<p>Yeah, Ron said it as a joke.</p>
<p>In a way, it’s full circle, echoing the Dursley’s perpetual surprise at Harry being famous in the wizarding world, expressed again in the first chapter.</p>
<p>Reminds me of the time Billy Joel’s daughter told him to stop signing to himself on the street: Dad, people are staring at you!</p>
<p>mythmom, your post #124 is beautiful. I feel the same way about S’s involvement with HP as he is seventeen now and has just graduated as well.</p>
<p>I thought the wandering portion of DH was necessary as well. Heroes on a Quest are always sent into the wilderness, some for many years. It’s a recurring theme in both Judeo-Christian and Arthurian literature.</p>
<p>HeliMom and MythMom - As parents of 17-year-olds who read, I think we’ve all had a wonderful gift. I was the designated HP reader at bedtime (like Barack Obama in his family) and GaMom and I are into the same alternative rock and Broadway music that our kids are, since they’re same genres of popular music on which we grew up. As a result, we’ve gotten to share literary, musical, and theatrical experiences with our kids throughout their lives, and they’re just as eager to have us as companions for shows, movies, and HP book release nights as they are their friends. I guarded all my musical tastes from my parents because I got sick of defending the question “How can you stand to listen to all that noise?” Our kids hear or read something new and the first ones with whom they want to share it is GaMom and me - or vice versa. And driving this whole dynamic has been our family’s involvement with the HP books. None of this has in any way eroded our roles as parents. On the contrary, it has helped reduce our role as correctional authority figures to one that’s very small and very infrequently needed. Now that our older daughter has been 1000 miles away at college for a year, I can see that her desire for us to continue being an eagerly desired presence in her life is not going to change, and I know that the same will be true with her two siblings. So how much do we owe J. Rowling for the significant role she’s played in helping to facilitate that? (OK, getting misty again; think I’ll stop now.)</p>
<p>I never read Harry Potter through the 1st 4 books (or so). It drove the rest of my family crazy that I wouldn’t read the HP books. I went on a college tour trip with D for 10 days at Easter of 2004 and we listened to HP #1 and #2 while driving from the Midwest to the Northeast and back. Kudos to Books on Tape!</p>
<p>It’s seems funny to think that it was the college trips with D that got me hooked on HP. I read #7 as soon as W and S2 finished. D is in Africa and looking forward to reading #7 the minute she returns.</p>
<p>gadad: Thanks, you’ve described my experience exacrly. DS is putting Abbey Road,Dylan, John Lennon, and Bach on Abbey Road posters in his dorm room next year. When D discovered Rilke last year she read me her favorite lines over the telephone because she couldn’t wait until she got back home. She is in a rather unconventional relationship with her boyfriend and says I’m the only one open minded enough to understand it. As parents we are truly blessed.</p>
<p>HeliMomNYC: Friend and comrade! </p>
<p>unregistered: Thank you for your advice. You make an excellent point.</p>
<p>UMDAD: You are in for a treat! We listened to talking books too. Besides HP our favorite series was Amelia Peabody books by Elizabeth Peters. Heroine is a British Egyptologist at the turn of the century. Reader, Barbara Rosenblatt, does all voices, accents, etc. They are fun mysteries full of info. about Egyptian dynasties.</p>
<p>Oh, and extending the warm familial connection, my 83 year old mother is now reading one of our two copies of HP 7. She has read the whole series to be part of her grandchildren’s world. Two Thanksgivings have included visits to the multiplex for HP movies. And I have recently given her an IPOD. The Beatles are next to Benny Goodman!</p>
<p>Paul McCartney’s new CD, MEMORY ALMOST FULL, seems to really nudge us into the older generation. Don’t really feel ready.</p>
<p>But many of you are much younger than I am. I was in seventh grade when the Beatles came. Perfect timing for me. Bring on adolescence! (And I got to see them live at Shea Stadium!)</p>
<p>Why on earth would Ron name a son Hugo instead of Fred?</p>
<p>I wouldn’t think Ron would be OK with this, but Hermione “dated” Viktor Krum. Victor Hugo??? A literary joke on JK’s part maybe?</p>
<p>How come if the death eaters put a taboo on V’s name that disclosed your location and wiped out protective spells if you said the name, when R, H and H were holed up in Grimmauld Place (after being found out in Tottenham Court Road(?)) and were saying “V” a lot did the taboo not allow them to be caught there as well. I know the location was being watched, but wouldn’t the taboo have wiped out their magical protection there?</p>
<p>Thanks for the correction, folks. </p>
<p>I wondered about Hugo, too. At first I thought it was from Hagred, but that’s too much of a stretch. “Hugo Weaseley”. Doesn’t have much of a ring to it, does it? I wonder if it connects to any real person. Or maybe she just liked the name.</p>
<p>Maybe I read this wrong, but I thought they put the taboo on it later, right when they left Grimmauld Place. When Ron left Harry and Hermione, he found out about the taboo, as he was actually in contact with civilization. Perhaps I read it wrong, or maybe the magical protection inside Grimmauld Place made it so that nobody could tap into whatever they were saying.</p>
<p>I thought that Ron and Hermione might have chosen the names Hugo and Rose to match their initials. Simple, yes, but does explain the choices.</p>
<p>Was sad that none of the kids were named after Fred, though. Maybe George is saving it?</p>
<p>All in all, given that JKR had to construct a complex set of metaphysics for a world that completely contradicts the properties of the physical world as we know it, the internal inconsistencies are remarkably few.</p>
<p>For any of the musical theater buffs:</p>
<p>When you read “The green eyes found the black”, did anyone here “In Lily’s Eyes” from Secret Garden?</p>
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<p>In an article I read it said that the original epilogue (which JK eventually trimmed down) went more in depth with the name of ALL of the Weasley children. It’s very possible that there is a Fred among them.</p>
<p>I think the taboo was on Grimmauld Place (which is why Death Eaters were always watching it), but they just couldn’t get inside because the Death Eaters weren’t the secret keepers.</p>
<p>Speaking of names, who is Victoire? Bill and Fleur’s kid? Says she is a cousin to James. Did I miss / forget something?</p>
<p>I wonder why none of Harry’s kids was named Sirius (D thinks that’s James’ middle name, but I think to be fair, I think it should be James Arthur.) After reading the last book, it seems James would be “less worthy” than Sirius to have a namesake. But they used James’ name on their first kid. Did James have any redeeming values, besides being Harry’s dad?</p>
<p>And while we’re at it, whatever happened to Harry’s muggle relatives? I know we’re not supposed to care… And do Hermione’s parents ever get their spell lifted and move back from Australia?</p>
<p>I think Victoire is Bill and Fleur’s kid. So, she would be a cousin to Harry’s kids and to Hermoine’s kids.</p>
<p>Yes, I felt we should have gotten a little more detail about the fate of the Dursleys.</p>