They were doing it mail order, but I thought they told Harry that they put a deposit down on a store front. (Or maybe I'm confusing it with fanfic.)

In the chapter "Career Advice (# 29)" on the last page it's the twins' exit from Hogwarts - they say "If anyone fancies buying a Portable Swamp....come to number ninety-three, Diagon Alley - Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes"

So it's definitely in the book :)

Awesome! What a great birthday treat for me. :) I'm excited.

Oh, that's not what I meant. I just said that Harry may leave the Dursleys in search of a better place to live. I call him fool-hardy because he's made so many bad mistakes after the warnings of those who've tried to protect him. Since I don't see the Dursleys treating him any nicer (do you?) I think there's a good chance that he may go live in the wizarding world no matter what Dumbledore said. For one, he should be old enough to have full access to his inheritance, so that wouldn't stop him (does he have the keys to the vault? he's never gotten money out w/out an adult with him). For two, if this whole Harry/Voldemort thing is settled by Book 7, what danger would there be? He'd be free to live his life.

Ok, I get you know.

I think Petunia is very slowly coming around though.
Also, I think Harry is still going to die in Book 7. JKR is not known for wrapping everything up in a neat little package, and everyone is happy and good always triumphs over evil. But that's just what I think.

And in OotP, Sirius told Harry how he ran away from home when he was 16 or so -- he went to live with Harry's father's family. Like godfather, like godson?

The confusion may have come from the fact that earlier in OotP, before the start of the school year, the twins told Harry that they had not been able to find premises yet, so they were running the business purely as a mail-order business. They were running ads in The Daily Prophet, knowing their mother had stopped reading it because of the way it was smearing Harry.

I don't think it would be wise for Harry to leave the Dursley's. Here's why...

OotP, chapter 2 (page 40), Aunt Petunia recieves the howler (from Dumbledore but we don't know it was from him at the time) saying "Remember my last, Petunia", she then insists (with complaints from Vernon and Dudley) that Harry stays (with them).

Then chapter 37 (starting on page 835) Dumbledore starts to explain things to Harry, including why he is with the Dursley's. (And I'm quoting directly from the book page 836)

"I am speaking, of course, of the fact that your mother died to save you. She gave you a lingering protection he never expected, a protection that flows in your veins to this day. I put my trust, therefore, in your mother's blood. I delivered you to her sister, her only remaining relative...she may have taken you grudgingly, furiously, unwillingly, bitterly, yet she still took you, and in doing so sealed the charm I placed upon you. Your mother's sacrifice made the bond of blood the strongest sheild I could give you...while you still call home the place where your mother's blood dwells, there you cannot be touch or harmed by Voldemort. He shed her blood, but it lives in you and her sister."


With that being said, yes Harry has done some stupid things (he's a kid) but I don't think he would deliberately leave the Dursley's when he knows that during the term he is safe at Hogwarts and during the summer he is safe at the Dursley's. As much as he despises the latter he knows about the charm now. He knows that Voldemort can't get to him there.



Just my opinion. :)

I'm re-reading Books 4 & 5. At the end of GOF, I found a line that I found interesting. I'm sure that it was discussed here in the past, but this thread is too long.

OK, Dumbledore, Sirius, and Harry are in Dumbledore's office after Barty Jr's confession. Harry tells them that Voldemort has returned to even greater power because noe he can touch him. Now, here's the odd part. Harry notices a quick glimpse of triumph in Dumbledore's eyes.

WHAT IS THAT ABOUT?!?!

I think that it means now that Voldemort is corporeal there may be additional ways to destroy him and Dumbledore realizes it. If Voldemort continued in vapor or even parasidic form, like with Prof. Quirrell, destroying him would be a little trickier because he was not easily identifiable.

I was thinking the same thing, its the day after mine.

And that is the date I heard too. I remember thnking that it would be a good bday present to myself......

I was on the J.K. website & in the rubbish bin, I broke the blue pen & the ink leaked. It revealed 3 items to find to get a clue. I so far have the broken eggshells & the blue stones but I can't figure out what the hell the stick things are. Can anyone help?

I'm not quite sure what it is, but examine the Extra Stuff page.

There are hidden "cookies" all over the site. I can't remember where the sticks are, but honestly, I would just go to different places and start clicking on things that seem out of whack.

If you get really frustrated, you can check out mugglenet.com and go to the JK Rowling site section and it will give you the answers to all the secret stuff.

From JKR's text website...
 

What is the significance of Neville being the other boy to whom the prophecy might have referred?

Finally, I am answering the poll question! I am sorry it has taken so long, but let me start by saying how glad I am that this was the question that received the most votes, because this was the one that I most wanted to answer. Some of you might not like what I am going to say – but I'll address that issue at the end of my response!

To recap: Neville was born on the 30th of July, the day before Harry, so he too was born 'as the seventh month dies'. His parents, who were both famous Aurors, had 'thrice defied' Voldemort, just as Lily and James had. Voldemort was therefore presented with the choice of two baby boys to whom the prophecy might apply. However, he did not entirely realise what the implications of attacking them might be, because he had not heard the entire prophecy. As Dumbledore says:

'He [the eavesdropper] only heard the beginning, the part foretelling the birth of a boy in July to parents who had thrice defied Voldemort. Consequently, he could not warn his master that to attack you would be to risk transferring power to you.'

In effect, the prophecy gave Voldemort the choice of two candidates for his possible nemesis. In choosing which boy to murder, he was also (without realising it) choosing which boy to anoint as the Chosen One – to give him tools no other wizard possessed – the scar and the ability it conferred, a magical window into Voldemort's mind.

So what would have happened if Voldemort had decided that the pure-blood, not the half-blood, was the bigger threat? What would have happened if he had attacked Neville instead? Harry wonders this during the course of 'Half-Blood Prince' and concludes, rightly, that the answer hinges on whether or not one of Neville's parents would have been able, or prepared, to die for their son in the way that Lily died for Harry. If they hadn't, Neville would have been killed outright. Had Frank or Alice thrown themselves in front of Neville, however, the killing curse would have rebounded just as it did in Harry's case, and Neville would have been the one who survived with the lightning scar. What would this have meant? Would a Neville bearing the lightning scar have been as successful at evading Voldemort as Harry has been? Would Neville have had the qualities that have enabled Harry to remain strong and sane throughout all of his many ordeals? Although Dumbledore does not say as much, he does not believe so: he believes Voldemort did indeed choose the boy most likely to be able to topple him, for Harry's survival has not depended wholly or even mainly upon his scar.

So where does this leave Neville, the boy who was so nearly King? Well, it does not give him either hidden powers or a mysterious destiny. He remains a 'normal' wizarding boy, albeit one with a past, in its way, as tragic as Harry's. As you saw in 'Order of the Phoenix,' however, Neville is not without his own latent strengths. It remains to be seen how he will feel if he ever finds out how close he came to being the Chosen One.

Some of you, who have been convinced that the prophecy marked Neville, in some mystical fashion, for a fate intertwined with Harry's, may find this answer rather dull. Yet I was making what I felt was a significant point about Harry and Voldemort, and about prophecies themselves, in showing Neville as the also-ran. If neither boy was 'pre-ordained' before Voldemort's attack to become his possible vanquisher, then the prophecy (like the one the witches make to Macbeth, if anyone has read the play of the same name) becomes the catalyst for a situation that would never have occurred if it had not been made. Harry is propelled into a terrifying position he might never have sought, while Neville remains the tantalising 'might-have-been'. Destiny is a name often given in retrospect to choices that had dramatic consequences.

Of course, none of this should be taken to mean that Neville does not have a significant part to play in the last two novels, or the fight against Voldemort. As for the prophecy itself, it remains ambiguous, not only to readers, but to my characters. Prophecies (think of Nostradamus!) are usually open to many different interpretations. That is both their strength and their weakness.