Just finished the 5th Harry potter book

[avram]

OK, better than the 4th one, but...

...if I ever find myself in a world full of wizards, and somebody hands me a magic item and tells me not to look at it right away, I’m at the very least going to ask what it does and how it works, and if I don’t get a straight answer, I’m gonna smack the guy right in the fucking head.

And if someone I’m fond of ever vanishes through a mysterious magical arch, I’m about 99% certain that I’ll ask “So what is that arch thing, anyway? What does it do? Where do people go if they fall through it, and what happens if you use a pole to shove the veils aside and shine a flashlight into it?”. Or maybe torch instead of flashlight if I’m British.

Man, that’s just frustrating.

Comments

[negativeq.livejournal.com]

What I don't get is why Harry didn't tie, say, Lucius Malfoy up, shove him through the arch with the end of the rope fastened to a pillar, and see what happens. That would be a simple experiment to determine if a living being passing through the mysterious arch actually perishes. Unethical yes, but how else would you find out in a pinch?

I too, couldn't understand why no one took the time to explain what the arch was (even if it is easy to infer, it would make sense for harry to ask ANYWAY). And Harry instantly realize Sirius was dead simply because he didn't bounce back was hard to swallow as well.

[chanaleh.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I'm waiting for Sirius to make a dramatic reappearance. Maybe in Book 7 rather than 6, but still.

(When Harry turned up the mirror at the end of the book, and found out what it was for, I fully expected him to start kicking himself up one side and down the other: "The entire tragic climactic battle scene could have been avoided if I just hadn't been so pigheaded about refusing to check out this magical artifact!" Instead, he went off on that whole other tangent about ghosts. Ah, well, plot exigencies and all that.

[drcpunk.livejournal.com]

Yeah, the mirror bit is really annoying. As for the arch thing, mnemex also thinks Sirius may be back. I dunno.

I do know it'd have been hard for her to kill off someone I cared less about. I cared about Sirius in book 3. Here, he was a bit of a sulky jerk. Understandable, and it might have still worked. After all, he's very important to Harry. And I've found it a major saving grace that Harry is no saint, but an ordinary kid, with sulks and tantrums.

Trouble is, there were 700 pages of that here, and I really didn't care about Harry. Ah well. At least I'm done with the book and no longer have to hum Really Loudly when folks are talking about it.