If you were JK Rowling, what would you change?

[Sarahx]

I would remove Ginny or change her completely, and I'd definitely not make her Harry's love interest.

I would change the epilogue, it's way too cheesy/perfect for me.

I'd have Luna introduced earlier on.

[merrymarge]

If I were JKR, I wouldn't really change a thing, except not make Dumbledore gay. That statement after the books were written was totally pointless. We did't need to know this information. As for making Lupin more of a father figure for Harry, why? He was not Harry's godfather, that was Sirius.
Snape had to die. It's that simple. I realised it from the end of OoTP. he was not a very nice person to Harry and somehow I knew he was on borrowed time.
Overall, I love the books and don't want them to change.

[Montse]

Originally Posted by merrymarge

If I were JKR, I wouldn't really change a thing, except not make Dumbledore gay. That statement after the books were written was totally pointless. We did't need to know this information.

I agree , that and I would not kill Fred, I would kill Percy , sorry but I would.

[slytherin001]

Originally Posted by merrymarge

If I were JKR, I wouldn't really change a thing, except not make Dumbledore gay. That statement after the books were written was totally pointless. We did't need to know this information. As for making Lupin more of a father figure for Harry, why? He was not Harry's godfather, that was Sirius.
Snape had to die. It's that simple. I realised it from the end of OoTP. he was not a very nice person to Harry and somehow I knew he was on borrowed time.
Overall, I love the books and don't want them to change.

I agree apart from one thing... I didn't mind too much JKR making DD gay, although it was stated a bit after the fact. To me, atleast, JKR officially stamping DD as gay sort of put together the missing factor to DD... if that makes any sense.

[Bella_Crucio_U]

- I would drop Grawp as a character all together as i found him to be rather pointless and he just slowed the story down in OotP.

Yes, yes, yes! I totally think Grawp is a pointless character. I find the parts with him rather boring and I usually skip the Grawp chapter when re-reading. I also usually skip his scene in the fifth movie.

I would also kill Umbridge in the end.

In POA, I would've had a flashback from Sirius's POV of what happened on the fateful night if October 1st 1981- from discovering Peter's home empty without a stuggle, to discovering what happened at Godric's Hollow and 'lending' Hagrid his bike, to confronting Peter and then being sent to Azkaban.

Love this idea! More Sirius is always a good thing

I am tempted to also say remove the Lupin/Tonks relationship, but I love Teddy too much. Plus, Harry couldn't have told Lupin off which I love.

[ohsnapkid]

Originally Posted by Sarahx

I would remove Ginny or change her completely, and I'd definitely not make her Harry's love interest.

I would change the epilogue, it's way too cheesy/perfect for me.

I'd have Luna introduced earlier on.

I support all three of these ideas, lol. Especially the epilogue.

[ILuvDarkMarks]

What an interesting thread!

If I were JK, I would first scrap the giants/Grawp. Every time I read OotP, I struggle reading "Hagrid's Tale." I find it useless to the plot and just boring.

I would give Ginny a bigger role so that it doesn't just seem like Harry's fallen for her "all of a sudden" as it came across to me.

I wouldn't kill Hedwig. She was Harry's only friend at Privet Drive and was one of my favorite characters.

I would have Harry discover Snape's "history" earlier so that we could see them interacting on good terms. I can't say that I would change his death though.

And lastly, while Harry's scene in the forest when he resurrects his parents, Sirius, and Lupin is so so so emotional (and had me bawling), I think the scene could have been expanded and each character could have been given a bigger role. Each could have offered Harry advice/words other than "it doesn't hurt to die." They were all some of my favorite characters and I wish they all could have had a bigger role in any way.

[SirDobster]

Just a little bit more about Hagrid at the end of DH -- both in the castle before Harry leaves the battle scene, and in the epilogue. He's such a loyal friend to Harry.

I wish Half-Blood Prince was longer, to match OOTP and DH.

[captain_mills]

Originally Posted by leah49

I like that idea but the Sorcerer's Stone was destroyed in year 1, so it wouldn't have worked in year 7 when Harry wanted to summon his family.

Yes, but Harry used it after Dumbledore had cracked it with the sword of Gryffindor.

[GingerCat1]

Originally Posted by ohsnapkid

This is an interesting idea but one I honestly don't envision Remus (and by extension, Dumbledore) endorsing at all. A large component of Harry's safety was simply being accounted for - it's not like security measures were ever a huge priority. If you let him become an illegal Animagi, how are you expected to keep track of him? It would be incredibly dangerous for him to simply transform without any legitimate means of identification. Harry was clever and daring enough - and had the cloak. It's not like he never escaped some delicate situations before.

The idea can easily be tweaked. I personally could imagine Hermione successfully arguing to Remus that it is in Harry's (and Ron's and her own) best interest for them to learn to become animagus and if she couldn't get Remus to do that then Sirius would be a very safe bet and if that didn't work Hermione could always do the research on her own which she is more than capable of doing.

As for the animals they would turn into i like the idea that each of the trio would turn into something that will be useful to them in the future. Harry as a panther is obvious as a panther is a very scary animal, Hermione as a zebra because Zebra's are able to cover quite some distances (though a owl works as well) and Ron as a flying ant because he would be able to slip into places where he is not wanted without being seen.

Originally Posted by ohsnapkid

Perhaps the OoTP would've felt this was resorting to tactics the Death Eaters might employ. I can't see Dumbledore, or any long-tenured member of the Order, supporting guerilla warfare. If they're going to show resistance, they would want to do it publicly. Fred and George had a lot of skill, that's for sure, but I don't know if they'd be able to create deadly items that weren't completely dangerous to handle and/or use. It's one thing to create diversionary and annoyance-based items; it'd be another to be tasked to kill or severely harm people.

My main problem with the Order in Deathly Hallows is that as far as i can tell they didn't really do anything and their entire to fight Voldemort seemed to consist of waiting and letting Harry, Ron and Hermione deal with it. The reason i suggested it is that even though the Order would become guerrilla fighters i don't think there is anything dishonorable about defending ones home from a occupational army. The order clearly couldn't take on the Death Eaters in a front on direct assault so that just leaves from covert methods to fight the enemy. Of course i understand why JKR might baulk at this idea as i could see some people thinking it is romantisising terrorism but i am not sure it is terrorism if the Order make sure their targets are specific and they avoid civilian casualties.

Originally Posted by ohsnapkid

Grawp as a character isn't very important, and I'm not a fan of him individually. However, I loved the entire story of the giants in OoTP: it felt like something from The Odyssey and was written exceptionally well. The dynamics of the giant society and its relation to the normal wizarding world was a nice supplement and I'm glad Rowling did it. I also loved Grawp during the Battle of Hogwarts - both he and Kreacher, unusual and minor characters, have moments of huge emotion and it really ratchets up the intensity.

I am quite surprised that so many people agree with me about Grawp but i am happy about that. I found the entire Giants plot to be very dull and i tended to skip through Hagrid talking about his trip to visit the giants and then i skip the chapter where we first meet Grawp. Ultimately he doesn't add anything to the story and all he does is disrupt the flow of the OotP book.

Originally Posted by ohsnapkid

Seems fine to me, especially after CoS where she's an important character story-wise.

Ginny really did need a bigger role in PoA and GoF simply to give the readers a better understanding of her as a character and to make it believable that this is a girl who Harry could realistically fall for down the line. The problem (at least from my perspective) is that the Ginny we seem in the early books is very different from the Ginny we see in the later books and while i believe people can change (especially when growing up) we just don't see that change in Ginny because she is such a background character in the PoA and GoF books which is presumably when a lot of her personality change occurred. I just think that since Harry and Ginny end up getting married we should know more about Ginny than we do.

Originally Posted by ohsnapkid

And, for my own ideas... The main thing I'd change was giving more attention to Lupin's death. Hell, the guy appears out of the Resurrection Stone. He was a major character (both to Harry and in terms of story), but it felt like Harry lumped Fred, Lupin, and Tonks together as one thought.

Fred had a rather good death but i agree that Remus and Tonks' death kind of felt tacked on. My only explanation is that maybe JKR wanted the deaths to be shocking and to go from Remus and Tonks being alive only a chapter earlier, hearing them talk about Teddy to suddenly seeing them cold and lifeless on the ground makes it even more shocking as the readers didn't even get their death scenes. To go from being alive to dead without their death scene just makes it even more heartbreaking.

[ajna]

I think I would be more conscientious of details and continuity. I'd really want the story lines to match up and less loopholes and errors. I would have made Voldy a more 3 dimensional and truly evil feeling character.

Originally Posted by ILuvDarkMarks

What an interesting thread!

If I were JK, I would first scrap the giants/Grawp. Every time I read OotP, I struggle reading "Hagrid's Tale." I find it useless to the plot and just boring.

I would give Ginny a bigger role so that it doesn't just seem like Harry's fallen for her "all of a sudden" as it came across to me.

I wouldn't kill Hedwig. She was Harry's only friend at Privet Drive and was one of my favorite characters.

I would have Harry discover Snape's "history" earlier so that we could see them interacting on good terms. I can't say that I would change his death though.

And lastly, while Harry's scene in the forest when he resurrects his parents, Sirius, and Lupin is so so so emotional (and had me bawling), I think the scene could have been expanded and each character could have been given a bigger role. Each could have offered Harry advice/words other than "it doesn't hurt to die." They were all some of my favorite characters and I wish they all could have had a bigger role in any way.

I agree with most of these. I too, skip Hagrid's Giants tale each time. I don't skip much, but I skip that. Although I think the loss of Hedwig is meant to be symbolic.

[horcrux4]

I agree that the giants aren't really necessary to the books - everything would have gone on much the same without them. And the time Jo spent writing about them could have been spent expanding some of the other characters.

I could probably have done without the chapter about the Muggle Prime Minister - the information we got could have been picked up from Harry reading the Prophet.

The problem is that the books mostly stick with what Harry is doing so we don't get to see, for instance, what Ginny is like at home when Harry's not there. If we'd seen that (Ron says she never shuts up) we might not have been so surprised when she seemed to change in the later books. In the later books we get chapters where Harry isn't involved though - Spinner's End, Malfoy Manor, the Muggle Prime Minister - if we'd had some in the earlier books some of the characters could have been fleshed out more.

I thought all the deaths were well written and appropriate and I wouldn't have changed any. That's not to say they didn't upset me, but in a war you don't expect the people you don't like so much to die, you have to accept that some of your favourites will get killed too.

I would have liked to see a bit more of Voldemort interacting with his DEs - he remained a shadowy person to me. I think I wish she'd added appendices like Lord of the Rings where she could put in the things there wasn't room for in the books!

[Taquiq]

Originally Posted by merrymarge

If I were JKR, I wouldn't really change a thing, except not make Dumbledore gay. That statement after the books were written was totally pointless. We did't need to know this information.

I agree with you on this. It kind of ruined my image of Dumbledore, even though he is still a powerful wizard.

[snapes_witch]

OotP would be vastly improved if the entire giants' thread (including Grawp) was deleted.

Since there's really no logical way for Headmaster Snape to get together with Harry or to keep him out of Askaban, so he really did have to die, I'd see to it that Harry saw Snape's portrait in the Headmaster's Office and that his body was with the other heroes in the Great Hall.

[sarahlorraine92]

I would use Ginny more in PoA and GoF to get the readers more used to her as a character and for us to get a better handle of her personality.

No Cho/Harry relationship. I would change the train scene at the beginning of OotP to Cho coming in and being angry with Harry over Cedric's death. She would say horrible things and Ginny will defend him.This will cause Harry to get over his crush on Cho and fall for Ginny sooner. Transfer the H/G romance to OotP and have it continue through HBP.

YES!! And have more of a build up of the sexual tension before they finally get together in HBP. Although I'd keep the train scene the way it is and place this idea somewhere else.

I'd have made the Resurrection Stone the same stone as the Philosopher's Stone to tie the last book to the first... Every book has a tie-in to the horcruxes except the first.

This is a really cool idea. I think it could have worked really well, especially with the whole parallel thing of the series.

Neville would battle and kill Bellatrix.

Yes. I think he deserved to have a final battle with Bellatrix.

Also, I would have Neville end up getting together with Luna.

Follow me on Twitter @sarahlorraine92

[bellatrix93]

I'd be glad to change all the romantic relationships in the series. It's not just Harry and Ginny's relationship that I don't really like, but also Ron and Hermione's. For one thing, it was too predictable, I guessed it correctly ever since I read CoS, for another I'd rather the trio remained friends without any romantic relationships between them. I know I'm alone in this .

Another thing, which is minor but always bugged me, and that is Ron's use of Parseltongue in DH. I mean if Harry who actually had the talent, couldn't sometimes use it himself when he wanted to, how is it that Ron could 'remember' the hissing sounds that meant 'open', which Harry uttered weeks earlier?

Also I would have left some Death Eaters out there. I wouldn't have killed off all the loyal ones and let the others flee.

[purplehawk]

Originally Posted by ILuvDarkMarks

I would have Harry discover Snape's "history" earlier so that we could see them interacting on good terms. I can't say that I would change his death though.

I, too, wish Harry had been told earlier. There were so many opportunities to have done so. One of the most obvious was the scene in the Grimmaud Place fire, when Harry used Umbridge's office to speak to Sirius.

While telling the truth sooner would have helped Harry, I don't think it would have done much for their relationship. Snape loathed Harry for being James' son and nothing could change that. I don't think he would have liked the idea of Harry knowing that he was the loser in that triangle. It certainly wouldn't have softened Snape's animus for Harry. The man was just too flawed.

[slytherin001]

Originally Posted by purplehawk

While telling the truth sooner would have helped Harry, I don't think it would have done much for their relationship. Snape loathed Harry for being James' son and nothing could change that. I don't think he would have liked the idea of Harry knowing that he was the loser in that triangle. It certainly wouldn't have softened Snape's animus for Harry. The man was just too flawed.

I agree. I don't think it would have done anything to strengthen their "relationship". Infact, it may have hindrance if Harry was to find out about Snape's past any earlier than he did.

Oh, and I really like your signature!

[Sinistra_Furze]

Originally Posted by merrymarge

If I were JKR, I wouldn't really change a thing, except not make Dumbledore gay. That statement after the books were written was totally pointless. We did't need to know this information.

There have been extra bits of information given after the books which have enhanced our understanding of the characters and this is one of them. I can see why JKR didn't say it outright in the books, but I like that she did so later. There are other characters who might be viewed anew in this light. Creevey, Charlie Weasley, McGonagall, Snape? But perhaps outing DD was enough for JKR's purpose.

[ajna]

Originally Posted by Taquiq

I agree with you on this. It kind of ruined my image of Dumbledore, even though he is still a powerful wizard.

It didn't ruin my image of him, but I couldn't understand the reasoning for the announcement post books. It almost seemed like a stunt.