Daffodil Lane

So much for predictions, I wasn't even close on most of them! I finished reading the book this morning around 2:30 am and I must say I WAS IN COMPLETE AND TOTAL SHOCK! That shock wore of this morning and at the moment I'm extremely angry with J.K. Rowling. Being a writer myself I understand that the characters in your book are your own and you are free to do what you might with them, but I also think you owe some loyalty to your readers, but we'll get into that in a little bit. For now let’s focus on the story line of this book.

First off I have to say that by far this is my least favorite Harry Potter book in the series so far. I felt like it had too much superfluous information to bring us up to speed in terms of Lord Voldemort. While the information was interesting somewhat, it got to be a bit tedious. All of the information that was given to Harry in his and Dumbledore’s “lessons” could have easily been incorporated into one session. Although it was nice for Harry to spend time with Dumbledore, I felt he could have been teaching Harry something more valuable than simple history. While he did glean some very important information from these little sessions such as the locket and Hufflepuff’s cup (Holy Grail anyone?) I still feel they could have been condensed. Plus it would have been nice to find out more about Harry’s parents, but I think we may get that glimpse when Harry goes to Godric’s Hollow in book 7.

Obviously I was thrilled with the Harry/Ginny developments, even though I don’t think he should have broken it off with her at the end of the book. Ginny adores Harry, she’s a powerful witch and he would be more than lucky to have her by his side, but somehow I don’t think we’ve heard the end of Miss Weasley. Don’t count her out, she’s scrappy and come hell or high water I have a feeling she’ll be fighting at Harry’s side, if not dying by his side. She loves him. Too bad Harry didn’t wake up sooner and realize that she was perfect for him, but sometimes love is not only blind, it’s deaf, dumb and stupid as well. I particularly enjoyed Harry’s silent battles within himself about Ginny being Ron’s sister. Those were priceless!

The Ron/Lavender/Hermione story line was sort of amusing too, but it got old after a point. Rowling left it up in the air at whether Ron and Hermione we actually together at the end of the book with them hugging and comforting one another. She could take it either way, just good friends, or finally realizing their love for one another. I prefer the latter, and ultimately that is where I think it will go, but what do I know about the way Rowling thinks? And there is always the distinct possibility she will kill one or both of them off. She seems to relish doing that. Ultimately it would have been nice to see Hermione slap Lavender silly because that girl has some serious issues!

And what the hell is up with the reappearance of Delores Umbridge at the end of the book? That woman should be in an effing prison cell after all the stuff she pulled! Surely abusing students alone could land you some time in Azkaban. I’m not sure where Rowling is going with that one either, but I guess we’ll find out in due time.

And while we’re on the subject of Ministry officials I do not like the new Minister of Magic. What a dolt! Seriously, what is it with the Minster of Magic being a complete moron? Is it in the job description? I loved Harry putting him in his place and declaring his loyalty to Dumbledore, not once but twice. Priceless!

Fred and George seem to be doing well for themselves, but they come off as a bit arrogant to me, but then again they’ve always been that way. I think they should cut Ron a break.

And Percy. Maybe he is just a huge prat. I mean come on! They proved Harry was right, what the hell is his problem? Suck it up and get over it already! You belong with your family, especially in times like the ones they are going through now. But maybe’s he’s still under cover for the Order, or maybe like I said in the second sentence, he’s just a huge prat.

The Malfoys. What can you say about the Malfoys that hasn’t been hashed a thousand times? I thought he was sent by Voldemort to kill Harry, but I should have know that wasn’t the case, because Voldemort wants to take care of Harry himself. I don’t think he has it in him to kill anyone though. Malfoy’s one of those all talk, no action kind of people. You know the ones, that huff and puff and bitch and moan and do absolutely nothing! He’s a bully. And his mother, what a witch and I don’t mean that in a good way! Really, how can anyone be that unpleasant, but then again she’s a Death Eater so what was I expecting? I am happy though that Lucius Malfoy’s sad butt is in a prison cell. May it rot there!

Well obviously Justin Finch-Fletchly was not the Half-Blood Prince, in fact to my recollection he wasn’t even mentioned in this book at all. I had my suspicions pretty early on that this was the case when it became obvious that the Half-Blood Prince was a previous student, and I even suspected Snape at one point, if not Voldemort himself. I wasn’t surprised at all when Snape was revealed, although at that point in the book you want to flog him senseless, not that I haven’t wanted to do that to Snape since day one.

On to the cave. That was a very weird sequence. I’m sorry, but Dumbledore is smarter than drinking some strange substance left behind by Voldemort, wizard of all evil. Why couldn’t he have siphoned the stuff off and dumped it on the ground or into the water surrounding them. He could have cast a protective spell of fire to deal with the zombies. It makes no sense. And since when has Harry blindly followed anyone’s orders? I know he trust Dumbledore implicitly, but come on!

The other thing I found of interest is that this is the first book in the series in which Voldemort did not make an appearance himself, unless you count the third book, but we’ll get to that in a minute. The first book you had him possessing Quirrell, the second book had him in the form of his former self through his enchanted diary (which we found out in this book was actually a Horocrux), the third had Wormtail returning to Voldemort and he ultimately helped him return to his body in the fourth book where Harry faced him again and Cedric died and in the fifth book of course you had the battle between Dumbledore and Voldemort in the Ministry of Magic building at the end of the book. In this book however he was very low key and almost suspiciously absent. Aside from the Death Eaters and the mentioning of his quest for Draco what was he up to?

Now to R.A.B. Who is R.A.B. One thought that did cross my mind was Sirius’s brother Regulus. I know Sirius mentioned that Voldemort had killed him when he tried to resign from the Death Eaters, but what if that was just a cover story? What if Regulus actually did more good than first thought? What if he wasn’t bad at all? Just a thought considering I don’t believe that his middle name was ever mentioned so I’m not sure if it started with an A or not. So far I haven’t put any other people to those initials, but I’m still tossing it around in the back of my head.

And last, but certainly not least, Dumbledore. Dear Dumbledore. What the hell happened there? Snape killed him? How is that possible? At first I thought was a trick, and to be completely honest I still haven’t ruled that possibility out, but it certainly appears to be what actually happened. Let’s think about that for a second…greasy, dark, nasty Snape killed Dumbledore? How is that possible? Dumbledore is infinitely more powerful than Snape and certainly more powerful that Draco Malfoy. I have the distinct feeling Dumbledore let Malfoy disarm him on purpose. The next thing that is bothering me is why Dumbledore asked Harry to go find Snape? Did he know he had to die for the greater good and he wanted to keep Snape’s cover in tack so he wanted Snape to do it? The rest of the Order certainly thinks Snape’s a bad apple now and this proves to Voldemort that he definitely is “on their side”, but why? Did Snape and Dumbledore have an understanding? I find it hard to believe that he didn’t have a very good reason for trusting Snape? So what happened there? What broke down, if anything? Did Snape really slink back to the dark side or were he and Dumbledore in cahoots all along?

Ultimately several things finally convinced me that Dumbledore was really dead. 1) His portrait appearing on the wall in the Head Master’s Office. If he wasn’t really dead the portrait would not have appeared. I would have however liked to have seen his portrait awake and not snoring when Harry was in the office. Some word as to what really happened, but in all reality he may have been feigning sleep, you never know as the other portraits have done that on several occasions. 2) Fawkes’ song on grief. Fawkes was truly anguished, and while he might have been acting on Dumbledore’s behalf, I had the distinct feeling that the grief was real. 3) And lastly Dumbledore’s burial at Hogwart’s. It was a fitting burial place and I felt like it lent some sort of protection to the grounds, but I haven’t figured that out completely yet.

There are so many questions surrounding this death though that I don’t even know where the begin. First, why kill him off in this book? I realize he can still talk to them through his portrait, but Harry made it very clear he had no intention of returning to Hogwarts for his seventh year. And Dumbledore doesn’t strike me as the ghost type, so how does this play into the story line? If he did ultimately stage the biggest ruse in wizarding history then why? Perhaps he was hoping Voldemort would lower his guard if he thought Dumbledore was dead? The possibilities and the questions are endless and I’m sorry to say we won’t have any answers for some time now. I just hope Rowling truly ties up the missing pieces in the last book.

Overall this book was ok. It has some very nice moments, but for the most part, as I mentioned before, it was definitely not my favorite Harry Potter book so far in the series. So far I would have to say that book 3 is my favorite, followed by book 2, book 1, book 5, book 4 and now book 6. Where does it go from here? Only Rowling knows, but I have a feeling that book 7 will make me just as furious, if not more furious than book 6. As a writer you have certain duties to uphold, one of which is telling the story in a way to which the essential story line is not splintered. Of course if Dumbledore’s death was truly an elaborate ruse then this rant is for not, but otherwise it was extremely unwise to kill him off in this book. You can see my rant about Dumbledore’s importance in my predictions and I’m not going to go into them again here, but sufficed to say he is integral to the story line and I’m not sure how this plays into the grand scheme of things.

Rowling has often said that the story will not make a lot of people happy, and ultimately it is her story to write and finish as she sees fit. While as a writer I agree with that sentiment to an extent, I still think you also have to consider your readers while you are on the journey to finish your story. In fact without those readers, who delve into your story and lose themselves in the world you created, you would be no where. The readers are a key part to your story and you should keep that in mind as you are writing. Yes tragedy happens in stories, it is a fundamental part of the story line in many cases, but make the tragedy serve some greater purpose. Perhaps the greater purpose will make itself clear, but I didn’t see it with Sirius’ death. The arch could have been explained a little bit more in depth as to what was on the other side. I suspect it was the other realm or the spirit plane, but that was never clear. So I have my doubts whether we will see how this fits into the greater story, but anything is possible. I guess all we can do now is wait for a couple of years until the next book comes out and hope she gets the story right and doesn’t leave us hanging.