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

[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.