Okay, I just finished the book five minutes ago. And all I can say is
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!I think I would have preferred even Ron or Hermione to die than Dumbledore. But the worst thing was that I was reading something about this book on a newspaper website around midnight UK time on Friday and I almost clicked on a link with more stuff about the expected sales... and then I saw the URL. The last words of the URL were Dumbledore_death. I was furious.
I had no idea if it was speculation, a real spoiler or something unrelated to the specific book. But it meant that I was half-expecting, half-afraid of this happening all along.
As for it being Snape... well, I'm appalled too. It's almost doing the expected, making him one of the bad guys. All along, he's seemed to be bad but in fact was good - he saved Harry's life in Book 1 and helped save the Philosopher's Stone; he helped Lupin; he helped Dumbledore; he gave Umbridge fake potions; and so on. I find it hard to buy him being a bad guy all along - and, like Lynn and others, Dumbledore's reason for trusting him is way,
way too thin.
So my bottom line is that I
really didn't like the last few chapters. Bad choice of character death, for me - though I see Harry's point about every one of his protectors having been taken from him so now he has to stand up for himself - bad setting up for Snape to be a bad guy after all, and - at least, I think - bad decision on Harry's part to stay away from school next year. It feels too stupidly noble, and too clichéd - the brave hero has to walk away from everyone he knows and loves so that he won't bring any harm to them.
Roll on Book 7, all the same - and I'm hoping I'll like the way things turn out! But something about the series is spoiled for me now - I'm not looking forward to the next book the way I was with the last two.
Wendy
