Book 6 - my first thoughts
My Reactions
This book was so excellent. I enjoyed it massively, unlike OotP, which I enjoyed for the additions to the wizarding world (12 Grimmauld Place, the Order, Kingsley, Tonks and Luna, Thestrals, Dept. of Mysteries, etc.), but not really for the main plot. And the OotP Angry!Harry kind of pissed me off. This was a great mix of Voldie origin story, the mystery of who is the Half Blood Prince, the development of Snape as deep cover spy, the whole revelation of the horcruxes!, and not a ton of Quidditch and Harry yelling at people. As a measure of how much I liked it - I didn't even mind that Redeemed!Draco is now almost canon! That has always been one of my pet peeves in fic. After this book, I was excited and felt I had enjoyed myself; I wasn't all depressed and kind of pissed off like after OotP.
I'm concerned how JKR glossed over Harry's grief and guilt and anger regarding Sirius a bit; it had only been 2 weeks. I hope she comes back to it in Book 7, or it's a cop-out.
I thought the HBP might be Snape because of the potions (duh), but she got me with the red herring when it said the book was 50 years old; Snape as a poor half-blood had to buy secondhand books. (Nut why didn't Harry recognize his handwriting?) I also like that it wasn't a title he made for himself (like Voldie), but his mother's maiden name (and therefore his wizarding lineage). And I love that the only time Harry is ever good at learning potions from Snape is when he doesn't know he is. It was poignant that he liked the personality of who Snape was then, and didn't want to give him up as a book!friend, but the war and old grudges have stopped them from communicating in the present.
How awesome was it that Snape was making Pettigrew fetch him drinks and clean his house? And that he invented the hex that James Potter used to turn him upside down? Little touches like that were great.
I greatly appreciated that the new teacher wasn't the evil this time, unlike Books 1, 2, 4 and 5.
The best lj comment from the fandom - Voldie's mom is Mayella Ewell. Hee. I love how she was all cock-eyed.
Snape
Personally, I am completely convinced that Snape is still on the "good" side - Dumbledore was dead anyway, after drinking all that potion and waiting so long trying to talk Draco down; there was no saving him. So whether Snape AK'ed him or not, there was always Dead!Dumbledore. The "Severus, please" was totally Dumbledore making Snape follow orders and mercy-kill him, like Dumbledore made Harry follow orders he didn't want to, even if it was to leave him and save himself. There may have even been a moment of Legilimency in there reiterating it. Dumbledore had to know about the unbreakable vow, and he gave Snape the DADA post he knew was cursed, so he knew Snape wouldn't be there next year. Dumbledore as much as told Harry that he was an acceptable sacrifice, and needed Snape in place as a spy. This way, we have mercifully-dead!Dumbledore (as opposed to being tortured and then killed by the 3 other Death Eaters in the office with them and/or dying from the potion) and Snape has unbeatable cover - after all, how could you doubt the dark loyalty of the man who killed Dumbledore? If he hadn't, one of the other DEs would have, and killed him too and then there'd be no spy and Dumbledore still wouldn't be saved.
After all, when Snape is leaving, he protected Harry from the other DEs, and didn't even really curse him, just blocked Harry's curses and was still trying to teach him as he left. The way he was so incensed when Harry called him a coward was so sad, since he had just had to kill his mentor and blacken any reputation he may have had and act like he was happy about it. He gave up his life, essentially, for Harry (do we really think he's going to get out of this alive?) and Harry had the gall to be mad at him for it.
And I'm not the only one who thinks like this - this fic by Ayla Pascal sums it up perfectly. And she wrote it so fast!
Predictions
Snape is now in deep cover, and everyone thinks he's evil, but he is perfectly positioned to stab Voldie in the back somehow, and he will redeem himself by doing that, but will still end up paying with his life. But hopefully Harry and others will at least learn the truth before/during his sacrifice.
The R.A.B. who took the real locket-horcrux is Regulus Black. The initials fit. The person who wrote the note was close enough to Voldie to know about the horcruxes, repented beig on the dark side, and knew he was going to shortly die for it - all things we know to be true of Regulus. In OotP, when they are cleaning out 12 Grimmauld Place, one of the items they find is "a heavy locket that none of them could open" - it may have gotten tossed out, but Kreacher kept sneaking stuff out of the sack. And guess who now owns Kreacher?
Another horcrux is in the chamber of secrets? Of the seven, 1 is in Voldie, 1 in Nagini, 1 in the diary (destroyed), 1 in the Slytherin ring (destroyed), 1 in the Slytherin locket (Kreacher has it?), 1 in the Hufflepuff cup (maybe) - where is #7? Or is it Gryffindor's sword? Or is it Harry himself?
Harry not going back to Hogwarts is kind of a surprise; I wonder how that's going to be handled?
All in all, a major thumbs-up, well worth the wait. I can't wait for Book 7 (and all the fic that is going to come in between).
This book was so excellent. I enjoyed it massively, unlike OotP, which I enjoyed for the additions to the wizarding world (12 Grimmauld Place, the Order, Kingsley, Tonks and Luna, Thestrals, Dept. of Mysteries, etc.), but not really for the main plot. And the OotP Angry!Harry kind of pissed me off. This was a great mix of Voldie origin story, the mystery of who is the Half Blood Prince, the development of Snape as deep cover spy, the whole revelation of the horcruxes!, and not a ton of Quidditch and Harry yelling at people. As a measure of how much I liked it - I didn't even mind that Redeemed!Draco is now almost canon! That has always been one of my pet peeves in fic. After this book, I was excited and felt I had enjoyed myself; I wasn't all depressed and kind of pissed off like after OotP.
I'm concerned how JKR glossed over Harry's grief and guilt and anger regarding Sirius a bit; it had only been 2 weeks. I hope she comes back to it in Book 7, or it's a cop-out.
I thought the HBP might be Snape because of the potions (duh), but she got me with the red herring when it said the book was 50 years old; Snape as a poor half-blood had to buy secondhand books. (Nut why didn't Harry recognize his handwriting?) I also like that it wasn't a title he made for himself (like Voldie), but his mother's maiden name (and therefore his wizarding lineage). And I love that the only time Harry is ever good at learning potions from Snape is when he doesn't know he is. It was poignant that he liked the personality of who Snape was then, and didn't want to give him up as a book!friend, but the war and old grudges have stopped them from communicating in the present.
How awesome was it that Snape was making Pettigrew fetch him drinks and clean his house? And that he invented the hex that James Potter used to turn him upside down? Little touches like that were great.
I greatly appreciated that the new teacher wasn't the evil this time, unlike Books 1, 2, 4 and 5.
The best lj comment from the fandom - Voldie's mom is Mayella Ewell. Hee. I love how she was all cock-eyed.
Snape
Personally, I am completely convinced that Snape is still on the "good" side - Dumbledore was dead anyway, after drinking all that potion and waiting so long trying to talk Draco down; there was no saving him. So whether Snape AK'ed him or not, there was always Dead!Dumbledore. The "Severus, please" was totally Dumbledore making Snape follow orders and mercy-kill him, like Dumbledore made Harry follow orders he didn't want to, even if it was to leave him and save himself. There may have even been a moment of Legilimency in there reiterating it. Dumbledore had to know about the unbreakable vow, and he gave Snape the DADA post he knew was cursed, so he knew Snape wouldn't be there next year. Dumbledore as much as told Harry that he was an acceptable sacrifice, and needed Snape in place as a spy. This way, we have mercifully-dead!Dumbledore (as opposed to being tortured and then killed by the 3 other Death Eaters in the office with them and/or dying from the potion) and Snape has unbeatable cover - after all, how could you doubt the dark loyalty of the man who killed Dumbledore? If he hadn't, one of the other DEs would have, and killed him too and then there'd be no spy and Dumbledore still wouldn't be saved.
After all, when Snape is leaving, he protected Harry from the other DEs, and didn't even really curse him, just blocked Harry's curses and was still trying to teach him as he left. The way he was so incensed when Harry called him a coward was so sad, since he had just had to kill his mentor and blacken any reputation he may have had and act like he was happy about it. He gave up his life, essentially, for Harry (do we really think he's going to get out of this alive?) and Harry had the gall to be mad at him for it.
And I'm not the only one who thinks like this - this fic by Ayla Pascal sums it up perfectly. And she wrote it so fast!
Predictions
Snape is now in deep cover, and everyone thinks he's evil, but he is perfectly positioned to stab Voldie in the back somehow, and he will redeem himself by doing that, but will still end up paying with his life. But hopefully Harry and others will at least learn the truth before/during his sacrifice.
The R.A.B. who took the real locket-horcrux is Regulus Black. The initials fit. The person who wrote the note was close enough to Voldie to know about the horcruxes, repented beig on the dark side, and knew he was going to shortly die for it - all things we know to be true of Regulus. In OotP, when they are cleaning out 12 Grimmauld Place, one of the items they find is "a heavy locket that none of them could open" - it may have gotten tossed out, but Kreacher kept sneaking stuff out of the sack. And guess who now owns Kreacher?
Another horcrux is in the chamber of secrets? Of the seven, 1 is in Voldie, 1 in Nagini, 1 in the diary (destroyed), 1 in the Slytherin ring (destroyed), 1 in the Slytherin locket (Kreacher has it?), 1 in the Hufflepuff cup (maybe) - where is #7? Or is it Gryffindor's sword? Or is it Harry himself?
Harry not going back to Hogwarts is kind of a surprise; I wonder how that's going to be handled?
All in all, a major thumbs-up, well worth the wait. I can't wait for Book 7 (and all the fic that is going to come in between).