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06/21/2003 Entry: "Pottermania, part 3"

Oh, hell. Was going to go to bed, but might as well do some quick comments. (Note: highly incoherent and I also might not be remembering some stuff properly as I'm getting a bit bleary-eyed.)

(Huge, explicit spoilers for OotP.)

Overall, I liked it, though it certainly is *not* a happy happy escapist fun kind of book. I really wonder what people outside of fandom are going to think of it. Very, very dark, with so much of an awfully long book focused on angry!Harry, no real feeling of uplift at the end, and way too much exposition-dump from Dumbledore RE the Boy Who Lived and the Not Very Interesting Prophecy, but it held me fixated and had a number of rather cool moments, as well as some things that made me go "hmm."

Random thoughts:

The Death: No big surprise to me--I figured for sure it was either going to be Sirius or Hagrid. (In fact, when Harry had his vision of Mr. Weasley, I wasn't too scared because of course *he* wasn't going to die. :P) Didn't feel that much at the actual moment, probably because he fell through that archway and was just gone, poof. It didn't seem like a real death the way Cedric's did. Got a bit teary-eyed later when we got into Harry's reaction, though still not as distraught as I expected I would be, probably because I was so braced for it. And Lupin was too damn calm, at least onscreen. Am now waiting for Lupin reactionfic. (I think the fic is going to kill me a lot harder than the book itself did.) Sirius's family backstory was very cool. Good grief, though--does Harry now own that house, since he's probably Sirius's heir? Or does Lupin get it? (If he does, there's a huge chunk of support for S/R fans. ^_^)

Hagrid's half-brother--that was just sad. Really, really sad. Poor Hagrid.

Neville! I've always liked Neville, and he's really starting to come into his own. I had a mad theory for a while that the "weapon" that was being kept away from Voldemort was actually his plant, the whatsit. Loved the fact that he was the other candidate for the Prophecy. Hope JKR takes that somewhere. And the bit with Neville's parents--waah.

Harry spent the whole book swinging between "let's not argue about this anymore" and getting all ranty and angry with Hermione and Ron, but I thought his characterization was believable throughout. After all, who wouldn't be messed up? The scene with Snape's memories--omigod. *That* was intense. Somebody wrote in their LJ that this book was all about the support structures of Harry's world being taken away, and that was a huge one of them--the idea that his father and mother were these perfectly angelic, good people. Instead they were very human, they fought and were pointlessly cruel to other kids and did not just live in a romantic haze of sweetness and light. And yet they were valiant against the dark. And they loved Harry truly and deeply. An amazing portrait of how people grow and change and have more than one level to them. And Snape's reaction to Harry's discovery was intense as well. That was one of the parts of the book where I was really on the edge of my seat. I definitely want to see how (or if) Harry deals with his new knowledge of Snape in future books. (Note also that *Harry* is not particularly good--shame on him for invading Snape's memories to begin with. But at least he doesn't torment other people for laughs.)

Another of my favorite moments was when Harry suddenly realizes that there is no one left among the teachers at Hogwarts that he can rely on to save the day. Talk about your major milestone on the road to adulthood. Didn't feel he really totally stepped up to the plate in response, but that was also believable, since he was already pretty overwhelmed at the time. At least he had the brains to get a message out to Snape.

Draco was essentially evil fluff in this book, more an annoyance than anything else. Quite clearly Harry and the others have moved out of his league, but he and his little sycophants haven't realized this yet. He was *lucky* that Snape came along to break up the would-be fight. Really key that he couldn't see the thestrals--which, btw, were *wicked* cool. Spooky-ass, though. Exactly why does Hogwarts have flesh-eating horses that are invisible to those that haven't seen death drawing the student carriages? Brr. Anyway, Draco, figure out what the real world is like outside your little pureblood fantasies of power, or get out. Harry & Co. are playing with the big boys now.

*Delighted* to see a little more dimension to Aunt Petunia. And Harry's exchange with Dudley on the way back to the house was priceless.

Ron as prefect and Quidditch keeper--eh. Good for him, but it seemed a bit random.

Mad-Eye Moody was great fun to see again. Tonks--I haven't decided if she annoys me as much as I thought she would. Her first appearance screamed perky punk-chick Mary Sue at me, but then she didn't really do anything outrageously spectacular, so mneh. Reserving judgment. I liked Luna, though, especially her little scene with Harry near the end.

I *figured* Voldemort was trying to trick Harry into going through that door and recovering the thing. Gah. Lucky for Harry that the Death Eaters did turn up when they did, or his most loyal cadre of followers would have received a major crack in their confidence in him. The running battle through the Ministry was cool, though. Brains! And the Voldemort/Harry melding thing was pretty creepy.

I have no idea whether Harry/Cho is doomed to failure or will eventually muddle through to a functional relationship. I'm not wild about Cho--she's just kind of there. There aren't really any other candidates that I prefer, though.

And finally, please somebody give JKR a citation for ellipsis abuse. Argh.

Losing mental coherency. Must sleep.