Last time (I think), you have been warned. There are absolutely, definitely huge spoilers in this post for JK Rowling’s The Cursed Child. Look away if you don’t want the play ruined.

I mean it.

This is your last warning…

Okay, coast is clear.

So Voldemort and Bellatrix had a child: Delphi, otherwise known as the Augurey.  She was born right before the Battle of Hogwarts (page 287) at Malfoy Manor.  So… when we saw Bellatrix at Malfoy Manor in Book 7, it was late March.  And the Battle of Hogwarts started May 1st.  So… lets give the woman a few days to recover from giving birth so she can dive into fighting at Hogwarts and assume she delivered in late April.  Which means that she was 8 months pregnant when the trio was caught by Snatchers and Dobby died.  But no one noticed her enormous, pregnant belly?

Fine, fine, so maybe Delphi was a preemie.  But still — belly, right?

Getting that fact out of the way, here’s the thing with this plot twist: It is completely out-of-character for both Bellatrix AND Voldemort.  Neither would seek “immortality” through children; Bellatrix is set up to be the antithesis of her light-haired sister who is obsessed with her child and continuing the Malfoy line.  So she certainly wouldn’t suggest a baby.

And Voldemort?  The man who spent years tearing apart his soul to become immortal?  He certainly isn’t muddying his ultimate plan with children.  It’s even implied that Voldemort didn’t know that he had a daughter since Delphi had to introduce the idea to him on page 286.  So… are we to assume that Voldemort took time out of his busy killing and torturing schedule for a quickie with Bellatrix whenever the itch arose?  Again, doesn’t really sound in character.

At least, not the Bellatrix and Voldemort I know.

And yet the girl clearly can fly.

Anyone else totally thrown off by this plot twist?  Did you find it believable, or were you shaking your head and wishing Rowling had tried something else?

I am telling you once again, you have been warned. There are absolutely, definitely spoilers in this post for JK Rowling’s The Cursed Child. Look away if you don’t want the play ruined.

I mean it.

This is your last warning…

Okay, coast is clear.

My favourite moment in the original series came in book 7 when you learn that Aberforth has been there the entire time.  That Rowling began dropping clues in book 1.  I don’t know why that meant so much to me, but it did.  Best reveal ever.

The trolley witch was sort of that reveal in this book.  Bit character that you’ve barely noticed becomes an immortal witch (hey, why didn’t Voldemort do whatever the trolley witch did to live indefinitely?) hell-bent on getting the kids to Hogwarts.  I’ll never read the Hogwarts Express scenes in the rest of the books in the same way.

BUT.

When they brought up the Triwizard Tournament early in the play, I thought that we were going to find out that Albus and Scorpius were the ones that use the Imperius curse on Krum in the maze.  Wouldn’t that have been brilliant?  Again, something in front of our face the entire time, and we’d finally have an explanation that it was Albus and not Barty Crouch controlling that moment.

But that plot point never happened.  Instead the moments where they went back in time were my least favourite in the play.  Ludo Bagman didn’t sound like himself at all — and why did we never hear him say anything remotely like those introductions in book 4?  The interaction in the maze was unsatisfying.  I didn’t feel like I was going back to the same events from book 4, but rather some messed up memory of those events.  It feel less like time travel and more like a flimsy re-creation.

I really wanted Rowling to use the play to address the story holes that fans have found over the years, but there were few Aberforth-like reveals.  Please don’t misunderstand me; I enjoyed the book, more than I’ve enjoyed a lot of other stories recently.  But at the same time, I don’t think we’ll keep it on the bookshelf in the kitchen with the rest of the series.  It feels a little bit like Pottermore; a fun revisit but ultimately a different beast.

What were your thoughts about returning to events from book 4 inside this play?  Did you enjoy seeing them from a new angle, or do you wish she had left those moments alone?

Not sure what #MicroblogMondays is? Read the inaugural post which explains the idea and how you can participate too.

*******

We’re nearing the end of summer.  Soon the twins will be back in school, and I’ll be expected to buckle down and accomplish things.  No more beach, no more pool.

I always have a hard time with endings, even when I know that summer — barring the apocalypse — will roll around again in about 9 months.  Plus we have at least two beach trips planned over winter, so it’s not even like I need to wait 9 months to get back to the sand.  But still.  You know.  Summer is almost done.

I am admittedly a cold weather person.  But I’m a beach person, too.  It doesn’t really match up, but I make it work.

Are you more a summer person or a winter person?

*******

Are you also doing #MicroblogMondays? Add your link below. The list will be open until Tuesday morning. Link to the post itself, not your blog URL. (Don’t know what that means? Please read the three rules on this post to understand the difference between a permalink to a post and a blog’s main URL.) Only personal blogs can be added to the list. I will remove any posts that are connected to businesses or are sponsored posts.

The twins and I have been in a mad dash with each other to collect business cards from our favourite places.  It began when the Wolvog wistfully took a business card from our pet store during our last visit.  He only confided this after we got home, and I was left to (1) kick myself for not thinking of doing it myself and (2) offer him an exorbitant amount of money for said card.  Josh saved the day by driving back to the store to pick up a few more treats for Truman and business cards for Chickie and me.

Game on.

We gloated about these three business cards for a few days until we got to our favourite hotel and I snatched the last one on the counter.  A-ha!  I was one ahead.  And two if you count the fact that I paid the bill at our favourite Vietnamese restaurant and grabbed two before I signed the check.  (One for me, one for my Chickie, none for the Wolvog who brings his own dinner to the restaurant.)

We all took one from our favourite ice cream place, and I got the only one from our third favourite bookstore.  (The owner handed it to me over the counter while we were chatting, telling me to call her in a few weeks, and I heard the ChickieNob quietly breathe next to me, “Can I have one, too?”  No, you cannot when she doesn’t hear you.)

I am currently in the lead, followed closely by ChickieNob who just obtained one from the vet’s office (but so did I, dear, so did I), and trailed by Wolvog who is too sweet to play in a cutthroat manner.  He always grabs three copies if he grabs one at all.

We only take them from places that mean a lot to us, and it has made life much easier having them lined up on display because… ta da, we now know the phone number of each establishment.  I’m not sure why these little pieces of cardstock make us so happy, but they do.  And we have a shortlist of places we need to visit soon so we can collect more cards.

Do you collect things from special places?

The kids and I jumped back in the car this week and returned to the beach on our own. Josh stayed home with Truman, though the hotel staff seemed genuinely sad that we didn’t bring him along and asked about him.  Truman, I mean.  Sorry, Josh.

We spent a few days eating junk food… I mean truly junk food.  Like you would be horrified if I told you what we ate for three days.  The twins swam in the ocean for six hours while I stood in thigh-high water and watched them.  We read Mockingjay aloud on the beach and browsed books in the bookstore and stayed up late each night watching Olympics.  We went biking one morning to balance out the extreme amount of junk food we ate.  (Did I mention that it was grotesque, the junk food consumption?)  We mused about what happened to the settlement at Roanoke Island and watched several families of dolphin jump out of the water while they moved across the shore.

It was really hard to leave.  We’ll go back a few times this fall and winter, but the last trip of summer is always hard.  I feel so much a part of the town even though I’m an outsider.  I’m a part of it because my heart so badly wants to be a part of it.  I can visit there and get by for a bit — many of the townspeople know us by name and greet us as if we’re one of them.  But they know and I know that I’m not really one of them.  They belong and I do not.  And it breaks my heart every time I have to cross over the bridge, the light bouncing off the salt marsh.

I think I’m a little down that summer is almost over.  Actually, I don’t just think it.  I am.

*******

Stop procrastinating.  Go make your backups.  Don’t have regrets.

Seriously.  Stop what you’re doing for a moment.  It will take you fifteen minutes, tops.  But you will have peace of mind for days and days.  It’s the gift to yourself that keeps on giving.

As always, add any new thoughts to the Friday Backup post and peruse new comments in order to find out about methods, plug-ins, and devices that help you quickly back up your data and accounts.

*******

And now the blogs…

But first, second helpings of the posts that appeared in the open comment thread last week.  In order to read the description before clicking over, please return to the open thread:

• “An Unwelcome Invitation” (Bent Not Broken)
• “Is One So Bad? Exploring the Only Child Experience” (My Path to Mommyhood)
• “Auditioning Books” (Stirrup Queens) — thank you, Torthúil!

Okay, now my choices this week.

Laughing IS Conceivable has a funny (and true) post about trying to talk to an infertile woman.  I laughed aloud with this: “I, for one, was always a ticking emotional time bomb. The only times I wasn’t ticking was when I actually exploded all over somebody. Then I reset the timer.”  Go over and read the whole thing.

Empty Arms, Broken Heart has a post about following bloggers’ stories that summed up what I love about blogs, this community, and the wistfulness I feel when a name pops up who hasn’t posted in a while and I wonder how they are.  She writes, “Parenting after infertility is a unique voice. Those who stick around know there is always more to tell. And I look forward to following along.”

Lastly, Magpie Musings has an important post about the idea of going to funerals.  Why you should go, and when you can’t go, send a condolence card.  She writes, “Honestly – get out a card, or your good writing paper, and a pen, and write two or five sentences, and put it in the mail with a live stamp on it. It is the least that you can do, and in my book, it’s acceptable if you have never met your imaginary friend’s father or your casual acquaintance’s sister.”  It’s one of those posts that I will always think about when I hear that someone has died.  Because she’s right.  Go to the funeral or send the card.

The roundup to the Roundup: Last beach trip of the summer.  Your weekly backup nudge.  And lots of great posts to read.  So what did you find this week?  Please use a permalink to the blog post (written between August 12th and 19th) and not the blog’s main url. Not understanding why I’m asking you what you found this week?  Read the original open thread post here.