Books & Such

[Ginni]

Dammit. I'm only on page 180 or so. Damn wife keeps bugging me.

We did tape the "Harry Potter at the castle" thing that was on on Friday night, but haven't watched it yet. I was going to go to the 24hour supermarket to pick one up, but could NOT keep my eyes open. Picked it up when we went shopping on Saturday, and so far I'm enjoying.

Like Ophy, I've only read them once each, and my memory is a little fuzzy in parts, but I think I'm catching up.

I'm finding it hard to care that everyone's so cut up about Sirius though - I too didn't give a toss that he bought it.

ETA: Our covers are different, and I bought the adult one

[ophy]

When you said you bought the "adult" one, I naturally assumed you meant a porntastic version. Hee!

I might have been more into Ron and H, if I had paid closer attention throughout the first 5 books and fully realized that it was under the surface. I was probably in denial about it. I can identify with Hermione (duh), and since I *know* I would never go for a Ron type fellow, it's harder for me to believe she would. I kinda feel like it happens because Rowling needs to create romance drama and it makes sense to bring Harry's closest friends together for that purpose, and less like those actual people would be into each other IRL.

The Lavender Brown stuff was very teen-like, but I found it annoying and a time waster. I, also, lurve that Ginny was all lusted after by the boyz and that she was totally up front and skankay about it. But yeah, I guess it feels like that stuff was inserted in there a bit. They have to build that in there though, in order to make Harry's secret weapon in Book 7 *LOVE*. Or *LURVE*. Whatev.

Snape killed Dumbledore! I really think he's not EVIL. They are just setting Harry up for the big reveal of Snape's actual relative goodness *after* Harry either kills him or maims him terribly.

So R.A.B is probably Whatsitname Black, Sirius' brother, right?

[isadora]

I picked mine up at Target on Saturday but haven't really had time to get too far in. I think I'm about 100 pages in so far. Damn this spoilerific thread!

I, like ophy and ginni, have only read each book once and I don't remember shit about them from book to book! Because of that, I've found a few points midly confusing (I can't f'ing remember what happened at the end of the last book to be honest) and I really didn't understand the Sirius love, either, G. I mean, I get why Harry loved him but everybody else's love is a mystery to me. He was kind of an asshole, from what I recall.

[roly]

Oh sad. Random thoughts:

Snape isn't evil. I think the reason Dumbledore trusted him is that he made an Unbreakable Vow way back when to do whatever DD told him to. And, on the tower, Dumbledore told Snape to kill him.

He's still a complete dicksmack, though, and I hope he dies a gruesome death.

The Tom Riddle backstory was awesome. There's a theory floating around that Harry (or maybe just his scar) is the final Horcrux. Which would be super-fucking-cool, IMO.

Not only was poor little Draco being forced to do Lord Thingy's bidding, he was crying to/confiding in the ghost of a Mudblood? Fucking fuck. I hate all those squeeing fucking fangirls and they are just gonna take that shit and RUN. Dammit.

I didn't mind all the "romance" too much, taking the view that it hasn't necessarily come out of nowhere, it's just that Harry's never really paid much attention to the dating scene at Hogwarts or the interactions between the adults in his life before now. That said, the "everyone's coupling up" scene in the hospital wing at the end was taking things too far. Tonks/Lupin? Yeah, they're in love. With being Beards. The Fleur line that Issie mentioned was hysterical, though.

Re: Ron/Hermione. I developed a theory about them before this book came out. I figured if they got together in HBP, they'd be over by the end of the series, but if JKR held off on officially making them a couple until at least Book 7 (if not in the epilogue), they'd end up married with a million little redheaded babies. Needless to say, my shippery heart is v.v. pleased.

ophy: Yeah, Sirius's brother was named Regulus and seems to be the leading contender for R.A.B., from what I've seen on other boards. There was a mention early in Book 5 about a locket being one of the possessions that was cleaned out of a cabinet in Grimmauld Place. Most people think that either Kreacher has it or that Mundungus stole and sold it.

My initial reaction to the book as a whole was that it was sort of off, but I felt the same way about OotP until I did a much slower reread and let it sink in, so I suspect the same will happen with HBP.

[IssieCol]

Snape isn't evil. I think the reason Dumbledore trusted him is that he made an Unbreakable Vow way back when to do whatever DD told him to. And, on the tower, Dumbledore told Snape to kill him.

You know, I hadn't thought about Snape having a previous Vow with Dumbledore. But what would've happened if the Vows had contradicted? He would've died either way? There's been a lot of talk about Snape's expression when he killed him, that perhaps it was the hatred for the task and for Dumbledore actually asking it of him rather than Snape's hatred for Dumbledore finally showing through.

A bunch of people have also brought up the fact that Snape was so HELLA pissed at being called a traitor by Harry because he couldn't bear to hear that after he'd just done something that was personally heartbreaking for him. But I don't know about that because I think it gives Snape way too much credit.

I'll admit that I did feel bad for Draco. As big of an asshole as he is, he's all talk and swagger. Dumbledore was right in that he's not a killer (just yet anyway). This book actually humanized Draco and Narcissa for me which I totally never expected. At the end of the day, she's still just a mom who can't accept that her kid might die and she'll still do anything to stop it and he's just a scared little boy.

[roly]

The other piece of evidence that Snape defenders are pointing to is the fight Hagrid overheard between he and DD. It would be just like JKR's red-herring-planting self to have the argument be about Snape not wanting to face the thought of killing DD for the greater good, as opposed to him trying to weasel his way out of his duties to the Order, as Hagrid suspected.

Narcissa and Draco turning out to be actual human beings with complex emotions and stuff is part of what's bothering me about the book. I like it, sure, but there's so much of it that's just so..."ask and ye shall receive! More Draco? Done! Narcissa getting a semblence of personality? Done! Less Hagrid? You got it! More Harry/Dumbledore interaction? Enjoy! Poor, lonely Remus getting some much-deserved affection? Check! Hermione and Ron dropping the subtle and being blatant about their attraction? Voilà! Seriously, in some ways, it's like this book is the entire fandom's wet dream.

Yeah, I don't know why I'm complaining either.

[keenai]

OMG, roly, ITA about Ron and Hermione not getting together! I was all, "Whyyyy didn't they kiss?" but then I told my friend, "Duh, they would totally have to break up. This way, when they get together in the next book, we know it's FOREVER (and evah!)."

So I got over that pretty quickly, hee. YAY, Weasley love!

Issie, the quote didn't go under the spoiler tags!

[NeoMaxy]

I guess I'm so not a shipper because I was excited for ALL the smackity in this one. I loveloveloved when Ron was hard-core making out with Lavender at every possible and innappropriate moment. I don't think it was all about making Hermione jealous though since Ginny had basically called him out on his manhood and in front of Harry, no less. He had to go smooch *someone* so why not the prettiest girl in school who liked him? It was such a 16 year old boy thing to do. My only gripe was that it made Hermione cry. Ron/Hermione4evaaahbittches!!

I was also momentarily excited by the possibly of Harry/Luna, no matter how brief since they had hinted at Harry/ginny the whole book. I love Luna so much.

I was honestly surprised at how much hooking up happened in the book but maybe it's just that Harry is more aware of it now that he's older rather than JK just piling it on.

The only thing that irked me was Snape, dammit. Is he evil or not? I need to know. Even if he's not and they had a deal, I agree with Roly that he's still a dicksmack. Who takes out a grudge on an 11 year old because you hated his dad, especially now that he's all sorry that he accidentally got him killed. *whatevercheddarhands*

Dumbledore dying made me very sad, partly because of my old love of Richard Harris. Damn movies!


This may actually be the first one of the series I read more than once and is definitely my favorite. I don't even own the first few because I disliked them so.

[keenai]

I was VERY pleased by the Ron/Lavender smackity! I'm indiscriminate when it comes to the kissing. I think as a grown-up shipper, I don't mind them getting as much as they can from everybody else before they hook up. Hee!

I agree on the Hermione crying, though. But she did attack him with flying birds so that kind of evened it out. Plus, I thought that was a very anti-Disney thing to do. Snow White, Aurora, or Cinderella would have never allowed that!

And I loved that the Fat Lady's password was changed to "abstinence." That had me

[Ginni]

You know, this is quite an amusing thread to read without going into the spoilers. All you see being the and the peeking through.

I am on a wee bit though. Harry's figured out that he fancies Ginny, which was hella obviously coming, but whatever.

A quick question - who's Lupin? I remember the name, but shag all about him.

[Res]

When someone said that a major character was going to die - I thought it would be Dumbledore simply because RH had died. hee.
But what about Dumbledore's hand - that was never explained. For a while I thought that he had some Polyjuice Potion and was pretending to be Snape and made the Unbreakable Vow but he died before Harry found out what happened.

[ophy]

Lupin is the werewolf guy who was buddies with Sirius and Harry's dad in school. He taught Defense of the Dark Arts one year in Prisoner of Azkaban (I think?). He's a member of the Order of the Phoenix, and one of the white hats in the series. So far, anyway.

I think everything this person says makes pretty good sense. spoilerific essay

[vanessa]

Res - It was explained. His hand was injured when he de-horcruxed the ring.

[Res]

<--- was either multi-tasking or sleep-reading thru that bit!
hee.

[isadora]

Ok, so I'm only half-way through the book and I HATE THIS THREAD. Hee.

I was sort of medium on the first 250 pages because I'm not that into daily life at Hogwarts. I appreciate the imaginative world Rowling has created but by year six? I get it. And I'd like some plot, thanks.

But now that this is a kissing book? It's really picking up for me. Hee! And I'm LOVING that at least the first half of the book is crushing the Ron/Hermoine people. Hee. I'm evil. I need to finish the book just so I can read the fandom thread.

Edited because it just occurred to me that I may not be the only one that is still reading.