Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince-SPOILERS!!!!

[Lord Rasputin]

Almost certainly. I believe that's the only character we've ever heard of who might have those initials.

From my ex-GF (who's scarily into HP): Also, note that Regulus is believed to be dead, but, in either 4 or 5, Luna mentions a singer named Tuby Slugman or something who looks an awful lot like Sirius Black. This, perhaps, could be Regulus hiding under an assumed identity.

I'm pretty sure it came from the Quibbler, but basically, yeah. One thing about the Quibbler, is it sometimes really is right. I'm convinced it's right about the new Minister of Magic being a vampire. There's something too cool about the idea.

I'll disagree with everyone about the book quality vis-a-vis Order of the Phoenix, but that's because I loved Phoenix. Harry was whiny and annoying in it -- he was fifteen. He reminded me of when I was fifteen, and of anyone I knew at the time. Rowling is good with teenagers -- real teenagers are usually deserving of a sock in the mouth.

Snape told him exactly what the Unbreakable Vow pertained to. Dumbledore wanted Malfoy to have a chance at redemption. The only way for that to happen was for Snape to kill Dumbledore. They both knew it would happen, and it was better for Snape to do it than anyone else.

My thoughts exactly. That's why Dumbledore was so scared when Snape showed up -- THEN he knew it really was curtains for him. Until then, he had the situation under control -- he was in no danger from anyone there. If an eleven-year-old Tom Riddle could hang a rabbit without neither a wand nor training, Dumbledore could have Avada Kedavra'd Malfoy without uttering a word, even without his wand. (Though I don't think Snape knows the whole prophecy. That would be on a need-to-know basis, and he didn't need to know.)

Snape working for Voldemort outright is just too ... simple. But, he has to love the perks -- he gets to have one of his old enemies as a slave.

 

[Uzumaki]

2) Tonks & Lupin. This felt just incredibly forced. Last time we saw Tonks (about 2 months before) she is bright, bouncy, happy and has never shown any inclination at all towards Lupin. Now she is morose, moody, not eating right, and generally a little black rain cloud. Somehow this simply doesn't jibe.

Everything about Tonks leaves me going "Meh." She seems like the character whose purpose is for everyone to like her. I'm also kinda miffed that Lupin didn't come out of the closet like I expected he would.

 

[Lord Pendragon]

A couple points:

1. If Regulus Black were alive, then he would be the rightful inheritor of 12 Grimmault Place. As Dumbledore's test seems to have proven Harry the rightful inheritor, it would seem that Regulus is dead as a doornail. I suppose that Kreacher could have been acting and we may learn later that Regulus told him to play along, or something of the sort, but it seems unlikely to me.

2. The Tonks subplot completely threw me for a loop. I seem to remember Lupin or somebody mentioning that she was feeling bad because she felt it had been her fault that Sirius had died. I expected Harry to absolve her of blame at some point, and at the same time come to terms with Sirius' death himself. Having Tonks' attitude turn out to be lovesickness was...jarring.

3. Snape. Ah, Snape. The memories we received in the previous book that showed us the conflict between James and Snape really illuminated a lot about him. In this book, Snape's rage when Harry calls him a coward seemed significant as well. I think that in the end, their relationship will come to Snape forgiving Harry for being James' son, after Harry shows him once and for all that he isn't James.

4. Dumbledore had to die, so I was expecting it. It's the same reason that we don't ever see Batman in the Teen Titans cartoon. Harry needs to stand on his own against Voldemort, without the option of leaning on "the only man Voldemort fears." I do expect we haven't seen the last of Fawkes, though. Dumbledore has already told us that Fawkes came to Harry in The Chamber of Secrets because Harry displayed loyalty to Dumbledore. In this novel, we saw that loyalty even more strongly.

 

[kingpaul]

Alright, I finished the book yesterday, and just finished this thread. My question that hasn't been answered yet is that of the DADA teacher. Dubmledore states that because he denied Riddle the post, they haven't had a DADA teacher last more than a year. However, I got the distinct feeling from Sorcerer's Stone that Quirrel had been the teacher for more than a year. Thoughts?

 

[orbitalfreak]

"I am pretty enough for ze both of us..."

Actually, this line made me tear up more than any other in the book, even those dealing with Dumbledore's death. Mostly because it was jarring, in the sense that no other character (that I know of) had something like this happen. Dumby's hand got hurt, but dealt with it and ignored it. Moody was scarred, but came into the story that way. Bill was a likeable side-character who was viciously mauled.

I'm used to seeing death in most novels, so it doesn't impact me as much. I also think that the humor of the Bill/Fleur relationship setup intensified it, as did the impact of having Mr. and Mrs. Weasely there to see him.

 

[Barendd Nobeard]

A couple points:

1. If Regulus Black were alive, then he would be the rightful inheritor of 12 Grimmault Place. As Dumbledore's test seems to have proven Harry the rightful inheritor, it would seem that Regulus is dead as a doornail. I suppose that Kreacher could have been acting and we may learn later that Regulus told him to play along, or something of the sort, but it seems unlikely to me.

Of course, I didn't think the "test" was as iron-clad as Dumbledore thought. And even if someone owns Kreacher, the little bugger can still be quite deadly (as Sirius found out).

Alright, I finished the book yesterday, and just finished this thread. My question that hasn't been answered yet is that of the DADA teacher. Dubmledore states that because he denied Riddle the post, they haven't had a DADA teacher last more than a year. However, I got the distinct feeling from Sorcerer's Stone that Quirrel had been the teacher for more than a year. Thoughts?

I thought he was introduced as a new DADA teacher in book 1, but I could be remembering incorrectly.

 

[Barendd Nobeard]

4. Dumbledore had to die, so I was expecting it. It's the same reason that we don't ever see Batman in the Teen Titans cartoon. Harry needs to stand on his own against Voldemort, without the option of leaning on "the only man Voldemort fears." I do expect we haven't seen the last of Fawkes, though. Dumbledore has already told us that Fawkes came to Harry in The Chamber of Secrets because Harry displayed loyalty to Dumbledore. In this novel, we saw that loyalty even more strongly.

I half-expected Dumbledore to pull a phoenix, and rise again. But he didn't.

 

[Hijinks]

I thought he was introduced as a new DADA teacher in book 1, but I could be remembering incorrectly.

No, you are correct. He was introduced as the new teacher of the course in the beginning of Book 1.

 

[KidCthulhu]

Actually, it's implied, but not stated that Quirrel has been the DADA teacher before and is returning. This is one of the things that bugged me about the book. I loved large parts of it, and thought it was better than Phoenix on the whole. But it read like a first draft. There are typos, for cripessakes. And bad sentence structure. And factual inconsistencies/errors (like the DADA teacher thing) that could have been resolved by even the most basic editing.

I know Rowling makes a bazillion dollars for her publisher, but would SOMEONE edit her stuff?!

BTW, I love the idea Harry is the last hor-whassname. And Dumbledore has always said V transfered some of himself to Harry that fateful night.

Dumbledore's death? Tragic, but really, the writing's been on the wall since book 1. Everytime someone says "As long as we have Dumbledore, we'll be fine" they hammered another nail in his coffin.

 

[drothgery]

3. Snape. Ah, Snape. The memories we received in the previous book that showed us the conflict between James and Snape really illuminated a lot about him. In this book, Snape's rage when Harry calls him a coward seemed significant as well. I think that in the end, their relationship will come to Snape forgiving Harry for being James' son, after Harry shows him once and for all that he isn't James.

It's always kind of bothered me that JKR has told us a lot more about James Potter than Lily Evans.