One bit in the memory of Voldemort's job interview that has always bothered me is Dumbledore's statement that he knows which Death Eaters are waiting at the Hog's Head because he's friendly with the local barman. Voldemort has just returned to Britain, no doubt planning terrible things...and Dumbledore immediately outs his brother as a spy? WTF? ( Read more... )

Over the years, we've speculated that Dumbledore tacitly approved of and possibly encouraged the Marauders' bullying for various reasons--indifference (whether clueless or callous), a liking for charming bad boys, a liking for chaos generally, as part of a plan to earn their loyalty and prepare them as fighters for the Order of the Phoenix, a ( Read more... )

Thanks to torchedsong for bringing up the topic of character complexity (or the destruction thereof). JKR's desperate attempts to force characters that had grown beyond her control back into simpler, Really Good vs. Really Bad boxes in DH always gets me thinking ( Read more... )

There really is nothing like re-reading these books while looking from the adult characters' perspectives. Harry's first Thursday back at school in PoA is an interesting case.( Nothing suspicious at all here. Move along. )

An idea sparked by Oryx's "Appendix B" post on the Order of the Phoenix during VoldWar I ( Read more... )