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

[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.