HBP: double-wrapped for your spoiler-free pleasure

[sff_corgi_lj]

Well.  We all saw that coming, but not quite that way, did we? Thankfully, the dreadful overall tone of OoP has been replaced with what I think is... determined.  And Holy COW, look!  Harry is communicating with people!  And cooperation!  People are cooperating with each other, like a real team!  I'm shocked.  It's taken him (well, Harry AND Albus AND Ron AND Hermione) this long to realise stubborn sharing of information might actually produce.  Mmmmaybe not so much Hermione. ^_^  She's always shared information.  Hooray for Neville, responding to the call and starting to get to be his own man.  Hooray for Luna, being ever so herself.  It's a shame we've lost Amelia Bones, of course, among the other semi-random murders.  I think, perhaps, the fandom were looking forward to seeing her steady presence in the background a bit longer. Speaking of Hermione, though, may I take a moment to be completely petty, declassé, etc etc etc and say American page 449!!  He said it first!  You can't delude yourselves any longer, HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!  Sorry.  I'm rather sadistically looking forward to see the H/H shippers writhing in justification agony now, just because they've been so bloody dim all this time. And as we're on this canal, Harry?  Your justfication holds no more water than Peter Parker's did.  The redhead will get targeted anyway, you silly git.  Everybody knows how close you are to the Weasleys!  I think Ginny'll take good care of him, even at one step removed, because he's obviously so incompetent around his preferred gender, he'd never manage with a girl who knew him any less well. Congrats to the Remus/Tonks 'shippers -- that was a big surprise for me.  I'd been thinking the same way Harry had (except for his suspicions of romantic inclinations) -- and I'm sure the fact that I think others still mourn Sirius's... missing... strenuously is not a big surprise to anybody reading here -- so that little revelation dropped in at the end was... *blink*  Mind you, I kind of like the idea; I just don't like fandom meeting a new character and immediately deciding to pair her off with bloody anybody and everybody ASAP.  That's not, mind you, what (blast, who was it again wrote the R/T stuff I read?) -- did; ke's one of a handful of reasoned 'shippers I read off and on, but the fandom in general... [shakes head].  Ahhhh, bleh.  I'm not going to try to explain my position at this point, I can't do it coherently enough yet [wry grin]. Congrats to heidi8 and Doreen for Their Boy being not completely soulless and also still alive.  I'm sure they're breathing sighs of relief. Congrats to _dragon_fang_ and  leplusbeau for only having to deal with mutilation and maybe a wee touch of lycanthropy in a manner entirely consistent, to my mind, with what's been going on at milliways_bar.  It was a relief to see that Fleur is ... what's the female/Veela equivalent of mensch.  And look!  Charlie never even got as much as scratched!  [hugs sit_good_dog] Not sure how the Snapefen are going to take this, though.  No Animagus puns intended, his position looks pretty grim. Seeing the neé-Black sisters together was interesting; I can see how that chapter might have fit in elsewhere, it doesn't have strong time anchors on it.  It looks like separation hasn't disturbed the darker pair's bonds much, but it does make one wish we'd had a chance to meet Andromeda, even for a bit. What does anyone make of the idea of Lily Evans, potions mistress?  In a way, it sets her up in comparison to Snape, doesn't it?  I've still got some pondering to do on that, not that I've had much ponder time (5 hours, give-or-take a few bathroom breaks and suchlike; it was low dawn by the time I got to hit the proverbial hay) -- not unlike Voldemort marking Harry as his equal and giving him Parseltongue, etc., Harry keeps getting unexpected and reluctant assistance from Snape.  The potions notes, the information about his father, the tiny ickle bit of Occlumency, the protection against Quirrell....  The hero is becoming a synthesis of his antagonists and himself.  Needs pondering.  (BTW, I'd pretty much guessed whose book Harry had, just from the handwriting, but not why the name.) One more book.  There's an awful lot that needs to get done.

P.S.  Everybody, applause and kudos to my mother, who in a remark-able display of understanding only interrupted me once after I got home with the book, and in fact did not disturb me in any wise during the dawn-to-noonish sleep I managed to grab before D'Argo stuck his little manatee-face in mine and said 'UhhH?' [Mum, I want lunch.]  I'm sleeping on the couch in the living room until my bedroom air conditioner is fixed; this is why it's more notable than usual.

And I think that'll be it for the moment.

Comments

[delcj.livejournal.com]

part of me wishes Phlegm really were a mensch. who is not homosexual. i don't really like Bill/Fleur anymore, and now i'll have try & find AU Bill/Tonks fic. *sigh*

[sff-corgi.livejournal.com]

Awwww... you could go read Milliways. B&F're delightful over there.

[katinka31.livejournal.com]

Harry is communicating with people!

Pleasant change, isn't it?

Man, what a book.

[sff-corgi.livejournal.com]

Unnervingly pleasant change!

But not enough Sirius. Yes, I'm irrational. ;)

[katinka31.livejournal.com]

Yes, I'm irrational. ;)

It's understood. *g*

[katinka31.livejournal.com]

Or "understandable", more appropriately. *g*

[sff-corgi.livejournal.com]

Or even completely sympathetic! ^_^ (if you squint hard, you can pretend the icon's Abigail, yeah?)

[katinka31.livejournal.com]

Offer accepted. :)

[in-the-blue.livejournal.com]

On behalf of _dragon_fang_ and D* denizen Charlie, I thank you. Our forum is set up over there, by the way, for discussion.

Where's the mirror? She promised us.

Umm.... I will have lots to say. Eventually. Yeah.

[sff-corgi.livejournal.com]

>:D< Bet you feel LOTS better!

[in-the-blue.livejournal.com]

I bet Jane does.

I'm feeling... thoughtful. And I will have a lot to say about Snape in a while.

A lot.

[jenavira.livejournal.com]

Harry really has grown up now, hasn't he? It's a lovely change.

I was astonished at the low body count; astonished, I tell you. Pleasantly so, but still.