72 days...

[sarahmichelef]

Finished reading Half Blood Prince this evening while I was simmering soup - it was actually only the second time I'd read it. 

• I agree with rufinia that McGonagall is not the spy.  It might be Filch; it might be someone we haven't even thought of yet.
• Snape... I think Dumbledore was right - I think that Dumbledore and Snape had an agreement that S would not let Malfoy kill D.  So S could make the unbreakable vow with Narcissa and still remain true to his role as ... well, Sivellus.
• I think Dumbledore is really and truly dead, but I don't think that he's done influencing events.  He's not going to come back as a ghost, though.  I don't know how it will work.  Also, we haven't seen the last of Fawkes.  He has to play a role in the final battle - his tail feathers are in Harry & Voldemort's wands, for pete's sake!
• How was it not obvious to me on the first reading that R.A.B. is most likely Regulus Black?  Does anybody know off the top of their heads if we know his middle initial?  I will pull OotP off the shelf later and double-check myself.
• The mystery Horcrux (the cup, the locket, something from Gryffendor or Hufflepuff, the diary, the ring, and ???)... I don't know if I buy that Nagini's the seventh Horcrux.  I've also heard the theory that Harry himself is the Horcrux... which would present interesting twists - "neither can live while the other survives".  If H is a horcrux, then they're both gonna die (or I guess H could keep that one part of V within himself, but I don't see Harry as he is at the end of HBP doing that - but obviously he will do a lot of growing up in the next book).
  
• Despite all of this, we have to remember that these are CHILDREN'S BOOKS.  And so I think a lot of people are probably overthinking things.

Comments

[marajade648.livejournal.com]

How'd you get there? did you skip 5? 5 is pretty annoying. I'm about 1/2 way thorugh. I'll be mad if they cut the few good parts of the book from the the movie.
Snape is good. It would make no sense for him not to be. I think the whole hes good at occulemency means he's some how tricking Voldy. My thought is Mrs. Norris is the spy. She's an animagus possibly a relative of Filch's.
Things that will come back in 7:
The mirror Sirus gave Harry
Wormtail's hand
Neville and the prophecy

[alphasarah.livejournal.com]

No, I've just been reading really, really fast. I was way less enamored of 5 this time around than I was the first 2 times I read it. It was way less dark than I remembered it being, that's for sure.

I like the Mrs. Norris theory.
The mirror will definitely come back. Question is, who will have it? Presumably it's still at Number Twelve Grimmauld Place (the ownership of which is still somewhat up in the air - and somehow I had convinced myself that the house issue was resolved in HBP, I don't know why.)
I think that Harry will tell Neville the contents of the prophecy. In any case, Neville will join H, H, and R on their quest for the remaining Horcruxes.

I need an HP icon.