Oh, and Luna Lovegood? Best. Sportscaster. Ever.
I love Luna dearly. She’s the comic relief, but the best part is that it’s her personality. It’s expected of her to be like that.
Just wanted to add: I was a bit let-down by the Half-Blood Prince revelation. I don’t know, but I guess I was expecting something bigger. And I can’t imagine the Trio not going back to Hogwarts, so I’m kind of hoping that Hogwarts will remain closed for a year. At least they’ll have an excuse not to go back. They can’t look for the other Horcruxes if they’re at Hogwarts, right? I still can’t believe that Dumbledore is dead…flamingbananas, I cried… 
I also think R.A.B. is Regulus Black. He was the first one I thought of. I can’t wait for the seventh book. The thought that the seventh book will be the end of the Harry Potter book series is making me even more depressed now…
finished as well.
i found the memory review to be very interesting. seeing riddle through the stages of his life was very informative.
as for the “r.a.b.” i was thinking some one in the bone family. having a former death eater turn would be more interesting though.
i’m thinking ginny is rolling her eyes at harry’s going it alone thing. i don’t think she will leave him alone for long.
i reckon there are more helpfull things in the half blood prince’s book. harry better nab it back before leaving.
i’m wondering if snape killed, because of the unbreakable vow? just being a traitor? or it was the only thing to do after the cave potion?
Re the identity of the Half Blood Prince:
Okay, but isn’t it eerie how much Snape & Voldie have in common? If it is true that Snape is fighting for the good side, then there must be someone that he loves. I don’t mean in a romantic way. Dumbledore kept pounding into Harry that the difference between him and Voldie is that Harry has love. So who is it that Snape loves? His mother? Dumbledore?
most def. a serial killer grows up in tom riddle. watching the memories in the pensive was like a serial killer 101 course.
Well, I don’t think anything in this book ruled out the possibility that it was Lily Potter. If anything, it seems more likely now, given that he’s a halfblood himself (maybe he called her a Mudblood and brushed her off to hide his feelings, from shame over his own mixed heritage?) and that his part in the murder of the Potters seems to have been what turned him.
It seems odd that Rowling might go for something so frequently guessed by the fans, but unless this is one of those guesses that she’s outright denied, it seems like the case for Snape having been gone on Lily got a bit better with this book.
By the by, any chance of getting some kind of agreement on spoilers with everyone in this thread? Are the tags neccessary when there’s a warning in the title, and alot of posts have open spoilers anyway? I feel odd blocking out stuff about Snape when Dumbeldore’s death is out in the open, but it seems polite to reply to a spoiler post with spoilers, somehow. Kinda confusing.
I took notes in an old-school Mead spiral notebook while I was reading, and here’s a few Selections From:
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Okay, so I totally called Snape as the HBP. When Harry got the annotated Potions textbook, I was going “Snape Snape Snape,” and then when it was revealed that the textbook was property of said HBP, I went “SNAPE SNAPE MCSNAPE.” I did, however, briefly entertain the thought of it being Mundungus Fletcher, because someone (Rosmerta? Some woman) was hollering insults at him, and one of them included “filthy half-blood!” So I thought, wouldn’t it be cool if Mundungus had this awesome hereditary-type title/position that had declined into powerlessness and poverty? Not the “Half-Blood” part, per se, but if he had some big massive heritage of something cool, and Harry and Co. needed his help, and eventually he got back all his power and was all, “Okay, bring out the beer and dancing girls!” But, you know, it was cool that it was Snape too. Whatever.
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Remus/Tonks gets a big “WTF?” from me. Actually, I wrote a big “WTF” on my notepad. And underlined it three times. I like it all right, I guess, but it was so brief and random. I did really like Bill and Fleur in the hospital wing.
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Alternate title: “Harry Potter and the Tongue-Kissing Makeout Prince.” Man, there was a lot of smoochies here! Harry totally had a sex dream about Ginny, heh. Although I don’t like the Peter Parker/Mary Jane dynamic that it turned into.
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“R.A.B.” is obviously Regulus Black. Harry’s pondering and pondering and I’m going “IT’S YOUR GOD-UNCLE, YOU IDIOT!” Which will be cool, because I think Bella and Kreacher are going to be involved in the retrieval plot.
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Speaking of Kreacher, I cracked up at his Christmas present to Harry for, like, five minutes. “To Master, from Kreacher.” I just pictured him going around, collecting maggots, putting them in a paper bag and then carefully writing out a little tag to put on it. HA!
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I also really, really thought Dumbledore was evil for about three chapters. He was so insistent that Harry get the Horcrux memory (which, by the way, I love what happened when Slughorn modified it, with the fog and shouting voice), that I though he needed it for…eeeeeeeevil. My bad call, but it was fun playing “No, Harry! Don’t tell him! HE’S EEEEEEEVIL!”
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“It’s like going out with the Giant Squid,” says Ron of Lavender. YEAH, I BET YOU WOULD KNOW!
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I’m a little confused about the effects of the Felix potion. It affects the drinker by making them “lucky,” but doesn’t that mean it affects the people with whom the drinker interacts, too? Slughorn wouldn’t have given Harry the memory had it not been for the potion, for example. Is there some way that a non-drinker can counteract the effects of the potion in themselves? (As shown in Harry’s case, it also apparently turns the drinker into Zaphod Beeblebrox, but that’s neither here nor there. ;D)
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Horcruxes are the plot couponiest plot coupons that ever plot couponed. I hope it won’t all be a Horcrux Scavenger Hunt next book.
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The witch named “Rosalind Antigone” – FABULOUS. “Pomona Sprout” is great, too.
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Finally, my favorite part of the book, I think: the first chapter, with the Tony Blair/Hugh Grant cameo. I liked seeing the Wizarding World through the eyes of a Muggle who’s used to the idea of handling odd things and large-scale emergencies. I could read a whole book of Wizarding-Adventures-As-Seen-By-Prime-Minister. And Kingsley! Secretary Kingsley! AWESOME!
I bought it this morning, but had errands that interrupted my reading, so I finished about 45 minutes ago, cooked and ate dinner, and then came to the Dope. I’d checked the boards a couple of times during the day when I needed to step back from the book, but carefully avoided even hovering over any of the HBP threads.
I haven’t seen Spiderman2, so I didn’t get any sort of connection to that - from what was said in this thread, though, I’ve pretty much figured it out, so no need to explain.
That was my first reaction, but I don’t think it’s right. Although there was some description of Dumbledore’s reaction while talking to Harry after they saw that last memory that still has me wondering.
I was completely shocked that Hermione said she won’t be coming back. Ron, I can sort of see - but despite their not returning, I think Hogwarts will still play a major role in the next book. I don’t see how it can’t.
I think Harry’s going to find out more about his family when he goes to Godric’s Hollow. And the idea of R.A.B. being Regulus Black didn’t even occur to me.
I also started feeling seriously sorry for Draco. Before Harry used that spell on him (the slicing one), I really just wanted him to talk to Draco, even though I knew it wasn’t likely. I think it’s highly likely that Draco will die in the next book - because he will go against Voldemort somehow.
I still think there’s another reason why Dumbledore trusted Snape, something that he didn’t tell anyone and didn’t get a chance to.
I do think that Dumbledore will still play a role in the next book - not because of a horcrux, because that was shown too negatively, but through his portraits and the Wizard Cards. I’m assuming that he could potentially travel between cards as well as portraits, and that way Harry can still get advice from him.
I do wonder what’s going to happen with Bill - what sort of changes will happen to him after being attacked by a non-transformed werewolf, if any.
Percy is just an idiot, but Fred and George are fantastic. I hope we see more of them next time around.
Wow.
[spoiler]Dumbledore’s death. What a downer. I kept flipping pages, wanting it to be a trick. If it is, I have to wait to Book 7. Don’t think it is.
No way Dumbledore has a Horcrux of himself.
Pleased to see Harry & Ginny get together; not pleased with the Spiderman turn.
I think Snape is on the wrong side. It’s hard to see how Dumbledore dead is more helpful than Dumbledore alive.
Draco is a pussy.
Drinking the elixir was the only way?!? As Dumbledore said to Harry after his first attempt to get the memory “So, that’s it? You have exhausted your fertile imagination?”
That’s it for now. Got the book by US Mail at 1:00; finished it ten minutes ago.[/spoiler]
The book was published fifty years ago. It was a used book when Snape/HPB got hold of it
Really? I thought this one was so much better than the last - partly because Harry seems to be mostly through his wild mood swings, and apart from a few typos, the editing seemed much better in this one.
I do need to re-read it now - I know I always miss things on the first go-round, because I’m reading primarily for the story then. Later readings take me into the details a bit more.
slug kept pounding on the fact that lily was amazing at potions. i’m wondering if she may have been next to snape in potions. perhaps some of the potion improvements in the book were due to her.
Well, I’m one of those oddballs who really, really liked OotP, including Grawp, and I never object to diversions and digressions. I have a feeling most people probably will like HBP better, though.
I’m doing without spoiler tags. It’s marked in the title, and others have said quite a bit untagged to this point.
Man, I read slower than the rest of you. Got it at 8:30 this morning, finished at 6:30, with nonstop reading.
As to spoilers:
It really does seem like it would be absurd for the children to return to school next year. It’d be a farce to assume they could care at all about school when the necessity for action outside the school is so great. On the other hand, I still wish portrait-Dumbledore could provide Harry some exposition and compassion next book, which is not likely if there’s no school.
Yeah, we still don’t know Snape’s true colors. I like the idea that he has an Unbreakable Vow to Dumbledore, but if he does, there is one other person, the spell’s caster, that knows about the vow! (keep in mind Bellatrix had to perform it for Snape and Narcissa)
I definitely have to wonder if Harry could be one of Voldemort’s missing horcruxes (am I the only one who thinks this is an ugly word?). Maybe the reason that Harry has a number of skills and similarities is because that’s the big of Voldemort’s soul in Harry that allows him to speak parseltongue, have the mental link, etc.
It was kinda nice to see Molly eat her hat when Fleur didn’t grasp why the wedding would be off, and then get insulted upon realizing that Molly was selling Fleur’s love short as superficial lust. “I’m pretty enough for the both of us!” 
More are sure to be forthcoming with some additional digesting.
Now some gripes (other than annoyance of the aesthetic of “horcrux”):
When the astounding leaps in logic were taking place to determine there were six horcruxes in addition to Voldemort himself being the seventh (namely “hey, he mentioned it once in a conversation we have memory of. He must have followed through on that plan without deviation!”), am I the only one that thought that this scavenger hunt would be great for the video game tie-in to the seventh movie, but make a good bit of the seventh book a standard adventure/detective quest? I’m afraid to accomplish what needs to be accomplished in one remaining book, namely finding and destroying three remaining remaining horcruxes, then vanquishing Voldemort in a grand final battle, the school and really the entire notion of the last bits of childhood will have to be entirely discarded for pure story resolution. In other words, Jo’s set herself up for far too big a task to resolve this in one remaining book.
Jo’s sources for some of this book’s events were too blatant. Many have already mentioned the Spiderman 2 “he’ll go after the people I love” bit. What about the Star Wars in reverse “join the light side Luke…I mean Draco”? The Lord of the Rings “don’t disturb the lake’s placid surface (and the dead people just under the surface) for fear of unleashing an enemy”?
That whole Snape/Unbreakable Vow thing is going to come back and bite somebody in the butt at some point. At this point it looks to me like Snape had a choice between offing Dumbledore and dying himself for breaking the vow - and he chose to off Dumbledore. Remember what Dumbledore said in book 4? “When you have a choice between what’s right and what’s easy…” Snape, I think, chose what’s easy. There may still be room for him to redeem himself, but I can’t imagine how he’d do it.
I’m very curious to know what was going on with Draco and Moaning Myrtle. Why was he in the bathroom crying on her shoulder? So far we’ve never seen him associate with anybody who wasn’t A) pureblood and B) of some use to him. Myrtle was a Mudblood when she was alive, and I can’t see how she’d be able to help Draco at all now she’s dead.
I posted more comments here before I saw this thread. I still don’t see how the whole idea of the half-blood prince fit in with the rest of the story.
Anybody else get a huge kick out of the way Dumbledore told the Dursleys all about themselves at the beginning of the book?
Draco was desperate; he was in a bad position all around, in no wise equipped to deal with the task he’d been given, and probably knew that he was being set up as a punishment for his father as well as his mother did.
Draco’s problem has always been one not so much of ambition but of pride; I think he was just finally pushed into a place (“bullied”) where pride just couldn’t carry him anymore.
I’ve never liked the little weasel, but at least we know he loves his family.
I wonder if and when the constantly absent Weasely Charlie is going to make an appearance. Obviously the family will gather at Bill and Fleur’s wedding next year.
How long before Dumbledore starts talking from his portrait? Also, I’ve always been curious about that…do the souls of the headmaster/mistresses go there when they die or what’s the deal?
Am I the only one wincing and picturing Daniel Radcliffe woodenly emoting “passion for a female” AS I’m reading the love scenes? Or Rupert Grint doing his gulpy thing? Sadly the acting talents of the actors (or lack thereof) mentally follow me in imagery as I read each book and I actually think it makes the reading experience just a wee bit less enjoyable b/c I’m constantly critiquing the future movie in my mind as I’m reading the book.
I liked Ron’s comment about waiting to see what Kreacher had given him before deciding if he should give Kreacher a gift, frankly.
Eh, I don’t think so. He would have gotten the memory-he knew he would, he just needed extra confidence, or a way to figure it out.
Hugh Grant?!
Oh, and I love seeing Kingsley Shackelbolt as secretary. I know Rowling insists on British actors for the movies, but I’m hoping against hope she’ll break this rule and allow Samuel L. Jackson to play the part.
I think we’ll learn about Lily in the 7th book, when Harry, Ron and Hermione go to Godric’s Hollow (no way they’ll let him go alone), and they’ll be back at Hogwarts. McGonagall will send a message saying that Dumbledore’s portrait insists upon it. And Harry will TRY to say, “Stay away, you’ll be hurt,” but will they listen? I think not!
I WAS a bit annoyed that all the Gaunts appear to be parseltongues-hello, why didn’t any of them open the Chamber of Secrets? Then I figured it’s because they’re all fucking insane, due to severe inbreeding. They didn’t have the patience to open it patiently, or learn how to do it (remember, it was still a legend), until Voldemort.
Wasn’t it his mother’s?