<p>Ok, I finished it yesterday, but I’m not happy. </p>
<p>Did anyone think that The Death scene was rushed and hurried? Did anyone believe that HP’s reaction was insufficiently represented? Does anyone believe that the Half-Blood Prince will really turn out to have been following orders and is redeemable in book 7? Or is the obvious the truth? </p>
<p>And other questions - what do you think the mystery artifact will turn out to be? Didn’t HP morph rather suddenly at the end? Is this depressing or what?</p>
<p>I feel left up in the air, in contrast to the conclusion that was satisfactorily wrapped up in the previous book. Climax too compressed, denouement insufficient. I’m annoyed at Rowling, and we will probably have to wait two years in an unsettled state to find out - this reminds me of my fears about The Return of the King film after Peter Jackson took too many liberties with the plot in the Two Towers.</p>
<p>Now that I think back about it, it did seem a little rushed. Kinda just came together a little too easily. But when I was reading it, I thought it made sense. I’m guessing a lot of us kiddies will feel the same way - that is was properly done out, about the right length, got the job done. This one seemed to cut out all the long thought processes needed to grow to the next mental stage of preparing-to-fight-evil and hand us the conclusion. I guess for a kid who grew up with these fairy tale morals it isn’t hard to grasp or accept. But I come from the crowd who thought 5 was disgusting drawn-out and overly-angsty anyway. </p>
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<p>Being the glass-is-half-empty type, I think Snape is pretty much evil and has always been pretty evil. Even though I admit Snape will probably do some good for Potter later on (I compare this good to the good that Golem did in LoTR), I have a friend who insists he will redeem himself in 7, and furthermore, only did what he had to because he made that big Vow.</p>
<p>On another note, the Dumbledore dying and Harry/Ginny came true as many fans predicted. The Harry/Luna crowd lost out. But of course… I loved Dumbledore and must hate this book, even though it isn’t badly done.</p>
<p>I thought R.A.B. might be a Black, but forgot Sirius had a brother.</p>
<p>As for the last-minute metamorphisis, I think a lot is being unsaid and saved for Book 7. We shall see. Try not to get too addicted…</p>
<p>Random question - could RAB be R. Amelia Bones?</p>
<p>I’ve kind of had enough of Rowling’s method of killing off people - it’s all so senseless. It’s not like Dumbledore died but also destroyed one of the Horcruxes… and Sirius died when Harry got the prophecy that he didn’t need to get (and Harry could have used the mirror thing to communicate with him), thinking that S. was being tortured… and Cedric was just killed for no reason. It’s depressing after a while. At least let them die doing something useful!</p>
<p>Why did Snape make the Oath? Possibly any sort of concern/caring/whatever for Mrs. Malfoy?</p>
<p>All in all, the book read more like a soap opera than JK’s usual fare.</p>
<p>I was dismayed by the ending: It felt rushed to me too, and seemed to suggest two not-very-satisfying possibilities for the future. As far as I can see, either the conclusion of this book is to be taken at face value, in which case the bald revelations about Snape seem rather lame, or key points about Snape and/or Dumbledore will be overturned in Book 7, which seeems a bit like cheating (not quite the shower scene in “Dallas,” but still…).</p>
<p>For what it’s worth, the New York Times reviewer, Michiko Kakutani, who absolutely loved the book (“the achievement of the Potter books is the same as that of the great classics of children’s literature, from the Oz novels to ‘The Lord of the Rings’: the creation of a richly imagined and utterly singular world, as detailed, as improbable and as mortal as our own”), does seem to take the ending at face value: “In discovering the true identity of the Half-Blood Prince, Harry will learn to re-evaluate the value of first impressions and the possibility that his elders’ convictions can blind them to parlous truths.” But I still crave a better explanation for Dumbledore’s convictions about Snape than we have had thus far.</p>
<p>The whole book, in all honesty, reminded me of the second episode of the new Star Wars grouping—it was all about moving the plot along, preparing for the next episode. I thought the book was flat and full of explanations. I thought Rowling was bored when she wrote it, and she bored me. (I will point out that I was not so bored that I didn’t read it straight through, but that was as much because I’d set the time aside and my D was waiting for the copy as because I wanted to.)</p>
<p>I did like discovering a more human side to Malfoy.</p>
<p>I thought the overwhelming majority of the book, all but the end chapters was boring and repetitive. We encounter more of the same - school, classes, conflicts between Harry, Ron, Hermione, Hagrid,…, Quidditch and various detentions. The only interesting material are the Voldemort revelations, which sadly do not make up enough of the book. There is no unifying concept in this book, unlike the others. The end was more or less copied from Lord of the Rings - Harry is a hobit guided into a world of magic items belonging to evil Sauron/Voldemort by good wizard Gandalf/Dumbledore. Anyone think that Dumbledore will reappear as a sort of “white wizard?” in the end? Certainly the ending, with Harry/Frodo wanting to leave to fulfill his tasks alone and Sam/Ron+Hermione wanting to accompany him.</p>
<p>I also don’t get what stops Voldemort from making a Horcrux every time he kills a person, thus making him completely invincible.</p>
<p>Another theory for R.A.B. do we know Rosmerta’s last name? She was so close to Dumbledore, and if she was valuable enough to the Death Eaters to put an Imperius Curse on her she must be a powerful witch. Maybe we don’t know enough about her to write her out of the equation of powerful magic just yet.</p>
<p>I think RAB must be Regulus Black, possibly with the middle name Alphard after the uncle who left them gold (book 5 somewhere, I believe). I also think that Snape may have been following orders- I can’t imagine that Dumbledore would actually plead for his life, whereas I can see him pleading for Snape to follow orders. There’s also a very interesting connection between the language at two spots in the book. As Harry is forcing Dumbledore to drink the potion that so weakens him (of course, on Dumbledore’s orders), he is described as “hating himself, repulsed by what he was doing”. Later, as Snape raises his wand on Dumbledore, “there was revulsion and hatred etched in the harsh lines of his face.” The language in the second one seems ambiguous enough that Snape could be hating himself and revolted by what he must do, just as Harry was. </p>
<p>I also wouldn’t be surprised if Dumbledore’s death sealed a protective charm on Harry. All through the trip to retrieve the Horcrux, we see Dumbledore commenting on how Harry is more valuable than he is. It doesn’t seem too far out there that Dumbledore might prepare Harry as well as he could (private lessons), and then sacrifice himself to enable Harry to carry on.</p>
<p>I can’t bear the thought of Dumbledore dying because he was betrayed. His flimsy reason for trusting Snape would only make sense if (and I think this is the case), Snape was in love with Lily Potter. I definitely think he was. It would explain a lot.</p>
I think the soul-splitting weakens him every time - that’s why no one had ever done it more than once-before. So 7 splits would be pushing the envelope - done only because of V’s belief in the powers of 7. (And JKR’s, given that she has always planned 7 books and has netted millions - 7 must also be HER lucky number)
Amelia Bones’ full name is Amelia Susan Bones. Source: <a href=“Bones family – Harry Potter Lexicon”>Bones family – Harry Potter Lexicon;
I agree with the idea that Regulus Black is the most likely candidate -but as Regulus is dead, that still leaves the question as to what he did with the locket.</p>
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<p>I also found the ending frustrating, but I think that is mostly because I know that we will have to wait so long for book #7. It makes sense to use book #6 to set up the plot for book #7, and I’m kind of happy that book #7 will not follow the usual year-at-Hogwarts structure. (Which mean, when it comes down to it, that book #7 doesn’t have to be limited to a years’ time at all, unless JKR has specifically said somewhere that it will only follow Harry’s 17th year.)</p>
<p>I want to add this comment (tried to edit, but too much time has gone by):</p>
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It usually hasn’t been, in most of the books – though that doesn’t mean that the truth is unpredictable. I like the Elizabeth22’s theory about the protective charm and her comments about the “revulsion and hatred” language - I saw the parallels there, too - (and woudn’t Snape tend to have a satisfied or smug look on his face if he was doing something he wanted to do?). I also thought it was very odd the way Snape called off the Death Eater from finishing Harry off as he was escaping, especially given Snape’s anger at being called a coward - the rationale of saving Harry for Voldemort made no sense at all (I think Voldemort would forgive him that little transgression). Also, why did Dumbledore put the freeze charm on Harry, knowing Harry had the cloak of invisibility - and was thus safe from view - and when he had just told Harry to go find Severus? The only explanation is that he did not want Harry to be able to interfere with what he expected to happen next. </p>
<p>My only problem is that I have difficulty reconciling that with Severus’ oath to Narcissa – the only explanation that leaves Severus on the side of the Order would be if Dumbledore’s instructions predated that oath.</p>
As I recall, the killing curse only works if you “mean it” – perhaps the “revulsion and hatred” were a reflection of Snape needing to really mean it, or it wouldn’t work.</p>
<p>Which leaves us to wonder yet again whether it did really work or not. There’s that pesky portrait in the Headmaster’s suite, though, and the singing of the phoenix…</p>
<p>(GREAT LiveJournal site, by the way: very well stated.)</p>
<p>I think that Dumbledore froze Harry for two reasons:</p>
<p>1.) so that he wouldn’t be able to interfere with the upcoming events.</p>
<p>2.) so that Harry himself wouldn’t be put into danger. (He could have still taken off the cloak, screamed, etc. alerting everyone that he was there if he wasn’t frozen.)</p>
<p>Everyone knows that if Harry wasn’t frozen, he would have tried to save Dumbledore. However, if this happened, Harry would have probably attacked Snape or Malfoy, lost, and gotten hurt more than he did in the actual story. This leads me to other questions. Did Dumbledore know that Snape was going to attack him? Was it all planned to give Voldemort false confidence? Was it a hoax so that Snape would not break his Vow yet Dumbledore could live? (In order for that to work, everyone, including Harry, would need to think that he was dead.)</p>
<p>Regarding Snape - when he and Draco were fleeing, and Snape “lazily” deflected Harry’s magic, why didn’t Snape just stun him or disabled him somehow. Considering how much Valdemort wanted him, I can understand not killing Harry; but it seemed as if Snape were protecting Harry from harm.</p>
<p>Also - if Snape were truly evil, wouldn’t Harry have seen that in the pensieve when he stole a look into it during his mind-reading lessons with Snape?</p>
<p>What do you guys think about this quote that Dumbledore says to Malfoy in their conversation that takes places when Malfoy is supposed to kill him?</p>
<p>“He cannot kill youi if you are already dead. Come over to the right side, Draco, and we can hide you more completely than one can possibly imagine. What is more, I can send members of the Order to your mother tonight to hide her likewise. Nobody would have been surprised that you had died in your attempt to kill me - forgive me, but Lord Voldemort probably expects it. Nor would the Death Eaters be surprised that we had captured and killed your mother - it is what they would do themselves, after all.”</p>
<p>It also seemed to me that Snape was doing his best to protect Harry at the end of the book. Does anyone else wonder whether there might have been a Horcrux created as a result of Dumbledore’s demise (perhaps even his own, if that is possible)? Maybe this was the ultimate ruse to get Snape all the way in with Voldemort and the Death Eaters. (Now there’s a name for a metal/grunge band.)</p>
<p>I think Dumbledore was offering Malfoy and his mother a place in the wizarding equivalent of the Federal Witness Protection Program, after faking their deaths. He was not planning on killing either of them, only trying to make Voldemort believe they were both dead.</p>
<p>BassDad - I know Dumbledore wasn’t planning on killing them. What I was trying to get at was Dumbledore own death. If they had the ability to make others seem like they were dead, why wouldn’t the same be true with Snape “killing” Dumbledore just to make him seem dead to Voldemort?</p>