Ollivander was kidnapped before Harry's sixth year and in the seventh book we find out that Voldemort took him to find out about the Elder Wand. Now question is, does anyone know if that was pre-planning on Rowling's part or did she just luck into it?

 

Rowling probably had thought up the Hallows by book 6, at least. I mean, the Ring pretty much tipped it off after the fact.

 

He was possibly kidnapped because Voldemort wanted to know how to overcome Priori Incantatum. However, the Elder Wand question only came up after Malfoy's wand broke.

I'd theorize that Voldemort just kept him captive after that - strategic advantage and all.

That said, given the close timing of the last two books and how inter-connected they are it's quite possible that she planned it out.

I think of it as a mix of both. Sorry it doesn't definitively answer your question...

Edit: Taking in T3t's point and thinking more, I'll agree it was probably planned.

 

I'm going to say that it was preplanning on Rowling's part and that it's one of the examples of how a whole lot more planning went into the series than most people seem to think.

 

I'm fairly positive that Rowling had the basic plotline planned out going into it, I think there's picture on Pottermore that show a rough sketch of the outline from long before the books were published.

Also, what's the deal with the Ron bashing?

I understand how his actions at various points are asinine and yes, bash worthy. However, as a character Ron was by far one of my favorites, simply because he was the most realistic. As far as I know, none of the other teenagers, except perhaps Neville, actually acted like teenagers, Harry and Hermione least of all. I'm not saying that he didn't make mistakes, but he learned from them, and even with the gaffe in DH, I think he redeemed himself, yet one of the more common themes I see virtually everywhere is the consistent bashing and demonizing of what I consider to be a damn good character.

 

Basically, people are idiots. They think that the characters should be perfect, and never do anything wrong. They then overlook all of that same character's good qualities, and convince themselves that the Weasleys are more evil than Voldemort.

I agree completely with your position on this, and I may have made a rant or two on the subject in the past.

 

I personally think any explicit bashing in a story is annoying, no matter who the character or what the fandom is. And by "bashing", I am referring to when an author goes out of their way just to make a character look bad by exaggerating the negative aspects of a character's personality to ridiculous levels compared to how they were in cannon. They completely dismiss any positive traits they have, essentially making them one-dimensional, boring, and internally out-of-character.

It is perfectly fine for someone to dislike a character from cannon and want to express their dislike in a story, but I would just appreciate it if authors were a little more subtle in how they went about it. They should also make sure that their entire story doesn't completely revolve around the bashing of single character or group. I can't count how many stories there are out there where pretty much the entire story revolves around how awful Ron, the entire Weasley family, or Dumbledore is and how Harry is essentially telling them to fuck off.

Pretty much anytime you have to blatantly call what you are doing in your story as "bashing", then you fail. Anytime I see mention of any kind of bashing in a story's summary, I pass it right on by.

 

On the topic of Rowling's planning, she knew how DH would end at least as early as when she was writing GoF, when the groundwork was laid for Harry's death and resurrection: the gleam of triumph in Dumbledore's eyes, when he learnt that Voldemort had taken Harry's blood into himself.

 

Adding to Taure's post: She also definitely had a strong idea about where Snape's storyline was going as she told Rickman about it partially before he agreed to take on the role.

 

And yet the manipulative!Dumbledore (fanon cliche) keeps'a'rollin'.

"POTTA MONEYZ!"

 

May I inquire about grammar?

If so, I always read "My being here" or "Me being here" - or similar phrases - in various fanfics. The question is, what's right? What's the right use of My/Me in situations like that? Or it's all wrong, and a shit load of fanfics have it wrong?

 

Don't quote me on this but I'm fairly sure they're both acceptable and that my/me is interchangeable.

 

As I read it, "my" is possessive (Genitive case). So normally, it would have to have a second noun following it (my hand, my body, my car). So on first blush, "my being here" is wrong.

The problem, is that "me" is an accusative, which means it can't be the subject of the sentence. "Me being here is a good idea" violates that rule.

So, I'd say that if it's used at the beginning of a sentence, both phrases are wrong. If it's used at the end of a sentence, it probably would technically be, "me being here."

The other issue however, is what is technically acceptable, verses modern convention. Since grammar rules are always changing, Bill Door could very well be right going forward.

 

@Responders: That's about what I figured. It's nice to know that others agree with me though.

 

Fudge was no longer the Minister for Magic in HBP. Was that because of an election or because he was kicked out? For that matter, can anyone point me in the direction of a good explanation for how the Minister for Magic is chosen?

 

In his own words:

"My dear Prime Minister, you can't honestly think I'm still Minister for Magic after all this? I was sacked three days ago! the whole wizarding community has been screaming for my resignation for a fortnight. I've never known them so united in my whole term of office!"

So public opinion led to him being sacked.

 

This is probably a stupid question but I'm going to ask it anyway.

Is there any rule of thumb for how many words you should have down before you post something in the WbA thread?

 

It varies from person to person, really, but I go by the rule of three chapters plus more on the way so that you don't just post one chapter and then abandon it. This may or may not have something to do with how I don't have anything posted in WbA at the moment.

EDIT: Chapters being in the 8000+ words range for me.

 

There isn't any sort of set rule. Some people will never post anything shorter than 10k words at once, while some others only post in snippets of a few hundred words at a time. I'd suggest posting whenever you feel you have enough to get proper feedback on, so at least the first chapter.