Do Not Disturb Me Tomorrow.

Well, it's an hour away until Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is officially released. My brother and I are very excited. Other brother has finally started reading the books, and is about halfway through Goblet of Fire. My mom has watched the movies, but insists that I should download it online now. Want book. And I'm not going to someplace at midnight and buying it then, because when I get my hands on that book I want to read it immediately, and I want to be fully awake for it. I had to take a nap through my first reading of Half Blood Prince because my eyes were blurring the words.

Funny story (well, not really) on how I might not obtain the copy I preordered from Amazon tomorrow. I set the order to be shipped to my dad's house, as that's where I usually am on Saturday. Dad left for Europe on Tuesday, and stopped his mail. If it's not at the post office for me to pick up, I'm going to have to go buy another copy, or wait for my brother to finish reading the copy he intends to buy tomorrow morning.

So why did I just go into my Amazon account and change the shipping address? Don't think I didn't try. I realized this address faux pas a week before the book was due to ship, and realized that my account wouldn't let me do anything to the order. I emailed Amazon to see what was up, and I got an email back saying that since the item was shipping soon, they can't do anything about it. Their solution? Place another order to my mom's address, and by the way, they can't cancel the other order. Fuck you, Amazon. If I'm buying another copy, it won't be from you.

Anyway.

In honor of the release of the last book, here are some random thoughts I've had about the series lately, given my reading of books one, five and six over the past month or so.

1. Voldemort is 71 years old at the time of the last book, according to what we know about his age from Chamber of Secrets. Does he act like an old man? No. Is Ralph Fiennes made up to look like an old man? No. So how do we account for this? Eleven years without a body? Six pieces of his soul put in horcruxes? I guess so. On a similar note, the same storyline makes Hagrid 68. But then again, Hagrid is half giant, so who knows how long he can live.
2. So if these characters are that old...how old was Dumbledore? I saw a website that put his birthdate in the 1840s! So we can assume that he stayed alive through Elixir of Life given to him by Nicholas Flamel, but at the end of the first book, Dumbledore tells Harry that Flamel and his wife have enough elixir to set their affairs in order and then they will die. So that would mean Dumbledore would soon die too, but he obviously did not die of old age. Confusing. (Edit: I found an interview with J.K Rowling that says that wizards have much longer life expectancies. Okie dokie.)
   
3. Draco Malfoy seems to be the only Hogwarts student to say anything like "Wait until my father hears about this." I'm surprised that their aren't more parents complaining about their children's education. I'm not just talking about the dangerous stuff like the Chamber of Secrets opening and dementors prowling the grounds, I mean little things that were it a real school, it would have angry parents calling day and night. I know I'd be pissed if I had a kid that was sorted into Hufflepuff.
4. How come you never see a homesick kid anyway? Eleven year old kids away from home for the first time? No owls begging mommy to come and pick them up?
5. What do wizard children learn education-wise before they enter Hogwarts? Math, science, grammar? Does that all stop at age 11?
6. How many Muggle parents decide not to send their children to Hogwarts? Do they ignore the letters like the Dursleys and then have multiple letters sent to them? Are their representatives sent to explain what the hell's going on? How to the Muggles get to Diagon Alley?
7. Last, but not least, the Snape debate. I'm happy to say that I remain completely unspoiled, so these are just thoughts here. I'm thinking that Snape's on the bad side. I know Dumbledore trusted him, but like McGonagall (my favorite character) said, she never could figure out why. He did make the unbreakable vow to Narcissa Malfoy and Bellatrix Lestrange, but that was just to protect Draco, and that can be worked around. Then there was the heresay conversation between Snape and Dumbledore that Hagrid relayed to Harry, and some think that was Dumbledore convincing Snape to kill him (and to that I still say why?????), but...you can't do the avada kedavra curse and not truly mean it. Snape might have been an awesome wizard and all, but if he had been the least bit reluctant to kill Dumbledore, it shouldn't have worked, right?

Okay, I'm done.