Harry Potter and The Half-Blood Prince- spoiled.

[Sapphire Faerie]

I hope they get that weird little boy from The Ring to play kiddie Voldemort in the 6th movie. *shiver*

They won't, as he's American.

I was thinking a little while ago, about the 7 Horcruxes.

1. Voldemort
2. Tom Riddle's diary
3. Marvolo Gaunt's ring
4. Salazar Slytherin's locket
5. Helga Hufflepuff's cup
6. Nagini
7. ????

Any theories about what the last Horcrux is?

Also, on the subject of Snape:

From Chapter 26, The Cave, page 571 in the American edition:

Hating himself, repulsed by what he was doing, Harry forced the goblet back toward Dumbledore's mouth and tipped it, so that Dumbledore drank the remainder of the potion inside.

From Chapter 27, The Lightning-Struck Tower, page 595 in the American edition:

Snape gazed for a moment at Dumbledore, and there was revulsion and hatred etched in the harsh lines of his face.

They both promised Dumbledore to do something they didn't want to do. They both hated doing it, but they did it anyway. Because it was what he wanted.

[anchororange]

I loved this book. In the last five books, school was so important, with quidditch and whatnot, but now, as someone said earlier, these things are a lot less significant. Now the book is completely about the prophecy and Voldemort and stuff. But Madame Rosmerta under the Imperius curse? I never saw that coming. But then again, I'm the person that reads the least inbetween the lines. And even after reading the first two chapters, I always thought that Snape was always on the "good" side. And with the theories in the last posts, they must be right! I'm thoroughly convinced.

I was so surprised how the Half-Blood Prince had basically nothing to do with it. In all the other books, the titles were important, "sorcerer's stone" and "prisoner of azkaban" and whatnot. Well, maybe not GoF. It was just a ruddy cup.

With all these snogging parts...it was a bit strange. Won-won! Mollywobbles! And the gnome on top of the christmas tree...made me spent a whole minute looking at the picture at the front of the beginning of that chapter. I agree with whoever said this earlier, what's with the new Gryffindor password being "Abstinence?" I found that hilarious.

Godric's Hollow...(I think that's what it was called)...has anyone else heard of this before the last few pages of the book? How did Harry know his parents were buried here?

This book was so much less "school" and so much more...interesting.

[Tharkun]

Do you honestly expect me to believe that Dumbledore would give up his life, which he knows to be instrumental to the cause, so that the Order can be protected by a man whom any of them would gladly kill on sight? It makes the denialism from my own wing of the fandom look restrained.

Also, Snape is right about one thing - he isn't cowardly. Once again, take a look at his career choice. But if he's not cowardly and on Dumbledore's side, he would have broken the Unbreakable Vow. Therefore, he must be on Voldemort's side.

"Just evil" in background? Certainly not. In alignment? Better face up to it...

Just shove a skrewt down your throat, Snape.

[Smart Duck]

We have enough conflicting information that I think Snape could go either way. He's definately a good actor to be fooling either Voldemort or Dumbledore. Voldemort is osessed with killing Harry and regaining his power. Dumbledore insisted on seeing the good in everybody, but he does realize when to watch people(Voldemort). So possibly VM has the greater weakness. Which just supports the Snape-is-good theory, tinking maybe he weighed his options and went with the harder side to fool.

[Sapphire Faerie]

Godric's Hollow...(I think that's what it was called)...has anyone else heard of this before the last few pages of the book? How did Harry know his parents were buried here?

That's the village where Harry's parents were hiding out with him when he was a baby, when Voldemort came.

http://www.hp-lexicon.org/wizworld/plac ... ollow.html

[bgryph]

Do you honestly expect me to believe that Dumbledore would give up his life, which he knows to be instrumental to the cause, so that the Order can be protected by a man whom any of them would gladly kill on sight? It makes the denialism from my own wing of the fandom look restrained.

I don't think it's all that farfetched. For one thing, Dumbledore's behavior in the cave makes it clear that he regards himself as expendable.

Yes, Dumbledore is important to the cause, but is he vital to the cause? I'd say not. I mean, does anyone really think that the fact that Dumbledore died in book 6 means that Voldemort is going to win at the end of book 7? :-)

Certainly he's very important as the leader and organizer, but sometimes leaders can be even more effective as martyrs.

We may not know much about Snape's motives or loyalties, but there are a few things that seem clear. One, Snape may not be the equal of Dumbledore or Voldemort, but the fact that he was making up spells -- good ones -- in the margin of his textbooks at the age of 16 suggests that's he's nonetheless an extremely gifted wizard. Two, whichever side he's on, he's obviously also an extremely gifted liar and dissembler.

It seems inevitable that Voldemort is going to place a great deal of trust in Snape from this day forward. (One might almost think that was one of the points of the exercise -- to force Snape to do something that Voldemort thinks is irrefutable proof that Snape is loyal.) Assuming Snape wasn't an important man in the orgainzation before, he's likely to be one now -- both as a reward for having killed Voldemort's great opponent, and because, frankly, he seems more competent than the run-of-the-mill Death Eater.

I think that Dumbledore might possibly consider having a talented wizard and agent in a position of importance and trust in the Death Eaters more important than his own life. Yes, Dumbledore is more powerful than Snape, but all that power doesn't mean anything if you're not in the position to use it. Dumbledore wasn't in such a position; Snape is.

It will certainly be harder for Snape to get information to the Order now, but not impossible. He'd just have to be creative about the channels he went through (letting people who the Order does trust "discover" vital bits of information, for instance). He'd have to be very sneaky about it, but Snape clearly excells at sneaky. And he's certainly in a marvelous position to sabatoge the Death Eaters, if so inclined... probably better than he was before, since he's no longer under suspicion.

And, of course, there are almost certainly things going on that we know nothing about. Dumbledore never told Harry what happened to his hand, for example. A person walking around with a strangely withered limb that seems impossible to heal even by magic isn't exactly a well man. Not to mention the potion... it was pointedly mentioned in at least two places in the book that not all poisons have antidotes, and if Voldemort were going to protect his Horcrux with a deadly potion, you'd think he'd make it a good one, not something Snape was likely to have the antidote to laying around his office. If Dumbledore was already dying then certainly he'd prefer to do so in a fashion that wouldn't take Snape with him.

I think the theory could turn out to be wrong, but I don't think it's denial. I think there's plenty of evidence in the text to support this reading.

I mean, look at it this way: Harry fed Dumbledore a potion that had a terrible effect on him and could well have killed him, despite the fact that Dumbledore was begging him to stop. Does that make Harry a Death Eater?

The difference is that we know that Harry was under orders from Dumbledore when he gave Dumbledore the potion. We know that Snape was under some sort of orders from Dumbledore -- orders he apparently didn't like -- but we don't yet know exactly what they were.

[Kennethzzz]

Erm sorry i'm not a HP fan but recently i started to get interested in it. I just wanna ask if there are link from the 1st book to the current 6th? Which means if i have to start reading, i have to start from the 1st?

[Josephine]

Definately read all of them.

[Rikku]

I must say, this book is definitely my favorite so far and the only one that REALLY had me hooked until the very end. It was brilliant, to say the least.

It also made me like a character I had despised in the earlier books, Snape. I refuse to believe he is evil, but I think the link to the LJ post atomicblonde posted says the reasons why better than I could.

And seeing Draco is redeemable makes me very happy, seeing as he's one of my favorite characters.

[_jade_em_]

*is a lazy girl, so she just quotes what she wrote in another forum*

First of all, RAB - lots of people are thinking it's Regulus Black, and I must say, that's who I thought it was when was reading it, but after a couple of minutes of thinking after I'd finished, I'm not so sure now. From the picture of Regulus I'd formed in my mind using the fragments of mentions of Sirius's brother, I'd imagined him to be a stupid and cowardly man. A person who could manage to steal one of Voldyboy's Horcruxes is probably not at all cowardly, and from the way the note was written, he was probably not stupid, either.

JK Rowling made it pretty clear, I think, that she'd had to shove Sirius and Dumbledore aside for Harry to fight Voldeh in the end. Now he has a clear path, and those two deaths will probably make him even more determined to kill Voldemort. Now, obviously, in the end, Voldemort is going to be defeated, and Harry might die too (life is not supposed to turn out so perfectly,) and frankly, I don't really care any more if he does die or not. I didn't like the Harry in the 5th and 6th books, while in books 1 - 4, he was this wonderful, nice, nice boy and I did like him. In the last two books he was just ... bleurgh O.o

Oh, and best part for me in the whole book?

'This is the copy of Advanced Potion-Making that you purchased from Flourish and Blotts?'
'Yes,' said Harry firmly.
'Then why,' asked Snape,' does it have the name "Roonil Wazlib" written inside the front cover?"
Harry's heart missed a beat.
'that's my nickname,' he said.
'Your nickname,' repeated Snape.
'Yeah ... that's what my friends call me,' said Harry.

lol ... I can just imagine it ... him being called "Roonil Wazlib" ...

[tomatie]

I hoped Ron would die

Ah well... Maybe I should reread it first and make a more senseful reply tomorrow ^^;

[Stijn]

I was thinking a little while ago, about the 7 Horcruxes.

1. Voldemort
2. Tom Riddle's diary
3. Marvolo Gaunt's ring
4. Salazar Slytherin's locket
5. Helga Hufflepuff's cup
6. Nagini
7. ????

Dumbledore was also thinking about that, and he thought the Horcrux had something to do with Gryffindor or Ravenclaw.

[Christopher]

Maybe he never actually got around to doing it a seventh time and is still savouring it for killing Harry.

[Jen]

...



Ew. That sucked. Everywhere else there was something to catch your attention. Philosiphers Stone and Harrys first year in the first book. Chamber Of Secrets in the second. Azkaban in the third. Triwizard in the fourth. The Order and Harrys problems in the fifth.
I only got interested in the last hundred pages. Too freakin predictable, it was just a year at Hogwarts.

[Shoelace]

I was thinking a little while ago, about the 7 Horcruxes.

1. Voldemort
2. Tom Riddle's diary
3. Marvolo Gaunt's ring
4. Salazar Slytherin's locket
5. Helga Hufflepuff's cup
6. Nagini
7. ????

Any theories about what the last Horcrux is?

I have a theory! It's in Harry! By accident maybe.
I have no idea where I got that from, but it would be cool. Harry would have to like banish the bit of soul from himself or something.