I think I’ll have to answer the second part of your comment in a separate post…

i kinda get what you’re saying about the series being less fun, except that harry’s parents are brutally murdered in the beginning of the 1st book. sure, we don’t see it & we’re not that invested in them as characters, but it’s a pretty not fun way to start the series. & harry is abused by his foster family his whole childhood. to me, the stage for impending darkness & doom was set right from the start. not to mention that voldemort tries to kill him in every book.

rather than saying less fun, it seems to me that it is less innocent and isn’t childhood kind of like that? as you learn more & become more mature, innocence wanes, and you end up with a different kind of fun.

certainly kudos to j.k. for creating a fully realized all-encompassing world. & kudos for you for being sucked right into it. otherwise, what’s the point of reading?

yeah, i called you a sucker. takes one to know one.

On that note, I started to wonder last night about my feelings toward the series. By the end of Book 5, I get pretty heartbroken. It’s still good, mind you, but the series becomes a little less… fun. Perhaps it is just testimony to J.K. Rowling’s successful creation of this other world that it can make me so emotional.

he’s slippery either way he goes.

at what point will your other readers tell us to get a room?

I guess I can let this one go by as just literary license or whatever, but… if Voldemort is back at Hogwarts via Quirrell’s host body, why doesn’t V. reveal himself to Snape?

Maybe you’re right that the Snape/Quirrell thing isn’t that much of a stumbling block. I hadn’t thought of it in terms of Snape not helping Q. steal the stone—since obviously he doesn’t know V. is back—but more in terms of Snape seeming to be clearly loyal to Dumbledore. And we know from Goblet of Fire that V. doesn’t take kindly to the Death Eaters who tried to excuse themselves by saying, “but we didn’t know you were back!”

So I guess I just find Snape more puzzling than ever. He seems to get the benefit of the doubt both from Voldemort and from Dumbledore.

since snape didn’t know that quirrel was working with or enchanted by or taken over by voldemort, there’s no reason that he would have helped quirrel steal the stone. i think that he could easily have told voldemort that he would have helped had he known, but by the time he knew, it was too late. this is sounding familiar to me. maybe he says something like this to bellatrix, as well?

either way, i don’t think it’s that big of a stumbling block. snape admits to bellatrix that he didn’t believe the dark lord was returning & since he was still at hogwarts under the guise of ex-death eater, he would have stuck to his cover.

i need to complain AGAIN about something from the movies that just isn’t translated very well from the books. it’s a little thing, really, but also super important: the way that none of the characters flinch when harry says voldemort’s name. & the way that other people say his name rather than dark lord. it sucks.

we don’t know what snape says to voldemort when he returns to him at the end of goblet of fire to prove his loyalty. he tells bellatrix at the beginning of half blood prince that he admitted to voldemort that he remained at hogwarts because he thought voldemort was gone, for which he was ashamed. & that voldemort forgave him because he trusted his loyalty & was still useful as a spy at hogwarts. in fact, he had all those years so very close to dumbledore & so much information to share.

my heart says that snape is friend. i think it’s way more interesting than foe & i can’t bring myself to believe that dumbledore could be that wrong about someone. but, i gotta admit: i’m skeered he’s foe.