Okay, Laura, you asked for it.
I'm sure you've guessed by now that one of the key characters dies, and that key character is Dumbledore. It's not too hard to figure out if you see that there is a lot of time spent on this character during the balance of the book - we finally have some major Dumbledore action.
What really shocked me most, though, is that Snape is the one who kills him. Flat out, cold. And from all indications, it was really Snape (not someone dressed up like Snape) and Dumbledore is really dead (as opposed to a missing body).
What I didn't like at all was the reasons given for Dumbledore's blind trust in Snape all these years. Apparently, Snape was the one who ran to Voldemort with the prophecy information which lead to Voldemort going to the Potters and killing James and Lily and almost killing Harry. Even though Snape hated James with a passion, supposedly he felt horrible about his part in the deaths and confessed all to Dumbledore, including a lot of rubbish about regrets. This remorse is supposedly the reason Dumbledore has always trusted Snape. I find this kind of flimsy since Dumbledore has always been portrayed as a very wise person and good judge of character.
Like I said in my first post, I'm still not 100% convinced that Snape is truly a bad guy. I mean, I know that nothing is written in stone about what JK Rowling *has* to do, but six books' worth of ambiguity about Snape's loyalty all to have him turn to the dark side now seems like a really big cheat. I'm already having a hard enough time with Dumbledore's death in that he's one of the Big Good Guys who I imagined would make it to the very end.
I guess we'll find out in two years!
Lynn
