Chapter 4: Horace Slughorn

Well, thank you JKR for depriving us of the opportunity to guess the DADA teacher :p  So now I'm afraid I have no choice but to say Horace Slughorn for Half-Blood Prince!  I noticed the broken clock in Slughorn's house and immediately thought of the clock at Privet Drive that Harry fixed, so I was rather disappointed to see it quickly fixed by magic.

 

The way Harry is a) not depressed and b) going to be taking private lessons from Dumbledore would smell like Harry Stu if this were a fanfic, but I'm happy with his attitude so far.  I have to admit, the story so far is comfortable.  I like comfortable, although I tend to get too wary of it in fanfic.

 

In other news, we now have answers about double apparation and why people don't just apparate into other people's houses!  It's also interesting that Voldemort is using what is essentially a zombie army.  That idea was briefly and laughing toyed with in SQ, thinking it would use people who had their souls sucked by Dementors.  But that gets me thinking:  whom do we know who is dead and still has their body?  Bones, Vance, Quirrell, Cedric, and Harry's parents.  (Am I missing anyone?) I wonder if we'll see any of these people become Inferni?

Chapter 3: Will and Won't

Excellent chapter title!  Fandom as a whole anticipated almost everything in this chapter (right down to the way Dumbledore made the Dursleys sit down on the couch), although JKR carried it off in a much cooler manner.  The parallelism of Dumbledore's arrival now and Dumbledore's arrival in the first book, combined with his sheer coolness, makes me think he won't survive this book :(  But since two people we have met have already died, I still maintain he doesn't strictly HAVE to die, right?  right? right?

 

Unless it has been mentioned in passing before and I missed it, I think the fact that Harry repaired the clock is going to come up again, since it seems a very random thing to mention.

 

I also think Miss Manners would disapprove of drinking glasses that attack you if you don't take a drink.

Chapter 2: Spinner's End

JKR wins again!  Snape fans must love this chapter! I don't think anyone guessed that Spinner's End was Snape's house, although I think some people guessed that the house on the deluxe cover was Spinner's End, and no one would ever have guessed what the two hands were!  I see JKR is departing from her usual Harry POV.  I don't know how I feel about that. 

 

What I really love about this chapter is it sets up the idea that Snape could be on either side.  I forgot to blog it or mention it on SQ, but I noticed in OOTP that some people seem to be trusting Snape too much, because of all the times when they thought he was going to kill Harry and he didn't.  The huge emphasis on how Snape could be trusted made me think that perhaps he can't.

 

And, for the record, I am going to guess that Draco's mission is to kill Harry, the Unbreakable Vow will result in Snape having to try to kill Harry, and he won't succeed and will die in the process because of the prophesy.

Chapter 1: The Other Minister

J.K. Rowling wins!  Everyone thought this chapter would be a flashback to the night Harry's parents died, but instead we get to see the new Minister for Magic interact with the Muggle P.M!   (I have seen a couple of fics to this effect, but not staged in 6th year).  This was a very effective way to catch us all up on the war and show us what happened to certain key order members.  I'm sad that Emmeline Vance  and Amelia Bones died, because I wanted to learn more about them.  I think the Muggle P.M. picturing "Sirius'" name as "Serious" was a shoutout to fandom.  And I don't think anyone anticipated that the new Min. of Magic would be Lion Man!  I guess this destroys the Crookshanks = Lion Man theory.

I got it!!!

It came with a bag of air, which is hilarious!  AND it's a good size to fit in my purse!  Thank you Raincoast for reasonable book size!  And away we go....

moopy

I'm still waiting for my book to arrive and hiding from spoilers.  I'm just feeling moderately down, because I know as soon as I open this book my mental image of the Potterverse is going to change, and I'm anticipating that it will change for the worse in at least one way.

End of Harry Potter spoilers

This is a post-dated post. If the date and time indicated for this post have not yet passed, there may be new material underneath.

There are no Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince spoilers below this post. There is speculation, including speculation based on the book covers and jkrowling.com. However, all material below this post was written before I'd read HBP.

Fun with Polish

The Polish masculine noun for homosexual (homosexualista) declines in the feminine.

I would love to see someone write a paper on that!

Parents and children, please read this first

If you are underage, especially if you are under 13:

Even though I write about Harry Potter a lot, I am an adult. I am writing for other adults, not for children. This means that some of the things I write might be boring, or might upset you, or might upset your parents.

If you are not sure whether it is okay for you to read my blog, please get one of your parents to look at it first. They'll probably say yes, and trust you more because you chose to go to them.

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This disclaimer is here because some children seem to be finding my blog by searching for Harry Potter.

I am an adult and am writing without consideration for the fact that children might read my blog. I don't have children of my own and don't know anything about child development, but if I had to guess I'd say this blog is just as appropriate for children as your average daily broadsheet newspaper, although probably more partisan and of less educational value. Please feel free to have a look around and peruse my archives, and use your own judgement to decide whether it is appropriate for your child to read my blog.

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Final pre-HBP Harry Potter roundup

1. On the deluxe edition cover, I think the house is Godric's Hollow.

2. I think that Harry and Dumbledore on the deluxe edition cover are in a Pensieve memory - the same Pensieve that is on the cover of the green version

3. I think we will see Norbert the dragon again.

4. I think Cho Chang gets a short shrift in fandom. There is nothing wrong with her, it's just she and Harry had different needs. She wants a dashing knight in shining armour who can hold her hand and dry her tears, and she sees the knight in shining armour potential in the brave and heroic Harry. Harry is attracted to her because she's pretty, and has this abstract idea that a girlfriend is "fun", and doesn't understand why she's sad and lacks the ability to empathize with her. The impression I get of Cho's character is that she's still in mourning for Cedric, but people are encouraging her to "move on" or "get on with your life" or whatever platitudes people like to spout, so she pursues Harry because of physical attraction and/or because of the knight in shining armour potential and/or because he has expressed interest in her in the past. Just because Harry has disdain for her tears doesn't mean that her tears are deserving of disdain. She's grieving and confused, and just because Harry is so insensitive so as not to see that doesn't mean that we as readers need be.

5. A lot of people make mistakes and bad choices in OOTP. I, even as an adult, learned a few things about how to generally make better choices from watching the mistakes of these characters. This makes me wonder if kids closer to Harry's age can also learn from this book about the benefits of being open and transparent and going to the appropriate authorities when you have problems.

6. I think we will hear more about Unspeakables.

What kinds of losersaurus steals a laundry hamper?

I was doing laundry, and someone stole my hamper out of the laundry room! WTF??? The ridiculous application procedures to get into this building, all the hoops I had to jump through, and they can't even keep out people who steal laundry hampers??? I am not impressed.

Not dead yet

Yes, there was a bomb scare at Sheppard station

No, there was not a bomb

No, I did not die, or suffer anything worse than a 20-minute inconvenience, because there was no bomb

Yes, I may be incommunicado (or should that be incommunicada?) for parts of today, but that's because I'm doing laundry, not because I'm dead

Thank you

Harry Potter fanfic patterns

I've noticed that when religion is introduced into HP fanfic, almost always the author is male. I've also noticed that whenever I read a fic that has religion, it also has a rather bizarre sense of machismo. Of course, I have read male authors that don't use religion and I have read machismo that doesn't use religion, but when there is religion I'd say 95% of the time you're going to have a male author and a macho Harry.

Nuviana Cabernet Sauvignon Merlot

This wine is very interesting, because it's tannic but still easy to drink. I can't explain why or how this happens, but it's good to know. This is a wine for if you're a vegetarian sharing a bottle with someone who's eating a steak dinner.

The purpose of the Triwizard Tournament

I just realized that the Triwizard Tournament has an important purpose in the overall narrative: because Harry is a contestant in the tournament, he learns all kinds of Defence skills that he never would have learned otherwise! This allows him to run the DA in book 5, and will doubtless help him eventually defeat Voldemort!

Hagrid for Half-Blood Prince!

I just noticed in GOF (at least according to a Rita Skeeter article, which, of course, may be way off) that Hagrid's mother's "whereabouts are unknown." That certainly leaves a nice little blank to fill in!

Brilliant Ideas that will Never Work: Ask a bad guy

Imagine if they came up with a way where you could have a civil, rational and honest conversation with a "bad guy" to find out what they are thinking. A "bad guy" could be a thief, murderer, rapist, bully, terrorist, torturer - any kind of person who does things that average people don't understand. Actually, they could have the reverse too - a "good guy" could be asked questions by a "bad guy" and they could share points of view.

I have absolutely no idea how this could be carried off logisitcally and how you would get the participants to be honest (I could make it work using the technology available in the Potterverse, but that's neither here nor there).

I can think of all kinds of questions I'd like to ask all kinds of people. Ask a bully: "What were you hoping to achieve? Did you realize that other people are human beings with thoughts and feelings? How did you pick your victims?" Ask the people I've heard of that stick their hands up girls' skirts in the subway: "How do you pick your victims? Why do you think you're entitled to do this?" Ask homophobics: "What specific negative effects do you think same-sex marriage is going to have on opposite-sex marriage, and why?" Ask religious fanatics of all stripes: "What specific aspects of my everyday behaviour do you think are harmful to you and your loved ones and why?"

The point of this is not to debate or convert, it's simply to understand what the other person is thinking. You don't have to agree with them, the goal is just to see how their mind works. I haven't the slightest idea how this could be successfully carried off, but it would be brilliant if it could.

Chuck Cadman died!

Chuck Cadman died yesterday of skin cancer.

Harry Potter recurring items

I've noticed that Harry's broomstick servicing kit (which Hermione bought him for his 13th birthday) has been mention quite a few times.