JK Rowling Question Contest

[snorkackcatcher]

Well, the MuggleNet/Leaky Cauldron JK Rowling Question Contest is now closed - let's hope some interesting questions make it to the top of the poll, rather than "What's Harry's favourite colour?" or the like! (You imagine JKR would answer that "Gryffindor red, of course!" and mentally breathe a sigh of relief at having been served such an easy one. Or if she was in teasing mode, "Red, and I'm sure you can guess why!" to get the Harry/Ginny shippers all excited.)

For the record, my two suggestions were actually related groups of questions about things a lot of us have wondered about, but which might get a decent-length general answer:

(1) What are the abilities and limitations of a Fidelius Charm? For example, what are the requirements, what sort of secrets can be kept with it, what happens if somebody already knows the secret, what happens if the Secret-Keeper dies?

(2) Werewolves in HP - what special powers or weaknesses, if any, do they have in their normal and transformed states? For example, do they have enhanced senses in human form, does a transformed werewolf have resistance to some spells or a vulnerability to silver?

Comments

[dolorous-ett.livejournal.com]

Excellent questions all, and I'd love to know the answers.

But if I was an author, they'd be exactly the kind of thing I'd avoid like the plague, especially if I was writing a WIP and wanted to preserve some of the mystery. In JKR's position I'd be much happier answering questions about Ginny's star sign, and what Crabbe and Goyle like for breakfast.

Still, here's hoping...

You seem like someone with interesting things to say, and you have a very fine icon. May I friend you?

[catkind.livejournal.com]

I failed to submit questions in time, and actually it's difficult to know what level of questions to ask.

You've gone for magic-technical. It would be very interesting if JKR answered that sort of question, but I have a sneaking suspicion these are things she simply hasn't thought out. Unless one of them happened to be a plot point, in which case she wouldn't tell us anyway.

And asking about actual plot-points also doesn't really work until we've seen HBP.

She's not going to give away anything about the ending anyway.

Her impressions of certain characters might be interesting. She's dropped odd hints in the past about what she thinks of Snape or Sirius or whoever, and what she was meaning to convey with the character has sometimes disagreed with the general fandom feeling. A well-phrased question here might get results.

I actually hope something meta comes out in the poll questions. What JKR thinks of the fandom, or whether she has ulterior motives, or what Potterverse morality is like.

Anyway, will be interesting to see how the poll looks.

[snorkackcatcher]

Thanks - and sure, friend away!

I suppose I don't mind those two topics because they actually don't affect my WIP. I wouldn't want her to explain exactly how the Aurors are organised, though, because that would leave my version completely screwed ... (But then again, HBP will probably do that anyway.)

[snorkackcatcher]

You've gone for magic-technical. It would be very interesting if JKR answered that sort of question, but I have a sneaking suspicion these are things she simply hasn't thought out.

I'm afraid you may well be right there - if JKR only needed something for one plot line, other aspects might be overlooked. I suppose the trouble with the HP fandom - and especially the fanfic-writing part of it - is that between us, we analyse everything six ways from Sunday and think up all sorts of uses for spells that JKR never did. A sort of Bazaar effect, you might say.

[jesspallas.livejournal.com]

Those are good questions, even if one of them could nuke my fic (mind you, since I know for a fact HBP will nuke it anyway, who cares? *shrugs* Bring on AU! ;)) and I hope they get answered. I tried to think of good questions but I couldn't so I ended up not submitting any at all. Most of things I wanted to know wouldn't have been very interesting for anyone else! ;)

[a-t-rain.livejournal.com]

Well, I'm afraid I stuck with my rather plaintive standby, "Is anything good ever going to happen to Professor Lupin?" plus, "Why did the Sorting Hat take so long to place Seamus and Neville? What other houses did it consider putting them in?"

Yours sound far more interesting (although I suspect the human half of the werewolf question has already been answered in Fantastic Beasts, with the "otherwise sane and normal human" line).

[snorkackcatcher]

Those are good questions, even if one of them could nuke my fic (mind you, since I know for a fact HBP will nuke it anyway, who cares? *shrugs* Bring on AU! ;))

Well, if Imperius is as intriguing as the taster - yeah, who cares? :)

[snorkackcatcher]

"Why did the Sorting Hat take so long to place Seamus and Neville? What other houses did it consider putting them in?"

Yuo know, I did wonder about Seamus when I reread PS? There doesn't seem to be any obvious reason why the Hat would have had a problem with him. (Mind you, it might just have been that JKR wanted to mention that the Hat sometimes took a long time at that point in the chapter, and Seamus came in handy. I suppose with Neville the alternative was probably Hufflepuff - although a Slytherin Neville would be an interesting thought.)


I suspect the human half of the werewolf question has already been answered in Fantastic Beasts, with the "otherwise sane and normal human" line

Good point. And I do think PoA implies werewolves are resistant to at least ordinary spells, in the way giants or dragons are (or else WP&P would have had a lot easier time of it). But I suppose there are just so many versions of what werewolves can do, and how effective Wolfsbane is, out there in the fandom, that it would be nice to have something actually confirmed. It was only really of importance in PoA so far, after all.

[a-t-rain.livejournal.com]

I can see Neville as a Ravenclaw, oddly enough, what with his relationship with the Mimbulus mimbletonia and all. He strikes me as one of those geeky academic types with a single passion that they pursue to the exclusion of almost everything else.