Editing: It's a good thing.

[pat]

I said somewhere earlier this week that I thought that the editing on the Harry Potter series had gotten sloppier with the later books. Then I thought of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.

I have a copy of the first American edition of Chamber of Secrets, which contains the following:

"You can speak Parseltongue, Harry," said Dumbledore calmly, "because Lord Voldemort -- who is Salazar Slytherin's last remaining ancestor -- can speak Parseltongue."

Cute trick, that, being someone's last remaining ancestor.

Comments

[runeshower.livejournal.com]

Well, if by "remaining" she meant "living", it's possible to be someone's last remaining ancestor. Perhaps we'll discover that Salazar Slytherin was descended from Lord Voldemort, and not the other way 'round, as was previously supposed. One of those Time-Turners could work the trick... ;-)

[necturus.livejournal.com]

Perhaps Mr. Slytherin was like Merlin, who is said to have aged backwards.