Amph Lingering questions from Harry Potter...

Does anybody still have unanswered questions from the Harry Potter book series?


I thought of one (well, really three) the other day, and I didn't see any open Harry Potter threads, so I thought I'd start a new one focused on unanswered questions.

Maybe by discussing, some of us will find out that they have been answered? If not, this thread will make a good checklist of things we want JK Rowling to answer in the Encyclopedia!


Here's mine...

What would Hermione, Luna, and Ginny have seen if they looked into the Mirror of Erised?

 

I've wondered about how Sirius died. From what I remember, no one ever seems to say what exactly caused his death. OK, he went behind a veil.. and..? What the heck happened? What is that veil about?

I also question why many girls like Malfoy and Snape so much. Uggghh.

 

Well, the Veil was confirmed to be the gateway to the world of the dead, so anyone who passed through it instantly died.

 

Yeah, I think the Veil is fairly well explained.

As for the mirror... I'm not sure there's really enough in the series to answer what Hermione, Ginny, and Luna would have seen - especially Luna and (to a lesser extent) Ginny. Even had Harry not actually looked in it, we get enough from his point of view to be able to figure out what he really wanted - there are what, 6 chapters in the entire series that aren't from Harry's viewpoint? (that's an estimate, so I may be off - either way, though, its not many). At least Hermione is frequently around... but we never get into her head like we get into Harry's. We can go through things she (and Ginny and Luna) want, but the most desperate desires of their hearts? Too difficult to say.

And clearly, girls like the bad boys for some unexplainable reason

 

It was? I don't remember that. It didn't seem to be explained in Phoenix at least.

 

In the book, Luna says she could hear those who were "on the other side."

The only real lingering question is, why did Hagrid wait a full day to deliver the infant Harry to the Dursleys' house? Where did he go during that time?

 

There are a ton of questions left over, some of them JK has answered but there are a ton that haven't.

Name any of Harry's Grandparents. Name Hermione's parents. You can't because JK hasn't addressed either question (though I don't think she's been asked).

About the first question, it depends on what age they look into it. Hermione in first year would probably see a big library with her surrounded by friends, Ginny would see herself on the arm of the great Boy-Who-Lived, and Luna would probably be doing something with her mom and dad.

 

Even though it would probably be repulsive, ever since JK Rowling said that describing

-how Wormtail created Voldemort's baby-like body between books 3 & 4

-how a Horcrux is created

were the two things she didn't reveal in the books because they caused herself and her editor to become physically sick, (and saying the creation of a Horcrux even horrified Voldemort), I've wondered what they were, and if she would reveal it in the Encyclopedia.

As for how Wormtail created Voldemort's baby-like body just before GOBLET OF FIRE, I've heard a theory which makes sense, that Bertha Jorkins was either pregnant when found by Wormtail or made to be pregnant by him, and after she died they used the fetus for Voldemort to possess.

Which owuld explain why Rowling thought it was too horrible to write about...

 

The purpose of the veil is never actually explained, but we know from Dumbledore that room the veil is housed in is called the Chamber of Death, so on that basis, I think we can we at least guess at what the veil does.

 

I'd like to know what happened to all of Harry's grandparents.

 

I think I would, too. I mean, they'd all have to be dead when Lily and James are killed - otherwise, either set would have been better candidates to raise Harry than the Dursleys (and grandparents wouldn't have stood for the way they treated him). But Lily and James were 21 when they were killed, so they both must have lost their parents young.

 

Sirius ran away to Potters when he was 16. Something awful must have happened in those five years for all four to be dead. Voldemort or the Death Eaters could have gotten to James's parents to try to find him and Lily. I don't know about Lily's, though. If they went after her's for the same reason, wouldn't they have gotten Petunia?

I'd also like to ask Rowling why she made the Potters so young when they died. Doesn't seem like they had much time to irritate Voldemort.

 

Right. I can see the Potters being killed fighting or some other Voldemort-reltaed way. But I feel like if Lily's parents were killed by wizards, Petunia would have a lot more extra hate, which makes me think it was non-magical.

Mostly it feels like she just purposely avoided mentioning the grandparents except once each - in etunia's PS/SS rant about her parents being proud of Lily, and Sirius's OotP conversation about running away to the Potters', then having Sunday bunch over there.

 

There really isn't much mention of the grandparents of the kids in the story at all. There are the mentions you references about the Potter and Evans grandparents, but apart from that, there is one mention of Abraxus Malfoy, Draco's paternal grandfather, in HBP. And there was also Sirius talking about the Black family tree, but again, that only gets a brief mention.

 

Here's a question, and it's something small but I've wondered about it for some time, it's about a part in the first book. In the Sorting Hat chapter, it says '"Thomas, Dean," a Black boy even taller than Ron'. Why is the b in black capitalized?

 

Editing typo? It happens.

Interestingly, that description isn't in the Philosopher's Stone, guess it must be one of the things put back in for the Sorcerer's Stone edition.

I don't really have lingering questions about the HP series. I felt that everything was explained that needed to be explained and I like my fantasy worlds that leave things to the imagination. I don't really want to know every single little detail, it somehow takes the fun out of it. Some things are better without specific answers.

 

I'd guess because it's typed that way sometimes, depending on what style you use.

 

But Lily and James were 21 when they were killed, so they both must have lost their parents young.

I think Rowling has said that James's parents were older when they had him, so I suppose it's possible that they died in the years between his graduation from Hogwarts and his own death.

I'd like to know how the Marauder's Map came to be in Harry's possession. We know that James, Sirius, Remus and Peter created it. We know that Fred and George stole it from Filch's office, and then gave it to Harry. How did Filch come to possess it? And if Fred and George had to steal it from him their first year, and no one was around to explain to them how it worked, how did they figure it out?

 

Filch likely confiscated it from someone in the intervening years. And as the books have shown, Fred and George are geniuses when it comes to figuring out how magical things work.

 

Yeah, I'd imagine that the Marauders left it there - since they wouldn't have a use for it after they left - and either gave it to someone or left it for someone else to cause havoc with. And, like timmoishere said, Filch confiscated it, probably not knowing exactly what it was or how to work it.

 

Yes, I feel this way too. Like the entire Epilogue was TMI.

 

That's a good way to describe it. 'I've had enough trouble to last a lifetime', The End. A better way to end it than the whole after-story 'everyone you thought would get together got together, had kids with atrocious names, and lived happily ever after in Hogwarts'.

 

Did JKR just get bored when it came to naming the kids? Here's the ultimate questions: Albus Severus? Really?

 

Car crash?

 

I thought Scorpio took the cake. Even Hugo is kind of..