First off, I much preferred this one to book 5 it felt better edited and more importantly it felt as if JKR actually enjoyed writing it – something I didn’t get from Order of the Phoenix – and more than ever before, at the end you are left wanting more (and cursing the fact, the wait is likely to be another two years again )

Okay, here be spoilers.

Ships:

I know ships are only a secondary plot line in the books, but they are one of the things that add colour to the books and allow you to – connect – with the characters. I can’t believe that all my ships came in (or nearly in ) in this one.

Ron/Hermione: Loved the way JKR dealt with this one, they still aren’t quite together, but they have at least admitted to themselves how they feel and as good as to each other, all we need is for them to take that final step.

Harry/Ginny: Well anybody who has read my fan-fiction will know what my feelings are with these two lets just say – despite the fact Harry needs a good fish slapping at the end – I was grinning from ear to ear, from the first time Harry sighted Ginny right to the end of the book.

The Big One:

Well I have to say, despite me being partly spoiled, I wasn’t surprised by the death in this book (and from here on I will be naming said person) he was the most sensible person to die, particularly the way the plot was set up.

For Voldemort to have wanted anyone else but Harry or Dumbledore to die wouldn’t have made much sense, and as soon as Draco was brought in as the would be assassin, it could only be those two, and without Harry, book 6 wouldn’t have a narrator! so that left the old man.

As for the final perpetrator, I am almost certain that Snape is still on the good side, you have to take into account the prominence JKR gives Snape making the Unbreakable Vow, it’s the second chapter for a start, she then takes the time to remind you about it and its consequences just before the denouement of the story, she MUST have her reasons for this.

I feel that Snape was maneuvered into have to make the vow, by Belatrix in order to protect his real allegiances. I’m sure that Dumbledore was fully aware of it, he was certainly aware of the plot against his life.

If you read the final scenes again with this in mind, Dumbledore’s pleading could be scene as imploring Snape to do what he has to (and remember Dumbledore is very sick at this point fro having to drink the potion, in fact I think he is dying anyway), and the look Snape gives Dumbledore right before the one of disgust could be one of regret.

Should, Snape, not have cast AV, one of the other Death Eaters would have, and then turned on both Snape and Draco, losing all three of them (I do admit losing Snape and Draco might not be that much of a loss )

Then we have the scene at the end, when Snape and Harry duel, Snape does nothing much more that swat Harry’s spells away, why does he not take the chance – seeing how his cover has been well and truly blown – to curse Harry or capture him and deliver him straight to the Dark Lord himself?

But Snape probably still has a roll in the defeat of Voldemort, getting Harry to accept that help is going to be a large part of book seven, I think.

And the Horcrux’s:

They explain an awful lot about what has gone before. But who is R.A.B? Well that can only be Regulas Black, we know from OoTP that he returned to the good side, which would mean that the real Horcrux that Dumbledore and Harry went searching for, is at Grimmauld Place (now Harry’s) now who remembers the locket, that nobody could open from the same book?

In all bring on book seven as quickly as possible please Jo

Buy, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (Harry Potter 6) here

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Other Reviews to Consider

Word Lilly