Start of term, and Harry Potter
So, the term started again yesterday. This year I'll be taking a linguistics course which is required if I'm going to write my Masters thesis in linguistics, as well as a literature course - political/religious/gender issues during the 1550-1660's, and how they relate to today's situation. Fun!
Also, I had a thought about Harry Potter. Spoilers for Deathly Hallows beneath the cut.
J.K.Rowling said in an interview that she was supposed to kill off Arthur Weasley, but couldn't bear to do it, so she killed another father instead. At first, I thought she meant Remus Lupin. However, that doesn't seem to fit - it's way too symmetrical that all the Marauders die for it to have been an afterthought.
I think the father she killed off instead was Ted Tonks.
Which leaves me feeling very sorry for Andromeda Tonks. First, she looses her entire family when she marries her husband. One cousin dies, the other cousin and her sister end up in Azkaban. Her imprisoned cousin (who calls her his favourite, so I'm guessing they were close) escapes and turns out to have been innocent (I'm also guessing that her daughter told her that), only to die. And later, her husband, daughter and son-in-law all die. So does her sister (but I'm not sure she'd grieve for Bellatrix. I dare say Bella already was dead in her eyes, but I know too little of Andromeda to be sure).
Sure, she now has her grandson, but still. Andromeda really got a raw deal.
I'm fascinated by Andromeda Black Tonks. A woman from the most fanatical pureblood family in Britain, who married a Muggle-born (while she was very young - I've done the math, and I think she was only twenty when Nymphadora was born), and had a daughter who became an auror and married a werewolf. In my long and complicated denial!fic (where Sirius was cleared in Harry's third year, and so is alive, dammit! And so are Remus and Tonks and Ted), Andromeda plays a very important role.
Also, I have this uncomfortable idea that half the reason Bellatrix hated Sirius was that he was nine years younger than her, so she'd have to wait until she was twenty-six until he came of age, and so had to marry Rodolphus Lestrange before she could marry her cousin. Rowling has stated in an interview that Bellatrix never actually loved her husband, his blood was just "pure" enough for marriage. Bellatrix seems a lot like her aunt Walburga (Sirius' mother). I wouldn't be surprised if she wanted to be matriarch of the "purest" of the wizarding families herself. (Hey, it worked for her aunt. What, you didn't know that Sirius and Regulus' parents were second cousins?)
For a vaguely related reason, I can never see Sirius in a relationship with someone he's even distantly related to. Which leaves...hmmmm...Muggles and Muggle-borns. Yeah, that would have gone over well with his parents.
Also, I had a thought about Harry Potter. Spoilers for Deathly Hallows beneath the cut.
J.K.Rowling said in an interview that she was supposed to kill off Arthur Weasley, but couldn't bear to do it, so she killed another father instead. At first, I thought she meant Remus Lupin. However, that doesn't seem to fit - it's way too symmetrical that all the Marauders die for it to have been an afterthought.
I think the father she killed off instead was Ted Tonks.
Which leaves me feeling very sorry for Andromeda Tonks. First, she looses her entire family when she marries her husband. One cousin dies, the other cousin and her sister end up in Azkaban. Her imprisoned cousin (who calls her his favourite, so I'm guessing they were close) escapes and turns out to have been innocent (I'm also guessing that her daughter told her that), only to die. And later, her husband, daughter and son-in-law all die. So does her sister (but I'm not sure she'd grieve for Bellatrix. I dare say Bella already was dead in her eyes, but I know too little of Andromeda to be sure).
Sure, she now has her grandson, but still. Andromeda really got a raw deal.
I'm fascinated by Andromeda Black Tonks. A woman from the most fanatical pureblood family in Britain, who married a Muggle-born (while she was very young - I've done the math, and I think she was only twenty when Nymphadora was born), and had a daughter who became an auror and married a werewolf. In my long and complicated denial!fic (where Sirius was cleared in Harry's third year, and so is alive, dammit! And so are Remus and Tonks and Ted), Andromeda plays a very important role.
Also, I have this uncomfortable idea that half the reason Bellatrix hated Sirius was that he was nine years younger than her, so she'd have to wait until she was twenty-six until he came of age, and so had to marry Rodolphus Lestrange before she could marry her cousin. Rowling has stated in an interview that Bellatrix never actually loved her husband, his blood was just "pure" enough for marriage. Bellatrix seems a lot like her aunt Walburga (Sirius' mother). I wouldn't be surprised if she wanted to be matriarch of the "purest" of the wizarding families herself. (Hey, it worked for her aunt. What, you didn't know that Sirius and Regulus' parents were second cousins?)
For a vaguely related reason, I can never see Sirius in a relationship with someone he's even distantly related to. Which leaves...hmmmm...Muggles and Muggle-borns. Yeah, that would have gone over well with his parents.