Okay, just finished the book. (Yeah, I'm a slow reader these days... :-P )
Have to agree that I'm liking Harry less and less. I'm glad he's not a perfect Gary Stu, but he's become far too arrogant for my tastes.
Relationships -- it wouldn't have been such a big surprise if any one of those relationships had suddenly popped up. Maybe two. What got to me was that suddenly
everyone was in love. The books have always downplayed relationships, leaving them to little more than subtle hints. Now, suddenly, everyone is kissing and dating and worrying about who might be dating their love interest. It's not so much that the relationships were indidivually out of the blue. It's that the entire concept of "relationships" was suddenly bumped up to the foreground.
Snogging -- I know what the word means, but... where the heck did it come from? To me, it's always sounded like it should have a negative/dirty connotation. It just has an ugly sound to it, especially with those Gs in the middle there forcing you to make a gutteral motion with your throat.
The big one -- Dumbledore. When I heard last book that someone major was going to die, I thought it would be him. Harry's coming of age, the plot is getting more tense. Removing his guardian/father figure would really up the tension. Killing Sirius sort of had the same effect, except that Sirius was never that big a part of the books. I didn't feel as much for him as JK seems to think I should.
This time, though... I went through the last couple of chapters simply not believing it. It made it very weird to read about the funeral and such. Thing is... I still don't believe it. Some of my thoughts have already been expressed, but I'm surprised that no one has mentioned this:
(Dumbledore talking to Draco, pages 591-592)
"... I can help you, Draco."
"No, you can't," said Malfoy, his wand hand shaking very badly indeed. Nobody can. He told me to do it or he'll kill me. I've got no choice."
"He cannot kill you if you are already dead. Come over to the right side, Draco, and we can hide you more completely than you can possibly imagine. What is more, I can send memers of the Order to your mother tonight to hide her likewise...
Got that? See what he offered Draco? He was going to
fake Draco's death so convincingly that no one, including Voldemort himself, would even think to look for him and he was offering to do the same for Draco's mother, too, using members of the Order.
It was already established that Dumbledore knew what Draco was up to. He knew Draco would make his move. He'd told Harry not to interfere with Draco or Snape. He froze Harry under the cloak, forcing him to do nothing but bear witness. Harry, with the element of surprise, could have done something. Gotten Dumbledore's wand back. Used
expellerama on an unprepared Snape. Something.
Oh, and Dumbledore insisted that he had a secret reason to trust Snape. Harry's guess as to why was just that... a guess. Snape is a member of the Order, and he was acting under Dumbledore's orders.
Snape also protected Harry from the Death Eaters, refusing to attack him and stopping the others when they tried.
The entire thing was a fake-out. Snape didn't kill Dumbledore. He, as a member of the Order, used their secret plan to fake someone's death.
I wouldn't be surprised if the plan included the entire scene inside the cave. Dumbledore insisted that Harry give him the potion to drink. All of it. No matter what. It could well be that the potion was actually part of the act. Partly to give Dumbledore a reason to appear weak (note, BTW, that Dumbledore did improve at certain key moments, when it was needed) and partly as part of the death scene itself. The potion could have protected him from Snape's curse in some way, perhaps transporting him away and leaving a decoy "body" behind.
The cave being part of it would make sense, since the Horcrux there was already gone and since Dumbledore had been so insistant that Harry would have to follow orders no matter what.
The only thing I don't like about that theory is that it leaves Harry with some excess guilt, knowing that he was the one who force-fed the potion to Dumbledore. (And I was kind of surprised that that was never mentioned...)
Basically, it's like sending Harry back to the Dursleys. It seems really evil, like it's putting Harry through unnecessary pain, but there's actually a very good but highly secret reason for it. In the case of the Dursleys, it's because Harry is protected as long as he can call their place home. In this case, it's because Dumbledore needs to be able to act freely, with everyone thinking him dead, so that he can help Harry in secret later. A surprise weapon at a crucial moment or something.
That's my take on it, anyway.
Oh... one last thing... Harry and Ginny's break-up. That actually reminded me more of the end of
Spider-man. I'm hoping Ginny will make like MJ in the next book and convince Harry that the danger isn't the important thing. Seems like if Dumbledore is right and love is Harry's strength, then pushing the others away would be a bad idea. (BTW, why is he letting Ron and Hermione come if he thinks it's too dangerous to have loved ones about?)
Of course, the other possibility is that Harry will take out Voldemort, put an end to the whole thing, and then it'll be safe for him to go back to Ginny. We'll see.
Oh, wait. Another thought -- if Harry isn't going back to school next year, then there's no reason why there can't be an 8th book. 7 was one for each year at Hogwarts, but there's no reason now why things can't take another two years. The quest for the horcruxes, the fight with Voldemort, the aftermath... as has been pointed out, that's a lot of material. I suppose it could be done in one fast-paced book, where he gets the first horcrux at the beginning, the second 1/4 of the way through, the third 1/2 way through, the fourth 3/4 of the way through (all roughly), then the final showdown with Voldemort and the denouement for the last 1/4 or so.
Paul
