If you were JK Rowling, what would you change?

[Snapes_Girl]

Originally Posted by LisaA

Tonks being a Hufflepuff makes much more sense. Someone above mentioned Andromeda Tonks was in Slytherin. I had a senior moment and was thinking of Nymphodora. My bad.

Same here.

[Goddess_Clio]

1) would have axed the grawp/giants storyline all together and found some other reason to keep hagrid away from hogwarts for book 5 because he would have been the first umbridge casualty if he were there from the start.

2) would have, as everyone else has said, developed ginny more before harry falls in love with her. also would have made their breakup less 'spiderman'ish (breaking up with her for her own safety -bleh)

3) would have developed harry and ginny's relationship more, come to that. all we see/hear are a few 'stolen moments in the hogwarts grounds' and harry leaning against her legs in the common room. if we're supposed to believe that ginny is the love of harry's life than give a reason to believe it!

4) would have introduce Cho in a different way, or added a couple brief interactions developing harry's crush on her - like bumping into her in the corridors or something. Also would have made her the same year as harry, it bothers me for some reason that she's a year older. =^/ (same for lily and james though that's a couple months. It's still weird to me. I don't know.)

5) would have liked more backstory on James and Lily but understand why it wasn't included - would like to see a really good fanfic of their years together and their developing relationship and the souring of lily and snape's relationship - I can't see someone as caring and kind as lily is describe dumping snape just like that. In my mind their friendship was fatally wounded with his mudblood comment but it took a while to finally die. it seems to me like he wouldn't have let her go without a fight and would have kept trying to win her affection back.

6) I would have killed snape in a different way. it seemed really inefficent of voldemort to kill snape with nagini and voldemort doesn't seem the inefficient type to me. I mean, he didn't even hang around to make sure snape died! He just walked away and assumed...

[Taquiq]

Originally Posted by Goddess_Clio

1) would have axed the grawp/giants storyline all together and found some other reason to keep hagrid away from hogwarts for book 5 because he would have been the first umbridge casualty if he were there from the start.

I agree with this. Grawp was useless and Jo could have thought of something better to get rid of Umbridge.

[snapes_witch]

Originally Posted by Goddess_Clio

4) would have introduce Cho in a different way, or added a couple brief interactions developing harry's crush on her - like bumping into her in the corridors or something. Also would have made her the same year as harry, it bothers me for some reason that she's a year older. =^/ (same for lily and james though that's a couple months. It's still weird to me. I don't know.)

Really? How do you feel about Hermione being six months older than Ron?

[MuggleKarli]

Originally Posted by snapes_witch

Really? How do you feel about Hermione being six months older than Ron?

And, for that matter, Harry being a year older than Ginny?

I feel like age does not play so much of a role. What we are trying to get at here is the level of maturity that is in discord in some relationships, but not others.

[GingerCat1]

Originally Posted by MuggleKarli

And, for that matter, Harry being a year older than Ginny?

I feel like age does not play so much of a role. What we are trying to get at here is the level of maturity that is in discord in some relationships, but not others.

and Krum being 3 years older than Hermione (which given Hermione's age at the time is quite a big age difference).

[mexicant]

Let's please remember this is a thread where we discuss what each of us might have done differently in JKR's place if we had written the series, and not a thread to pick apart one person's answer because we are curious or their opinion rankles us. Be respectful of other posters.

[Goddess_Clio]

Originally Posted by snapes_witch

Really? How do you feel about Hermione being six months older than Ron?

Sorry, forgot the mention that one, but yes, it's weird to me. I'm old-fashioned, like my guys to be older than me. What can I say? =^J

Harry being a year older than ginny doesn't bother me but Krum being 3 years older than hermione kind of does (in GOF but not so much in DH) I think I posted about this in the pet peeves thread but I'll recap really quickly:

a 14/15 year old dating an 17/18 year old is too large a maturity gap for my taste and is a little pervy to me. (it's, for me, like an 8th grader dating a junior in high school - PERVY! Find someone your own age!) It also has to do with expectations of what the relationship will entail. An 18 year old boy has different things on his mind than a 15 year old girl.

a 17/18 year old dating a 20/21 year old is still kind of weird but it depends on how grown up the 17/18 year old is and what their mutual expectations are.

a 40 year old dating/married to a 43 year old is perfectly fine to be because they're most similar in maturity levels (a generalization, I know a 43 year old can be just as immature as a 12 year old...) and expectations.

And in the long run, the only birthday we celebrate in the books is Harry's. What difference would it have made if Ron's birthday were in September and Hermione's in march?? None.

No worries on picking apart my post, no harm done. =^)

(I think my recap was longer than my original pet peeves post - oh well, lol)

[merrymarge]

I liked Grawp. I didn't mind him. I wish Petunia had showed a bit more compassion towards Harry. After Dumbledore's howler, I thought for sure she would explain herself, say she was just jealous of Lily and she never got over her death. Or even after Dumbledore chewed them out in the beginning of HBP.

[LuMac]

I would try to combine the best of OotP with HBP and turn them into one book. Aside from OotP simply not being a pleasant read(cranky teenagers are no fun), so much of the book is such a giant waste of time. The overall story grinds to a halt, and we're left with reading about the daily mundanity of Hogwarts life with a petty feud against the MoM thrown in. As much as I love Hogwarts, it can be a dull place without the backdrop of a progressive, mystery-packed story line. 5 of the 6 books set around Harry's school year had that intrigue, with OotP being the lone exception. The book simply meanders along much of the time with no true purpose or even significance, since hardly anything happens in OotP that ends up mattering in HBP or DH.

[Taquiq]

I would kind of agree with combining the OotP with HBP. It was a very moody book that could have cut a lot out. However, I'm also glad Jo wrote as is, because we get some additional info about wizards. And some is better than none.

[snapes_witch]

Originally Posted by LuMac

I would try to combine the best of OotP with HBP, and turn them into one book. Aside from OotP simply not being a pleasant read(cranky teenagers are no fun), so much of the book is such a giant waste of time. The overall story grinds to a halt, and we're left with reading about the daily mundanity of Hogwarts life with a petty feud against the MoM thrown in. As much as I love Hogwarts, it can be a dull place without the backdrop of a progressive, mystery-packed story line. 5 of the 6 books set around Harry's school year had that intrigue, with OotP being the lone exception. The book simply meanders along much of the time with no true purpose or even significance, since hardly anything happens in OotP that ends up mattering in HBP or DH.

How would that work? Two years combined? In that case you'd have two climaxes with the MOM fight and Sirius's death in the middle of the book and Snape killing Dumbledore at the end.

I agree that much of OotP is useless, but would you really want to miss Umbridge and/or Snape as DADA professors?

[Taquiq]

Originally Posted by Goddess_Clio

1) would have axed the grawp/giants storyline all together and found some other reason to keep hagrid away from hogwarts for book 5 because he would have been the first umbridge casualty if he were there from the start.

I agree with the Grawp part. But Hagrid still could have visited the Giants because they come into play in the Deathly Hallows. Maybe he could have stayed longer and been part of there 'tribe', while persuading them to join Dumbledore.

Originally Posted by Goddess_Clio

2) would have, as everyone else has said, developed ginny more before harry falls in love with her. also would have made their breakup less 'spiderman'ish (breaking up with her for her own safety -bleh)

Yep, Ginny could have been developed more. And Harry needs to understand that he can't do everything by himself. Ginny helped loads to the fall of Voldemort and Harry's acting like it's too dangerous for her.

Originally Posted by Goddess_Clio

4) would have introduce Cho in a different way, or added a couple brief interactions developing harry's crush on her - like bumping into her in the corridors or something. Also would have made her the same year as harry, it bothers me for some reason that she's a year older. =^/ (same for lily and james though that's a couple months. It's still weird to me. I don't know.)

In my opinion, I think Jo introduced Cho just fine, but Harry could have had more interactions when they were dating.

Originally Posted by Goddess_Clio

6) I would have killed snape in a different way. it seemed really inefficent of voldemort to kill snape with nagini and voldemort doesn't seem the inefficient type to me. I mean, he didn't even hang around to make sure snape died! He just walked away and assumed...

I think Voldemort was so used to killing people with AK, that he didn't even bother checking to see if they were really dead. One of his flaws led to the Prince's Tale, and if he hadn't been so confident that Snape was dead, he could have caught and killed Harry right there. Or Harry would of never heard the Prince's Tale.

[Goddess_Clio]

Originally Posted by Taquiq

I think Voldemort was so used to killing people with AK, that he didn't even bother checking to see if they were really dead. One of his flaws led to the Prince's Tale, and if he hadn't been so confident that Snape was dead, he could have caught and killed Harry right there. Or Harry would of never heard the Prince's Tale.

That's kind of the problem I have with him NOT killing Snape with AK - I would imagine that it's his go-to killing curse because it IS the killing curse. With the one and only exception of harry, AK has never failed to kill anybody and it seemed careless of Voldemort not to use AK.

With that being said, has Voldemort killed Snape with AK we wouldn't have gotten the last moments of Snapes life like we did, we wouldn't have been able to give Harry his memories of his mother, Harry wouldn't have known Snape bore his love for her to his own death, etc. For the purposes of the story Snape couldn't have been killed with something as clean and simple as AK but it still grates on me a little bit. Doesn't seem like something Voldemort would do.

I still stand by my original post but understand what you're saying. =^)

[HazelCloak30067]

-Put Seamus in the story more
-End with Luna and Neville together in the epilouge
-Give Ginny a bigger role in PoA and GoF
-Show other Slytherins (the nicer ones because they can't all be mean and muggle-haters)

[Verena]

I would change:
Kreacher's tale;
Harry is fond of Kreacher;
The relationship between Harry and Sirius in Deathly Hallows because, in my opinion, in this book it was a bit damaged;
Harry uses cruciatus curse for a spit, I would have preferred he used it successfully against Bellatrix at Ministry of Magic to avenge Sirius;
Molly Weasley kills Bellatrix (I would have preferred Harry killed her to avenge Sirius);
I would have like to read the full name of the first son of Harry: James Sirius.
And … I would have preferred Snape was fond of Harry.

[lucky charms]

Besides what's been mentioned about Ginny and good Slytherins, I would:

* Give Lupin a fuller, more interesting role after PoA
* Show more of Cedric and establish him as a more likeable character so that I'm not like "meh" when he dies
* Not have everyone marrying their high school sweethearts
* Show more of the international magical community
* Make each book as long as OotP

[asdfasdf17]

1. Instead of having Harry learn everything about Snape's past through his memory, I'd have Snape explain it to Harry himself and then they'd be able to patch things up. It would be interesting to see how Harry reacts to Snape telling him Voldemort must be the one to kill Harry.

2. I'd have Neville kill off Bellatrix

3. I'd introduce the Deathly Hallows/Tale of the Three Brothers story in one of the earlier books so that it doesn't seem so random popping up in the last book

4. In the 6th book, when Draco has Dumbledore captured, Dumbledore offers to give Draco protection. I'd have Draco take up that offer so that in the 7th book the Order/Harry would have to help keep him and his family safe. It would be interesting seeing how everyone else reacts to having the Malfoys around.

5. There were some characters that I woudn't have included in the story: Luna, Grawp, Charlie Weasley.

6. Draco's two friends, Crabbe and Goyle, seem more like bodygaurds. I'd have given Draco a real friend, someone who was equal to him.

[Peakes]

Originally Posted by Goddess_Clio

That's kind of the problem I have with him NOT killing Snape with AK - I would imagine that it's his go-to killing curse because it IS the killing curse. With the one and only exception of harry, AK has never failed to kill anybody and it seemed careless of Voldemort not to use AK.

With that being said, has Voldemort killed Snape with AK we wouldn't have gotten the last moments of Snapes life like we did, we wouldn't have been able to give Harry his memories of his mother, Harry wouldn't have known Snape bore his love for her to his own death, etc. For the purposes of the story Snape couldn't have been killed with something as clean and simple as AK but it still grates on me a little bit. Doesn't seem like something Voldemort would do.

At this point, Voldemort believed that Snape was the true master of the Elder Wand; he would have been wary of the Killing Curse (a) not working and (b) possibly even rebounding on him. I think this is why he has Nagini do his dirty work in this instance.

[Revaunch]

Harry would have saved the Prince's potions book in DH. It was a journal, of sorts, of a great wizard and the Ravenclaw in me cringes everytime I think of the knowledge that was lost. I was hoping Harry would just pick it up when he got the diadem.