There was a nod in there to Dean Thomas' backstory as well, which I think she said was cut from Book 2. He and his mother always assumed his father left them, but wasn't his father actually killed by Voldemort? Makes Dean a halfblood rather than a Muggle.

So I think each book has had to skew downward to younger readers than the book before.

Not sure what that means. I don't think the books have done any downward skewing. In general ( and this is very general ) kids tend to read book about kids that are older. From the kids I see, I 'd put most of the books in the 10 to 14 yr old reader range. because of the phenomenon that Harry Potter has become, I know 6 and 7 yr olds that have read them all. Not so sure that is for the best, but I think about how much more fun I would have had with these books if I had read them younger

"And what the ruddy hell are dementors?"

"They guard the wizard prison, Azkaban," said Aunt Petunia.

Two seconds' ringing silence followed these words and then Aunt Petunia clapped her hand over her mouth as though she had let slip a disgusting swear word. Uncle Vernon was goggling at her. Harry’s brain reeled. Mrs. Figg was one thing--but Aunt Petunia?

"How d'you know that?" he asked her, astonished.

Aunt Petunia looked quite appalled with herself. She glanced at Uncle Vernon in fearful apology, then lowered her hand slightly to reveal her horsey teeth.

"I heard--that awful boy--telling her about them--years ago," she said jerkily.

"If you mean my mum and dad, why don't you use their names?" said Harry loudly, but Aunt Petunia ignored him. She seemed horribly flustered. (OotP, pp. 31-32)

I noticed that too, and wondered whether "stripping" meant all the way. How could you show that in a kids' film?

They could be stripping off screen and you would just see the real Harry's reaction to them. Easily done.

My favorite callback begins in book 5.

Ohhhh, nice.

Now I'm going to have to do a full reread to catch all the threads. When I'm done with school. The break I took to read this has already put me behind in my current class, darn it.

"And what the ruddy hell are dementors?"

Cool. Thanks for digging that up, Aimée.

At the end of OoTP, my very first thought was...what a waste of a perfectly good magical mirror. How could she possibly have introduced such a cool thing and then left it there. It's going to get broken in the bottom of that trunk, ya know. Blahblahrantycakes.

Memo
Fr: JK
To: Beej
Re: Whinging about things of which you know not
Comment:
Shut up and read.

Welcome, Margaret!

Man, I'm old.

Ha ha ha ha ha

I loved all the fucking callbacks. The closet under the stairs!

I know!

If pressed, I would have remembered the closet and the spiders and the events that led to Harry getting his own room, but so much has happened that it just slipped my mind.

His 'it's so small' reaction to the space is exactly what crossed my mind when I remembered quarters being much bigger than they are.

Sniff. Our little boy is all grown up. And scarred...in so many ways. And wise...and brave and well...

Thanks JK for this great gift. And you too JRR and PJ. And...to a lesser degree cuz I'm still miffed with him...George.

I'm so grateful for all the fun my mind has had in this lifetime.

My favorite callback begins in book 5.

The first time I read book 5, I hit that scene and knew, KNEW!, that Petunia was talking about Snape. That's the point where I became absolutely certain that Snape was not evil, and that he had renounced the Death Eaters because of his feelings for Lily.

(Makes "Snape+Lily!!" handwavey gestures at Fay)

Ha ha ha ha ha

My sentiments exactly!

In other news, the French title for this volume is really much less subtle: Harry Potter et les reliques de la mort