No, he doesn’t. (Did your Shift key blow out?)
I just finished the book, and before I read this monster of a thread (which will probably take a couple of DAYS) I wanted to share my thoughts. First off…
This is NOT a children’s series anymore.
Not to say that it’s inappropriate for children. Indeed, it rates no higher than PG on the violence/sex/language material. But…my God, the PLOT!!! Political intrigue!! Moral Relativity!! Harry’s illusions of his perfect father shattered!! DEATH!!! MORE DEATH!!! Well, not THAT much Death, I guess. But jeez, this plot was more complex than many Tom Clancy novels. And I was amazed at how TIMELY it all was. Esp. with the Ministry of Magic passing all those restrictive edicts that ate away at the freedom of students and teachers alike…hmm, sound familiar??
And I was disappointed that only Sirius died. I thought for sure I had spoiled myself when I read somewhere else that it was Hagrid. (He’s only signed on for FIVE movies, you see…) For awhile I thought Fang died too, but they never followed up on that. So I guess that ugly mutt’s still around.
What really pissed me off though was…WHAT DID HARRY SCORE ON THE O.W.L.'s?? They never said!!!
You have to wait until next book, as they find out in July. So I guess that means we’ll find out in 2005 or so. Whenever she gets done.
From way back on page 5 …
Based on Jim Dale’s rendition, (he reads the audio books) it’s not really any tune I’m familiar with, definitely not GStK. It’s quicker and more upbeat. I’ll look up the CD/track number for you if you’re interested.
I read the book before listening to the audio book and on reading, it did not scan well at all. Since Draco said he’d written it himself, I figured it was a case of Bad Poetry , a la Chef Troy. But Dale made a decent rhythm out of it.
Heh. Read any Philip Pullman lately?
A few points:
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Dumbledor is way too powerful for my liking, I mean sure he can handle 2-3 lesser wizards, but he dealt with the Dark Lord a bit too easily. It’s like he is omnipotent and omniescent, and it ruins the contrast that the ‘dark side’ provides.
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I loved the DA, and hope it continues into the next book, unless they get a really good new defence against the dark arts teacher.
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I can’t wait to hear Harry’s O.W.L results, although a few of his exams went pretty awful, but academics is where Hermione’s character shines.
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I think there is more to “the veil” thing than we think, I mean no one actually knows what happens to you beyond the veil, so why do they immediatley draw the conclusion that it means death?
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Harry returning to the Dursley’s seemed pointless at the end of this book, unless it is used to develop Petunia’s witch aspect and reconcile the whole Dursley relationship.
Sorry for any spelling errors.
I finally finished savorying the book…boy I hope it’s not a three year wait for the next one.
I think that Petunia is going to turn out to be a squib. Now, we have it on her say so that her parents were non-magical, but there’s nothing in any of the books that indicates that Harry ever knew either grandparent(heck, we don’t know if Mr. Dursley even knew them). It’s not too hard to believe that someone who was jealous of her sister’s share of attention might pretend that since she was normal, only the sister wasn’t; you don’t have to feel inadaquate if you manage to convince people that the other person, not you, is the abnormality. Even her early comments about how proud her parents were to have “a witch in the family” could be just a dig against Petunia; they were happy to have someone else with talent, since she didn’t. It’s easy to omit the word “another” from your rant, after all.
I was surprised by the lack of romance between Ron and Hermione. I thought for sure after the ball last year, and Victor’s return to where he’s from that Ron might make some sort of move. Guess not! Fine by me, I think it would be more realistic for Harry to end up with her anyway. Eventually he’s bound to tell someone for the 100th time “she’s not my girlfriend” and actually stop to wonder why not. Ron and Hermione bicker a lot, but it feels like someone just correcting to be right, than snipping at someone because you’re interested and don’t know how else to express it <shrugs>
I know a lot of people, in real life and on various message boards who were really broken up by Black’s death. It almost makes me feel guilty that I didn’t actually feel much of anything about his death. I didn’t figure it would be him, though, my money was on Dumbledore or Haggrid given the sorrowful reactions.
And then of course, I’d worried all through the last two books that Neville was going to buy it. I’ve had a soft spot for him ever since Dumbledore’s speech about standing up to your friends is harder than facing your enemies- although now I can read and watch it without tearing up 
Does anyone else wonder if his consuming interest in herbology is because he’s hoping to find a cure for mom and dad? There are a lot of plants that work in potions(homopathic cures too), so I think he’s probably trying to find one that will help them come back to themselves… I love how his character got more time devoted to him this book.
I don’t know what to make of the “Britishisms” left in the book. Many I understood- snogging, git, lift- but some leave me baffled. I figured out that a jumper must mean a sweater, since that is what they always get for Christmas, and it’s hard to knit one of these, but what’s a machintosh? To me it’s either an apple or an old PC, so… I thought maybe a hat when I’d read it in another book, but Mr. Weasley wore one over his clothes. And what the hell does “take the mickey out of him/me” mean? Beyond Mickey Mouse and drugged drinks, mickey doesn’t have a context to me…
Oh, a question: Someone mentioned that there’s a big age difference between Lupin and Luna, which made me think of something I’ve been trying to work out for a long while… How old are/were James, Lupin, Snape and Black? I don’t know where I got the idea, but for some reason I was under the impression that Lilly and James married not long after getting out of school, so they’d only been 20 or so when Harry was born, which would then make the living ones around 35. Any idea how far off the mark I am?
A macintosh is a waterproof raincoat. “Taking the mickey out of someone” means going off on them, either verbally or physically, so as to take them down a peg.
lol, I bet the macintosh thing threw a lot of people.
Nitpick – shouldn’t that be mackintosh? With a “k”?
Also, a couple of points, elfkin477. First, if Lily and Petunia Evans had been born to magical parents and only Petunia was a Squib, Snape wouldn’t have objected to Lily Evans as a “Mudblood.” ergo, Harry’s maternal grandparents were Muggles (well, at least one of them was). Be that as it may, I believe that in either year six or year seven we will learn of Petunia’s abortive matriculation at Hogwarts.
Second, regarding Ron’s allegedly meager potential for romantic interest in Hermione, has it been lost on you that Ron’s Christmas gift to Hermione was perfume?
…I meant “mackintosh”…
As an avid slash reader, I can honestly say that if there was indeed a reference to George & Fred’s “peckers”, I would have remembered it. Probably would have caught “stiff”, too… 
Speaking of the illustrations…I scanned through the whole book again, and noticed that Hermione has no boobs. Neither does Cho. Are English wizard girls typically late bloomers, or just flat-chested?
About the “Crutacious” Curse…I’m surprised that a lot of people are demanding some sort of resolution/punishment for that. Maybe there will be, but remember, there’s a little bit of Voldemort in Harry, and yeah, he was in fear for his life at the time and at his wit’s end. So I don’t see a problem with him using that spell at all. Once again, moral relativity.
Ok, some predictions:
Book 6 = Dumbledore dies. He’s a goner. I can’t see it happening any other way. He’s pretty old, anyway. And that will leave Harry to stand alone in Book 7, for “the final showdown”, or whatever.
Since Dumble’s a pretty major character, he’ll probably be the only one to go in Book 6. Maybe some minor character created just for that book will bite it, too. Dunno.
Book 7 = all bets are off. Well, I really don’t think any of the three principals (HP, Ron & “Hermy”) will bite it. If nothing else, there’s all the potential for spinoff books & stuff, and all the $$$ that comes with it. (Even if JKR doesn’t write any more books, that doesn’t prevent her from licensing out the chars to other writers, does it?) I can see Hagrid meeting his end in a very noble, very heroic sort of way, probably to save the lives of several of the kids. McGonnogal & Snape will probably make it. (Unless Snape takes the DADA job finally. Then, he’s a goner too.) The others I really don’t care enough about to make predictions.
Oh, and about Harry teaching DADA … doubtful. It’s not unheard of for advanced college students to teach a class, but high school? Nah. Unless it’s part of a weekly club, like Harry’s D.A. class in this book.
Nope, taking the mickey out of somone is winding them up, teasing them, aka taking the piss. It can definatly have an element of winding somone up to get them annoyed, which is why you often see it as a question “Are you taking they mickey/piss?”
But boys buy their moms perfume too, so that doesn’t seem very “romantic” to me; it’s like buying a man a tie, some sort of default people-of-this-gender-are-supposed-to-like-this-stuff gift.
Do you think this will happen? gazes hopefully at KGS
Sometimes I think she just has to take advantage of the world she’s created. Other times I think that she’ll finish the series and walk away and not a peep will ever be heard of Harry again. sob
Julie
I picked up the Canadian edition, which was the same as the UK edition, and I noticed, for one, that the devil’s snare that killed Bode was disguised as a “pot plant.” In the American, “potted plant” is used.
13 yr. old Hermione seems rather…errrr…developed. At least movie version Hermione does.
Well I can’t predict the future (as has been proven in other threads of mine…heh) but I’m sure Scholastic will at least push JKR ever so slightly to allow other writers to pick up wherever she leaves off. Sorta like how there were several OZ books written after Baum hung up his quill pen…
Two comments that I haven’t seen mentioned earlier in this thread:
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I loved the fact that Dumbledore addresses Voldemort as “Tom”.
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Next year’s Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher…Why not take the real Moody? Obviously, in Phoenix, Moody was needed in a secret capacity to work for the Order, and the Ministry was going out of its way to interfere with Hogwarts. Now that the Ministry acknowledges that Voldemort is really back, the interference that led to Umbridge’s professorship should be gone…Moody ought to be able to do what he was meant to do in year 4.
Except that Barty Crouch appears to have already done it. Oddly enough, he seemed to do an excellent job as a DADA teacher despite being a fake. Harry learned enough to throw off Voldemort’s Imperius curse, after all, something many grown wizards couldn’t do. Granted, that was Harry, and other students probably wouldn’t have fared as well, but do you think he could have done it without training?