telophase | (no subject)

This is the first time I have liked Draco as anything other than evil snicker-worthy comic relief. Much love for you, Draco, pathetic git!

The last bit of Voldemort's soul that is not inside Voldemort is inside Harry; it's been there since the night of the attack. Or, alternately, crazy Snape-related theory in a moment.

Snape is SO NOT EVIL. COME ON. He and Dumbledore are triple-playing everybody. He killed Dumbledore because otherwise Draco would have to and Snape knew Dumbledore would want to save Draco and not make him a killer. There is no way that the secret that made Dumbledore trust Snape was as simple as "I got James and Lily Potter killed but I'm really really sorry about it!" Crazy wild guess? A part of Voldemort's soul (either the other missing non-Harry piece, or the piece that used to be in Harry that got moved somehow) is inside Snape, which would Snape will die to kill Voldemort and Dumbledore knew it.

I am thrilled both as a shipper and as a fandom_wanker with the way the Ron/Hermione and Harry/Ginny ships turned out. I liked Ron/Hermione from the first, although not in any hardcore way. I didn't care who Harry ended up with (actually hoped he'd end up with no one) and was lukewarm toward Ginny at best, but this book made me like her a hell of a lot. And I am required to like their ship now--dude, Spider-Man 2 ending! Behold my icon!

People on my flist shipped Remus/Tonks and I thought it was the most WTF cracktastic Random Character/Random Character ship ever. Still kinda think that--but hey, it's canon! Yay canon!

I think JKR got tired of the ship wars, so paired everybody off in this book. XD

I hadn't thought about Snape being a potential Hor ... er, whatever those objects are. But you're right - that would certainly be one major possibility. It's also definitely possible that Snape sacrificed himself and his future to save Draco being a killer - I've also seen speculation that Draco is his son.

I don't ship, per se, but I easily see Harry with Ginny, because the Weasleys would supply him with the one major thing he feels the lack of most keenly: a big, happy, family.

And I'm glad that Draco is now slighlty more than two-dimensional, although I won't go so far as to say three. And she made me like him slightly more - it's the "Tell me something to make me love this child!" thing that you and I or me and someone else were going on and on about in a previous post.

The last bit of Voldemort's soul that is not inside Voldemort is inside Harry; it's been there since the night of the attack.

Yes--I thought this immediately when I read the story, and think it must be true; little else explains that attack and Harry's survival and his weird links to Voldemort.

Which, unfortunately, though, means Dumbledore is either stupid (for not figuring this out) or deliberately lying (to protect Harry from devastating knowledge, or something), neither of which speaks well for him.

I was thrilled with this book. I love Harry to absolute death. I think this is my favorite quote of the book:

And Harry saw very clearly as he sat there under the hot sun how people who cared about him had stood in front of him one by one, his mother, his father, his godfather, and finally Dumbledore, all determined to protect him: but now that was over. He could not let anybody else stand between him and Voldemort; he must abandon forever the illusion that he ought to have lost at the age of one, that the shelter of a parent's arms meant nothing could hurt him. There was no waking from his nightmare, no comforting whisper in the dark that he was safe really, that it was all in his imagination; the last and greatest of his protectors had died, and he was more alone than he had ever been before.

I have a big weakness for maverick, stick-it-to-the-enemy heroes, as much as I often think they're badly done. And Harry has thought of being alone with NO ANGST AT ALL. This just sounds calmly determined to me. A thousand fanfics that portrayed Harry as irretrivably broken by Sirius's death or as incapable of doing anything once he heard about the prophecy are now writhing in fiery agony, and I love it.

I was thinking of the themes in this book as I was drying my hair [*], and how one of the themes I'm seeing here is the importance of family, and how this is part of the Hero's Journey, in which everything that makes the hero - in this case, his real and his assumed families - is being stripped from him, so he can come changed out the other side.

I loved how Ginny reacted to him breaking up with her - a solid "I understand." That's so rare in fiction, because when a hero starts pushing the people he loves away from him (and 90% of the time, it is a 'him') because they'll get hurt, most of the time he doesn't tell them it's why he's doing it, and the times he does tell them, they refuse to understand or say something like "We can overcome!" I like people who are aware of their own shortcomings and understand that it really, truly, is better for them to stand away, and that they will only hamper the hero's actions. Wouldn't you rather be in a relationship with someone that sensible, instead of someone who'd rush into danger they couldn't handle just to be with you, trusting to the blind Powah of Luuuurve to Make Things Be OK?

And it's always made perfect sense to me for Harry to end up together with Ginny, because the Weasleys can give him the one thing he's always wanted - a big, happy family.

[*] Going to make it a full indulge-in-kiddie-lit day and see Charlie and the Chocolate Factory tonight, hence messing with my hair, which was quickly reaching a Snape-like effect - the problem with having fine hair.

I really liked Ginny in this. I'm glad their 'breakup' wasn't a big thing. Ginny's a smart girl. The romantic in me's saying that she's nodding her head at this, and she will wait for Harry when the war is over. And in some ways, I think Harry's probably doing the same thing. After all, I think one would fight better if they know they have something to come back to.

... I'll go write up a full comment down below~

I think she's nodding her head, agreeing to the breakup, and planning to snog him at the wedding as "just this once, it doesn't mean anything" and remain broken up. Followed by other snoggings of opportunity and then being romantic post-war.

Hmmm. SPECULATION: If they go All the Way three chapters before the end of the book Harry snuffs it in the final confrontation.

(yeah, just finished it)

The thing is though ... family is important because friends and connections in geral are important -- yet Harry's just ditched all his connections and chosen to go it alone (though Ron and Hermione are insisting on tagging along), Hasn't the boy been listening to anything anyone has said?

For me, his ditching of everyone and everything was so foolish of him I wanted to throw the book across the room.

I must express my humblest apologies to anyone who ever shipped Tonks/Lupin and told them they were on crack.

Well, I have just finished the book. To be honest, I wasn't expecting the death to be Dumbledore. I just... I dont' know /why/ but I wasn't expecting it to happen this soon. I figured he might've end up dead, but maybe I'm just thinking of a Hamlet-esque sort of ending for the saga. Everybody dies. >D;

Anyway, I can definitely say that I enjoyed this book. IT moved at a pace that I liked that was lacking in Order. I think it did it's job of setting the stage for the big finale. I like the note that it ended on. With Bill's wedding. IT showed the sort of quiet determination. It wasn't desperate, it was hopeful. And I liked it.

Speaking of Bill's wedding, I'm glad they showed that Fleur wasn't /entirely/ superficial. I had such an ehhh! opinion about her at GoF, and I liked her portrayal here.

Another thing I liked was the fact the kids were still, well, Teenagers. It's like Yes, there's this massive war, we could all DIE, but, y'know... in the end, they're /still growing up/, and I like how that was kept in mind. The Teen!Drama was great. >D

Now, hee, about the 'shipping. Yeah, I'm SO in with the Lupin/Tonks thing. Totally Cracktastic... and it's CANON? BUt I thought it was cute.

My 'ships for Harry Potter are Ron/Hermione and Harry/Ginny. I'm very, very satisfied with how this was done. Ron and Hermione get the Obvious!Denial award. >D And yes, even though I like Harry and Ginny, I was very, very satisfied with how that relationship happened. The suddenness of the attraction goes with the whole Teen thing, and I'm very satsified with both Ginny and Harry having the maturity/foresight to know that having a relationship could be detrimental. But like I mentioned up above, I think there's that determination, and hope for after...

I'm glad they showed that Fleur wasn't /entirely/ superficial.

"I am pretty enough for BOTH of us!!" XD Well, had me laughing.

The suddenness of the attraction goes with the whole Teen thing,

I agree - plus it's not that sudden in book time. In other words, the books each cover on the order of nine to twelve months, and take place a year apart. There's people I've read who are sad that it isn't foreshadowed in previous books, but I would find it odd for someone to be mooning around over someone else for a YEAR or more before either getting over it or asking them out. And the relationships aren't the point of the books - they don't get center focus and aren't what the narrative is concerned with. The provide fluff to lighten the story, to help portray the characters as teenagers, and in this aprticular book, to underscore the differences between Harry and everyone else.

In this book, everyone's forming families, while Harry has always been having them taken away. And at the end he pushes the family away - note that he breaks up with Ginny, but doens't push Ron and Hermione away when they insist that they'll accompany him, because he's rejecting family and not friendship. He can't get on with life while Voldemort lives.

I pretty much figure D'dore would bite it, not because of any l33t telepathy skills on my part, but because...well, to tell the truth, I thought he'd be the one on ice in #4. And when they announced someone would die in #5, I thought it would be Dumbly. Finally, I get proved right, waah!! The simple reasoning behind this is - these books are all meant to be about Harry vs Voldy. Just those two, light and dark, Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader, any way you look at it. But with Dumbledore around...Harry...well, Harry isn't needed. And even when Harry is involved, Dumbledore provides a massive crutch for Harry to lean on, what with all his godlike power and such. I figured the seventh book would have to be Harry's darkest hour, in which he could only rely on himself...thus requiring a complete removal of Dumbledore by that point.

I would have to say that I feel Snape's death warrant is all but signed for the next book. And Draco...well, I'm 50% there. I'd like to see him have a revelation and turn to the light - and if he dies, at least die heroically.

On a lighter note...how did Draco convince Crabbe and Goyle to...welll...agree to becoming girls? There musta been a helluva lot of galleons involved...!

I actually didn't see that ending coming up. I expected Dumbledore to snuff it, but maybe sometime during the early part of the next book, though I think that it actually suits the end of HBP very well.

I pity Draco a bit, being in an impossible situation like that. However I only ever disliked him as a nasty, spiteful bully, I never really thought we was cut out for True Evil and killing. If those Death Eaters had been a few more minutes in coming, I think he would have defected to the "right" side.

Snape was the Half-Blood Prince. I am so completely not shocked at all. Especially when that potions book of fantabulousness appeared.

So much shipping canonfied! I think you're right that JKR got tired of the ship-wars and just paired everyone off, though only the Remus-Tonks relationship was a surprise. I also like how at the end of the book, the relationships aren't being glaringly obvious and that Harry even breaks up with Ginny. I expect them to wait each other for after the war, but secretly I think...

Harry will end up dying. I think he's one of those Horcruxes and at the end of everything he'll probably destroy Voldemort (because good always wins!) by sacrificing himself in some heroic fashion. Actually I half expect everyone to die, but I'm not sure JKR would actually dare to since it is still a kids book and even though 2 main characters have now died it's not "the done thing" to kill everyone off in kids books.

I'm already trying to envisage the last line/ paragraph of the next book. I really hope it doesn't end with "They lived happily ever after". Though I think I'd accept "The End" after the last line. That's always been my que to take a deep regretful sigh that at last I've come to the end of the story and yet there's so much more I want to know :)

Did "Roonil Wazlib" appear in the series before this book? It seemed familiar when I saw your LJ subtitle before I read HBP, but I couldn't place it.

I don't think so, but I could easily be wrong. :)