The name of Book 7 Revealed!!

Yeah!!








Of course, the title has been plastered all over the net now, but if you want to play hangman, go to www.jkrowling.com and follow the instructions provided by www.mugglenet.com.











This title is really similar to two titles filed with and later withdrawn from the UK Patent Office. These are "Harry Potter and the Hogharts Hallows" and "Harry Potter and the Hallows of Hogwarts".

Ehwaz

In her Ancient Runes exam, Hermione gets Eihwaz and Ehwaz mixed up.

Eihwaz (or Yr) means "yew", like the wood used in Voldemort's wand, and it stands for defense and flexibility (like Snape's description of the dark arts). More on Eiwaz another time....

Ehwaz (or Eh) means "horse" and stands for movement, gradual growth, teamwork, and trust.

So, not only do we have horse-like creatures directly helping Harry (the centaur Firenze, the hippogriff Buckbeak/Witherwings, and the thestrals) and horse-like creatures that are generally good or helpful (the Abraxan winged horses from Beaubatons, the unicorns in the Forbidden Forest), but also Ron and Hermione. Wait...I know, they're humans, but Ehwaz is often portrayed as a pair of horses that work well as a team and help you acheive your goals. Ron and Hermione are a pair, and they help Harry. They could be viewed as Harry's Ehwaz. And...on McGonagall's chessboard, Ron was the mounted knight.

Ehwaz looks like an upper-case M. It's the same shape found in the body language of Hermione and Ron holding hands.... Ehwaz's polarity is male and female.

Another interpretation of this rune designates Harry as the Ehwaz, the leader of a team (of horses). This works just as well... maybe even better. Harry is working with a team of Ron and Hermione, two creative and highly individual people.

Ehwaz is the 19th rune in the futhark.

The 19th card of the major arcana of the tarot deck is the Sun... a definitely important symbol for Harry.

Next to mad dictators

In Jo's most recent diary entry at www.jkrowling.com, she has specifically mentioned Dan Radcliff's changed theory on Severus Snape. Is she trying to clue us in on a truth Dan has discovered about my favorite character?

I feel the same way about Snape, and I've felt this way for quite some time, but I'd never thought to put it in these (Dan's) words.

I see Snape as someone who doesn't mind being a follower, as long as the leader is reasonable and kind. Between Dumbledore and Voldemort, Snape chooses Dumbledore. Perhaps Snape starts to doubt Dumbledore's sanity, too. Did Dumbledore fear outliving his usefullness?

I also see Snape as someone, like Harry, looking for a father figure. Snape's reasons are a bit different, though, since he had a father growing up. Tobias comes across as the authoritarian, the father who rules with an iron fist. Voldemort is merciless and insane. Dumbledore might have been losing his marbles, too, but he was a softy... maybe too soft.

Interestingly, Snape (in PoA) seems happy beyond reason with the prospect of standing, beaming (well, smirking, probably), next to Fudge. He wants that Order of Merlin so bad. Of course, Fudge isn't mad or a dictator... he's incompetent.

Actually, I'd like Snape to one day receive the coveted Order of Merlin. I just hope that it isn't awarded posthumously.

Boggarts: Who's Affraid of What?

This is mostly for major characters. Some of the fringe characters might become important in Book 7, and even if they don't I find them very interesting.

I've color-coded the names by school house. Cyan is for those I don't know the house of, but I'm assuming that Mr. and Mrs. Weasley are both Gryffindor. I'm also assuming that Narcissa Malfoy was in Slytherin.

Sadly, we don't know the boggarts for most characters....

Harry Potter - dementors (fear itself, according to Lupin), but this could change
Neville Longbottom - Severus Snape, but I hope this changes
Ron Weasley - spiders
Hermione Granger - (academic) failure
Ginny Weasley - ?
Luna Lovegood - ?

Parvati Patil - mummies
Draco Malfoy - ? (perhaps Fenrir Greyback)
Vincent Crabbe - ?
Gregory Goyle - ?
Pansy Parkinson - ?
Blaize Zabini - ?
Theodore Nott - ? (a fringe character, but he interests me....)
Remus Lupin - the full moon
Albus Dumbledore - ? (and he's dead now)
Minerva McGonagall - ?
Molly Weasley - the death of family members and Harry
Arthur Weasley - ?
Alastor Moody - ? (However, he can see boggarts inside desks, etc., and since Lupin says boggarts don't know what form to take until they come out of hiding, can Moody see them in their natural form?)
Sirius Black - ? (and he's dead now)
Nymphadora Tonks - ?
Horace Slughorn - ?
Severus Snape - ? (A really big question right now)
Voldemort/Tom Riddle - (his own) death
Peter Pettigrew - ?
Lucius Malfoy - ?
Bellatrix Lestrange - ?
Narcissa Malfoy - ? (perhaps seeing Draco dead....)
Regulus Black - ? (dead, but I think he'll be important in Book 7....)

Possible Parallels between PoA and Book 7

The parallels between books 2 and 6 are a bit staggering.

CoS: Dumbledore keeps telling Fawkes to die (to be reborn)... to get "it" over with, since he looks so old, tired, and worn out. Fawkes bursts into flames and is reborn.

HBP: Harry starts to see Dumbledore as old, tired, and worn out. Dumbledore sustains an injury, and later he does die...you could say he "gets it over with", too. We see Dumbledore's body engulfed in white flames, and then there is the fleeting image of a phoenix rising from the flames/tomb.

CoS: We have a book (the diary) of unknown origin, belonging to Tom Riddle (someone Harry knows of, but not by that name), passing into the hands of Ginny and Harry. Ginny is possessed and does various horrible things, not knowing what she's doing, etc.
HBP: We have a book (the potions book) of unknown origin, belonging to the HBP (someone Harry knows of, but not by that nickname), passing into the hands of Harry. He's not possessed, but he's accused of obsession, and he does things without understanding them (levicorpus, sectumsempra, etc.).

CoS: Harry finds out he's a Parselmouth and people think he might be the heir of Slytherin. Snape looks at him rather calculating after the incident with talking to the snake, like he had underestimated Harry.

HBP: Harry finds out he can make potions afterall (to Snape's surprise) and Slughorn claims he's as good at potions as Lily was... even supposedly better than Snape. Snape says he has underestimated Harry after the Sectumsempra incident.

CoS: Harry's tailing/spying on Draco because he thinks Draco has something to do with the opening of the CoS. Later finds out Lucius was behind planting the book.

HBP: Harry's tailing Draco because he's sure Draco is up to something, finds out Draco was behind the opal necklace, the poisoned sherry (or was it mead?), and behind letting DE's into the castle. This is Draco's punishment for Lucius's screwups....

CoS: Harry destroys the diary horcrux, not knowing that's what it was.

HBP: Harry finds a fake horcrux. Is the real one (the locket horcrux) still intact or has it already been destroyed?

The Parallels between books 3 and 7 could also be quite strong....

PoA: Harry (and Hermione) travels back in time trying to save at least one life...saves Sirius, Buckbeak, and himself.

Book 7: Harry (possibly with Ron and Hermione, but he'll probably go into the house by himself) travels back in time, trying to save his parents? He saves neither parent, but the baby Harry, of course, survives and gets that scar.

PoA: Harry thinks he sees his father conjuring a Patronus but later realizes it's a future Harry he's seeing. That allows him to conjur the Patronus when he needs to, since he's seen himself doing it.

Book 7: Baby Harry hears a noise but can't determine who's making it. Pensieve Harry thinks he's seeing his father under the Invisibility cloak, but then realizes it's a future Harry? This prompts Harry to do exactly what he saw himself do in the memory?

PoA: Harry leaves the cloak where Snape finds and uses it in order to sneak into the Shrieking shack.

Book 7: James happens to leave the cloak out (lying around the house somewhere) where Harry finds it in order to hide and watch the attack in the Potter house?

PoA: Everyone thinks Sirius Black was the spy and is in league with Voldemort, but he's innocent. Sirius, however, feels partially to blame for their deaths (James and Lily). Wormtail turns out to be the traitor but now owes a Life Debt to Harry.

Book 7: Everyone knows Snape is a spy and thinks he's in league with Voldemort, but/and ____? Is there another traitor? Will Snape prove to be a traitor afterall, or are we to see him redeem himself at the last moment? Snape feels partially to blame for their deaths (James and Lily). Wormtail repays his Life Debt to Harry.

PoA: When Harry confronts Sirius in the Shrieking Shack he temporarily forgets that he's wandless and he's underage. In his anger (based on his love for friends and family) He rushes toward Sirius and attacks him bare-handed.

In OotP we finally get to read the prophesy and the wording says "hand", not wand.

Book 7: What if, during the final confrontation with Voldemort, Harry ends up wandless (or he decides not to use it, since they have brother wands) and then...he forgets he's "weaker", forgets that it would be stupid to physically attack Voldemort...and he attacks Voldemort with his bare hands. Harry actually kills Voldemort without a wand...?

And of course:

PoA: Wormtail fulfills Trelawney's prophesy about the servant returning to his master.

Book 7: Harry and Voldemort fulfill Trelawney's prophesy about them.