OK, Hab - give me the question, then! I'm eager to discuss the book with anyone who's finished it!

WARNING TO ALL: THERE WILL BE SPOILERS IN THIS THREAD!

OK, then, I KNOW others have finished the book - what are your favorite parts/surprises?

Okey-doke:

Question one:

Remember Kreacher's story?

HWMNBN required a house-elf, and Regulus volunteered him Kreacher. He was forced to test-drink the infamous potion that did for Dumbledore, then HWMNBN dropped in the Horcrux, poured in more potion, and left.

A year later a changed Regulus came to Kreacher and with his help went to the island where the Horcrux was, gave Kreacher a substitute Horcrux and instructed him to drop it in the empty basin after taking the real one...and then Regulus drank the potion from the basin, was thirsty, drank from the lake and was dragged under by the Inferi, leaving Kreacher holding the bag with the real Horcrux in it after he made the switch, as it were. K eventually returned to Grimaud Place, said nothing about the matter to anyone in the family (as instructed), and stashed the real locket in the wardrobe, whence it continued is peregrinations.

Did I get it right so far?

So: how did the basin get more Potion in it for Dumbledore to drink when he and Harry eventually got there in Book 6? I didn't see anyone refill the basin...


Question Two: In the Epilogue, the kids' names are basically derivative. (All right, I'll give you Scorpius Malfoy - that requires no explanation!) Harry&Ginny have exactly three children, James and Lily and Albus Severus. Ron&Hermione have at least Rose and her younger brother Hugo. Is there an earlier character named Rose or Hugo?

Then there's Ted Lupin, snogging Victoire - we know his provenence, but who she? Another of Ron/Hermione's maybe, named after Krum, but...they called her a cousin? Or do they all just have a very flexible definition of family relationships? And then, how old is "our" Victoire? Teddy is nineteen at least, and ought to have graduated Hogwarts entirely by now.

That'll do for starters...

Hab,
Two very good questions.

I have no idea about the potion - I would guess it is just a mistake. I'm going to talk about this with my husband, though, and see what he thinks.

I think Victoire must be Bill and Fleur's child. Probably conceived sometime during or around the victory over HWMNBN.

Just came up with that thought too. Victoire, a French name, being Fleur and Bill's child makes sense. Also makes her a bona fide cousin.

Next question: Why "Nineteen years later"? Is there something special about nineteen? (I haven't seen much that JKR did arbitrarily...)

[Also found one typo ("sucess" on p 5) and two places where she meant one thing and used clearly the wrong word (e.g. "attain" for "obtain" on p 15) which I shall superciliously ignore.]

quote: Is there an earlier character named Rose or Hugo?
I don't believe so, nor do I recall any significant rose (the flower).

p. 267, at last line of chapter: "a vicelike grip" rather than viselike.

It's late, and I'm going to bed. I shall now take my wife in a vicelike grip.

quote: Regulus drank the potion from the basin, ... So: how did the basin get more Potion in it for Dumbledore to drink when he and Harry eventually got there in Book 6? I didn't see anyone refill the basin...

1) It doesn't say that Regulus drank all the potion. A basin holds more than the volume one would ordinarily drink.

2) As you said, you didn't see anyone refill the basin. That in no way implies that it didn't happen while you weren't watching. Indeed, the basin must be periodically refilled (or be self-refilling), for otherwise it would eventually empty due to evaporative loss.

Well, let's talk about the 19 . . .

You have to be 11 to go to Hogwarts. Assuming things were just starting with Ron and Hermione . . . and with Harry and Ginny, they'd need time to recover from the war and get settled and preggers and so forth. And obviously Jo wanted us to see whole families, not just the first siblings to go, right? So, it would take a while, and 20 years would be too normal of a number.

As long as we're talking about the last chapter:

Harry and Ginnie have three children, all of whom are named for people important in Harry's life; none for Ginnie's. (In fact, the one middle-name we know is also from Harry.) Does this strike you as the typical intra-marital negotiation and compromise? I'd hate to think of Ginny being such a mouse.

Oh, but James and Lilly were huge figures in the entire wizarding world, not just Harry's life. Also, with Ginny's parents still being alive, it is less likely they'd have chosen those names, right?

I would have liked to have seen a Nymphadora, though.

And did you see - she gave an absolute time-reference for the series.

James and Lily were born in 1960 [Lily was the older of the two] and died on October 31, 1981. Harry had already had his first birthday, thus was born in 1980. The story takes place between 1991 and 1998, 2017 if you include the epilogue.

I was reading it so quickly for the plot that I missed a lot of details. I'm going to have to read it again to keep up with you, Hab!

Here's what I want to know: what's the veil that Sirius fell thru? Why does no one want to talk about it? I was sure it be addressed by the end of the series. What are they all afraid of?

I think, since it is in the hall of mysteries, that it is a portal directly into death or something like that. Dark Magic, for sure. It is a good question, though, that hopefully will one day get answered better than I've done.