Immediate Impressions
Jul. 18th, 2005 02:03 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
azuriteOkay, so I just finished reading "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" a few minutes ago, and considering how my brain works, I decided to hop on here and just write my impressions of it. So... yeah, spoilers, chock-full of them. Eventually I'll be looking forward to discussions about what happened and the whole "new" canon, but in the meantime...
The book started out strangely "plotless." In Book 1, Harry had this purpose, to discover who he really was and what really happened to his parents. He fought Voldemort for the first time (I don't count him as having "fought" Voldemort when he was a baby, considering it was Lily's charm that protected him) and learned a bit of what he's got to face. In Book 2, there was this seemingly imminent danger of Voldemort returning again, in a new form, and able to control this massive beast that no one else could stop. In Book 3, Harry didn't fight Voldemort, but he did discover some great big truths about his family, and the start of Voldemort's resurrection began. In Book 4, Harry faced Voldemort yet again, but this time at a great loss to his own mentality-- Cedric died. His crush on Cho pretty much fell apart (I read in a book about the Patronus forms that since Cho's was a swan -animals that mate for life, and deeply mourn the loss of their mate- she would never truly "get over" or "forget" Cedric, something that would hinder any relationship she might try and have with Harry) and the start of the war (for the Good Guys, anyway) became clear. Then in Book 5 we got hints about something much darker and more sinister-- prophecies, true allegiances, what it means to be a true friend, and what true evil comes from and turns into. We finally lose an important, "good guy" character-- Sirius.
If you wanted to relate Book 5 (or even 6) to something in pop culture, think of it as the book form of "The Empire Strikes Back" (Star Wars) movie, which everyone agreed was the darkest movie of the original trilogy, and the most emotionally poignant. Book 5 definitely fits that description.
As for 6... there didn't seem to be any sudden plot. Yes, we met the new Minister of Magic (the guy described in JKR's excerpt from her website) who you're not meant to like any more than Cornelius Fudge was "likable," and we met the "new" Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher. Come on, people, three guesses, and the first two don't count. Snape. I knew that his getting the "job of his dreams" was signaling something ominous... as was the coming of a new teacher for Potions, a somewhat-likable guy, but a former head of Slytherin house, Horace Slughorn.
Things start to come together after about Chapter 20, when it's revealed that Slughorn knows more than he's letting on, Harry's got to try harder despite everything that seems to be going wrong, and there are some decided love polygons going on, but no one seems to know what's what.
The thing that pissed me off most about Book 6 was the love triangles. They seemed to crop up out of nowhere. Keep in mind that I'm personally a Draco x Hermione shipper-- a het crack pairing shipper, if you wanna be honest. I realize the impossibility of Draco x Hermione just as much as Seto x Anzu and many of my other favorite pairings. That doesn't make me blind to the subtext or outright hints regarding the other characters.
Ron x Hermione? - Ron seemed to have a thing for Hermione starting around Book 3 or so, I'd say. In Books 1 and 2, he started out hating her, then they were friends... but it was really just friends, because Hermione --let's face it-- she's hard to handle. She can be extremely overbearing at times, if insanely helpful, and a voice of reason (Lupin much?) in a group of guys who are more than willing to take risks for "no reason." But with Book 4 introducing Viktor Krum, it seemed as though any affection Ron harbored for Hermione was NOT returned (despite whatever Hermione said about her not really being involved with Viktor).
Hermione x Harry? - I started to see this one in Book 5 and 6, with slight hints of it in Books 3 and 4. Hermione has become increasingly helpful to Harry, and sometimes they even have their own adventures (Time Turner, Book 3) without Ron. Also, she's the only one that can relate to Harry dealing with "Muggles," as for all intents and purposes, she spent 11 years thinking she WAS a Muggle, and her parents ARE Muggles. Admittedly, very few have dealt with Harry's loss the way he has, but Hermione has definitely been a helpful reminder and a shoulder to lean on when Harry's been in VERY tough situations.
Snape x Lily? - People might think I'm crazy for this, but I swore the first time I read the scene of Snape's memory in the Pensieve, he wasn't just angry at Lily sticking up for him, it was the concept behind it-- a girl defending a guy, a smart girl aware of his secret (more on that later), and so on. I thought maybe Snape had a thing for Lily, however fleeting, and that seeing her get together with James Potter, the guy that had tormented him throughout his seven years of schooling at Hogwarts, made him hate James more. He probably couldn't bring himself to hate Lily, and if he really is a "good guy" then it makes sense that he would regret having any role to play in Voldemort killing Lily-- forget Harry and James, it's Lily that didn't need/deserve to die.
Ginny x Harry? - This one was actually CANON for Book 6. Yes, fangirls, proceed with your screaming. Ginny apparently "never got over" Harry, though all her snogging with boys like Michael Corner and Dean Thomas has made her quite the expert on men. She's always struck me as the perpetual younger sister, even for someone like Harry-- but out of the blue in Book 6, Harry smells a Love potion that bears a striking connection to Ginny's perfume (or something) and then later on, he gets blatantly jealous over seeing Ginny with Dean. Harry even fumbles during Quidditch practice (Ginny's on the team, of course) and gets hit with a bludger for staring at her. Then, when Ginny takes Harry's place as Seeker temporarily and Gryffindor again wins the Quidditch cup, Harry embraces her and KISSES her, in front of the entire Gryffindor crowd. Of course, Harry went through the usual internal screaming: She's my best friend's sister! but he pretty much threw it to the wind, until, AT LONG LAST, the plot took hold! So Harry had to break up with Ginny, even though it was blatantly obvious that he really didn't want to (and neither did she) and Ron was actually okay with it (and Hermione apparently ENCOURAGED the two of them getting together, as though she knew Harry started liking her, and that Ginny -despite Hermione's own advice- never got over him).
But no, Ron and Hermione never get together in Book 6-- rather, Ron finally gets together with Lavender Brown, though they break up by book's end because she's too much of a nag. Now it seems as though Ron is the blind one, because during the entire time he was off snogging Lavender, it was quite clear that Hermione was VERY hurt. So will Hermione ever admit her feelings to Ron, will he find out from Harry, or... something else? (Viktor is supposed to make an appearance in Book 7; we'll see how this affects things.)
So who is the Half-Blood Prince? Well, everyone speculated-- JKR said from the start that it wasn't Harry or Voldemort/Tom Riddle, the obvious choices. We know it "can't" be Ron or Draco (though news of Narcissa having had an affair with a Muggle would have made my day) ... and in the course of the book, Hermione even speculated that it didn't have to be a boy at all! Well, long story short, it's Snape. Yes, Snape's big dark and dirty secret is that HE is a half-blood, same as Voldemort. He tinkered in Dark Arts and tried to make himself popular-- but his attempts didn't work out so well as Voldemort's did. The feelings borne from those experiences surely gave him enough hate to work with, but... we're still missing a pretty decently-sized chunk of the puzzle.
Harry discovers an old school book of Snape's in the Potions class, one that gives tips on expert potion making. It pisses Snape off to see Harry suddenly performing so well in Potions, even though Snape is no longer the teacher. The only clue we had about the HPB until Snape revealed it himself was that the book was published about 50 years ago-- meaning it would have been new material for a 16-year-old Voldemort, but we already know HE'S not the Half-Blood Prince. It could have been the property of one of his followers... or perhaps the former property of one of his FUTURE followers. Where does the "Prince" come from? Snape's not royalty; there is no royalty in the Wizarding world. His mother was of the surname Prince, and she married a Muggle named Tobias Snape...
So who died?
The cover of Book 6 is pretty intimidating and telling-- the Dark Mark appearing right over what looks to be Hogwarts. Not good. And it's not-- as JKR said, more people died, though it wasn't who I thought (Ron). Rather, it was someone else widely suspected... Dumbledore. Dumbledore always struck me as another one of those "perpetual" characters that you would never see dying. But we did have hints of it from the beginning of the book-- he apparently handled something dangerous and his wand hand was blackened and weak as a result. We later learn he touched a cursed Horcrux, something Voldemort sealed part of his soul in. However, as we learn from many trips into the Pensieve, Voldemort didn't just pick any objects, oh no...
(1) the Diary proving he was the Heir of Slytherin (destroyed)
(2) the ring he stole off Morfin, his uncle of the Gaunt family, who lived in Little Hangleton (formerly with Voldemort's grandfather, Marvolo, and his mother, who died in childbirth, Merope) (in Dumbledore's possession)
(3) a locket Merope once owned, marking the Gaunts as the last line of direct descendants of Salazar Slytherin (location unknown!)
(4) a cup Helga Hufflepuff once owned (location unknown!)
(5) something of Rowena Ravenclaw's/Godric Gryffindor's (location unknown!)
(6) Nagini, the snake
The seventh piece of Voldemort's soul is inside himself. He must have killed AT LEAST SEVEN PEOPLE personally before making all these Horcruxes, because Slughorn and Dumbledore both reveal that it takes something truly evil to split one's soul-- and since Voldemort regards seven as the most magical number, he plans from the get-go (the summer after he turned 16, he murdered Morfin, and later, his own father and paternal grandparents) to murder as many people as necessary to give himself "immortality." See, splitting your soul into the Horcruxes means that even if your body is destroyed, you "live on" which explains and answers the question Why did Voldemort live? People always ask, "Why didn't Harry die?" and after all the explanations about Lily and love and a charm older than any magic Voldemort knows protecting Harry... what it boils down to is, who cares HOW Harry lived-- he did, that's what the story's about. But if the Avada Kedavra REBOUNDED, why didn't Voldemort die? Because he had Horcruxes to protect his soul! (What I wanna know though, is... what happened to Voldemort's natural body? We all know that Avada Kedvara doesn't cause a body to incinerate or anything-- so what happened to his real body?)
Getting back to Dumbledore, he didn't just die of old age or of some lame old Death Eater putting a curse on him. Nope, sorry... Snape did him in. With an Avada Kedavra, no less. I was flipping (reading quickly, but not skimming) the last few pages, hoping that it was some sort of trick. You'd think that after everything everyone's been through, Dumbledore would have some sort of protection against it, but then, Dumbledore's always known a lot more than he's ever let on-- maybe he knew what Snape was going to do, and he accepted it as "his time." *shrug* I imagine we'll find more about it later on-- after all, Dumbledore DOES have a painting in the new Headmistress's office (McGonagall, of course).
And as for Draco Malfoy, he turns out to have not a "good side," per se, but more of a pitiable side. Harry comes to pity him just a bit, when he realizes that Draco had more than enough time to kill Dumbledore, but he DIDN'T. He lowered his wand, in fact, until the Death Eaters summoned Snape and Snape did in Dumbledore without a second thought.
There was a big, very teary funeral (this is where the whole "haven't cried like this since Charlotte the Spider died" comes from) and I admit, I was one of the sobbing mourners. It was like a very big finalization on something none of us wanted to believe would happen. At least with Sirius, it was sudden and almost mysterious, and JKR almost hinted that we would SOMEHOW see more of Sirius (and of the whole Black family) once more. So yeah, I'm a bit stunned.
Harry's even said that even if Hogwarts reopens after Dumbledore's death, he won't go back-- he's going to Godric Hollow to visit his parent's grave, to finish what Voldemort started there 16 (almost 17) years ago... and Ron and Hermione say they'll come with him, no questions asked, no argument. And there's a slightly pleasant event awaiting him at the Burrow before he returns to Privet Drive until his 17th birthday-- Fleur and Bill Weasley are getting married. During the Death Eater attack on Hogwarts, Bill got bitten by the infamous werewolf Fenrir Greyback-- but Greyback wasn't in wolf form, so not even Lupin knows what will become of Bill. By book's end, we see Fleur refuses to give up on Bill (which brings her closer with Mrs. Weasley, but Ginny still hates her) and the only sign Bill has of any wolfish tendencies is a desire for raw meat.
On top of that, we discover that Tonks, whom Harry has noticed is perpetually depressed, is not mourning the loss of her cousin alone-- he suspects Tonks also loved Sirius (even though they're cousins; keep in mind that in Britain, marrying your cousin is legal, so anyone shipping Tonks x Sirius, carry on, carry on). However, it turns out with the revelation that Fleur will stay with Bill, why won't Lupin let Tonks love him? So finally the young'uns find out that Tonks is lovesick over Lupin, and that her change in Patronus is not Sirius' animagus form, but Lupin's werewolf form.
There's only one book left, but will it even be a "Year 7" since Harry supposedly won't go to Hogwarts? He now owns 12 Grimmauld Place in London, even though he's not a pure blood nor a Black, and the Order of the Phoenix vacated the premises in case Bellatrix Lestrange gained knowledge or access to the place. But Harry also owns Kreacher, who, despite his prejudices, serves Harry (and even gives him a box of maggots for Christmas) and not Bellatrix.
Harry needs to defeat Voldemort once and for all. I was "hoping" (not like in the excited, yay, it must happen way) that someone of the Trio would die. JKR keeps saying things in interviews about Harry, Ron and Hermione, things like "How do you know they'll be alive long enough to get a job (at the Ministry/at Hogwarts/wherever). She does say that at least one of Harry's classmates will go on to be a teacher, but I'm leaning toward a more minor character, like Neville becoming the Herbology teacher. I was thinking that Book 6 would feature the death of either Ron or Hermione. If Hermione started liking Harry, it could presumably make Ron angry enough to sever ties with him, and yet thrown together in the face of danger once more, Ron would definitely die for them. It didn't happen in 6, but it COULD happen in 7 (though with Hermione liking Ron now, it seems more likely that she will die for the boys, or that Ron will die for her and tell Harry to protect his sister and Hermione).
We also need to find out what and where they other Horcruxes are. And Trewlaney, though possessing a rather strange ability to See when she doesn't remember/expect it, did refer to Harry as an "Object" (yes, capitalized) --which makes me think Harry himself could be a Horcrux, though perhaps an accidental one. That makes sense as to why "neither can live while the other survives." Voldemort can only live so long as all the Horcruxes he has (including the last piece of soul he has within himself, his new physical body) survive, and with the loss of at least one (more likely two), and Harry himself can't survive (or doesn't WANT to) so long as Voldemort lives to continue his reign of terror. But if Harry dies and kills Voldemort in the process (assuming he's already destroyed the other Horcruxes) then Voldemort dies-- once and for all.
Speaking of Horcruxes, the one that Harry adventures with Dumbledore to find (incidentally, that adventure weakened Dumbledore to the point when Snape could kill him easily) turns out to be a fake, including a message: To the Dark Lord
I know I will be dead long before you read this but I want you to know that it was I who discovered your secret.
I have stolen the real Horcrux and intend to destroy it as soon as I can.
I face death in the hope that when you meet your match, you will be mortal once more.
R.A.B.
My first thought (and many other people's, if the Chamber of Secrets forum is any indication) thought it had to have been Regulus Black. JKR has said "he's keeping quiet for now" which is saying a lot for a dead guy... plus we know that Regulus tried to defect from the Death Eaters and was killed because of it. He's also one of the only known major characters with the initials RB-- the A could be for a middle name that we don't know of, though the family tree at Grimmauld Place says both he and Sirius shared an uncle whose name started with A.
Yeep, I think that covered just about everything. We don't even have a name for the 7th book yet, JKR has NOT updated her site to publication, and we're left with more questions than we've got answers, I should think.
Overall:
* It's a bit frustrating to see some things come out of nowhere, such as Narcissa caring so madly for Draco, Draco suddenly showing a keen interest in protecting his family, and of course, the 'ships.
* It's sad when it comes to recalling all the deaths, leading up to the eventual death of Dumbledore. After the fact, it's more of one of those things that we realize "had to happen" that way.
* Lots of questions about the 'ships that HAVE formed, the people that are both there and gone, the future of Hogwarts and the Ministry of Magic, what Voldemort is really up to, where Snape and Draco have escaped to, and so on...
A good read-- but frankly, I liked 4 and 5 better. Still, I am eagerly awaiting 7, the final book.
Oh, and finally:
Which HP Kid Are You?
The book started out strangely "plotless." In Book 1, Harry had this purpose, to discover who he really was and what really happened to his parents. He fought Voldemort for the first time (I don't count him as having "fought" Voldemort when he was a baby, considering it was Lily's charm that protected him) and learned a bit of what he's got to face. In Book 2, there was this seemingly imminent danger of Voldemort returning again, in a new form, and able to control this massive beast that no one else could stop. In Book 3, Harry didn't fight Voldemort, but he did discover some great big truths about his family, and the start of Voldemort's resurrection began. In Book 4, Harry faced Voldemort yet again, but this time at a great loss to his own mentality-- Cedric died. His crush on Cho pretty much fell apart (I read in a book about the Patronus forms that since Cho's was a swan -animals that mate for life, and deeply mourn the loss of their mate- she would never truly "get over" or "forget" Cedric, something that would hinder any relationship she might try and have with Harry) and the start of the war (for the Good Guys, anyway) became clear. Then in Book 5 we got hints about something much darker and more sinister-- prophecies, true allegiances, what it means to be a true friend, and what true evil comes from and turns into. We finally lose an important, "good guy" character-- Sirius.
If you wanted to relate Book 5 (or even 6) to something in pop culture, think of it as the book form of "The Empire Strikes Back" (Star Wars) movie, which everyone agreed was the darkest movie of the original trilogy, and the most emotionally poignant. Book 5 definitely fits that description.
As for 6... there didn't seem to be any sudden plot. Yes, we met the new Minister of Magic (the guy described in JKR's excerpt from her website) who you're not meant to like any more than Cornelius Fudge was "likable," and we met the "new" Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher. Come on, people, three guesses, and the first two don't count. Snape. I knew that his getting the "job of his dreams" was signaling something ominous... as was the coming of a new teacher for Potions, a somewhat-likable guy, but a former head of Slytherin house, Horace Slughorn.
Things start to come together after about Chapter 20, when it's revealed that Slughorn knows more than he's letting on, Harry's got to try harder despite everything that seems to be going wrong, and there are some decided love polygons going on, but no one seems to know what's what.
The thing that pissed me off most about Book 6 was the love triangles. They seemed to crop up out of nowhere. Keep in mind that I'm personally a Draco x Hermione shipper-- a het crack pairing shipper, if you wanna be honest. I realize the impossibility of Draco x Hermione just as much as Seto x Anzu and many of my other favorite pairings. That doesn't make me blind to the subtext or outright hints regarding the other characters.
Ron x Hermione? - Ron seemed to have a thing for Hermione starting around Book 3 or so, I'd say. In Books 1 and 2, he started out hating her, then they were friends... but it was really just friends, because Hermione --let's face it-- she's hard to handle. She can be extremely overbearing at times, if insanely helpful, and a voice of reason (Lupin much?) in a group of guys who are more than willing to take risks for "no reason." But with Book 4 introducing Viktor Krum, it seemed as though any affection Ron harbored for Hermione was NOT returned (despite whatever Hermione said about her not really being involved with Viktor).
Hermione x Harry? - I started to see this one in Book 5 and 6, with slight hints of it in Books 3 and 4. Hermione has become increasingly helpful to Harry, and sometimes they even have their own adventures (Time Turner, Book 3) without Ron. Also, she's the only one that can relate to Harry dealing with "Muggles," as for all intents and purposes, she spent 11 years thinking she WAS a Muggle, and her parents ARE Muggles. Admittedly, very few have dealt with Harry's loss the way he has, but Hermione has definitely been a helpful reminder and a shoulder to lean on when Harry's been in VERY tough situations.
Snape x Lily? - People might think I'm crazy for this, but I swore the first time I read the scene of Snape's memory in the Pensieve, he wasn't just angry at Lily sticking up for him, it was the concept behind it-- a girl defending a guy, a smart girl aware of his secret (more on that later), and so on. I thought maybe Snape had a thing for Lily, however fleeting, and that seeing her get together with James Potter, the guy that had tormented him throughout his seven years of schooling at Hogwarts, made him hate James more. He probably couldn't bring himself to hate Lily, and if he really is a "good guy" then it makes sense that he would regret having any role to play in Voldemort killing Lily-- forget Harry and James, it's Lily that didn't need/deserve to die.
Ginny x Harry? - This one was actually CANON for Book 6. Yes, fangirls, proceed with your screaming. Ginny apparently "never got over" Harry, though all her snogging with boys like Michael Corner and Dean Thomas has made her quite the expert on men. She's always struck me as the perpetual younger sister, even for someone like Harry-- but out of the blue in Book 6, Harry smells a Love potion that bears a striking connection to Ginny's perfume (or something) and then later on, he gets blatantly jealous over seeing Ginny with Dean. Harry even fumbles during Quidditch practice (Ginny's on the team, of course) and gets hit with a bludger for staring at her. Then, when Ginny takes Harry's place as Seeker temporarily and Gryffindor again wins the Quidditch cup, Harry embraces her and KISSES her, in front of the entire Gryffindor crowd. Of course, Harry went through the usual internal screaming: She's my best friend's sister! but he pretty much threw it to the wind, until, AT LONG LAST, the plot took hold! So Harry had to break up with Ginny, even though it was blatantly obvious that he really didn't want to (and neither did she) and Ron was actually okay with it (and Hermione apparently ENCOURAGED the two of them getting together, as though she knew Harry started liking her, and that Ginny -despite Hermione's own advice- never got over him).
But no, Ron and Hermione never get together in Book 6-- rather, Ron finally gets together with Lavender Brown, though they break up by book's end because she's too much of a nag. Now it seems as though Ron is the blind one, because during the entire time he was off snogging Lavender, it was quite clear that Hermione was VERY hurt. So will Hermione ever admit her feelings to Ron, will he find out from Harry, or... something else? (Viktor is supposed to make an appearance in Book 7; we'll see how this affects things.)
So who is the Half-Blood Prince? Well, everyone speculated-- JKR said from the start that it wasn't Harry or Voldemort/Tom Riddle, the obvious choices. We know it "can't" be Ron or Draco (though news of Narcissa having had an affair with a Muggle would have made my day) ... and in the course of the book, Hermione even speculated that it didn't have to be a boy at all! Well, long story short, it's Snape. Yes, Snape's big dark and dirty secret is that HE is a half-blood, same as Voldemort. He tinkered in Dark Arts and tried to make himself popular-- but his attempts didn't work out so well as Voldemort's did. The feelings borne from those experiences surely gave him enough hate to work with, but... we're still missing a pretty decently-sized chunk of the puzzle.
Harry discovers an old school book of Snape's in the Potions class, one that gives tips on expert potion making. It pisses Snape off to see Harry suddenly performing so well in Potions, even though Snape is no longer the teacher. The only clue we had about the HPB until Snape revealed it himself was that the book was published about 50 years ago-- meaning it would have been new material for a 16-year-old Voldemort, but we already know HE'S not the Half-Blood Prince. It could have been the property of one of his followers... or perhaps the former property of one of his FUTURE followers. Where does the "Prince" come from? Snape's not royalty; there is no royalty in the Wizarding world. His mother was of the surname Prince, and she married a Muggle named Tobias Snape...
So who died?
The cover of Book 6 is pretty intimidating and telling-- the Dark Mark appearing right over what looks to be Hogwarts. Not good. And it's not-- as JKR said, more people died, though it wasn't who I thought (Ron). Rather, it was someone else widely suspected... Dumbledore. Dumbledore always struck me as another one of those "perpetual" characters that you would never see dying. But we did have hints of it from the beginning of the book-- he apparently handled something dangerous and his wand hand was blackened and weak as a result. We later learn he touched a cursed Horcrux, something Voldemort sealed part of his soul in. However, as we learn from many trips into the Pensieve, Voldemort didn't just pick any objects, oh no...
(1) the Diary proving he was the Heir of Slytherin (destroyed)
(2) the ring he stole off Morfin, his uncle of the Gaunt family, who lived in Little Hangleton (formerly with Voldemort's grandfather, Marvolo, and his mother, who died in childbirth, Merope) (in Dumbledore's possession)
(3) a locket Merope once owned, marking the Gaunts as the last line of direct descendants of Salazar Slytherin (location unknown!)
(4) a cup Helga Hufflepuff once owned (location unknown!)
(5) something of Rowena Ravenclaw's/Godric Gryffindor's (location unknown!)
(6) Nagini, the snake
The seventh piece of Voldemort's soul is inside himself. He must have killed AT LEAST SEVEN PEOPLE personally before making all these Horcruxes, because Slughorn and Dumbledore both reveal that it takes something truly evil to split one's soul-- and since Voldemort regards seven as the most magical number, he plans from the get-go (the summer after he turned 16, he murdered Morfin, and later, his own father and paternal grandparents) to murder as many people as necessary to give himself "immortality." See, splitting your soul into the Horcruxes means that even if your body is destroyed, you "live on" which explains and answers the question Why did Voldemort live? People always ask, "Why didn't Harry die?" and after all the explanations about Lily and love and a charm older than any magic Voldemort knows protecting Harry... what it boils down to is, who cares HOW Harry lived-- he did, that's what the story's about. But if the Avada Kedavra REBOUNDED, why didn't Voldemort die? Because he had Horcruxes to protect his soul! (What I wanna know though, is... what happened to Voldemort's natural body? We all know that Avada Kedvara doesn't cause a body to incinerate or anything-- so what happened to his real body?)
Getting back to Dumbledore, he didn't just die of old age or of some lame old Death Eater putting a curse on him. Nope, sorry... Snape did him in. With an Avada Kedavra, no less. I was flipping (reading quickly, but not skimming) the last few pages, hoping that it was some sort of trick. You'd think that after everything everyone's been through, Dumbledore would have some sort of protection against it, but then, Dumbledore's always known a lot more than he's ever let on-- maybe he knew what Snape was going to do, and he accepted it as "his time." *shrug* I imagine we'll find more about it later on-- after all, Dumbledore DOES have a painting in the new Headmistress's office (McGonagall, of course).
And as for Draco Malfoy, he turns out to have not a "good side," per se, but more of a pitiable side. Harry comes to pity him just a bit, when he realizes that Draco had more than enough time to kill Dumbledore, but he DIDN'T. He lowered his wand, in fact, until the Death Eaters summoned Snape and Snape did in Dumbledore without a second thought.
There was a big, very teary funeral (this is where the whole "haven't cried like this since Charlotte the Spider died" comes from) and I admit, I was one of the sobbing mourners. It was like a very big finalization on something none of us wanted to believe would happen. At least with Sirius, it was sudden and almost mysterious, and JKR almost hinted that we would SOMEHOW see more of Sirius (and of the whole Black family) once more. So yeah, I'm a bit stunned.
Harry's even said that even if Hogwarts reopens after Dumbledore's death, he won't go back-- he's going to Godric Hollow to visit his parent's grave, to finish what Voldemort started there 16 (almost 17) years ago... and Ron and Hermione say they'll come with him, no questions asked, no argument. And there's a slightly pleasant event awaiting him at the Burrow before he returns to Privet Drive until his 17th birthday-- Fleur and Bill Weasley are getting married. During the Death Eater attack on Hogwarts, Bill got bitten by the infamous werewolf Fenrir Greyback-- but Greyback wasn't in wolf form, so not even Lupin knows what will become of Bill. By book's end, we see Fleur refuses to give up on Bill (which brings her closer with Mrs. Weasley, but Ginny still hates her) and the only sign Bill has of any wolfish tendencies is a desire for raw meat.
On top of that, we discover that Tonks, whom Harry has noticed is perpetually depressed, is not mourning the loss of her cousin alone-- he suspects Tonks also loved Sirius (even though they're cousins; keep in mind that in Britain, marrying your cousin is legal, so anyone shipping Tonks x Sirius, carry on, carry on). However, it turns out with the revelation that Fleur will stay with Bill, why won't Lupin let Tonks love him? So finally the young'uns find out that Tonks is lovesick over Lupin, and that her change in Patronus is not Sirius' animagus form, but Lupin's werewolf form.
There's only one book left, but will it even be a "Year 7" since Harry supposedly won't go to Hogwarts? He now owns 12 Grimmauld Place in London, even though he's not a pure blood nor a Black, and the Order of the Phoenix vacated the premises in case Bellatrix Lestrange gained knowledge or access to the place. But Harry also owns Kreacher, who, despite his prejudices, serves Harry (and even gives him a box of maggots for Christmas) and not Bellatrix.
Harry needs to defeat Voldemort once and for all. I was "hoping" (not like in the excited, yay, it must happen way) that someone of the Trio would die. JKR keeps saying things in interviews about Harry, Ron and Hermione, things like "How do you know they'll be alive long enough to get a job (at the Ministry/at Hogwarts/wherever). She does say that at least one of Harry's classmates will go on to be a teacher, but I'm leaning toward a more minor character, like Neville becoming the Herbology teacher. I was thinking that Book 6 would feature the death of either Ron or Hermione. If Hermione started liking Harry, it could presumably make Ron angry enough to sever ties with him, and yet thrown together in the face of danger once more, Ron would definitely die for them. It didn't happen in 6, but it COULD happen in 7 (though with Hermione liking Ron now, it seems more likely that she will die for the boys, or that Ron will die for her and tell Harry to protect his sister and Hermione).
We also need to find out what and where they other Horcruxes are. And Trewlaney, though possessing a rather strange ability to See when she doesn't remember/expect it, did refer to Harry as an "Object" (yes, capitalized) --which makes me think Harry himself could be a Horcrux, though perhaps an accidental one. That makes sense as to why "neither can live while the other survives." Voldemort can only live so long as all the Horcruxes he has (including the last piece of soul he has within himself, his new physical body) survive, and with the loss of at least one (more likely two), and Harry himself can't survive (or doesn't WANT to) so long as Voldemort lives to continue his reign of terror. But if Harry dies and kills Voldemort in the process (assuming he's already destroyed the other Horcruxes) then Voldemort dies-- once and for all.
Speaking of Horcruxes, the one that Harry adventures with Dumbledore to find (incidentally, that adventure weakened Dumbledore to the point when Snape could kill him easily) turns out to be a fake, including a message: To the Dark Lord
I know I will be dead long before you read this but I want you to know that it was I who discovered your secret.
I have stolen the real Horcrux and intend to destroy it as soon as I can.
I face death in the hope that when you meet your match, you will be mortal once more.
R.A.B.
My first thought (and many other people's, if the Chamber of Secrets forum is any indication) thought it had to have been Regulus Black. JKR has said "he's keeping quiet for now" which is saying a lot for a dead guy... plus we know that Regulus tried to defect from the Death Eaters and was killed because of it. He's also one of the only known major characters with the initials RB-- the A could be for a middle name that we don't know of, though the family tree at Grimmauld Place says both he and Sirius shared an uncle whose name started with A.
Yeep, I think that covered just about everything. We don't even have a name for the 7th book yet, JKR has NOT updated her site to publication, and we're left with more questions than we've got answers, I should think.
Overall:
* It's a bit frustrating to see some things come out of nowhere, such as Narcissa caring so madly for Draco, Draco suddenly showing a keen interest in protecting his family, and of course, the 'ships.
* It's sad when it comes to recalling all the deaths, leading up to the eventual death of Dumbledore. After the fact, it's more of one of those things that we realize "had to happen" that way.
* Lots of questions about the 'ships that HAVE formed, the people that are both there and gone, the future of Hogwarts and the Ministry of Magic, what Voldemort is really up to, where Snape and Draco have escaped to, and so on...
A good read-- but frankly, I liked 4 and 5 better. Still, I am eagerly awaiting 7, the final book.
Oh, and finally:
Which HP Kid Are You?
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no subject
Date: 2005-07-18 03:01 pm (UTC)Hmm
Date: 2005-07-18 09:19 pm (UTC)HP
Date: 2005-07-18 06:52 pm (UTC)As for the book, it was rather uneventful but it shed a lot of light on the situation. As for Snape, he's an ass...but even though he might not have wanted to, he had no choice but to kill Dumbledore (Unbreakable vow), or else Draco would be dead. And as for Snape x Lily, i dunno...seems odd. By the sound of the 2nd chapter of this book, he's had a thing for Narcissa, maybe that's why he's such close friends with Lucius and he has Draco as his favorite in the school.
As for Harry, he's a weak individual in terms of skill...courage, yes, but not skill. He could have learned so much in the 6 years he was at Hogwarts (like Riddle did), but he chose not to. Even with the present situation (countless murder plots), he was still very ignorant and naive. But now he's becoming a bit like Riddle...he's going off by himself (almost) to search out a way to kill Voldy.
Honestly, I would have never believed Dumbledore dead, I mean, it's Dumbledore! The only one that Voldy ever feared.
As for R.A.B., maybe it is Regulus Black, maybe it's someone else...i dunno...for all we know it's Dumbledore's brother...whatever. I'll wait for the last book...I hope it won't be as depressive as this one.
no subject
Date: 2005-07-19 07:02 pm (UTC)I respect your opinions although I don't really agree with what you've said regarding some of JKR's style for the novel and her pairings (HermionexRon, GinnyxHarry and DracoxPansy for me - always has been, always will be).
I agree wholeheartedly with you on the Harry-might-be-a-Horcrux theory because it just seems to justify an ending where both Harry and Voldemort die. And besides, everyone keeps saying that Voldemort transferred some of his power to Harry when his killing curse backfired - maybe he transferred some of his soul too? Who knows? (DUH: JKR! *head/desk* ^-^')
But I take issue with the following:
* It's a bit frustrating to see some things come out of nowhere, such as Narcissa caring so madly for Draco, Draco suddenly showing a keen interest in protecting his family...
A lot of people have not really disected and comprehended the concepts of Old Blood and Family and Slytherin. I think you're wrong about this coming out of nowhere. When you come from highly clannish families (like mine) you tend to hear the saying "Blood is thicker than water" too much for your own good and eventually, your family becomes something akin to... Mafia.
Now, I have to say that Narcissa's sudden caring for Draco can't be either wholly expected or unexpected because, really, how much of her have we really seen? We saw her once at the Qudditch World Cup and we know of her lineage. But we haven't really seen that much of her. So I don't think that her protectiveness is that far out of the water.
With regard to Draco's desperation to keep his family alive - I really thought this was blatant. Draco worships the ground his father walks on, obviously cares for his mother and believes rigidly in his family name. His efforts to keep them alive are not unexpected.
I hope I haven't been too... vehement in my discord. The Malfoys have long been my favourite characters and, I suppose, I get a bit reactive when it comes to them.
Generally, I thought the book was a really good repreive from the weight and gloom of Book 5. Taking it on its own, it does come across as somewhat shallow but when considering it in the context of all the other Books, it offers a sort of comic relief needed following Book 5. And besdies, she killed Dumbledore.
I'm still not sure how to feel about that.
^^
Date: 2005-07-26 04:49 am (UTC)Ron x Hermione I will agree with, of course-- but it struck me as odd that smart Hermione was all of a sudden becoming a jumble of hormones and jealousy, and she wasn't acting the least bit "smart" about her obvious feelings for Ron. And Ron, who previously showed a lot of feeling for her, suddenly started snogging with Lavender, if just to prove his sister wrong! Hermione didn't seem the least bit aware of Ron's feelings, and vice versa, which baffled me, because I'd been seeing them since Book 2.
Draco x Pansy... eh, Draco just doesn't strike me as the type to really be committed to anyone but himself. And the way JKR describes Pansy sometimes, I wonder if she's got a personality under her frilly pink dress robes. Slytherin, pure-blood or no, we're certainly not meant to like them- or anyone from Slytherin, really (except maybe Blaise?)
I <3 the Malfoys too, just because I see so much possibility with them.
no subject
Date: 2005-07-20 03:54 am (UTC)Do a cross-check with Book 5. Remember when they're cleaning early on at the black house and come across a locket and it doesn't open? Three guesses what it is....and the first two don't count. ^.~
Heh.
Date: 2005-07-26 04:51 am (UTC)Re: Heh.
Date: 2005-07-26 02:04 pm (UTC)This way Harry can still do it and everyone who forgot about the locket in Book 5 will go DOH!