Finished
Random thoughts as I think of them:
1) It was dark. I'm glad it was. Harry's been through so much crap in his life I was waiting for him to become rather . . . not nice. At the same time, I'm kind of sad that it's not as lighthearted as the other books. There weren't as many places that made me smile as there were in the other four. But that's the way the series is going, and once again, I'm glad.
2) Ginny, as I must agree with everyone else, rocked the cazba. Her newfound character development totally botches my fanfic idea, but who the hell cares. I liked her.
3) Umbridge *snarls* Yeah, I wanted to kill her quite a few times. I was about to scream (I did release several angry groans and punched my pillow, however) when she banned Fred, George, and Harry from the Quidditch team. I mean, Harry's already having a bad time of it; why did the one thing he enjoyed have to be taken away from him? (on the same note, why did the one person he thought of as a father have to be taken away, but more on that later). And that entire deal with the detention and the hand? Um, can we just say gross? I was kind of disturbed by that, but I have to admit, it got me hating her pretty quickly.
4) Loved the way the very end didn't have JUST Harry. Just thought it was very cool.
5) Neville also rocked the world. Never really liked Neville that much before, he always kind of bothered me, but now I'm finding room in my heart to love him. *scratches Neville lovingly behind ears*
6) SIRIUS. Okay. I think Harry's reaction upset me more than anything. I didn't cry, but my eyes did prickle a bit, especially when thinking about it afterwards. And that scene in Dumbledore's office . . . made me feel so bad for Harry that I wanted Sirius to live just so he wouldn't be so depressed. I did feel slightly disappointed she had killed of Sirius and I'll miss his character (I'm quite positive he's dead, because JKR won't bring the Potters back, and she definitely won't bring Sirius back). But overall, I just feel for Harry, because he had finally found someone he could consider family (apart from the Weasleys, who all have each other) and who needed Harry just as much as Harry needed him, and poof! That person's gone just like his parents.
7) Ron was pretty good. He didn't get mad at Harry every five minutes like before, which I was happy about. I felt sorry for him when he flunked up Quidditch so badly, but it turned out all right in the end. I feel he didn't have quite a big a part in this book as before; in fact, I felt that Harry was more alone and unconnected from his friends than ever. That is understandable. Also thought the part at the end when Ron was gibbering idiot was amusing and made me smile.
8) Hermione was okay as well. Liked the part where she kissed Ron and he touched his cheek. Was surprised how matter-of-factly she was with the Cho/Harry deal. There was a bit too much Hermione/Harry in the book for my taste, but I'll live. I felt Hermione had grown as well, and wasn't such a stickler for the rules.
8) Cho and Harry: GLAD - THAT - FIZZLED - OUT. I had sort of liked Cho in the previous books; she always was nice, even if we didn't know much about her. But in this one she cried every two seconds, and then it seemed she only "liked" Harry because she wanted to talk to him about Cedric. Does she honestly think Harry would want to talk about him? For one, he witnessed Cedric dying, and that was tough enough. Another, Cedric was Cho's ex. Cho got angry at the mention of Hermione; wouldn't she think the topic of her exes would be uncomfortable as well?
9) New characters were all right. Tonks actually rather got on my nerves, but I suppose now looking back on the book she was all right. Kinglsey was cool. Reminded me of Morpheus kind of. Luna . . . ehhh, not sure about her. I'm not quite sure why she was always in on the action, why she went with the rest of them at the end. Obviously has a thing for Ron, grr. Most of the time I didn't enjoy her presence, thought she would be better as a minor character like Lavender or Parvati. And have already said what I think of Umbridge.
10) Draco was as obnoxious as ever. Worse, rather. He's starting to run on the side of cruel instead of just taunting. But there wasn't a lot about him; I was surprised by that. Glad Lucius is in Azkaban.
11) Hagrid - missed him most of the book. Didn't see a lot of him either. Grawp was obnoxious, could've done without him.
12) Dumbledore's explanation at the end wasn't what I expected. I guess because I've read so much fanfiction, and most of it depicted exactly what JKR said. Prophecy, blah blah blah. Dursleys safe, blah blah blah. Kind of expected that, so in a way I thought it should've been different and I should've been surprised, so it WASN'T what I expected. Follow me? The bit about Neville in the Prophecy was rather interesting, though. Didn't think he'd have such a big part. Was touching when Dumbledore cried a bit. Poor old guy. He keeps trying to take the blame from Harry, such as DA and Sirius' death. Can't hate him for that.
Whoosh. That's all I can think of at the moment. Now I need to brainstorm some new fic ideas, I think this book has regenerated my Harry Potter fixation.