ChiKat, Anne -- for HP VI *** My original thought had been that Harry would need to have something from all 4 founders or that Voldermort is looking for something from all 4 founders -- not just to store his soul but to do something else.

Here are the items we know of to date: (1) Gryffindor's sword (Harry used it in the Chamber of Secrets); (2) Hufflepuff - the cup; (3) Slytherin - locket; (4) Ravenclaw -- ???

Luna strikes me as a bit of a packrat. I wouldn't be surprised if she or her family have something.

Teppy, I feel like the Ron/Hermione situation at the end was set up so that it could have been interpreted as hooked-up or just-friends depending on the reader.

I really want the next book right now. I did not feel this way after reading book 5, by the by.

HP VI *** I got a definite sense that Ron and Hermoine were becoming a romatic couple by the end of the book. I think JKR didn't make it formal then because the focus had to be on Harry, and his decision to "break up" with Ginny. Then again, who knows.

(HP VI) Speaking of the breakup w/ Ginny, I noticed that she didn't exactly flounce off and say "forget you!" I think she's got it in her mind that once this is all over, she's going to campaign but hard to get Harry back.

From part 2 of Mugglenet's interview with JKR, she says that she's been setting up Ron/Hermione for several books now. "I will say, that yes, I personally feel - well it's going to be clear once people have read book six. I mean, that’s it. It’s done, isn’t it? We know. Yes, we do now know that it's Ron and Hermione. I do feel that I have dropped heavy - hints. ANVIL-sized, actually, hints, prior to this point. I certainly think even if subtle clues hadn't been picked up by the end of “Azkaban,” that by the time we hit Krum in Goblet...[Ron] kind of needed to make himself worthy of Hermione. Now, that didn't mean necessarily physical experience but he had to grow up emotionally and now he's taken a big step up. Because he's had the meaningless physical experience - let’s face it, his emotions were never deeply engaged with Lavender - and he's realized that that is ultimately not what he wants, which takes him a huge emotional step forward."

Kathy, apparently that interview made a subset of HP fandom (the Harry/Hermione 'shippers, to be exact) just completely lose their shit.

Fandom crazy.

Well, she does call them "delusional," or at least one of the interviewers does. I tend to agree with him, though, so it doesn't bother me!

Did you read this, for an example of post-HBP 'shippers losing their shit?

It boggles my mind. But I remind myself of how upset I got with the whole end-of-Season 3 stuff on AtS, and I guess it's from a similar place. I felt that canon had taken Gunn and Wes and Cordy and Fred to a place I didn't believe - everyone's treatment of Wes was just SO bad. Man. So, so bad, to not even listen to find out why he did something so momentous. I couldn't believe that Cordy, in particular, could was her hands of him so thoroughly.

...so I tell myself I have no moral highground here. And yet at the same time I give you the link and say "look! crazy people!"

Yikes, Fay. That site it scary. Not only for what the person wrote, but that picture of Hermione? A bit too adult looking, IMO.