(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.

Comments

[screamerdreamer.livejournal.com]

I agree about Snape. At least I'm hoping he's not totally evil. He can't be *defensive* I think that Dumbledore had some kind of knowledge of what was happening, which is why he froze Harry before Harry had a chance to mess it up. Because I'm positive that Harry would have interrupted Snape had he had the chance.

Regulus is the only person I could think of either. I'm hoping if it is him, that Sirius might tie in somehow too, because I don't think we've seen the last of him, honestly.

And when you mentioned Voldemort using Sirius's body in his army of undead...I hadn't thought about that before, but that does seem very likely. Hopefully he'd have to accept that it was just a body, and hopefully remember the damn spell this time.

Tonks and Lupin...I don't necessarily have a problem with it, but it just seems a little weird to me. Maybe I hadn't been reading into things enough, but I really hadn't seen that much foreshadowing, like what usually happens. (as with all that R/Hr foreshadowing that I'm refusing to accept will probably come true in the final book). Anyways.

You don't have to call me sir was one of the greatest lines ever, I agree. All those little lighthearted moments made me a little happier about all the other crap that was going on.

I had taken care to avoid all spoilers, but somehow, when Dumbledore's hand was first mentioned, I got this sinking feeling that he would be the one to die. Even though I'd had him pegged to die in Book 7.

Sirius's death still bothers me more. It and the GoF end scene both do horrible things to me.

Out of curiosity, you haven't seen any more predictions of impending doom for our beloved characters, have you? Going back to the foreshadowing idea, the books are usually laced with stuff indicating who'll be snuffed next. I don't know if you've read it or not, but there was a nice list compiled about Sirius's death hints. I don't know. My mind will not be at ease unless I find out that Ron and Neville both make it out. (Even though I think Neville will be the one to return as a teacher, so that means I'm mostly worried about Ron here I guess).

Going back to Sirius (I'm all over the place here, aren't I?) I'm thinking there's more to that veil than meets the eye. Hopefully we'll get some answers.

The lack of lessons thing bothered me too. As did the lack of 'less important' characters like Seamus and even Neville. Oh well.

[http://users.livejournal.com/brokenrecord__/]

Yeah, it does make sense. Harry definitely would've tried to protect Dumbledore from both Malfoy and Snape. And Dumbledore pleading for his life to Snape doesn't make sense to me. However, if he was saying "Please, Snape" in pleading for Snape to kill him, then that would seem a lot more like Dumbledore to me. I don't know. I'm still unsure about it, but I think that there's more to that scene than meets the eye.

For Tonks and Lupin, I don't think I'd have as much of a problem with it if it wasn't so seemingly random. I've seen some people say that there was foreshadowing, but I definitely saw none if it in either book 5 or 6. I had been figuring that Tonks was depressed over Sirius all through book 6, but then all of a sudden, it turns out that she's just pining over Lupin.

Yeah, I loved all the lighthearted moments. They definitely help balance out the darkness of the rest of the book.

Yeah, same for me. Cedric's death bothers me because it bothered Harry so much, and because it could've been very easily just Harry if hadn't offered the idea of taking it together (not that I'm blaming him in the slightest for that), and just how sudden it was. And the whole situation was just creepy, with Wormtail's hand being cut off, and Voldemort rising again, and all that. Sirius's bothers me because, like I said, he was my favorite character, but also because of how obviously distraught Harry once he dies to the end of book 5.

I haven't seen any more predictions of death, but I don't think I read the sixth book as closely as I could have. I'm planning on rereading it, probably this weekend, and I'll look to see if I see anything.

I'm hoping there is more to the veil than meets the eye. I mean, it was such a mystery to Harry and the readers in the 5th book, and then there really was nothing said about it in the 6th book, so I'm hoping it's explained more in the 7th.

Yeah, I missed Neville a bunch, and Seamus as well. I didn't dislike all the relationship stuff as I saw some people did, but I'd rather have had more lessons or characters like Neville and Seamus (and Hagrid! There was so little Hagrid in this book!) than all the talk about who's snogging who and who likes who and such. And if the trio does drop out of their 7th year, as the end of the book implied, then it looks like there won't be any (or at least many) lessons or less important characters in the 7th book either, which makes me sad.

[screamerdreamer.livejournal.com]

Yeah exactly, I can't see Dumbledore as one to beg for his life either. I imagine I'll be re-reading that scene a lot to see if I can catch anything I missed.

I know...When I first read GoF I thought that was nice that they'd become co-champions...hah. It should be interesting to see how well the movie portrays that whole ceremony this fall. Hopefully it doesn't get ruined like the Marauder's Map >.<

I'd forgotten about how scarce Hagrid was too. I mean, I know that all of the Pensieve stuff was important, but it seemed like with all of that, all my other favorite characters just got swept out of the way. I wanted to see more of Snape's lessons too, just to what he was doing since he was no longer the Potions master (a move which I'm hoping had some meaning behind it. I mean, come on, Snape's been wanting the job forever, and all of a sudden he gets it? Why?)

Anyways.