Well, the entire system is rigged against the poor. I was thinking of more specific trickery, i.e., deliberately putting very young girls up against older, stronger people who've been training for the "game".

At least one of the lotteries was rigged, wasn't it?

I believe they rigged the lotteries. Maybe not in every district, and it was clear the poor could "buy" in so they were at greater risk.

In reality, any child treated like Harry would have grown up with a serious case of attachment disorder (that's what it's called, right?), and probably would never be able to create or maintain a normal human relationship--at least not without serious therapy.

But fictional reality is different. In real life, *most* children aren't suffering the kind of abuse and neglect Harry is (or if they are, chances are they're not reading books), but a lot of children feel isolated or misunderstood or unloved. Harry's story is a hopeful fantasy for them, and that's what this kind of book is supposed to be -- the fairy tale aspects of good vs. evil and secret worlds and magic remove remove it from the reality of CPS or foster homes and present it on a metaphorical level that a lot of readers can identify with, for different reasons.

If this were a realistic adult novel, of course, it would be not only horrifying but unbelievable.

But fictional reality is different

Wrod. I imagine most kids at sometime in their life feel like they've at least metaphorically been shoved under the stairs and no one gives a damn about them.

Well, in the richer districts the "Careers" would volunteer on a regular basis. In the poorer districts, whoever gets picked gets picked. When Prim got picked, it seemed like a freak chance. I suppose they could rig the drawings, but I'm not sure why they would bother. They're already plenty rigged with the tessarae and such.

I edited it and put in quick-edits. Your error was that every time you open a spoiler span tag, you need to close it. You only closed it once at the end of each post.

Oops! I'm so sorry, guys. I was swamped and didn't check back.

My bad.

Jim Dale's Lockhart voice is great. It's cracking me up. Lockhart is so terrible. (His McGonagall and Hagrid are spot-on, by the by.)

Colin Creevey is so annoying, holy crap. Colin Creevey AND Dobby AND Lockhart all in one book?? Geez, this is going to be an annoying book. Even though I do appreciate that it's darker than the first one already.

Wait a second: when Harry was out post-Quirrel, Gryffindor suffered their biggest loss in 300 years? They actually played without a Seeker ?? Why didn't they just forfeit?

Jim Dale's Lockhart voice is great. It's cracking me up. Lockhart is so terrible. (His McGonagall and Hagrid are spot-on, by the by.)

Emmett and I are particularly fond of his Madame Sprout. Though his Luna isn't right. Or rather Evanna Lynch's Luna is better than JKR's and Jim Dale's combined.

His Sprout is interesting, but I don't really have a sense of Sprout as a character, so I have no opinion on whether it's good or not.