I finally finished reading H Potter and the Half-Blood Prince on Friday afternoon. There at the end, I was reading every spare chance I got. Using what would have been valuable nap time to instead burn through chapters at a time. And when I was done I found I had a burning need to read the next book. Because as far as I was concerned, there was some severe cases of unfinished business going on there at the end. Moreso than in any of J.K. Rowling’s earlier H Potter books.

So here’s my thoughts. I’m going to put them in spoiler tags so that those who haven’t read the entire book aren’t spoiled by anything I say. I’m warning you now. Trust me, if you haven’t finished the book, you won’t want to have this spoiled for you. However, if you have finished the book, read on and what’s more leave a comment and let me know YOUR thoughts on this book. (Naturally, those of you who haven’t read, dont’ look at the comments either!)

There are several issues which need to be taken up here.

• Ron and Hermione - I truly enjoyed seeing their passive aggressive arguments and whatnot and took it as a sign of impending events. Meaning, I expected them to be together by books end. Where they? I don’t really think so. I mean, they were finally being nice to one another and talking, so that’s and improvement. But I don’t think there’d been any declarations yet. So frustrating! So I suppose we need to wait until the next book to see the long-awaited resolution to this particular storyline.
• H and Ginny - CUTE CUTE CUTE! I loved this storyline, especially H’s descriptions of the “monster in his chest” whenever he would see Ginny “snogging” Dean Thomas or anything of that nature. And when they kissed, right there in front of the whole Gryffindor common room, well, that was classic. And we all *knew* that Ron would be pleased they liked one another so H’s whole worry about upsetting him was aggravating. And more aggravating still, was H’s insistance at the end that they not see each other anymore, “for her safety”. Whatever. I’ve heard that excuse before, like in Spider-Man and it didn’t really float there either. So I hope in the next book Ginny tosses that garbage out the window and sticks by his side anyhow. I wouldn’t really expect any less of her, actually.
• Lupin and Tonks - Another adorable coupling (man, there were a lot of couples in this book weren’t there? I suppose there had to be, to counteract the bad/sad stuff). And another lame excuse from the man on why they couldn’t be together. I’m glad it looked at the end as if Tonks had talked him out of that one. I can understand him being apprehensive about his werewolf-ness and being involved, but honestly, the man deserves some happiness. Lupin has always been one of my favorite characters so it was nice to see him finally “get some”.
• Malfoy - Prick. But that’s about it. I was really surprised, normally I despise the little weasel, but this book he was bit more sympathetic. Okay, except for the whole scene on the Hogwart’s Express where he petrified H and broke his nose and left him to be taken back to London. That was pretty low. But that was it as far as Malfoy evil-ness. I really thought, at the end, if the Death Eaters had not shown up, that Dumbledore would have been able to talk him down. Nuts.
• H and Dumbledore - I really loved that we got to see more Dumbledore in this book. And the “lessons” with H were my favorite chapters in the book. Looking into Voldemort’s past and learning all these interesting truths of how he got to where he is now was fascinating. Plus you also got to see the fostering of a very close relationship with H and Dumbledore which was nice but I fear will have some negative reparcussions on his relationships from here on out. I’ll explain more a little later.
• Apparition Lessons - Wow, I had no idea Apparation was so unpleasant. I figured it’d be hard to do but this whole “Splinching” business sounds like its for the birds. I can see where its a handy skill to have, but I would probably feel like H, riding a broom is better.
• Dumbledore - This was the most “human” we’ve ever seen him. The withered hand (which drove me NUTS until we finally found out how he got it). The noticable exhaustion. The soft-heartedness. We finally saw him as fallible which of course only served to make us like him more. I think the same went for H. Near the end, when they went after what they thought would be one of the Horocrux’s and Dumbledore had to drink all that potion and H had to make him… that was TORTURE. It was so hard to see Dumbledore upset, afraid… If I were H I don’t know if I could have honestly kept forcing the potion on him. And the whole scene on the tower back at Hogwarts. Dumbledore used his last big of magic to save H rather than to save himself before he was disarmed. His death was the most gut-wrenching thing I’ve ever read, even though I wasn’t very surprised. I’d called this turn of events before this book even was published, but that didn’t stop it from being unbearably sad. H finding Dumbledore on the ground near the tower, Hagrid’s reaction, Fawkes’ song and subsequent departure from Hogwarts… I don’t think I kept a dry eye the entire last three chapters. What happened was AWFUL and someone must PAY.
• Snape - Do I think he’s truly evil? There seems little room for argument here but I can see where he could be “bluffing” still. I don’t know. On the one hand, he stopped the Death Eaters from killing H during their escape from Hogwarts and he seemed to almost be giving H *instruction* he tried to curse Snape. On the other hand, he killed Dumbledore. Right now, I’m finding myself with some serious Snape Hate. I want that man to go down and in a big, painful way. But I don’t think we’re going to get any really good answers until the next book comes out.
• Final thoughts - Is the horcrux really fake? I don’t know. Perhaps Voldemort found this R.A.B. and killed him (after the horcrux had been already destroyed) and then turned the fake on into a real one, as a replacement. Who is R.A.B.? Could be Sirius’ long-lost brother, Regulus Black. He was a Voldemort follower, wasn’t he? Who tried to escape the Death Eaters and was reputably hunted down and killed? We’ll find out, I’m sure. Will H go back to Hogwarts? He says he won’t, but I have a hard time believing that if it were open for business that he wouldn’t go back. At least make it his home base while he’s trying to find the horcrux’s. I think it could go either way. Then again, fighting and destroying Voldemort is a little more important than passing NEWTs.

How long until the next book? Two years again? I shudder to think. I heard that J.K. Rowling plans to start writing it this fall which of course just pissed me off because I felt she should be writing it RIGHT NOW. I don’t want to wait two years. On the other hand, the sooner its published, the sooner the entire series will be over for good and that will be unbearably sad. So I don’t know what to think on this one. Well, yes I do. I want the book out. NOW.