I missed last week because – I forget why but it was definitely legit. Suffice to say that, like many of you, I had forgotten
that CoS gets vastly better in the second half, what with Tom Riddle and poor
dear Ginny and LOCKHART. Oh Lockhart. Your best moment is yet to come!
BUT before I get into PoA, about which I have Things to Say,
look at what came in the mail! Just LOOK!
All the glitter! My desk is so festive now! |
Kayleigh is Australia’s premier wand-maker. Mine is made of
ash, quite springy, and has a phoenix tailfeather core. I have been using it to open doors at
supermarkets and change traffic lights, and it works beautifully.
This brings me to a question I have regarding wand cores: if
most reputable wand distributors use three major (core, if you will…)
ingredients, then where do they all come from, I’d like to know? Dragon
heartstrings can’t come cheap, and if they (wild dragons) have mostly died out
except in Romania, are there dragon farms for heartstrings and dragon leather
garments? And are there unicorns running around with rather scraggy looking
tails? How many phoenixes are out there who are willing to give tail feathers
if Fawkes gave only two?
FINE THEN, moving on. Prisoner of Azkaban!! Here’s a bullet point list of
things I have been thinking about while reading:
- This book is so. good. It's all uphill from here (until it's NOT. Ahem.)
- This one eschews a lot of the (by now) boring exposition and jumps right in with scary shit and drama. JK is doing a much better job of leaving newer readers reminders without bludgeoning the rest of us over the head with stuff we already know.
- OMG you guys, Ginny with the dementor on the traaaaaain! Why didn’t anyone give HER chocolate? She looked almost as bad as Harry! And then HHR are super-rude to her later and it pissed. me. off. Be nicer to Ginny, you guys!
- How hilarious is Professor Trelawney at Christmas dinner? “To my surprise I saw myself joining you all…”
readingrambo 112p · 650 weeks ago
But then why does Ollivander have all those wands in his shop.....maybe he gets them from dead wizards. Hm.
Tikabelle 87p · 650 weeks ago
Kayleigh_M 92p · 650 weeks ago
etudesque 73p · 650 weeks ago
I love that JKR jumps right in with the dementors! And I love how her solution to everything is MOAR CHOCOLATE. Eeeexcellent.
Trelawney is this book's Gilderoy Lockhart - she can do no wrong in my eyes...
Tikabelle 87p · 650 weeks ago
Kayleigh_M 92p · 650 weeks ago
Ginny!! I felt so sorry for her on the train. It's been 2 months guys, tear your eyes off Harry for a sec and give her a cuddle or something.
Yay! Wand!
Emily · 650 weeks ago
but yes, i was all upset on ginny's behalf on the train in my post today. come one, people!
Tikabelle 87p · 650 weeks ago
@Murphy_Kayleigh · 650 weeks ago
Laura · 650 weeks ago
Anyway... I think McGonagall and Hermoine are totally like similar ladies. In that they're both awesome. So yes. I don't have an answer to you on the wands though. Unless they've been made over THOUSANDS of years when there were way more unicorns and phoenixes and dragons and things?
Tikabelle 87p · 650 weeks ago
And the wand thing, right? And Ollivanders has been around since *mumble mumble* BCE, so that's a possibility! But If you assume the populations of wizards has stayed constant over those several thousand years... and it does seem that wands are specific to one person, so what happens to a wand when someone dies? Are they buried with it, or does the magical whoozy-whatsis just KNOW that their owner is dead and find another?
SO MANY QUESTIONS!
What Red Read 121p · 650 weeks ago
They make this big deal about how Harry has seen the worst stuff when the Dementors attack him and how his horrors are so much worse than everyone else's. Except then you remember Ginny was possessed by Voldemort just a year ago and yeah, she's probably dealing with WAY WORSE. Why is everyone so mean to Ginny?
Tikabelle 87p · 650 weeks ago
I have maybe thought about this too much.
And YES jeez. I have to keep reminding myself that each book's characters haven't aged with me - book 3 Harry is still 13, and 13-year-olds are so, so weird and horrible to each other.
emily · 650 weeks ago
I suspect that wand makers in other countries rely on other things. Part of this is canon (Fleur's wand has a veela hair in it), part of it is fanon (oh, lord, the things those fanon wand makers use!). And I'm not sure that Ollivander is the only wand maker in England, just the best. Doesn't someone say that, somewhere?
Tikabelle 87p · 650 weeks ago
And hmmmmm that is interesting - good catch on the veela hair, etc.! And yes, I do recall Ollivander being the best - which implies not the *only*. Hmmm. I am STILL upset about the dragon heartstrings, though. Poor dragons.
briefraser 73p · 650 weeks ago
And yes! I was feeling a little bad that I wasn't sucked in during the first two books as much as I had been expecting, but now!...now I'm hooked!
Poor Ginny is right- I wish she had a bigger part in the book!
Jennifer · 650 weeks ago
Kayleigh V · 649 weeks ago
The idea of factory farm dragons is harrowing. HARROWING.