Welp, I've finished it....
I had the sixth installment of Harry Potter delivered to me on Saturday, July 16th, and had promptly finished the damn thing by five on Sunday. My opinions follow:
The part where Harry caught up with Snape after Snape killed Dumbledore was awesome. It it possibly my favourite part in all 6 of the books. Some select quotes:
"Blocked again and again and again until you learn to keep your mouth shut and you mind closed, Potter!" Teaching till the very end....
"'DON'T-' screamed Snape, his face was suddenly demented, inhuman, as though he was in as much pain as the yelping, howling dog stuck in the burning house behind them-'CALL ME A COWARD!'" He seemed to be in pain, why?
All of the Snape revelations were great: that he was the one who leaked the prophecy to Voldemort and especially that HE was the Half-Blood Prince. So he is brilliant....Oh, and when he got DADA I ran into my living room and did a very spaztic jazzersize routine. My mom, who hadn't seen me in an hour or two, just shook her head. And his HOUSE! Calm down.
For the record, I still believe that Snape is "Dumbledore's man, through and through"
The part where Remus talks about what he's been doing for the order was great too. When he told Harry about Greyback, and how he got bitten I had to close the book. I, like Remus, had assumed that the werewolf who had bitten him couldn't help it, but when I found that the werewolf had all intentions of biting my poor, lovely, Lupin, I kinda got angry. I had to close the book and put it down for a second. Shaddup.
Another favourite part of mine was the bathroom scene where Draco was crying (pansy) to Moaning Myrtle and Harry walks in on it. Draco turns to use the cruciatus curse on Harry and Harry uses sectumsempra (my new favourite) on him. Then Snape rushes in and is all like "wtf?". Great. Draco deserves it the slimy no-good-son-of-a-death-eater.
As for the conversation that takes place on the bottom of page 623 to page 624 I'll just pretend I never read it. *cough*Remus/Tonks*makes low grumbling noise*
Alrighty, now that that's been said I have to tell you about what I just went through. This morning we were outside and we heard this bird squaking. Turns out to be a beautiful blue and gold macaw. Michele stands out there ALL day and tries to coax it down, but my dad, being a man of action, decides to CLIMB UP THERE AND GET IT.
Yes. Have you ever see a gorilla climb a tree? It's very rare. Now I know why.
Ok, so he has Michele and I stand on each side of the tree holding sheets to wrap the bird it if we get it. Now, these sheets are hardly saying "Fly to me, birdie!", but hey, it was quote un-quote a "good idea" at the time. From my vantage point I can't see the bird, and I can hardly see my dad. I start hearing this sawing sound and the first thought in my head is "Are you kidding me?" After a minute the limb cracks and falls to the ground. It was a HUGE limb, and it SMASHED our fence. Was the bird affected by this? Did he think to himself "Man, these stupid humans are going through a shitload of trouble to get me down and to a safe place where I will be fed, why don't I oblige?"
Nope.
This freaking thing takes off. TAKES OFF. It flies to a tree about 30ft high, and 90yrds away from our house (that's almost a foot ball field). I know it was 90yrds away cause that's how much hose, yes hose, we needed to reach it. After it took off I went inside, only to be screamed at to get outside and start pulling out the hose, fast. Actually, I believe his exact words were, "Unknot the goddamn hose and pull it out!! I want you to move like someone you love is dying!!" And so, imagining that running really fast would stop JKR from killing Remus in book 7, I pulled the hose all the way out to about 20ft away from where it need to be, as I had run out of lead. Needless to say I quickly met the ground. Injury one: scraped up hands. I ran back like my life depended on it to tell my dad we were out of hose. He grabs another hose, and tells me to get the pressure washer out of his truck and get it up there as fast as possible. This thing is HEAVY. Thank god it had wheels. So I run this thing all the way back up there, he hooks it up, and starts spraying the bird. Apparently, spraying it will not only startle it out of the tree, but weigh it down so it can't fly so far. Right.
Ok, now the water stream from the pressure washer wasn't very strong, so my dad's like, "There's a kink in the hose!" I found this highly unlikely, as the hose had been stretched to it's limit, so I investigated further. There was a hole in the pressure washer hose. The stream of water coming out of this hose is powerful enough to lift it three feet off the ground, so I, in my infinite wisdom, decide to grab the hose to plug it with my finger. Bad idea. I flung it away from me like it was covered in spiders. Injury two: a pucture wound in my finger that is STILL bleeding. From water.
Accepting that the pressure washer isn't working my dad tells me to go get the sprayer, and hook it up to the normal hose. I sprint all the way to the house and back to find that something isn't doing something and for some reason (possibly just to make me run some more) I had to go back and get the pliers. Upon returning from this escapade my dad informs me that the bird has flown into another tree (the pliers never got used) I don't know whether the bird was actually getting wet, or just tiring of the stupid humans. So we stand there and then my dad says, quietly, "Go get the sledgehammer." And I'm off. Running up the hill, sledgehammer in hand, I felt like I was in one of those iron man competitions. I was too distracted by my burning lungs and about-to-fall of arms to notice that my shoes were untied until I met the ground again. As for the sledgehammer, it met my shin. Injury three: a quite impressive bruise.
I will tell you right now that we do not have the parrot. After hitting the tree one time with the sledgehammer it flew into to the forest laughing it's feathery ass off. The End.