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.

[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]

...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.