How did Neville get the sword?

Instead of an encyclopedia - she should write a nice long 8th book titled: Harry Potter and Tying Up Loose Ends - you know we'd all buy it!!!

Time magazine did an article on the publishing process and they actually do have a "Potteroligist" (I'm not making this up) that is supposed to catch mistakes. But I agree, they should of had someone to help edit also. But I understand why she didn't stuff the book full of info, some of the things us fans want to know would have seemed irrelevant to the plot.

I would have liked a chance to apply for the Potterologist job.

Oh my gosh, could you imagine?!?! What a life that would be...

You know fans like us would do it for FREE - I just wonder, if there will ever be a saga like this again.. I'm not as old as the hills, but I'm no spring chicken either - I have never seen anything like it.

Agreed, now don't get me wrong the books are 10 times more intriguing than the movies, but I think the the movies really set it off even more. They really put the books in the public eye, now there's no avoiding Harry, even someone who's never cracked the cover knows the major details.

I have reread that part of the book several times - Neville screams, so the hat hurt him, but then he was able to take if off (still flaming?) and and reach inside and pull out the sword - was he burned? or did the hat protect him... hmmm

If there are Potterologists, then they should have two, at least. Anyone who has proofread anything knows that once you read it through a couple times, you start missing things because its' no longer new to your eyes. It would probably be annoying, but when JK and the first Potterologist were finished, they soulhd bring in a second one to double check everything.

The whole Neville and the sword scene was just a glaring plot hole. I mean, you can go back and pick out an explaintion, but it really feels as if there is a missing section of the book or something that puts the sword from point A to point B. Not to mention that the entire idea of Voldemort even summoning the Sorting Hat seems a bit far-fetched in hindsight.

Rowling has to role-playing next generation Harry Potter, or something of that nature, because she unites werewolf and Metamorphagus, confirms teddy has Metamorphagus abilities, leaves werewolf tendecies wide open, and decides that teddy's love intrest will be part veela, opening a whole other set of possibilities for roleplayers and (bluntly, here) less literate fanfiction writers. Veela!Beautiful, Metamorphagus! Talent, Werewolf! Senses. I forsee an attack of Mary-Sues sometime in the future. And the worse part is, they'll be partly canon.

a thought.
Perhaps no one can ever truly 'possess' the Sword of Griffindor. Maybe it is magically united with the Sorting Hat.

Could the Sorting Hat 'store' a major heirloom of all the Houses of Hogwarts?

Gingobibble -- that's a possibility. Perhaps DD only left it to HP in his will as a clue to it's distructive capabilities.