(no subject)
Read HBP- and we finally got lucky with something Harry Potter related!
The bookstore opened at seven, so we went there at six thirty, but we arrived there seventh... they said they'd give collectible bookmarks to the first 5 people, so we felt a bit bad that we just missed out. Anyway, we got our copy, and then Guy #6 came up to us, asked if we were 7th, we said yes, and he showed us a bookmark and said that we could still claim ours. So we did. :D :D Yay! And then our friends (who came 20th) asked if they could get bookmarks too, but the store said they were only giving out to the first five, only there were two extras for number 6 and 7. We got lucky! Yay!
Even though it wasn't a midnight party or anything, it was great how people were being so nice to each other under the banner of Harry Potter love, hehehe.
We finished reading the book in about 13 hours, including breaks, and we were reading throughout our three hour physiology class and four hour phch27 class, hehe.
We loved the book! It was sad though, we're in mourning because Dumbledore died. It was great going back into people's memories and reading about Tom Riddle, his life, and so forth, but we don't pity him as much as we pity Draco... Tom Riddle did those things for himself, while Draco was made to do bad things for his family...
We were really, really sad that Dumbledore died. We were talking about it on our way to dinner, we were saying how Dumbledore might die but he couldn't yet, because he would die in book 7, Harry still needed him... but then we saw that Dumbledore was telling Harry everything already, everything he knew... and because Harry and Dumbledore were getting rather sappy with each other, but that was kind of sweet.
And then Snape went ahead and killed him! That tore our hearts, we were eating dinner at this restaurant then, and all we could do was cover our mouths and try not to be so loud as we moaned and griped about Dumbledore dying. It was a total shock, we didn't expect it... it was only when Fawkes had his song, that was when we accepted that it was true, Dumbledore died.
We guessed that Snape was the Half Blood Prince- who else would be so good at Potions? The only thing that threw us off track was the date, but we figured that Snape could have gotten the book second hand. We never thought it was him until we actually read the book though, until we reached the chapter called the Half-blood Prince.
Snape was BAD! *sob* we were like McGonagall and Hermione, we didn't exactly like Snape, but we thought that since Dumbledore trusted him, it was good enough for all of us. And then Snape had to go and kill Dumbledore... we wonder if Snape did it because it was the only way to protect Draco, since he made the Unbreakable Vow, but the punishment for not fulfilling the Vow is death... so if Snape was on the good side, wouldn't he have preferred to die, rather than kill Dumbledore?
The Draco parts were pretty nice... we were screaming when Harry performed the Sectumsempra on him. We were sad to learn that he was a Death Eater, but we decided to reserve our judgment til the end of the book, and we were right. Draco wasn't that bad. It was touching, seeing him cry, and he did lower his wand just before the Death Eaters came. He couldn't have killed Dumbledore, maybe because he was a coward, and maybe because he didn't really want to. He only wanted to because he needed to save his family.
We weren't happy at all with the romance bits... it was like reading weird fanfiction. There was Bill/Fleur, but that had been mentioned before, Remus/Tonks (that was really like fanfiction!) and then there was Ron/Hermione but Ron went with Lavender and Hermione went with Cormac, and then they didn't really get together in the end, although Harry and Ginny did after Ginny broke up with Dean for some pathetic reason...
We didn't like the way Hermione used Cormac, actually. Sure, she's cunning, but using a person just to revenge on a guy she liked- isn't that also a bit immature, a bit petty, and really quite bad? We didn't mind so much that she used the Confundus on Cormac, because we knew she was Slytherinny, but to use Cormac, who she didn't even really like- that was awful.
As for Ron snogging Lavender all over the place- that was just plain sickening. Gross!
It was sad that everyone would have died if it weren't for the Felix Felicis potion. Harry should have given some to Dumbledore...
The Draco/Hermione bits were great- The way Draco only insulted her in Madam Malkins (until Harry insulted Draco's mother)-- why didn't Draco take any notice of the two boys?
And Draco took Hermione's ideas. :D Hmmm....
We wonder though, where that leaves the ship... a bit further on then before, we think, although perhaps in rougher waters... because Draco could start liking Hermione and hermione could pity him, but could Hermione trust him?