Palast claims the plothole-ridden short was an alternative ending narrated to him and his twin girls by JK Rowling herself. "Jo: please edit!"

 

Interesting read, I could certainly believe that it was originally created by Rowling.

 

... true or not, it's still better than 98% of all fanfic.

Hehe. 'Riddles'. That was cute.

 

I didn't like it at all (except for "Riddles"), while reading I felt as if I was reading a bad fanfic.

 

... That was stupid. Even replacing an ending of 19 years later...

 

I was struck by his great great grandchild being named after Voldemort. Albus Severus was the less controversial naming choice, apparently.

 

Wow, that was bad. The whole dementor kiss spell was just a terrible idea and I am glad that it was scrapped. Also, bird of paradise?

 

Yeah, I don't understand the naming thing either.

I don't see why characters can't have their own names and have to be named after someone, it's like trying to replace someone you love and honor them at the same time.

To me? It read like a corny fanfic.

 

If it's truly Rowling other idea then I'd like to hear her reasoning for this ending. The canon one was rather clear with its message, this one not so much. Not to mention it doesn't make much sense until we start changing other things (like how uninterested in his son was Tom Riddle Senior).

 

How.. odd. Why was everyone's memory wiped? And if Dumbledore's shade still remembers, does that mean everybody else that died actually forgot? I can just see people like James and Lily walk around, wondering how the fuck they got there.

Ginny the talking bird, a baby destined to be a Dark Lord, because he crushes a chocolate frog, a spell made from Dementor Kisses, random de-aging because of ghosts.. Yeah, she must have discarted this idea very early. Probably just played with the idea of turning Voldemort into a statue.

I liked Headmaster Harry though.

 

That was godawful. If Rowling really did narrate that to Palast, my respect for her abilities just went down a couple notches.

 

I didn't like anything about this, except from the clever little 'Riddles' part. Yeah, it's clear why she discarded it. This was just a little too fancy, and the Headmaster!Harry with his grandson simply reminded me of the ending of Dragonball Z.

Edit:

This.

 

My middle name is from my Grandfather, and my father's middle name from his own grandfather and so on. Renaming your children after past relatives is a pretty old practice, a show of your respect of them given become tradition. So it's not that odd Harry would name one of his children after his own father.

As to the drabble? It doesn't lesson my respect of Rowling at all. There was a reason she didn't put that as the ending and knew it.

 

I hope she was just trolling him and made this crap up on the spot. Because seriously, I think I actually prefer DH as it is to this shit.

iLost: Yeah, but the kid was named after Voldemort. This isn't a cherished grandfather/other relative.

 

He wasn't named after Voldemort. Nobody even remembers him. The name was just a coincidence, foreshadowing the future in an awful way.

 

It was his grandson, so maybe he had no choice in the naming.

Tom is a pretty generic name.

In some ways I liked this, the aging thing was weird, no idea why that happened, or how Tom Riddles parents ghosts showed up, or why.

Again this assumes he isn't trolling the internet.

 

He has to be trolling. Rowling isn't that bad. If she did narrate it to him, then she probably made it up on the spot as a "Will you please just shut up about the fucking ending" response. She might not be the greatest writer, but it's riddled with plot holes, out of character moments, and a greater level of fail than anything that actually made it into the books.

 

I have no idea if this is real or not. Oh, I very much doubt it was ever a serious option as an ending, but I can maybe see Jo relating it as a plotbunny in casual conversation. I mean, her trademark 'power of love and family' kitsch is there. The dementor thing doesn't make a lot a sense, but the dementors never made a lot of sense. Riddles parents are a gaping plothole, but plotbunnys don't always take account of continuity.

I'm going to go against the crowd here and say this would actually make me think better of her if it was real. While by no means a good piece of writing, it would mean she at least considered a 'downer' ending, which is more depth than I gave her credit for.

 

What's with the reference to "Chang"? Does that mean Cho Chang or somebody related to her could have become Headmaster/mistress?

One thing that this "alt ending" is good for is generating plot bunnies. In fact, this reminds me that we do need more Headmaster!Harry, or more stories which deal with Dementors.