Unbreakable Vow is great, as I think everyone recognizes.

Severus Snape and the Headmaster of Hogwarts could work. You'd start off thinking it meant Dumbledore, and maybe he would too, but by the end it's all about him and his role. JKR would probably go for Severus Snape and the Silver Doe, I would guess.

[oryx_leucoryx]

I like your version for book 7.

In the first 2 books I have a hard time deciding how much of his attention was on Harry vs the Voldemort incarnation of the year.

[sunnyskywalker]

Or how much he knows about what's going on. Dumbledore tells him to keep an eye on Quirrell--how much does Snape know or guess about what's wrong with the man? (Does his Dark Mark react around him?) Dumbledore knows exactly who opened the Chamber of Secrets last time, and that there really is a Chamber of Secrets, and based his knowledge of Tom's secret Parselmouth ability he probably has a good idea of what the monster is. How much does Snape know, and when does he know it?

If we could nail that down, that might at least help us guess about his focus for the year. (Though it would neat if it were Option C: Something Else Related to the Voldemort Plot.)

[lynn-waterfall.livejournal.com]

I like Severus Snape and the Man with Two Faces. :) For Book 2, what about Severus Snape and the Heir of Slytherin?

[sunnyskywalker]

Oh, that could work! It fits both the Voldie-plot and the Harry-plot (since Harry is accused of being the Heir). I like it!

[lynn-waterfall.livejournal.com]

Your suggestion of Severus Snape and the Headmaster of Hogwarts and your reasoning about it made me think of an improved Harry-centric title for Book 7: Harry Potter and the Master of Death. Grandiose, sure, but I like the ambiguity.

[oryx_leucoryx]

And really, all the books from 4 and on need renaming. As others have said, 4 should have been '... and the Triwizard Tournament'. 5 Should have been '... and the Department of Mysteries'. I'm not sure what the best name for 6 would have been, but something about the Horcruxes.

[sunnyskywalker]

Sounds like it's time for Round 2 of the Re-Titling Game, last played... wow, was it really November 18, 2011? I could have sworn it was within the last year. Time flies....

"Harry Potter and the Seven Riddles" is one that's been going around in various contexts, and might work for the Big Horcrux Reveal book.

"Harry Potter and the Unbreakable Vow" was another possibility, since we see it being made in Chapter 2 and a lot of the actual plot hinges on it. You'd probably have to add in more ominous hints over what it might be about so that Harry can worry over it; there's a bit in Snape's scene with Draco during the party, but that's about it.

It would probably work just as well to re-write the book and give it some focus so that "...the Half-Blood Prince" is actually relevant. Here's what I said back then:

"Maybe Harry could have started discovering that Snape and Lily used to be friends in this book (maybe Slughorn tells him), and then the revelation that the potions book had a Draco-eviscerating hex and Snape killing Dumbledore would feel doubly like betrayals - he wouldn't just be freaked that Snape was the one who gave Voldemort the prophecy, but that he betrayed his best friend Lily and created dangerous magic while still in school and fooled Dumbledore for years to finish the betrayal. (This would also require Harry worrying about the hexes from the book which he used and what that means about him.) He'd probably decide Snape was never a real friend, of course, being Harry. So then the Prince's tale in the next book would be not information from nowhere, but the revelation that yes, they really were friends, Snape really did want to protect Lily from the Marauders, and that he's been working essentially for Lily's memory all along. And, um, maybe playing up the Snape-as-Draco's-mentor (whom Draco is now resisting) role in all that for generational parallels and connecting subplots."

[sunnyskywalker]

Master of Death sounds like a good candidate!