Flutterings

That sentence from DH is so utterly, irredeemably horrible that I'm tempted to have Snape needle Lupin about it in "War Wounds." It's the sort of writing that would have been overblown and melodramatic in Varney the Vampire; or, the Feast of Blood, let alone someone writing in the early 21st century.

As for Montgomery...I'm willing to cut her some slack in regards to her style simply because she was writing late Victorian popular fiction. Same thing with Baroness Orczy, H. Rider Haggard, and Anthony Hope. Not one of them could get their books into print without massive rewrites today, but they wrote and were popular pre-Hemingway.

Rowling, though - no excuse. None. I also think her editors should be taken out and flogged for perpetrating atrocities like "IT IS I!!!!" on the adoring public.