I love you, Alfonso!

[piasharn]

"For instance, Professor Lupin, played by David Thewlis. We said he was your favourite gay uncle who does smack."

--Alfonso Cuaron (from this interview)

In other (HP-related) news, the title of book six has been officially released... Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince.

The aforementioned Prince, however, is neither Harry nor Voldemort. Apparently, some of the information (along with the title) in this book almost went into Chamber of Secrets. CoS also holds key clues to the ultimate outcome of the series.

I've started rereading the books from start to finish in an effort to make some educated guesses about the next two novels. I'm already amazed at the clues that I missed the first time around. For example, JKR seems to have been hinting at Snape's Occlumency abilities since the first volume.

Speaking of clues, I've been trying to figure out what the inadvertant foreshadowing in the PoA movie is.

Bear with me here... I'm going to ramble quite a bit.

I actually have a few ideas, but the one I keep coming back to is (controlled) wandless magic. The 'controlled' part is key. We've seen plenty of uncontrolled incidents before... Harry makes his hair grow back after his Aunt Petunia cuts it all off, gets to the roof of his (muggle) school to escape Dudley's gang, shrinks an old sweater of Dudley's when he doesn't want to wear it, makes the glass of a snake cage vanish, and inflates his Aunt Marge.

These sorts of incidents don't seem to be all that uncommon amoung wizards. However, they are, as I mentioned, beyond the control of the witch or wizard and often occur from a stong emotion like fear or anger. This, then, is the purpose of wands in JKR's universe: to focus the magical ability of the witch or wizard into something that s/he can consciously use.

So far, the series has implied that controlled wandless magic (CWM from here on, 'cause I'm lazy like that.) is impossible. The PoA movie (And a couple of instances in the books. I'll get to these in a minute) would suggest otherwise.

In the movie, we get a handful of cases of CWM. Dumbledore exstinguishes and relights a candle with a wave of his hand during his speech at the feast. As Harry is falling during the Quiddich match, Dumbledore stops his plunge by merely pointing his finger. And he's not the only one. Lupin relights the candles in the Astronomy tower during Harry's Patronus lesson, as well as unlocking the chest containing the boggart-dementor with a mere wave of his hand.

Now then, I find it very interesting that the CWM in the movie is from these two characters. Why? Well, if anyone could do CWM, Dumbledore is undoubtably one of them. He is, after all, the most powerful wizard alive. And Lupin? Well, he uses CMW in the books.

There was a soft, crackling noise, and a shivering light filled the compartment. Professor Lupin appeared to be holding a handful of flames.

--PoA, page 83 (U.S. paperback edition)

(This scene, incidentally, has been driving me nuts for a long time.) He didn't use his wand, though, because later...

"And Professor Lupin stepped over you, and walked towards the dementor, and pulled out his wand," said Hermione..."

--PoA, page 85 (U.S. paperback edition)

See, he didn't pull out his wand until after Harry passed out. Just a Flint, or something more? I'm going with the latter, because we get this tidbit in OotP...

"Wand!" Harry muttered frantically, his hands flying over the ground like spiders. "Where's - wand - come on - Lumos!"

He said the spell automatically, desperate for light to help him in his search - and to his disbelieving relief, light flared inches from his right hand - the wand tip had ignited.

--OotP, page 17 (U.S. hardcover edition)

I think that there's something more going on here.

Oh, but I'm not done yet! Although this is it for the CWM in the series, I think there is one more important thing to discuss. Namely, why CWM could be crucial to the series.

"So what happens when a wand meets it's brother?" said Sirius.

"They will not work properly against each other," said Dumbledore.

--GoF, page 697 (U.S. paperback edition)

Harry's wand and Voldemort's wand both contain a phoenix feather donated by Fawkes. As we saw at the end of GoF, this causes problems when their owners attempted to duel.

If Harry cannot fight Voldemort properly with his wand, how is he supposed to defeat him? CWM perhaps?

I've got a couple more theories. If anyone's interested, I'll post them later.

Yes, I've been obsessed with the HP series lately. Political issues still make me want to vomit, and it's not like I have a life or anything.

Comments

[erythros.livejournal.com]

*jaw drops* So, am I totally lame for not picking up on this, ever?

YES PLEASE post more theories! I am FASCINATED.

*glomp*

Political issues are vomit-worthy. I'm writing in "Kermit the Frog" on my ballot.

t¬

[forthrysmian.livejournal.com]

"For instance, Professor Lupin, played by David Thewlis. We said he was your favourite gay uncle who does smack."

*screams with laughter* Why, oh why, is this guy not doing the fourth film? And the fifth and sixth and seventh (and heck, why not an eighth)?

Wandless magic? Definitely a possibility. Or perhaps Harry just intends to poke Voldemort's eye out.

O

[dawndancer.livejournal.com]

Awed! I had never thought of any of those, especially the fact that Harry can't duel effectivly against Voldemort with a wand. Over here we have been obsessing over Snape and does he really hate Lily as much as James.