true but it would be obv he got killed by the killing curse then. Which nothing in the maze would do though?

It may have been obvious. But, that doesn't imply that Voldemort had returned.

Harry's death would have been a mystery. That would have suited Voldemort very well.

true, good point.

I feel much better now

I just finished and was very satisfied with the book. Probably my favorite of the whole series. I have one beef with the series that isn't even that big a deal but still bothers me.

Was there anything unique about Lily Potter sacrificing herself to protect Harry? Surely she wasn't the only person who ever sacrificed themselves to Voldemort to protect someone else. How come no one else has this powerful magical protection? And you know how Dumbledore always has explanations for Harry's repeated survival against seemingly certain death? Those explanations were kinda lame IMO. They always involved his mother's sacrifice or his ability to love or Harry's blood or Voldemort's soul inside Harry, etc. It felt like these explanations were kinda pulled out of someone's ass.

Aside from that, I thought the series was excellent. I will probably be rereading the whole series soon. Maybe I'll be able to answer my own question if I see something I missed.

If you die from AK, you just look dead. There's no green smoking hole in your face. They would have blamed it on Krum probably.

(Although the DE's would have been called meaning Snape would know)

Yes, Snape would know. Whether he stays loyal to Dumbledore or joins Voldemort after Harry's death is pure speculation.

However, we should be looking at this from Voldemort's perspective. Voldemort never knew Snape was loyal to Dumbledore. So, Voldemort has little reason to believe Dumbledore would know immediatley that Voldemort had returned.

Of course, when Snape did not respond to the summons to the graveyard (along with Karkaroff and Crouch Jr.), Voldemort suspected he may have left him forever.

Ill take a shot at this for you...I dont think in most of his killings he went there specifically to kill babies...I think if they were there after he killed everybody else then he would just kinda be like "eh what the heck and kill the baby as well."...in Harry's case though he came specifically to kill Harry and only Harry. His parents were killed trying to protect Harry and Lily sacrificed herself to save Harry in the ultimate act of love.

I am sure others were "protecting" their kids but Voldemort wasnt there specifically for that kid and more probably wanted to kill the moms/dads.

Also, in the flashbacks, it seemed that Voldemort told Lily to leave (maybe a bit unbelievable? or maybe Snape made him promise not to kill her if he didn't have to?), but she insisted on dying to protect Harry.

I think it's because Voldemort was actually willing to spare Lily but she never left Harry's side.

Book 5, after Mr Weasley is attacked in the ministry, DD creates a portkey in his office to send harry and the weasley kids to grimmauld place. So it seems portkeys still work in hogwarts, unless DD or his office were particularly special.

i dont think really any law/restriction thing applies to DD. Since he created most the protection, i think he can do whatever the hell he wants

Aside from problems

1. There is no direct cannon evidence to suggest the plan was to send him back and

2. The logistical problems of porting back just a dead body (how to get them to touch the key without touching it youself, and how they hold on to it during flight (the books are inconsistent here, since it appears sometimes holding on is necessary and other times it isnt))

this still leaves a pretty gaping problem:

3. The key was setup to return OUTSIDE of the maze, at the feet of dumbledore.


If Im voldemort, I think Harry's death seems a lot less suspicious I just have him ported to me in the middle of the night, kill him, then drop his body in the forrest for the animals to eat for a while, then have moody "discover" him, than if I had to trick a powerful goblet and then have Harry magically appears dead at Dumbledore's feet (though its quite a bit to assume the idea was to appear at DDs feet, the key WASNT going back into the maze)



Pretty much all responses that try to fix this hole tend to make a lot of assumptions, and sort of rest on a "what if this, this and this were true?" situation.

Obviously, if there were protections around Hogwarts that prevented portkeys from being used on the grounds, except by dumbledore and in the specific situation of the triwizard tournament, then, yeah, of course the plan makes more sense, but its Rowling's job to tell us that. She didnt. Its probably the biggest hole in the series, but it made for a fun story. Its no worse than a bond villian. But, it is a hole.

I don't see a problem. Why would Voldemort want Harry's death to be less suspicious? He would want it to be a widely known unsolved mystery. There would be no proof of anything, just a lot of speculation and fear. Pretty much his MO.

Well, if we hold the opinion that Voldy wants a widespread mystery, then why not have Harry touch some random object, port him to Voldy, kill him, and leave his body somewhere around hogwwarts instead of going to absurd amounts of effort?

Its much easier than doing what they did, and doesnt have the problems of Harry possibly dying or not winning the tournament (even though it was rigged, there was still a chance either would happen)

Agreed. Margaret Mitchell's descendants still own the copyright to 'Gone With the Wind'.

I would think based on book 7 that Voldy wants there to be panic that he may or may not be back. Look at the great lengths he went to in book 7 to not be seen but only thought to be involved.

I would imagine that due to the prestige that DD has, if Harry Potter was to be killed while under DD protection, there wouldnt be much guess as to who did it. But if Harry died doign something dangerous, like the triwizard tourney, well then you cant blame Voldy for that one.

Also we need to remember that Voldy wants extra flair in his acts. He wants to prove that he is the smarter/stronger/more powerful than anyone else and so simply killing harry wouldnt be enough...He would need to humiliate harry and to some extent DD.

Harry gets himself into a life threatening situation every 3 chapters. Killing him and dropping him in the forest says 'voldemort' no more (and probably less) than does hoaxing the goblet and having him dissapear from the face of the earth in a maze where there was no known way to dissapear.



This seems to contradict your above statement. I mean, you cant point out that DD is going to think "ohh damn, the maze got him... well, at least its not voldemort!" if he dies in the maze and then say the maze is a good way to stick it to dumbledore.



I really doubt that voldemort couldnt have just killed Harry and left him somewhere without it being more "obviously" him. I mean, how many times do they say in 4 that someone is "out to get Harry." ?

I dont buy the "harry was in trouble every 3 chapters or so. Really up until this book, Voldy didnt have any true opportunities to kill Harry...He needed wormtail to help set plans in motion. I think its fairly obvious that in a weakened state, Voldy couldnt just outright attack Harry.

No the maze provided a scenerio where DD did not have complete control. He could not interfere with the competition. It provided the perfect scenerio where Harry was on his own without anybody to able to help him. We see based of of Cedrics death that it was just chalked up to the intensity of the tournament and that deaths happen. It could be passed off as somethign that happens when dealing with that level of magic.

But if cedric were to be killed randomly while in a safe environment there would be many more questions (see CoS where without even a death they were close to shutting down the school.

Part of me thinks that Harry completely dissappearing inside the maze, where this was supposed to be impossible, is going to produce just as many questions as harry being found dead in the forrest, or some other simple frame job. And without any of the effort.

I really liked the book, and of course loved the series.

Just off the top of my head.
I really liked:
- Snape's love of Lilly. You knew in Book 6 that theres no way Snape had been playing Dumbledore for 15 years, that DD had known something we didn't, but I didn't imagine it would be so satisfying.
- Dobby's death. Giving his life to rescue Harry from the same place Harry saved him from.
- Petunia's envy of Lilly's power, desire to go to Hogwarts + Snape being the awful boy she talks about in Book 5.
- Harry's "death".
- Dumbledore's past + reason for trying to use the stone.
- The settings. In discussions with friends previous to release, we were pretty sure the final showdown would be in the great hall and that Gringots, complete with an appearance by the foremerly unseen dragon, would play a crucial role. Both were well down IMO as was most all the settings.

I wasn't crazy about:
- The Epilogue.
- The loss of the Firebolt. Obv Hedwig's death should be emphasized way more, but it just seemed odd to destroy what is pretty much Harry's prized possession without reference.
- Harry is a Horcrux revelation. I was hoping this would be handled a little different and realized a little sooner, primarily because it was pretty obvious from book 6.
- Killing off one twin without having the reaction of the other. This really struck me as odd actually, could have been really, really good too I think.
- Hermoine's part in the book. She def has her moments, shows her brilliance and Dumbledore reinforces her importance to Harry's success, but I felt her character could use more definition in the book.
- Hagrid. But I haven't been crazy about Hagrid's role in the entire latter half of the series.
- Ron speaking Parseltoungue/entering the Chamber of Secrets with ease.

Yeah i thought ron speaking parseltongue was dumb. Didnt they say Harry could because he had some of Vold. soul.

ron just out of nowhere can speak it and get inside the COS.

I wish they would write 20 more books. DD past, Voldemort's past, etc.

They do this kind of stuff with star wars books, i dont know why they couldnt do it with harry potter.

yeah pretty weak. He cant speak it. Just remembers hearing Harry talking in it and did his best to mimic it. Apparently it took him a while, but still a stretch for sure

I didn't care for it. But, is speaking one word of a foreign language really a big stretch?