I definately felt for Sirus, the person, but his actual death was odd. No dead face, no body. And the scene quickly moved elsewhere, though it was still on Harry’s mind.
But I agree: Sirus was what promised to be Harry’s new father figure when this was all over: the connection to his parents that he had lost. And he was a decent, brave guy (at least in his older age), who may have been impatient, but was at least on Harry’s side and willing to talk straight to him. Very sad to lose him.
Everyone who constantly talks about Harry facing off with Voldemort, again and again.
I still don’t get why the blood thing still protects Harry when, in GoF Voldemort explicitly says that he’s beaten that particular wrinkle. (Ironically, just as Harry has become like Voldy in taking his powers, Voldy has become more like Harry in using Potter blood to revive his body!)
My understanding was that before the GoF thingy, Voldemort couldn’t attack Harry at all. Remember the end of the first book, where, IIRC, Fetusmort tried to touch Harry and was destroyed. At the end of this book, Dumbledore says that the blood protects him at the Dursley’s only. So he’s lost quite a bit of protection, but there’s still some there. The difference is that now he can be attacked when he’s not under his aunt’s protection. I think.
I still can’t figure out why Dumbledore had a look of trumiph on his face when he realized that Voldemort could touch Harry (from the Goblet of Fire, around the pentultimate chapter). Anyone get it?
I think I get it because it’s a two way street. Voldemort can kill Harry and now Harry can kill Voldemort. Just like the Prophecy, Voldemort sealed his and Harry’s fate by his own actions.
I completely understand why Dumbledore never told Harry about the Prophecy. #1 He loved the boy and #2 he knew what the knowledge would do to Harry. Imagine knowing at the age of 11 that you’ll end up being a murderer or victim? That would severely impact your decisions, and your interactions with people. At 15 with the knowledge, Harry distances himself from people and feels disconnected from life. Growing up with that knowledge would have hindered Harry. He might not have made friends at all let alone with Hermione or Ron. He might have done through a “Why bother?” phase or become completely fatalistic. The only good the knowledge might have done is compelled Harry to buckle down and learn his magic. Basically become Snape. Hmm… now I have a Snape theory!
No. Dumbledore says that going to live at the Dursley’s renews his protection for another year. He doesn’t have to live there all year, or all summer. It just has to be considered his home at some point during the year.
I noticed - and no one else has said this yet - that Dudley and Harry sort of swapped positions. Dudley, for that he is quite immature and sort of a jerk, is actually out improving himself, working on his physique. He may be causing some hell, but its not particularly serious. Moreover, he’s trying to stay in control of himself.
Harry, on the other hand, is swaggering about threatening Dudley with magical punishment more or less for hs own amusement - to satisfy his own irritation.
Just read it Posting without having read the whole thread so that my thoughts are fresh in my mind. Hope noone minds, I am sure to be repeating stuff.
I now visualise a “Mad-eye Moody in Muggle-Mufti” as an older Alex from Clockwork Orange. The rakishly tilted bowler did it.
Was there not an awful lot of puking in the book?
Does anyone elses copy of the book have Sirius saying he had caught the house-elf “snogging” a pair of his fathers old trousers? I find that a really weird image, hogging maybe, but actually snogging?
Yeah – that was one of the things I absolutely loved about Rowling’s treatment of bullying, because it’s so true to life. Most kids will make excuses for their own acts of cruelty, even if they see the damage caused by others in similar circumstances. And most kids who have been bullied will turn around and do it to another kid, whether it’s their own tormentor (like Harry) or someone they come across much later who looks suitably victim-like (like Snape). I also think her portrait of young Lupin is particularly on target; being a werewolf, he’s well aware that he owes his own social acceptance to Sirius and James, so he can’t risk speaking out. Pettigrew, of course, is in a similar social position but made of different stuff. I do hope one of the future books features a confrontation between Wormtail and Lupin – and that we get to see the Dudley / Harry relationship from Dudley’s perspective. Like Harry, I’m dying to know what Dudley sees when the dementors come after him.
I disagree: there was no nearly enough puking. There were several times in which Harry either could have been puking or at least feeling as if he was about to puke.
Hey newbie here, first post and all, and just finished the book an hour ago.
I thought it was fantastic! Better than GoF and PoA. I think JK Rowling really knows how to write suspense, I mean the first few chapters are torture, everything seems completely different, and no one seems to want to explains what's going on to Harry etc. Seems in this book we finally got alot of the characters to do some cool stuff.
Favorite moments include
1)Fred and George unleashed, we see how they’ve been holding back all these years
2)The whole Dumbledore leaving the school in style! (I can’t beleived this wasn’t mentioned more often)
Snapes’s memory, just great, I actuially empathized with Snape
Proffesor McGonagall and Peeves
Hagrid versus the ministry , (I though another great scene was when Umbridge was making fun of Hagrid, and the Slytherins were saying how he grunted etc. Really made you feel sorry for the guy.)
Anything with the DA and Umbridge
Everyone was just so much cooler in this book, Neville, Harry trashing Dumbledores office (that was fantastic), Ginny etc.
Things I didn’t like- Malfoy, same old, same old, and I’d say JK Rowling’s biggest weaknesses are anticlimatc endings, like when Hagrid came back from Azkaban, or when Rita Skeeter got caught she just sort of rushed through them. In this book we have Dumbledores speech etc, and I wanted more Umbridge bashing.
Wow, didn’t mean to write this much, anyway, I’d still say it was the best of all the books, although I don’t know how I’ll feed when I rereading it as alot of the surprises is what made it so good.
Just finished HPV, and I really liked it, though I have some problems with it. I still think that in terms of crafting of subject matter, and execution Prisoner of Azkaban is the best book of the series, but in Order of the Phoenix, I really think that Rowling excels at humor and some character development and really needs to work on developing action and tying up loose ends.
My favorite part was when Hagrid introduces Harry and Hermione to Grawpy, and Harry notes to Hermione on p. 694: “Kind of makes you wish we had Norbert back, doesn’t it?”
Umbridge was brilliantly creepy, and what was really interesting about her was how the other teachers and students reacted to her.
I wish we could have seen Ron’s triumphant game of Quidditch, but okay, that would have detracted from the hilarious scene with Grawpy.
I love Luna. She reminds me of me. I didn’t like the way that Rowling just let Harry gloss over Luna’s cryptic comment about how she and Harry both heard voices behind the veil. Why didn’t Harry ask her to explain what she meant by that?
Dumbledore got on my last nerve in this book, particularly at the end. I mean that line where Harry and Neville see that Dumbledore had come to the rescue and that meant that “they were saved” pure like to set me in a fit of the giggles. I felt like it was said so sarcastically, or it could have just been my own impression so tired was I with that tedious section of them dueling it out in the Ministry’s section of Mysteries. But particularly at the end when Dumbledore really doesn’t tell Harry anything new and doesn’t really comfort the child who’s lost so much by saying that he wanted to spare him more suffering. Why couldn’t he realize that you can’t successfully manipulate folks, and that people respond better if they have the information to make an intelligent decision about things. Why couldn’t he just tell Harry why it was so important for him to learn Occlumency, or what was the secret weapon in the Ministry of Mysteries? I understand it’s a very human, parent-like thing to want to spare a child suffering, but Harry has shown again and again that he can handle it. Dumbledore’s actions and his reasons for acting are very poorly developed in this book.
*The day you won your town the race
we chaired you through the marketplace
and men and boy stood cheering by
as home we brought you shoulder high…
and hold to the low lintel up
the still defended challenge cup*
Read the end of chapter 30 and tell me (if you are familiar with that particular poem) that you don’t think Ron’s going to get it…He even bumps his head on the lintel. She cites Houseman and doesn’t kill Ron. Certainly surprised me.
By the way, for those who have endured Robert Jordan:
If Harry had peeked through the veil he might have found Moiraine instead of Sirius. Gotta watch those magical doorways.
I find J.K Rowling quite adept at writing characters I can really hate. Umbridge is one of he best villians I’ve seen in a while. She’s just too creepy and irritating and ultimately too powerful for anyone to really stop in a normal way. Draco and the Dursleys too, all totally dispicable characters.
I like how Neville is turning out to be a bit of an ass-kicker. I’m glad he won’t be a whiny loser the entire series.
Everyone in the Order is cool, especially Mad-Eye and his hat.
It did feel a bit like Rowling was teasing us every couple of chapterse with near deaths. Everyone was expecting someone to die and she was sort of stringing us along “Maybe it’ll be Arthur Weasly… haha, fooled you, it’s gonna be Hermione…gotcha again!”
Dumbledore is amazing. The way he smacked everyone around in his office, the way he called Voldemort Tom during their fight, and then again when facing Fudge and the Aurors after the climax “I’ll fight you if I have to… and win again!”
I might read this thread later, but i have some things to add.
Harry is protected by the blood of his family. Whenever in the dwelling of a blood relative, he is protected by an ancient magic.
Ron and Hermione will get together - there’s too much sexual tension there.
If Harry does end up with someone, it will be Ginny - the parallels b/w Ginny and Lily cannot be ignored.
Neville can’t be the one. The one was determined when V tried to kill Harry - that’s why Harry is such a powerful wizard.
Posting without having read the whole thread so that my thoughts are fresh in my mind. Hope noone minds, I am sure to be repeating stuff.