death to capslock

That one really interesting DH subplot

2017-03-11T09:03:00Z

Posted by: star-dragon5.livejournal.com

We all know that DH is an unholy mess of stuff being dropped on the readers' heads that were neither mentioned nor hinted at anywhere in previous books. But there's one subplot I wish had been introduced earlier, because it carries a lot of potential for conflict, and with conflict comes plot and character development and all that. I am referring, of course, to Dumbledore's backstory.

What if Harry had found out about Ariana and Gellert and the rest while Albus was still alive? Would he be able to look his Headmaster in the eye, knowing young Albus had once plotted world domination with the future Dark Lord Grindelwald? Would he realize how narrowly he'd escaped going mad, like Ariana, after living with magic-hating Muggles for ten years--Muggles that Albus placed him with, no less? (Seriously, why did no one catch that plot hole? Even I didn't see it until guardians_song pointed it out.) How would this change things?

But we can't have any of the above, since the plot of DH depends on Harry obeying Dumbledore absolutely. (I've been meaning to write something about how post-GOF Harry fails at the Hero's Journey. Remind me, will you?)

There's also so much potential for fanfic, and I don't mean just the Grindledore variety (though one can never have too much of that! *Grindledore shipper*). We've all seen those dreadful fics tagged "Powerful!Harry", "Independent!Harry", "Super!Harry", "Dark!Harry" or whatever, in which Harry becomes a Gary Stu of the highest order, usually with super-powerful wandless magic. Well, guess what? Thanks to Ariana, you can still have a Harry with super-powerful wandless magic, he'll just be mad. And I don't know about you, but I'd LIKE to read about mentally-ill!Harry.

So what do you think? The possibilities are endless!

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Harry Potter Abridged! DH Chapter 28

2015-08-20T10:51:00Z

Posted by: sweettalkeress.livejournal.com

Since Chapter 27 is so short, I decided to also post Chapter 28.

( Time for Dumbledore's backstory! Bum bum buuuuuuum! )

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Deathly Hallows, Chapter 28: The Missing Mirror

2014-02-16T20:10:00Z

Posted by: oneandthetruth.livejournal.com

Or, Dishing the Dirt on Dumbledore, Part 4

While the first sentence in this chapter is only four words long, the second is the run-on sentence from hell:

He saw the achingly familiar Hogsmeade High Street: dark shop fronts, and the outline of black mountains beyond the village, and the curve in the road ahead that led off toward Hogwarts, and light spilling from the windows of the Three Broomsticks, and with a lurch of the heart he remembered, with piercing accuracy, how he had landed here nearly a year before, supporting a desperately weak Dumbledore; all this in a second upon landing--and then, even as he released his grip upon Ron’s and Hermione’s arms, it happened.

That’s ninety words long. Ninety! When I was in second grade, I turned in a book report that contained a sentence that was not nearly that bad. I just listed characters in the book: this and that and the other and another, instead of saying this, that, the other, and another. My teacher wouldn’t let me get away with it, and I was eight. Did Rowling not go to second grade? Did she never have to write papers in school?

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Deathly Hallows, Chapter 8: The Wedding, Or, Dishing the Dirt on Dumbledore, Part 2

2013-03-24T20:20:00Z

Posted by: oneandthetruth.livejournal.com

Harry takes some of that new, super-strength DH Polyjuice that lasts for several hours. He now looks like a Weasley cousin, even though Fred stole the hair from a local non-magical boy. This makes me wonder if, besides the accountant cousin, there are other non-magical Weasley relatives the family doesn’t know about, or at least acknowledge.

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