(no subject)

[brokenrecord]

While I was waiting for the book to arrive this morning, I was becoming very impatient, and went on LJ and saw a few people who had finished the book already. I looked at what they thought, even though I was trying to stay unspoiled (though, I failed miserably: by the time I had gotten the book, I already knew that Dumbledore would die, Snape would officially be on the other side, Snape would kill Dumbledore, Harry and Ginny would get together, something about Ron and Hermione as well, Bill and Fleur would be engaged, and the Half-Blood Prince would be Snape) and saw that while one person thought it was great, the other two or three people felt it read like a poorly-written fanfiction. I went in expecting the worst, but I actually enjoyed the book very much. That may just have to do with the fact that I'm not very immersed in the Harry Potter fandom; I read through all the books about once a year, and don't really think about it very much until the next book comes out. In any case, I personally enjoyed it. Not my favorite of the series (I don't think anything can overtake my love for PoA), but I thought it was very good.

But, my very first complaint: Remus/Tonks? No. Please. No. I like Tonks and I love Remus, but not together. Please. ...this could just be because my HP OTP is Remus/Sirius (yeah, know how I said a little while ago I don't ship anyone and I don't get very into the fandom? I clearly lied. I have a definite love for Remus/Sirius above all else), but still. Just... Remus/Tonks? What the hell? Where did that come from? I saw Harry/Ginny, all the Ron/Hermione sorts of things, Ron/Lavender wasn't completely out of the blue, really, and there were hints about Bill/Fleur in the previous books, even, but Remus/Tonks? I do not like this one bit.

Well, as I said, I was spoiled for a bunch of things (didn't even realize how much, actually), so Dumbledore's death and Snape being the Half-Blood Prince and being all evil wasn't very surprising. I think even if I weren't spoiled, though, Snape ending up being evil wouldn't surprise me. I remember when I was rereading the books this week that everytime Snape was brought up as being a candidate for doing some evil thing and it ended up being shot down (I remember Hermione saying a lot "How many times have you thought it was him?" and everyone saying "Well, if Dumbledore trusts him...") that, well, it indicated that somewhere down the line, he actually would be evil. I don't know if that made sense. But it just seems that after so long of being wrong about him, that he'd have to end up being evil. Then again, part of me thinks that this isn't a... definite thing, I guess. Snape's not just pure evil, and that's that. Reading other people's opinions also makes me think that it's still possible that Snape is working the double-agent role and hasn't really gone over to the other side. I don't know, suppose we'll just have to wait until the next book.

Dumbledore's death: well, I liked him a lot, but I was more upset when Sirius died. ...then again, Sirius was, like, my favorite character. So. Yeah. And it was a lot more unexpected. Um, except that I was spoiled for that too. But that was a complete accident! It was in one of my friends' blogs, randomly. This book prepared the reader a lot more for his death, I felt. I mean, from the beginning, with his injured hand, it showed that he wasn't invincible. And after being weakened from the potion so much... if I didn't know he was going to die, I would've guessed it.

Of the relationships in the book, as I said before I haven't been very shippy in the past, but I think like Harry/Ginny. I at least like it more than Harry/Hermione (don't know why, but they've never come off as more than best friends to me). I knew that they'd break up at the end (I really shouldn't have allowed myself to be spoiled), but I like that it ended amicably rather than one of their heart's being broken. Poor Harry, though, he is right; it seems that everyone who cares about him gets killed.

I definitely like Ron/Hermione, though. And I'm actually glad that they didn't end up moving past friends in this book; makes it seem like it'll definitely happen in the 7th. Plus, in this book there wasn't just jealousy from Ron's side; Hermione definitely has feelings for him, as well. And, "I love you, Hermione." Aw. I mean, I know it wasn't in a more-than-friends way, but still. Aw. Cute.

Loved the end, with Ron and Hermione sticking with Harry. Can't wait for the 7th book to see where it all leads. Sounds like there won't be any (or at least much) of Hogwarts, which disappoints me. Could be completely off-base in that assumption, though.

My first thought about the R.A.B. was Regulus Black (don't know what his middle name was, though). First person I could think of with a B-last name. Don't know how that would fit in, though. I mean, I wouldn't think that, from what we've heard of him, he would take that Horcrux and leave that note, but then, we don't really know that much about him. I don't actually think it's him, but it's the only person I could think of with a first name starting with R and last starting with B. For all I know, could be someone we haven't met yet. Interested in finding out more about that.

Would've liked to see more lessons, especially Defense Against the Dark Arts. I mean, Snape's been after the position for years, and yet we don't see more than one or two lessons? No Transfiguration, and Charms and Herbology only served as places for Harry, Hermione, and Ron to talk about whatever was going on. One of the things that makes me like OotP (because I have mixed feelings about it; half the time I like it almost as much as PoA, other times it's my least favorite of them all) is all the attention to their lessons and, specifically, to the O.W.L.s. For some reason, all of that really interests me.

The Draco stuff - eh. I remember in the first book I thought that when huge stuff like Voldemort coming back and all this stuff in this book happened, that Draco wouldn't still be on the side of evil. But then the series got darker, and... well, duh. Doesn't surprise me that he couldn't kill Dumbledore, but I don't think that redeems him very much. I never really saw anything redeeming about him, anyways. Doesn't make much a difference to me that he really is evil.

Sirius leaving everything to Harry: aw. I loved the Sirius/Harry relationship. Loved how Harry made use of Kreacher, and the Kreacher/Dobby scenes.

Each book seems to have some sort of... overall emotion (for example, to me at least, the last one seemed to be a lot about anger, which is one of the reasons that half the time I don't like it very much), and this one's was clearly love. It was a little heavy-handed, what with the pairings popping up all over the place, but I think it worked out all right. Especially if it's going to play such an important role in helping Harry defeat Voldemort, as it sounded from what Dumbledore was saying.

All right, I guess that's it. If I think of anything else, I'll add it in.

Edit: The more I think about it, the more I believe that Snape can't have completely gone over to the other side. It was like how I was saying with the previous 5 books, about how many times they accused Snape of being behind whatever evil and how many times they turned out wrong, that he'd have to eventually be behind something. Well, now that it seems that he's completely evil, I feel like it'll have to end up in the next book that he was just protecting his cover and either he or Draco had to kill Dumbledore anyways, and Dumbledore was already dying and Dumbledore was pleading with Snape to kill him, not spare his life, and all the many other things everyone else has said. So. Yeah. Don't think he's completely evil.

Edit 2: Am I the only one who, everytime something about Harry Potter being the Chosen One popped up, thought immediately "OMG WHEN DID HARRY POTTER BECOME A SLAYER?!" ...well, not seriously, but it was the first thing to pop into my mind.

Also, I forgot to mention that I found HBP to be really funny in some bits. "Furry little problem" and "You don't have to call me sir" are two of the most awesome lines ever. The entire Dumbledore/The Dursleys scene had me giggling constantly. I'm glad that there were so many bits of humor in contrast to all the dark, dramatic stuff happening.

Lastly, I forgot also to mention, was I the only one who thought, at Dumbledore's explanation of what Inferi are, that Voldemort would use Sirius's body to attack Harry in the giant battle at the end? I suppose that thought-process was flawed, as Sirius fell through the veil (and at the end, he said there was no body after Sirius died because it went through the veil), but... eh. I just thought that would be a horribly cruel thing to do to Harry, and it was mentioned so frequently at the beginning of the book after having never been mentioned before that it had to have some major relevance to the plot.