Pettigrew's name has come up a time or two. His living with Ron for years gave him plenty of opportunities to overhear where Harry lives.

 

true but I don't think wormtail has the guts to cut off someones head.

 

I beg to differ. In canon, he had the guts to cut off his own finger, blow up a bunch of Muggles, and even cut off his own arm. That takes some cojones.

Edit: I'm not saying he necessarily did it, but that there are people around who are loyal to Voldemort and could. (I'm privy to some of the planning of this story and I don't want to give anyone the impression that I'm spoiling anything for readers).

 

Do we know that for certain? After the loss of faux-Moody, Voldemort may have pushed up his schedule a lot and just grabbed some lesser nemesis to gain the blood of an enemy.

 

But if Voldermort doesn`t use Harry`s blood, he wont be able to touch him, right?

 

Thats a minor inconvenience to someone that wants revenge.

Plus you can kill someone without touching them

 

Dat's da troof. River Tam can kill you with her mind

 

If Voldemort upped the schedule, then Harry should've known. Scar anyone?

 

Hj knows Occlumency.
After OotP Voldie used Occlumency to stop the connection with Harry. It could work in reverse.

 

He still had the nightmare at the beginning of Summer. Getting a tingle from his scar is different than getting a vision.

 

How did whoever send the head know that HJ knew Piers. HJ doesn't know that many people in Surrey (just Dudders and gang).

 

From Peter, Voldemort knows Harry lives at the Dursleys', and likely their address. The Dursleys themselves are protected via the blood wards, IIRC, making them difficult to hit. Spending a day or three spying on them would, however, reveal any close friends/affiliates they had. After that, any attacker could pick one of those people at random.

Piers was simply unlucky enough to visit while the Dursleys were being observed, and acted too close to them. Thus, it's a reasonable assumption that Harry would know him. Hell, you don't even have to watch the entire family, just the son. Anyone he knows is likely to at least be an acquaintance of Harry's. It's not like simple observation is beyond any wizard, either.

 

Personally, all that sounds like a gigantic waste of time.

Why not just kill a muggleborn student in Harry's house? Peter spent 3 yrs. there. And its a Double whammy right there. Voldie gets to Dumbledore and Harry.

 

Because then, the Ministry will get involved. As it is, nobody cares about muggle kid.

 

It really doesnt matter that it was Piers head.
It was a muggles head. Plain and simple. Ministry wont get involved and it upsets Harry.
The flaw in the plan is that who ever it was that sent the head doesnt know about HJ. They expect a 14 year olds reaction, not a 35-ish year old person (Harry + James).

So it didnt have the intended effect.
But if the Ministry gets word of the head with the Black family crest craved in it they will really start to crack down again.

 

I think that the whole "the Ministry won't get involved" argument went out the window when the Death Eaters sent the head to an embassy dinner which the Minister of Magic, among others, was attending.

Nothing about the head seems rational to me.

 

I find it amusing that some DE, and then Voldie by proxy, just pulled the "Hur hur, I know where you live" card.

I can then see clearly why HJ was underwhelmed.

A lot of the 'filler' type complaints I can see are due to the odd action cadence. We've had a pretty steady build of tension with the tasks, then the ship, and now we've hit what feels like a false resolution slope.

Essentially, we have fanfiction-blueballs. Build and no climax.

The relationship snippets were cute, but felt forced. It seemed like Fleur changed mental gears too fast, but then again she's at the age where that happens often enough. Going from 'chaste and wary' to 'do me on the broom' wouldn't be an unlikely considering. For all the lead-up to it (attacks happening near/ to Fleur, the gravity of possible death, injury of her friend) giving her a sense of... impatience I suppose, it still didn't feel right. It jolted.

Maybe it was intended. Hard to say.

 

Its the head of a muggle. They wouldnt give a fuck if it was a muggle born wizard much less a plain old muggle.

 

They still sent a severed head to a political, international function. I doubt that everyone would keep their cool until they realized that the head belonged to a mere muggle.