Harry Potter and the Halfblood Prince (SPOILERS inside!)

[herbi]

Here is an Official, non-joking, honest-to-goodness, discuss the book freely without censoring out the spoilers thread. Enjoy.

[bird]

U-No-Poo!!!!!

[grog]

You should probably prefix the thread title with "spoilers" rather than postfix it, since you don't see that part until you open it.

[attackferret]

Ok, is anyone else trying to figure out how on earth the series is going to end with the next book? I've heard that she promised it would only be seven books long.. but Harry has 4 more Horcruxes to find on top of killing Voldemort. Are they going to be already destroyed, or is Harry just going to give Voldemort some veritaserum to learn where they all are? Or maybe Voldemort didn't make 6 of them, after all? And they can't possibly follow him all the way through becoming an Auror, unless he gets awarded the job of Auror upon killing Voldemort at the end of the book.

Also, what was up with the very Spiderman reminiscent way that Harry told Ginny they couldn't keep dating at the end of the book, huh? I wonder how far into the next book it's going to be before Harry and Ginny get back together (not to mention Ron and Hermione.. I was surprised they made it through the whole book without actually doing anything but dropping large hints and being slightly akward.)

Last but not least, I loved the fact that Fred and George have a secret armory in the joke shop. That was awesome.

[GIltine]

I loved the book, but I honestly don't think that snape is all that bound, just bound by his promise to Narcissa, hence why he had to kill.
I have a feeling that Malfoy will switch sides, because he's realized that he can't kill, he's not like his father, and he's just scared of Voldemort and his father.
Harry leaving Ginny was I suppose a good thing for Harry, having lost Sirius and now Dumbledore but I think it's going to effect him alot in the next book.

As for the Horcruxes, he does have the Order on his side, and now that he doesn't HAVE to go to school, he can do what he needs to do.

But.. I still think Harry will die in the end...but I think both Harry and Voldemort die.

[attackferret]

Harry can't die in the end! It's a kid's book, for crying out loud! Plus, without looking it up, doesn't the prophecy essentially say that one will kill the other one?

I'm not sure what you mean by Snape being 'all that bound', but I think Snape is a death eater through and through. They have definitely hinted that Malfoy will switch sides.. but I still can't believe that he's going to really make up with Harry. Then again, it's also possible the Draco is going to be really upset with himself for not killing dumbledore and kill a lot of other people to make up for it. I can see it going either way.

[bird]

The prophecy as I interpreted it says that one can't live while the other survives. Which doesn't preclude them both dying. I don't have any instincts either way about whether she'll keep Harry alive or not, though.

As for the next book, here's one way it could work out:

Hogwarts is dissolved/cancelled for the year. That frees up all of his friends as well as much of the Order (who'd been standing around guarding the school) to go hunt down the Horcruxes. I honestly can't see Hermione dropping out of school just to help Harry, despite what she says at the end of the 6th book, so this would be a way to reconcile that conflict plausibly.

I can see them splitting up in groups of two and three to look for them, and the author cross-cutting between the stories of each group, so that we're being simultaneously updated on the search for each object. That way she can cram more in than if she tackled them linearly, and it wouldn't be as boring for us to read. If you think about it, that's probably what they'd do in real life, anyway - similar to when you search for a lost dog or a missing person.

I too believe that Snape is evil through and through. If he weren't, he and Dumbledore would have already had a contingency plan in place as to what they should do about that Vow thing. Better yet, Dumbledore would have foreseen that the Death Eaters would ask Snape to make that vow, and they would have come up with a reason why he couldn't that Snape could then present to the Death Eaters. I don't believe Dumbledore would go so far as to allow Snape to kill him just so Snape could maintain his cover with the Death Eaters. Dumbledore's highest priority was always to stick around so he could personally look out for Harry, and secondly to lead the Order. He's the only wizard Voldemort ever feared, which meant a lot to their side, and he'd never sacrifice all of that voluntarily.

Dumbledore definitely wasn't expecting to be killed by Snape - otherwise why was he pleading, when she makes clear that he never pleads? Besides, she wrote that Snape enjoyed killing him! No, Snape's totally evil, and if she tries to pull something and make him secretly good or whatever in the next book, I will be majorly pissed. Dumbledore was by far my favorite character, and she better not have killed him off for nothing!

I do have one question, though - if the dementors have deserted Azkaban, who is now guarding it? We know it's still being used by the Ministry to hold prisoners. Are we just supposed to assume that the members of the Order are guarding that, too? No wonder they're spread so thin!

[Lyrical-lynx]

Just finished the book, only one i read! (i know all the others as my bros have them all on tape)

i am going to be contovershal here and say i think Snape is good, i would be really iritatd if he is bad, the whole thing all the way thou has been Snape bad but turns good, he cant finish bad! He killed Dumbledore becuase 1 he had to, to protected everybody, inculding Malfoy, and also Dumbledore was diying anyway, so when he pleaded it was to be killed keep all the covers etc. Snape never tried to hurt harry at the end, only deflect his spells and stop him doing unforgivable spells.

Maybe we will get two books one adult and one child, Harry dies in one but not the other? After all harry does have to dye doesn't he!!

[herbi]

Oh! Almost forgot about this thread! Finished the book a few days ago.

One of my friends at work thinks that Snape is not bad, because Dumbledore's judgment of his character/trustworthiness could never have been so faulty. She thinks when he pleaded, he was pleading to be killed, esp. since he knew he was already a goner from drinking all that potion, and it might be vital to the Order's plans that they have someone on the inside, to get close to Voldemort and know what's REALLY going on with the Death Eaters. I could see that... it would sort of SUCK, because couldn't they have come up with a better plan than that?! BUT, I could see it.

Then again... maybe one of the lessons of the book is that sometimes even very smart very cool people are just plain Wrong, as Dumbledore was about Evil Snape. We shall see...

I took the obvious bait, didn't spend any time at all thinking about all the options, and assumed that the Half-Blood Prince would turn out to be Voldemort, not Snape. Oops!

The REAL question, of course: Who is R.A.B???

[attackferret]

Originally Posted by herbi

I took the obvious bait, didn't spend any time at all thinking about all the options, and assumed that the Half-Blood Prince would turn out to be Voldemort, not Snape. Oops!

The REAL question, of course: Who is R.A.B???

I took the easy way out as well.. I assumed that we'd never met the half-blood prince. Surprise!

I'm going to take the easy way out again and assume we haven't met R.A.B.

[bird]

She's said that each book is going to be darker than the one that preceded it, so I don't think she feels compelled to make Snape "good after all" in the final book. I'm going to hope that she at least leaves Harry standing at the end, though.

I so fell for the Half Blood Prince bait too! I guess i should have known it was far to obvious of a theory to be right.

I bought the book the day it came out, but had to wait a couple of days to finish another book i was reading before begining this one. When i finished it i imediately wanted the next one to apparate into my hands.

I'm itching to know who R.A.B is...wether Malfoy switches sides...and of course the endless possibilities of dangerous adventures!

Oh, and Hermione would go with Harry even if school didn't close (though i bet it will) - because of the strength of the friendship Harry, Ron, and Hermione have.

Is it just me, or who else reckons Ron and Hermione will end up together by the end of the series, and of course Harry and Ginny in the end (once the danger is over)...unless Ginny sneaks along with them. lol

And i must say i was surprised by Fleur's reaction to Bill's *ahem* injuries (she seemed much more shallow).

As you can see my mind is half writing the book while waiting for the real thing to be written! No doubt the next one will be longer than any of the others (considering how much there is to cover)!

[feenix101]

Ah, I can finally read this thread.... I just finished the book, and even though I knew Dumbledore was going to die (one of my students spoiled it) I had refused to believe it until about half way through the book.

In my opinion, Snape isn't all evil but is entirely on the bad side. I think Dumbledore knew that, and probably knew that Snape would kill him. Everyone has to die at some point, and Dumbledore spent the entire year essentially preparing to carry on the fight against Voldemort without him there.

As for the general romance themes, I'm choosing not to think about it because I don't want to be disappointed by any incorrect predictions.

[bird]

When you were reading it, before you found out what happened with Snape, did anyone else wonder why she never wrote any descriptions of Snape's Defense Against the Dark Arts classes? I remember I kept waiting for it, seeing as how they always complained about his Potions classes, and he's been wanting the job for ages.

[attackferret]

cymraegrrl- I didn't really wonder about that while I was reading it... but now that you mention it, that is really strange. I have no idea why she didn't write about his classes, and now I wish she would have!