Current mood:	thoughtful
Entry tags:	hbp

HBP thoughts
First off, I'd like to give a shout-out to hpkia816@yahoo.com, who for some reason felt the need to send me an email spoiling book 6 in the subject line. Lucky I had already read it (HPB that is, not the email), or there'd be blood on the internets

Anyway, without reading the rest of the Internets yet, a few thoughts, in my own terse and rambling fashion :-)


In case you missed that the first time, GREAT BIG SPOILERS FOR HBP BELOW.



I like that JKR seems to have gone back to fast-paced, streamlined books. Compared to OotP, especially, this book was far easier to get through. I'm pretty insensitive to stuff like grammar.. did notice some awkward phrasings, but I may have been looking too hard.

You can definitely see the influence of fandom on this book. Ginny enumerating the reasons why she's not a slut, Harry thinking hard about why Neville is in no way important, Blaise's gender and appearance noted, etc. Kind of funny to see.

I'm not sure if I like Lupin/Tonks more or less now it's canon.

I think I sort of have a crush on Blaise Zabini now. And I wonder how many slashers will drop him like a hot potato now he's black.

Hee, my baby said 'gatecrash'! Speaking of Draco, I'm really not sure what's going to happen to him. I think either he'll get a pseudo-redemption, along the lines of 'I'm not sorry for calling people Mudbloods, but I'll agree not to kill them', or else we'll get an off-hand mention of his death in Book 7. Also, dude? Crying to Moaning Myrtle? *snerk*

Was Sectumsempra the curse that Snape used in his memory? I don't have the rest of the books with me, so I can't check.

Speaking of Snape, I've got to believe that he's ultimately on the side of good. Otherwise, most of the other books just don't make sense. This would mean that when Dumbledore was pleading to Snape, he was asking Snape to kill him, instead of goading Draco into it. It would also explain why he was so hideously angry at Harry near the end; he had just killed the person he loved most in the world, and this stupid kid was about to make it all for nothing.

While I'm thinking about themes of the series, I really like how much more grown-up Harry is acting now. One of the things that really bothered me about the earlier books was that the Trio snuck around, lying and breaking rules, only to get rewarded for it. But of course that backfired big time in OotP. And now Harry is doing things like telling allies what he's going to do and relying on trustworthy people. I heartily approve.

Another big theme this time around, obviously, is romantic love. I suspect that the only reason Ron and Hermione didn't officially get together was because, once again, of fandom. I don't really understand why Harry and Ginny had to break up; the whole school knows they were going out, and probably thinks they still are. Unless they fake a big screaming fight in the middle of Diagon Alley, they'll still obviously be really close, and so she'll still be a bargaining chip. Also, why can't she come along on the Horcruxes quest if Ron and Hermione can?

Speaking of which, the Horcruxes? Seriously awesome concept. I mean, I know where she got it from, of course, but the whole idea of tearing souls apart, making someone less than human, is absolutely chilling. And to do it seven times... *shiver* Of course, I sort of wonder if the diary left a little bit of Tom Riddle's soul in Ginny, and she'll have to kill herself in order for Harry to defeat Voldemort. 'Cause that would be seriously awesome.

R. A. B. = Regulus Black. And nobody can tell me different.

The lake of dead bodies was seriously creepy too. Ick.

Did it seem like there was a lot of spider stuff in this book? Okay, granted, I was reading it while watching Eight Legged Freaks, but still: you've got Snape living at Spinner's End, Slughorn sitting in his web of influential people, the whole Aragog saga... I wonder what that means.

And ultimately, I wonder if the obvious answers are the correct ones. There always seems to be a misunderstanding or misdirection at the center of each of Rowling's books. This round it seems to have been the necklace Horcrux, but I'm still wondering about the whole Snape-Draco-Dumbledore thing. The obvious answer is that Draco was told to kill Dumbledore, Snape made an Unbreakable Vow to see it done or else do it himself, and that Dumbledore likely knew about the whole thing. But is it possible that the Vow was for something else? And if so, what?

I also wonder if Draco really does have the Dark Mark.