the_wanlorn | Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

There are spoilers within. Not just for the chapters mentioned, but for the whole book. Please proceed with caution.

Also, I'm long-winded, so these are fairly long. I mean, fairly long as compared to last time. I blame it on starting to get into the book. And I keep getting off-track. Anyway, I present my blow-by-blow reaction to chapters four through six of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.

Chapter Four
So, the Side-Along-Apparition. Can someone refresh my memory? Has that ever been discussed in any of the books before? Even just mentioned in passing? Or was it something that was strictly fanon until this book? I don't particularly recall anything from the books, but I always assumed it was canon. The way it's being treated in this book, however, is causing me to have my doubts.

"Professor, why couldn't we just Apparate directly into your old colleague's house" (Harry, p60). Oh hell no. Did he really just ask that? Did this kid pick up no manners whatsoever as he was growing up? I'm sorry, but I think that a 16-year-old would be able to reason just how rude that would be. Harry is a bit dull.

Horace Slughorn. For all his ridiculous name, he is awesome. More and more I find that I like the small glimpses of the grownups in this book for more than I like the kids. They're far more amusing and do much more interesting things. I mean, Dumbledore's wand arm? Double-yoo tee eff! Tell that story, Rowling! Really, she could make millions more if she started a second series about the adults.

Also, I'm glad that Slughorn is a Slytherin. So far, the only Slytherins we've seen are nasty little buggers. Which makes it hard for Slytherin fans to justify why we like them so much. Slughorn? Is my new number one reason to love the Slytherin House. He's charming and, sure, he's bigoted. But so are lots of great grandparents, and people make allowences for them because "it was different back then".

Ah, and more of a reaction from Harry about Sirius. Good, good. Turning him back into a normal guy. About him being "The Chosen One". I'm having visions of a mixture of Neo from The Matrix and the "I loved you" scene from Revenge of the Sith. It should be interesting to see how it all plays out.

I'm really not liking how then Ministy is searching then Weasley's mail. It's quite possible that it will come back to bite them someday. As in, the Ministry feeling the need to search everyone's mail, taking greater control over the people, etc etc. And I realize that I'm looking over that passage as a ficcer and what would make a good story line for a Harry Potter fic, so then odds of something so 1984esque happening in canon are pretty slim. But still...

Private lessons with Dumbledore? Sounds fishy. It seems as though whenever someone's going to die, they suddenly become of great importance to the book's plot so that they show up more often. It's a good way to tell who's going to croak, I suppose.

I'm also not much a fan of how Dumbledore keeps bringing up what Sirius would've wanted. Admittedly, he's only done it two or three times so far, but it seems to work on Harry. If Dumbledore notices this, which I'm sure he will because he is Dumbledore, he could use it to his advantage and manipulate Harry even more than he does now.

Again, I really like Slughorn. The scene when they first entered his house was one of the best in the book so far.

Chapter Five
The Weasley clock strikes me as fairly useless at a time like this². I mean, during normal times it would be awesome to be able to know when someone's in mortal peril. But since, as Mrs. Weasley said, everyone's in mortal peril now that Voldemort has returned, it seems a bit dumb to have a clock that only points there. They should make a way to turn off certain places.

It's nice that Arthur got promoted. The "Mollywobbles" thing was cute. It's interesting that Arthur is the one most insistent on the safety precautions. One would think that it would fall to the mother to be the overcautious one, but not in this case. Although, since he works for the Ministry, perhaps the danger is more real to him than it is to Molly.

I love how utterly sketchy Tonks is acting in the beginning of the chapter. I don't love the way JKR goes with it, if online talk can be trusted. But this lays then groundwork for lots of interesting stuff and developments. Whether or not JKR sticks with then "Woe, for I have a crush" aspect in the last book or turns around and says "Just kidding!" and does something with it remains to be seen. Holy run-on sentence Batman!

It's good to see Ginny so soon. My two favored real-canon-potential ships were Harry/Ginny and Ron/Hermione. They're the two I could see JKR setting up for. Or, at least, attempting to set up for. It clearly didn't go over all that well and wasn't all that obvious to other people, what with all the splooging that's going on all across the internet right now.

I must say, however, that the first scene with the trio and Ginny? The one where they're talking about Fleur and Harry thinks they're talking about Mrs. Weasley? That concept is so overdone and cliché. It would've been nice if Harry had asked who they were talking about right out instead of just assuming. But I'm sure it appeals to younger readers who haven't seen it used over and over and over again.

I hate Fleur. I've never liked her or her sister. I'd really hoped that Bill and Charley would stay single through the entire series, but oh well. I gather that we're not supposed to like the character, since the kids don't. But I think she could've been characterized in a better way. I mean, I didn't cringe every time I read something about Umbridge in the last book, and she was made to be hated. That said, the "Phlegm" thing? Not a fan.

So far, I'm not seeing Hermione as being out of character at all. I don't know what people are talking about. I can certainly sympathize with her getting her first not-perfect mark. But, on the other hand, I can sympathize with Ron going WTF because, really, after the first initial shock it's not a big deal.

Assuming Harry survives the final battle, it'll be interesting to see how JKR deals with him wanting to become an Auror. I mean, if he manages to kill Voldemort? They might let him in because that's a pretty damn good qualification right there. On the other hand, he didn't do perfectly on the Potions OWL and he's not going back to Hogwarts after the end of this year. It might be best if he kicks the bucket at the end of book seven.

Chapter Six
First off, let me say, yay Remus! I am such a Remus fangirl.

If I recall the note initialed "R.A.B." at the end of the book correctly, here we have our first clue that it's Regulus: "...well, frankly, I'm surprised he stayed alive for even a year after deserting the Death Eaters; Sirius' brother, Regulus, only managed a few days as far as I can remember" (Remus, p106). It's confirmed that Regulus deserted the Death Eaters and is dead by, most likely, their hands.

The body count is rising. It's interesting to see all of these names mentioned and realize that they were far too minor characters to stick in my memory. I recognize all the names, but I'll be damned if I actually know who they are. At this point, the only one I'm sure of is Ollivander.

It's interesting that Ollivander "was the best" wandmaker out there (Remus, p106). On the one hand, it explains why Hogwarts students are never seen going to any other wandmakers. If he's the best, then there's really little reason for there to be another wandmaker in the vinicty. However, it raises the question of what poorer families do for wands. Being the best generally means that the prices are a tad bit higher than elsewhere. I would think that more parents who couldn't quite afford it would floo their children to a different wandmaker, although that would be out of their way.

That in turn begs the question, just how far can you get with floo powder? It works for inter-building travel, from what I recall of Hogwarts in previous books. Someone - Arthur Weasley perhaps? - floos into the Durselys' home at one point, so it works for various distances within the country. But could one floo across an ocean? Or even from one end of Great Britain to the other? I think I'll stop here before I get completely off track.

Harry as Quidditch Captain. I suppose it was inevitable, as he's the hero of the story. It also prevents him from going on for pages about how unfair it is that he didn't get to be Captain, if he's anything like he was in the last book.

The Probity Probe? Priceless! Absolutely priceless! There are some wonderful things in this book. Especially since, as I move on, it seems as though the writing is getting tighter. I love how JKR's showing the effects of the return of Voldemort. People aren't going on as though there isn't anything happened. Diagon Alley isn't the cheery place it was five years ago. People are desperate for reassurance of some kind and buying from shady street vendors. I think it's a very good setting and tone for the book. I especially like how it appears as though she's not keeping it light and happy for the children.

The scene in Madam Malkin's, however? Not cool on Harry's part. Not cool at all. Yes, it's noble to want to defend a friend and Malfoy is a little git. But really. I will be very, very pleased if Harry learns to choose his battles by the end of this book or somewhere in the next book. That would be a spot-on bit of character development. It is, after all, one of the things you tend to learn as you go from younger teen to older teen.

I love the Weasley twins. But Daydream Charms? Sound like a less harmful but just as addictive form of LSD. I realize that, again, for all its darkness, this is a children's book and they would most likely not make that connection. Again, this is me looking at this book from the eyes of a ficcer. What's an acceptable trick in the Wizarding world is interesting. Half of the things listed would give the Muggle world fits if someone tried to market them as a Muggle invention. The Nosebleed Nougats? Would not go over well. At all.

It's interesting to see a joke shop turned into more serious business. Especially one that the Ministry is buying from. On the one hand, it makes me worried about the ineffectiveness of Aurors and just how untrained they are. But the fact that things like Shielding Cloaks are being bought and used is interesting.

Um. Love potions. Um. What the fuck Rowling? I understand that it's one of the lures of magic and lots of books use them and such. But isn't a love potion, depending on what exactly you do with it, tantamount to date rape? Yeah. Grey, grey area. I'm surprised none of her editors pointed that out. Or that she didn't listen to them when they did.

Malfoy acts sketchy as usual. Personally, the trio are acting just as sketchy, but they're the good guys so it doesn't matter. Or something like that.

¹ Moving away from picking apart JKR's writing for the moment and into musing about the Wizarding world itself. Just noting this so that no one's confused and thinks I'm calling the fact that all the hands point towards mortal peril shoddy writing, because I'm not. I actually quite like that touch.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

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