In a marathon reading session, I finished reading “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” last night.
Damn.
That’s the narrative equivalent of being hit on the head with a brick.
Note: Spoilers are in the comments, so don’t read ’em if you don’t want the ending ruined.
Yeah, that one hurt a lot.
Here’s my prediction for the 7th and final book.
1. He’s not dead, but he’ll only show up at the very last minute to be killed again.
2. Harry will almost lose and die, but it will be Malfoy who saves his life after Harry trusts him with everything.
3. Hermione will dump ron for crum, and Harry will get some serious snoggin in with luna who will also die.
I guess we’ll have to wait 5 years or so to find out for sure. They’ve got to release all the other movies before they let the last book out, don’tch think?
Yeah, that caught me off guard too. Still, it’s one of the better reads I’ve had in the past year. I just hope nobody I know saw me pick it up out of the Juvenile Fiction section of the library. :)
That’s one hell of a book. I think I’m with Josh on point #2. It’s a no-brainer. Malfoy’s gotta be the good guy: I think it’s Draco who takes out Snape.
I like the Malfoy good-guy theory. I like it a lot. I got a flash that might be so during his interaction with Dumbledore at the end of the book, but I didn’t have the good sense to follow that thought through to its logical conclusion.
*Takes a bow for thinkin’* (happens every once in a very long while)
Much Luv for Max… *dreams back to the salad days*
Really good book!!
I was really pissed that I’m going to have to wait another year and a half (?) or two years.. for the next book.
I’m not believing the Malfoy as good guy idea, original though it is… because of how deeply his father is into it.
Although… I’m open to the possiblities that there could be some really cool plot twists!!
I also thought it was fantastic. I bought it last summer and read it immediately. Between Harry Potter and the Eragon series, I am getting used to waiting until the next one hits the shelf. I don’t like it, but I know I have to do it. : ( In the meantime, I’ll have the chance to read the last one again before the next one comes out. That way I’ll know where I left the characters last.
Garren–unless someone knows you really well at the local library, you can always tell them you’re picking up the book for your child, your significant other, your cousin, etc. Unfortunately, at our library everyone knows everybody else, so that wouldn’t work for me.
Have you all seen the “Stopper Death” theory? It gives a great reason why my gut feeling – that Snape can’t be a bad guy – is likely.
http://quoththemaven.blogspot.com/2005/08/stoppered-death.html
Check it out.
Draco Malfoy is the not the good guy here, but he definitely seems conflicted – he may come around in the end. I also believe that Snape killed Dumbledore under duress – that Dumbledore himself forced him to do it.
Early in the book, Snape vows to Malfoy’s mother, Narcissa, that if Malfoy fails in his quest (to murder Dumbldore), he will take care of it to protect Malfoy from Voldemort’s anger. Later in the book, there is a reference to Snape and Dumbledore arguing. I believe that the argument results when Snape tells Dumbledore about his vow (which he cannot break without dying). Dumbledore wants to protect Snape’s status as a double agent helping out the good guys so he is insists that Snape kill him when the time comes. Snape strongly objects to this plan, thus the argument that is overheard.
Go back to the end and look at the description of Snape approaching Dumbledore before he kills him. Up until this time, Dumbledore is calm – he has immobilized Harry to keep him out of the action, and he speaks soothingly to Draco to keep him from doing the deed himself. Yet when Snape arrives, Dumbledore changes.
” “Severus…” The sound frightened Harry beyond anything he had experienced all evening. For the first time, Dumbledore was pleading.” Dumbledore is pleading with Snape to do as they discussed and kill him, though Dumbledore knows that Snape does not want to do this.
Now consider the description of Snape as he approaches Dumbledore. “Snape gazed for a moment at Dumbledore, and there was revulsion and hatred etched in the harsh lines of his face.” This revulsion and hatred do not reflect Snape’s feelings for Dumbledore, but for the act that he must now commit. Still, he complies with Dumbledore’s wishes and utters the deadly curse.
Finally, when Harry is chasing Snape, there are several chances for the Death Eaters to take out Harry, but Snape stops them, supposedly to save Harry for Voldemort. But Harry keeps chasing him, trying several times to use a deadly curse against him, all of which Snape easily deflects. Snape finally must take Harry down to keep him from getting into more trouble, but he checks Harry to make sure he is okay. “Snape closed in and looked down on him… Snape’s pale face… was suffused with hatred just as it had been before he had cursed Dumbledore…. [Snape’s] face was suddenly demented, inhuman, as though he was in as much pain as the yelping, howling dog stuck in the house behind them” Snape is trying to protect Harry, but he reacts with violent anger when Harry calls him a coward because killing beloved Dumbledore must have been the hardest thing Snape had ever done. Snape obviously has unresolved issues with Harry and his dad, but he does not have to like Harry to be on his side.
I believe that in the last book, we will learn that Snape has always been a good guy. This would be in line with the stoppered death theory of Snape working as a healer as well. I guess we will just have to wait and see.
Actually, three things are very certain, in my mind.
Dumbledore is really dead. Seriously. Rowling is not going to pull the whole funeral and thematic sequence of the hero coming into his own with his mentor no longer around to protect him just to bring Dumbledore back. Phoenix symbol or no. The most we’ll get is a cryptic and disappointing (to Harry, who has had to come to realize that ghosts and pictures are not the same thing as the living people) chat with Dumbledore’s picture.
Snape is good. This is very obvious. If you don’t think so, then you have to at least admit that there is a lot going on between Snape and Dumbledore that we have not yet understood, despite Snape’s “bad guy” claims at the start of the book. Harry asks Dumbledore why he trusts Snape AFTER having discovered that Snape revealed the prophecy to Voldemort. What does Dumbledore do? He considers whether or not to say something… and then answers with the same answer he’s always given “I trust Severus Snape completely.” So Harry’s conclusion that the only reason Dumbledore trusts Snape is that Snape was sorry someone he knew was killed is NOT the reason. Dumbledore very clearly held back telling Harry the reason. Keep in mind that we’ve seen only one of the THREE memories that Snape removed from his head in Order of the Pheonix. There’s definately more to the story than we know. However, in Prince, we are made to think that we’ve seen and heard what is supposedly ALL of the story of Snape’s treachery and double-dealing. If there is more to know about Snape that is still unknown, then it can only UNDERMINE this story.
Finally, the final non-voldemort horcrux… is Harry. This too is obvious. We know that Voldemort was one horcrux short of his six (plus the one in his body = 7) when he entered the Potter’s house, and that he reserves very special deaths for the making of horcruxes. We also know that something went terribly wrong and unexpected for him.
What else do we know? We know that horcruxes can be living things. We know that horcruxes can be de-horcruxed without destroying them entirely (the ring is undamaged, and the diary only punctured). And we know that Harry shares many “soul-like” qualities with Voldemort: similarly attuned powers, connections into each other’s emotions and magic, etc. Why is this? What other explanation could there be besides horcruxes. We know that horcruxes transfer souls. We know that wizard powers are soul-linked. We know that making a horcrux involves an act of murder, which is EXACTLY the act that Voldemort was attempting to carry out on Harry (and most likely intending to make something into his last horcrux with this murder).
Harry is special because he is linked to Voldemort… and yet can also love, something Voldemort cannot bear. Remember the scene in Order where Dumbledore cryptically uses one of his machines: the one which creates to snakey smoke things that are entwined together, and then says “ah, but in essense divided?” This is right after Harry has witnessed Voldemort’s attack on Mr. Weasely. This same entwined snake theme is used at the end of Order, when Harry feels as if Voldemort’s possesion of him is like two snakes connected together. And yet, Harry’s ability to love is like poison to Voldemort. This is also why Dumbledore looks briefly “triumphant” when he hears that Voldemort has further tied himself to Harry by using Harry’s blood to overcome Harry’s mother’s protection. The closer the two are tied together, the more Harry is a potential dagger in Voldemort’s heart.
Finally, what does Dumbledore think the last horcrux is? Nagini. But when he states it, he does so tenatively, unsure. This has always been a Rowlingism for allowing a wise character to be wrong without making them seem dumb. And what do we know of Nagini from Voldemort? Sure, she is a smart snake that voldemort can posess. But Voldemort has told us that he possessed LOTS of different snakes (and people!). No special explanation is necessary to explain his ability to possess and direct Nagini.
There’s one more major loose end: Sirius’ mirror. Rowling has Harry not throw it away, but shatter it INSIDE his trunk, then pack on top of it. So the mirror fragments are still around. This seems like a peculiar thing to have Harry do if the mirror will never be used again and was just a thematic device to make Harry realize that Sirius was really gone, or feel worse because he didn’t try to contact Sirius that way instead of thru the fire.