Spoiler-filled Harry Potter entry

[hwango]

All of the random deaths in the background did an excellent job of establishing the climate of fear in which Harry lived during book 6. Poor Hannah Abbot - she hardly ever gets to do anything but suffer silently in the background. However, the one that hit me the hardest was Fortescue, the ice cream man. He seemed like such a nice guy that one time that we sort of met him. Plus, Voldemort must be truly vile to interfere with the distribution of ice cream.

I enjoyed Harry's interactions with the Ministry - I'm glad that he stood up to the Minister. Percy is a shmuck. Fleur didn't seem all that bad, but then I didn't actually have to live with her, just read about her. Glad she redeemed herself at the end, even if it was a little predictable and cliché the way it was done.

I was severely disappointed that it turned out that Snape was the Half Blood Prince. I dismissed him as a candidate because the textbook was too old. To find out that it used to be his mom's book and that's why it could be him seemed like a rather lame bit of misdirection. Also, it seemed that naming the book after Snape wasn't terribly fitting. The only really significant thing that Snape did was at the end of the book, and the potions textbook wasn't the most important part of the plot either.

I still wonder if Snape is really on "our" side after all. He could be in very deep cover. Dumbledore made a number of comments to the effect that he was expendable. It's possible that he feels that Snape's status as a spy is more important than his own life. Snape's comments to Harry regarding his accusations of cowardice would certainly make more sense - if Snape really is playing at being a...what, quadruple agent?...then he's certainly got guts.

It would make me feel a lot better if Snape really is on our side. Otherwise, I feel that we were badly mistreated to have been led by Rowling to trust him all of this time. Also, it would just plain suck if Dumbledore were truly that incompetent. Of course, the evidence against him is pretty steep. No one else in the Order seems inclined to think that Dumbledore knew what he was doing. They all seem certain that Snape is firmly on Voldemort's side.

I hope we return to Hogwarts for book 7, in spite of Harry's pronouncement that he won't be coming back. The books are too firmly entrenched in that setting, and it won't really feel like a Harry Potter book without the various professors and other supporting characters that will be absent if Rowling doesn't return to the school.

Comments

[octophobic.livejournal.com]

A lot of the book was focused on people doubting Dumbledore. Which makes me think he really was right all along. It was a bit of a kick in the pants that the locket had already been taken.

I expect there will be a scene in which Harry talks to Dumbledore's portrait at the school. I kind of hope so because it would shed some more light on how much of a person is retained in their portrait. Maybe nothing - maybe the portrait relearns everything by listening in on conversations?

Personally I hope the next book is set at Hogwarts too. I can't help but think Voldemort has more reasons to return there. Other than wanting to kill Harry.

It's definitely my hope that Snape is on "our" side. I'd also like to see more of him in the next book. I felt cheated that he finally got to teach Dark Arts and they only showed the very first class! Of course we know by the end of the book that it wouldn't be in his nature to teach all of his secrets. He certainly kept everything in the potions book secret. Of course it's ironic that Harry gets some of his best training from Snape.

[hwango.livejournal.com]

Yeah, the locket having been switched was quite a kick in the teeth.

I assumed that Dumbledore's portrait didn't talk because it would have seriously weakened the force of his death in the story if we were talking to him via portrait a few pages later. I expected we'd talk to it in book 7. If nothing else, we never got to hear the full story of how his arm got all blackened.

Speaking of which, around the middle of the book I had a theory that turned out to be way off. We hadn't yet met any Inferi, and we know from previous books that Rowling wouldn't have mentioned them if they weren't going to appear. All we knew was that they were animated dead - we didn't know if they were zombie-level, or could pass for the living. Dumbledore was acting out of character at times, and his arm wasn't healing. I wondered if maybe he was already dead, animated as an Inferi, and enacting some sort of sinister plan as Voldemort's puppet. Of course, now we know that's no what was going on, but it was a fun theory.

I don't understand why Hermione thought Harry was "cheating" when he followed the instructions in the book, or that Rowling made it seem like he was incompetent at the subject without it. It seems to me that pretty much the entire course in potions consists of following directions from a book. So Harry's were a bit different - he's still just following directions like everyone else.

[unferth.livejournal.com]

Hermione was jealous because Harry was doing better than her, and conveniently blaming the book.

I can also understand being annoyed because at that point they're (apparently) supposed to be understanding the principles behind potion-making, as opposed to purely following rote instructions, but mostly I think it was that she didn't like being shown up in one of her specialties. Constant flattery from Slughorn can't have helped.

I figure we know as much about Dumbledore's arm as we're likely to find out - he tells us it was an effect from a curse on the ring, and that it would have killed him without Snape's help. (More evidence that Snape's not a loyal Death Eater - if so he could have just let Dumbledore die then with no one the wiser. Doesn't prove he wasn't conflicted and came down on Voldemort's side in the end, of course.)

There's a spoiler-riffic interview with J. K. Rowling at http://www.the-leaky-cauldron.org/extras/aa-jointerview2.html with some interesting tidbits, including confirmation that we've seen the last Quidditch match. And that "you will know more about Dumbledore".

[hwango.livejournal.com]

I'll about the interview, then. Speculation is one thing, but I really don't want anything else ruined for me.

[hwango.livejournal.com]

ahem..."AVOID" the interview. I make the weirdest typos sometimes.

[unferth.livejournal.com]

Hmm - mostly it's filled with spoilers for book 6, and she avoids giving away anything about book 7 except for vague hints of plot elements we'll see come up. Less important even than having heard that a major character dies in book 5. I didn't feel spoiled by it, compared to stuff I saw for book 6, but I guess everyone has a different tolerance level for foreknowledge.

[hwango.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I know Hermione was jealous, it just irked me that she seemed to think that he was actually cheating.

As to Dumbledore's arm, I guess I just felt let down that he made it out to be a terribly interesting story that would have to wait until later...and then we didn't actually get to hear it, just the short version.

[unferth.livejournal.com]

I'm pretty sure Snape was acting on Dumbledore's orders. There's too much buildup of reinforcing again and again that Dumbledore trusts Snape, that Dumbledore's expendable, and that Harry might be ordered to leave him behind. There's the argument Hagrid overhears, where Snape tells Dumbledore he doesn't want to do "it" anymore, and Dumbledore tells him he has to. There's the bit where Snape stupifys Flitwick rather than killing him, right before he kills Dumbledore. There's how out of character it would be for Dumbledore, who's gone on repeatedly about how 'death is just one more adventure for a prepared mind' and so on, to be begging Snape for his life. There's the bit where even afterwards, Snape is still trying to teach Harry to use nonverbal spells and 'Close your mind!' And the time he and Dumbledore spend looking mysteeeeeeerious at each other, during which time I think it's safe to assume some nonverbal consultation was going on. It doesn't really all add up if Snape was evil all along.

That said, I don't think we really have enough information to judge what was really going on there - like Dumbledore's motivation. Sacrifice to establish Snape's bona fides with Voldemort beyond question? Sacrifice to save Draco? Dying anyway from the ring-burn and might as well get some use out of it? Not really dead after all? This last theory has its supporters - main clues being:
a) the killing curse generally just makes you fall over, not go flying off buildings
b) his portrait in the headmaster's office is described as 'sleeping', but that could just mean its not animated yet
c) right before Snape shows up, he's promising Draco that they can fake his death, and that that's the best way to hide from Voldemort
d) the bit with the white flames/phoenix at the funeral

But I'm not sure I'm convinced.

Anyway, it should be interesting to see what she does with all this stuff in book 7. I'll be very disappointed if Snape is in fact working for Voldemort.

General assumptions online are that RAB = Regulus Black. There was a throwaway reference to a 'heavy locket none of them could open' in the chapter in Order of the Phoenix that covered cleaning out the Black house, but I think it's safe to assume now that either Kreacher got it then, or Mundungus (or whatever his name was) stole it along with the silver goblets.

I hadn't really been as into the books as some people, but I'm enjoying the rash of arguments and speculation that have come out of the latest.

[hwango.livejournal.com]

I assumed that Dumbledore's portrait didn't talk because it would have seriously weakened the force of his death in the story if we were talking to him via portrait a few pages later. I don't think I buy the idea that it wasn't talking because Dumbledore isn't really dead. Still, the fact that the curse operated differently, and the references to faking his death do give me some pause to consider the idea that he's not dead. I guess we'll have to wait and see.

[unferth.livejournal.com]

Like I say, I'm not exactly convinced. But if he did fake it, no one can say it wasn't foreshadowed.

[octophobic.livejournal.com]

It's definitely possible that Dumbledore is still alive. His portrait doesn't have to be much more than a photo of him anyway. Lots of wizards have photos taken of them and it doesn't require their death.

His body is viewed briefly but there is no reason that his death couldn't have been feigned. Also his body is wrapped in robes before the coffin appears. At least Rowley left the door open to the possibility.

One of the things that kind of disappointed me about the book is that Harry is portrayed as someone who has picked up a few tricks along the way but in general isn't very bright or able. He uses luck and the support of his friends to get by. Quidditch was his one niche before and now that's probably gone. Aside from his courage what does Harry really excel at?

[hwango.livejournal.com]

I think photos differ from portraits in that photos don't talk. Of course, we haven't heard his portrait talk yet, so it's all a bit uncertain as yet.

Harry is supposedly proficient at Defense Against the Dark Arts. It was supposed to be rather remarkable that he was able to conjure a fully corporeal Patronus at age 13, and he has also managed to shake off the Imperius curse. Aside from that and his flying, you're right - he's not really such a great wizard.

[hwango.livejournal.com]

...and oh, yeah - I'm disappointed that Sirius wasn't in Slytherin when he attended Hogwarts. I was certain that he was, because of Hagrid's comments about Slytherin back in the first book - something to the effect that every wizard or witch who ever went bad was from Slytherin. Now, at the time he said that, he thought that Sirius had betrayed the Potters to Voldemort, so he was certainly a wizard who 'went bad.' I guess he forgot about Sirius when he said that, or was conveniently leaving out an exception. Oh, well.