Harry Potter 7!
 

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows
I'm getting excited! June 21! I have had mine preordered since January :D
I'm so very, very happy.
Anyways what's with the global news JK Rowling is like "don't read the end, I urge you not to read the end until you finish the whole book."
She's just asking for people to immediately finger the back pages quickly to see how the HP universe ends.

Well, when this thread dies soon I'll resurrect it when the book is about to be released :earth:

You know some douchebag is going to say what happens to all the little kids that are waiting at the bookstores....

like last time.

I haven't preordered for the first time since Prisoner of Azkaban (my local bookshop put that to one side for me because the hype was beginning to gather momentum). I thought I'd be in London by June, so no point in ordering a copy in Leicester. However the way things are going I'll still be here - might pop into town and place an order this weekend.

Even if someone revealed the end to me, it wouldn't spoil the book. After all it's the journey, not a quick denouement that I read for. Looking forward to it though.

I'm hoping for a twist, where it turns out Dumbledore was right about Snape, and Snape was - with great pain and difficulty - only following Dumbledore's own express orders to kill him under certain circumstances. What? I like Snape - he represents all the "evil" teachers and parents that you realise weren't all that bad when viewed in hindsight. It would be a shame if the know-it-all kids were right about him all along.

I'm pro-Snape too. I've been saying it since I finished Half-Blood Prince.

(I also think Sirius can come back from the dimensional rift he fell into in OOTP).

That being said, I've had my preorder in since amazon first started taking them.

Uh, June 21 or July 21?

Very pro-Snape? Wolf, there's some very very naughty -- and well drawn -- quite NSFW slash stuff on Destiny Interrupted. Repeat: NSFW.

The day it's released, I will stop at the local Pathmark supermarket, where there will be large stacks at about 2/3 the price.
It's worked every time.

At a supermarket?

Even more strange, why are selling it at discounted prices? The day it's released!? This is Harry Potter we're talkin bout!

Precisely.

There's a special magic involved. It's called retail markup.

Unless there is futher discounting prior to the release date, I'm getting my copy for about 1/2 price.

Absolutely, great way to get them in the door in a competitive market.

Remember Wolf, what, 3 years ago? I had mine on Forks Saturday and you didn't get yours till Monday. neener neener neener

Of course neither of us could read that weekend anyway.

I think that technically, I had mine on Forks Saturday, I just didn't open the box until later. I met the Fedex Man at the door, IIRC.

OK, if you say so, I'll take it back. reneen reneen reneen

But I remember someone saying it hadn't come. Maybe it was Dagney?

A Snape a Snape, ooooh it's a Snape!

If I'm there I'll taze em' in tha' nuts or tha' cooch, I promise.

Will wait for the UK paperback.

Why the UK paperback, are you leaving?

She may be a purist - changes are made to the American version.

Three of us ordered at work today - the combined cost meant free postage on Amazon and it was discounted to £8.99. It wasn't until afterwards I realised it's released JULY 21 not JUNE 21. For some reason, although I have seen the date on every advert and poster, I got it in my head it was this month. So in fact I am now going to have to wait for it to be posted from here to London :mad2:

It may have been me, but it's been so long, I forget. :) Hopefully whomever it was, got their book already!

I don't get Harry Potter it's very "Famous Five" Jolly good show what
So twee ...

Videotape it. I want to watch them squeal like a little piggy.

I think it was when the second book was out, a high school teacher friend asked if I'd read them. I sort of scoffed, that's a kids book, but she told me they were well written and great fun to read. She was right. Great books to read just for the fun of it.

yeah. Last time Target had it cheaper than anywhere. Not hard to find at all.

I got book 6 at walmart the night of the release for about 11.50. No need to pre-order, but we will probably need to get two copies.

Is the release in June or July? I am so confused.

When I noticed, about Book Four, that my rereadings of HP were catching up to my rereadings of LOTR, I knew that here was literature. Kid literature, but literature nonetheless.

I've borrowed The Half Blood Prince to catch up (I cant find mine :redface:) and the more I think about it, the more it seems likely to me that Snape isn't as black as he's painted.

I mean, yes he's mean spirited, has no innate sense of justice, has a big chip on his greasy shoulders and is eaten up with hate and bitterness... but who isn't, eh?

The book starts with Fudge's visit to the Prime Minister - an introduction that tells us where and when we are and advances the story by letting us know that Voldemort is wreaking havoc even amongst the Muggles - he is truly back and the world is beginning to feel it. However the second section is that featuring the Lestrange sisters' visit to Snape and him taking an Unbreakable Vow to complete Draco's task if the boy fails. The task turns out to be killing Dumbledore - so Snape couldn't do anything else at that point - it was kill Dumbledore or die, Malfoy had already failed.

However the question has to be, why did Snape agree to make the vow? He had already settled Bellatrix's mind, and with Lucius in Azkaban he hardly need worry about Narcissa's opinion of him - she is married to a failure who has displeased Voldemort. I think he must have had a very good reason to cut himself off from a comfortable life to go back to being a fugitive in a dangerous, back stabbing, tyrannical gang.

I do think putting the episode at the beginning of the book marks its importance, not just its chronological order (many things are told in flashback and by hearsay after all). Apart from anything else it makes it easy to find when the next book turns our assumptions on their heads.

It is July 21st. The movie comes out July 11th.

For the book:
* Release date (US/UK/English-speaking countries): July 21st, 2007
* Page count: 784 (US), 608 (UK)
* Price: 34.99 (USD), 17.99 (GBP)
* Deluxe Edition Price: 65 (USD)
* Pre-order now from Borders!

As the old punchline goes: "I wouldn'a told that!" (Do y'all know some variation of this joke?)

Hey, I'm fannish -- the workaday world isn't quite enough for my kind of spirit.

Here is a list of loose ends supposedly to be tied up by the last book. There are a HELL of a lot of them! Talk about authorial pressure, whew!

(ganked from Muggle.Net, thanks):

--Will Hogwarts reopen? And, if so, will Harry, Ron, and Hermione attend for their seventh year?
--Is Snape good or evil? Where do his loyalties lie?
--What is the significance of Harry having his mother's eyes?
--What caused Dumbledore trust Snape so much?
--Why was Voldemort going to allow Lily to live after he killed James at Godric's Hollow?
--Who is R.A.B.?
--Are Dumbledore and Sirius actually dead? Update: JKR confirmed in New York that Dumbledore is in fact dead - but we still don't know about Sirius!
--What "worst memory" did Dudley experience when he was attacked by dementors in Order of the Phoenix?
--Where are the remaining Horcruxes? And furthermore, was Dumbledore right about what the remaining Horcruxes are? If he wasn't, what are they?
--Who will lead the Order now that Dumbledore is dead?
--Is Bill Weasley a full werewolf?
--Did Voldemort go to Godric's Hollow alone the night he tried to kill Harry? If so, how do people know the events of that night?
--Will the two-way mirror that Sirius gave to Harry come up again?
--Is the relationship between Ginny and Harry really over? Will they get back together in the end?
--What was the "gleam of triumph" in Dumbledore's eyes at the end of Goblet of Fire?
--Is there more behind Voldemort wanting the DADA teaching position so badly, or is it just because he simply wanted the job?
--How will Peter Pettigrew repay his life debt to Harry?
--What lies beyond the veil in the Department of Mysteries?
--If Dumbledore and Petunia were in contact before Harry was taken to Privet Drive, then what were they discussing in their letters?
--Who was "that awful boy" who Petunia referred to in OOTP? Was it James, or was it somebody else?
--Will Ron and Hermione's relationship finally come to be, or will something happen to prevent it?
--What were Lily and James' occupations?
--Will Dumbledore's portrait be of any use to Harry?
--What will Percy do now that the Ministry has been proven wrong and Dumbledore is dead? Will he return to his family?
--Where did Fawkes go at the end of Half-Blood Prince?
--What did Dumbledore see or experience after he drank the potion in the cave in HBP?
--How exactly did the Potters and the Longbottoms "thrice defy Voldemort"?
--Will the terms of the Prophecy be fulfilled? If so, will Harry kill Voldemort, or will Voldemort kill Harry?
--On her website, JKR stated that "there IS a significant - even crucial - answer" to the following question: How and why did Dumbledore have James' invisibility cloak? What is the significance of this?
--What happened to Ollivander? And since there was no sign of a struggle when he disappeared, whose side is he on? And what about Florean Fortescue - are their disappearances linked?
--Will Ron and Harry pass their Apparation tests?
--What about Dumbledore's family? (JKR said in her interview with MuggleNet/TLC that Dumbledore's family would be a "profitable line of inquiry.")
--If Voldemort lost his body at Godric's Hollow, then who retrieved his wand?
--What's behind the locked door in the Department of Mysteries?
--Why did Regulus choose to leave the Death Eaters?
--Will we learn any more about Dumbledore's brother Aberforth? Will he have an important role to play in the book?
--What happened to Dumbledore's wand after his death?
--Who will reinstate the protective barriers around Hogwarts that Dumbledore removed so he and Harry could fly to the tower? Not just anybody could have taken them down or Hogwarts would be constantly attacked. Is Dumbledore the only one who knew how to perform those charms?
--How did Dumbledore know the details of Lord Voldemort's murder of Lily - how LV offered to spare her life and how the charm that protects Harry was formed - if no one else was there to witness it? Was Dumbledore actually there to witness it?
--What happened in the period of time between baby Harry's rescue from the ruins of Godric's Hollow and being left the NEXT DAY at the Dursley's doorstep?
--What were Dumbledore and Snape arguing about that Hagrid overheard at the edge of the forest in HBP? Was it about spying on Draco, or was it something else?
--Where did Snape and Draco go at the end of the sixth book?
--In Chamber of Secrets, Lockhart says that he transformed a werewolf back into a man using the "immensely complex Homorphus Charm." Now we know that Lockhart didn't actually do this, but he did steal the story from another wizard. So, is there a way to cure Lupin?
--Will the giants and goblins take a firmer position about the war? Will they ever choose a side?
--Are we going to see SPEW again? Will the house-elves' rights be improved by the end of the series? And what will become of all of the house-elves that we know so far in the series? Thanks, Roque and Mary Pat
--What happened to Sirius's motorbike while he was in Azkaban? And where is the motorbike now?
--Do we know the whole story behind Dumbledore's hand injury in HBP?
--Assuming Hogwarts stays open, will the curse that Voldemort presumably placed on the DADA position ever be lifted?
--What are the twelve uses of dragon's blood that Dumbledore discovered? Will these discoveries be important to the story in any way?
--Who helped R.A.B. retrieve the locket from the cave? (Dumbledore made it clear that two people were needed to get past Voldemort's enchantments.) And where is the locket now?
--What significance is the fact that Mundungus Fletcher has been stealing things from Grimmauld Place going to have to the plot of the next book? Did he take the locket from Grimmauld Place, and if so, who did he sell it to? Will Mundungus be playing an important part in the next book?
--JKR said that someone will manage magic very late in life in Book 7: who will it be? Filch, perhaps?
--Did Dumbledore have a will or anything equivalent to a will?
--When Snape is about to kill Dumbledore, Dumbledore says, "Severus... Please..." Was Dumbledore asking Snape to kill him or was he asking for mercy?
--What was the potion that Dumbledore had to drink in the cave?
--How did Dumbledore become such an "extraordinary magic user, even at a young age" (a quote from an OWL examiner in OOTP)? Was it just study and hard work, or is there something different about him?
--How will Harry find his parents' home in Godric's Hollow? After all, Wormtail is the secret-keeper, and as far as we know, the only way to find the home would be for Wormtail to tell Harry its location.
--Do we know the full reason that Voldemort decided to try to kill Harry instead of Neville?
--How did Hagrid retrieve Harry from the ruins of his parents' house if he was not told the location by the secret-keeper?
--Now that Dumbledore is dead, who is the secret-keeper of the Order of the Phoenix? Is the spell broken?
--Is there more to the curtain that Sirius fell through in Order of the Phoenix?
--Where did the Potter family's wealth come from?
--Why did Dumbledore give Snape the DADA job if Dumbledore suspected there was a jinx on the position?
--Will Voldemort be angry that Snape killed Dumbledore rather than allowing Draco to do it himself?
--What truly determines whether or not someone becomes a ghost? Is there more to it than what Nearly Headless Nick said there was?
--When Dumbledore is explaining to the Dursleys that the magic protecting Harry will cease to operate on his 17th birthday, each of the Dursleys reactions are given, and the book says that Aunt Petunia "was oddly flushed." What is the significance of her reaction? Does she know something more? Thanks, Kathy

Good job Cloud. >:(
You've made me obsessed with Harry Potter again.

Now I have to split my forum times with the Cellar and www.thesnitch.net.

oh no, blame Jo, not me!

I'm really looking forward to this one. My fingers are starting to itch!!

Actually, what JKR said was that Dumbledore was not going to pull a Gandalf. (The family and I were there) I suspect it comes to the same thing, however.

I'm curious to see how they handle Sirius' "death" in the movie. I've never been convinced of his supposed death, though I won't be surprised if he doesn't show up in the final book.

Just saw the full preview in the theater. Looks cool.

I'm requesting off work the day of release and the day after DUH; so I can talk about it the whole day with friends.

There's confusion here because there are two debuts coming up. OOTP, the movie, and Deathly Hallows, the book. The last book.

yeah, I'm kinda excited. I know what happens in OOTP, of course, but not going to click on any alleged spoiler links.

HOLY CRAP! I'M GONNA SEE THE MIDNITE PREMIERE OF HARRY POTTER 5 IN CHICAGO AT THE NAVY PIER!
Yesterday, me and my girlfriend were in the Jewel parking lot and I was getting ready to go to work but first we were calling to a local pop station Kiss FM 103.5 to win Harry Potter tickets for the premiere Tuesday nite. And, we were the 103rd caller and won! The exact 103, out of like, who knows tens of thousands of callers.

How's them apples.
Prolly the luckiest I'll ever be for 20 years.

Well, hope this thread doesn't die because the movie is decent and the 3D fight scene (at IMAXs) is freakin' sweet. Go watch. Only 7 days til the book YES!!!

Here's Steven King's column on the ending of an era:

http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,2004...044682,00.html

A fine elegy. I kinda hope the salesclerk who rings Stephen King up gives him a hug.

Wow! Congratulations
I say go with the gamblers' fallacy and consider yourself a luck magnet for the next few days.

I'm looking forward to the film, but it will be a while before I can see it due to finances. Doesn't stop me trying to glean hints from the trailers though!

I was so disappointed when I first saw Luna Lovegood in the promotional material. NOPE, I thought, ALL WRONG! But having seen her interviewed, and a couple of clips, I think they were right to go for character rather than sticking strictly to JKR's exact physical description.

I like the look of the thestrals too - very close to what I imagined.

I assume they've ditched quite a few sub-plots in order to fit it all in?
I just hope they got the atmosphere right - the trailers are quite gung-ho, whereas to me the book sank quite deep into repression and Harry's despair before rallying into rebellion.

Looking forward to - Grimmauld Place, Harry writing his lines in blood on his hand, the tea shop scene.

Ibbie, the YouTube was a complete scream!

I saw OOTP over the weekend. It was slower, more introspective, and less bubbly/actiony than earlier ones, true to the feeling of the book, I think.

Great casting of the new characters. Luna Lovegood, Tonks, Bellatrix LaStrange, and Dolores Umbridge all great! The Phelps twins look uncannily like they could be Mark Williams (Arthur Weasley's) real sons.

The acting, characterizations, and emotions were all fantastic. The director did a great job and the young actors have come a long way in their craft.


They left out the swamp, though. :(

And what about that kiss huh.
Great snogging. :D

You would think that nobody ever kissed on screen before.

This kiss?

lots of slash fanart out there--that's a particularly great one!

No the kiss b/w Harry and Cho Chang in that secret training room. And he kissed Luna Lovegood? I don't recall!

As per Cloud's comment, I don't think that's Luna...

Then who the heck is that, Harry's romance only resides with Ginny and Cho.

Look up the definition of "slash fanart". I think it's Draco.

yes, it's Draco. Lots of Harry/Draco and Harry/Snape slash out there.

Never heard of slash fanart. Kinda weird...

LOL! it's mostly slash fanfiction. I.e., stories about popular tv, movie, or other media characters, usually two men, in a romantic relationship.

Saw it twice on Saturday. Once with HLS and her dad, and the second time with HLS and some of her rowing friends. Hated it both times.

Note: I just plain hate Harry Potter in the first place. At the behest of HLS, I will be reading the book the movie is based on.

What's HLS? Sorry you didn't like it. :neutral:
I admit, it was an average but still decent movie in my opinion. But in iMax the 3D part was awesome.
I'm sure you'll like the book more.

They ditched a lot of subplots, tossed in a small bit or two. Umbridge's character came out considerably subtler than the way Rowling wrote her, but that's just fine for older viewers -- Rowling writes her villains with huge flashing neon letters spelling out "V I L L A I N" over their heads.

The movies have all been in their varied ways true to the feeling of the books -- the previous HP movie did a good job of giving the Wizarding world an eldritch feel -- but I like that the books somehow manage a depth the movies never matched. I'd recommend the movies to anyone who's spent the last fifteen years chained facing the walls of the Platonic Muggle cave -- then I'd tell them to read the books for a deeper experience of this world of Harry's.

They call the stuff slash from its first instance: in Star Trek fandom. Some inventive sort started writing Kirk/Spock stories (you can see the slash right there) which start from the assumption that Kirk and Spock are... more than friends.

That artwork looks higher quality than Destiny Interrupted. Slash or not, there is some VERY good HP artwork on the 'Net.

Destiny Interrupted: HP slash fanart, NSFW, yo!