To the person who posted under the name of jesus: Harry Potter is full of "the good and honest principles of Christianity"! By reading Harry Potter through the lens of Christianity, any alert follower of Jesus should recognize the basic elements of our faith: Repentance (read what was suggested on page 103 about how Voldemort could be saved--or in Ron’s words "put back together"--if he felt remorse for killing so many people) Redemption (the Malfoys turned away from following Voldemort in the end--"huddled together [at the post-battle celebration/mourning] as though unsure whether or not they were supposed to be there") And most of all, throughout every single book: the power of self-sacrificial love (the heart of what Jesus--and Harry and Lily--teaches us). It seems to me that rather than turning people off of Jesus and Christianity by throwing "hate-bombs" at Harry Potter, a person could try reading the books looking for ways to use scenes from them to teach people about God’s self-sacrifical love for us, as shown by Jesus. Look at Harry’s statement to Voldemort on page 738, for example: "I was ready to die to stop you from hurting these people...I’ve done what my mother did. They’re protected from you. Haven’t you noticed how none of the spells you put on them are binding? You can’t torture them. You can’t touch them." Through his self-sacrificial death, Jesus essentially said to the powers of evil in our world: "I died to stop you from hurting these people. They’re protected from you. Haven’t you noticed? Nothing you do to them is binding. You can’t touch them." Actually, before Book 7 was even published, I knew JKR was going to have Harry offer himself as a sacrifice to rid the world of Voldemort. I also wondered if she might somehow allow Harry’s sacrifice to save Voldemort from himself, simply because the Christian theme of self-sacrifice was so present. There certainly was a moment at the bottom of page 741 where Harry offered the option of remorseful repentance to Voldemort (knowing full well that it might "save" the man who killed his parents and many of his friends). But I don’t know if the world is open to that kind of radical ending, just like some Christians still aren’t open to the reality of Jesus’ radical love. Most of us would rather see "the bad guys get what they deserve" (retribution) rather than be saved from their own evil ways (redemption). Sorry about the sermon, but people who put down Harry Potter in the name of Christianity really bug me! Especially when it seems they haven’t even read the books...   posted Aug 1, 2007 at 12:57AM

If you haven’t finished the book, don’t read any further! I’ve just re-read the last few chapters, because the debate about the "small, naked flayed child under the bench" has gotten hot and heavy during all the discussions I’ve been in. (Talk about an ice-breaker! I was at a family reunion and the most lively group contained people of all ages who had never met each other--discussing Book 7!) In the King’s Cross chapter (p. 722), Dumbledore says to Harry: "...you have less to fear from returning here than he (Voldemort) does." A couple of pages later, in "The Flaw in the Plan" (p. 725), Harry wonders if Voldemort had collapsed too, and that it seemed that both of them had fallen briefly unconscious and both of them had now returned... It seems from these excerpts that the small red creature at King’s Cross station is, in fact, Voldemort himself. Regarding why Teddy didn’t live with Harry and Hermione: It would seem unlikely that 17-year-old Harry would be capable of caring for a baby. I think the comment about Teddy (who would be about 20 years old in the epilogue) snogging Victoire was our clue as to who had actually raised him. Victoire is a French name, so it seems likely that she is the daughter of Bill and Fleur, who might also have been the ones to raise Teddy (who if he then married Victoire would "really be part of the family then"). However, JKR makes it clear that Harry has been closely involved in Teddy’s life ("he already comes round for dinner about four times a week...") Bee: I’m with you. The day after I finished reading the book, all the losses started becoming "real." My 14-year-old daughter thought I was nuts because I kept saying "I can’t believe Fred is dead!" Regarding the epilogue. JKR had (has?) deep concerns that another writer or writers would try to write additional Harry Potter stories. She has remarked that other classic series have had that happen, with results that disappointed her. I believe she killed off so many characters and wrote the epilogue the way she did to prevent anyone from writing any more Harry Potter stories. Now that everyone in my family has finally read the book (and my daughter has re-read it), I think I’m going to have to re-read it again myself!   posted Jul 31, 2007 at 11:22PM

To red-aphid: The small naked flayed creature under the bench bears an uncanny resemblance to what Voldemort looked like in Chapter 32 of Book 4: "the shape of a crouched human child, hairless and scaly-looking, a dark, raw, reddish-black. It’s arms and legs were thin and feeble..." I guess you have to draw your own conclusions...   posted Jul 25, 2007 at 12:45PM

I assume anyone who is reading this has already read the final book and won’t have it spoiled by my comments. JK Rowling has written a book, that while not as "fun" as some of the previous Potter books (I loved Book 3 for that), has given us all food for thought in our lives. People’s motives are not always what we think (Snape’s love for Lily), the humble can be heros (Dobby and Neville), a little sympathetic understanding can turn a person around (Kreacher), take time to ask our parents and grandparents about themselves and their lives (Harry’s regrets re Dumbledore, broken friendships can be mended (Ron), everyone has flaws, so be careful how much we worship our heros (Dumbledore), the two-edged sword that is "the greater good," redemption is always possible (Dumbledore’s statement that even Lord V could survive the division of his soul through true recognition and repentance of what he had done), the power of love, loyalty and innocence, and so much more. My only wish is that she had revealed more background history of the wizarding world, especially how house-elves came to be enslaved by wizards. I truly hope that she eventually publishes or releases on the Internet some kind of "encyclopedia to the world of Harry Potter" because I suspect that she has reams and reams of notes and material that never made it into the book, and it would be better for her to do it than let that get into the hands of someone else or have it destroyed without sharing it with HP fans.   posted Jul 24, 2007 at 9:17AM