[Pitchwife]

For all Gods and Goddesses' sake, blantyr, I meant nothing of the kind. I see Rowling alluding to a Christian myth, not writing a "christian creation" or, Danu forbid, a theological allegory. It's just rather ironic considering all the hullaballoo made about the series by hordes of Harry-hating Christian fundamentalist muggles.

And fully d'accord about Rowling's limitations, Nerwen - she's a competent and entertaining writer, but nowhere near e.g. Tolkien's league. There is at times a painful disharmony between the schoolboy story background with
its classroom comedy and obligatory Quidditch match in every volume and the darker theme of the gradually increasing struggle against evil, and the way everybody (including, at times, the author) is doting on Harry would be unpalatable if we didn't have Snape.

EDIT: PS.- You know one thing that irks me greatly about the end of the story? We have the Hogwarts motto "Draco dormiens nunquam titillandus", and we have a character named Draco. In my book, when you include a coincidence like that in your story, you have to do something with it. I always expected Draco to turn against Voldemort in the end and do something real flashy (like saving Harry's life or what do I know), so I could brandish the book at the ceiling and cry out, "I knew it!" That lukewarm not-quite-conversion Rowling wrote for him was a huge disappointment.