Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince: POSSIBLE SPOILER

[jackshoegazer]

SPOILER ALERT! SPOILER ALERT! SPOILER ALERT!
SPOILER ALERT! SPOILER ALERT! SPOILER ALERT!
SPOILER ALERT! SPOILER ALERT! SPOILER ALERT!

Well, maybe. This article from the Los Angeles Times has the following quote, which MAY or MAY NOT be a spoiler, since it's only speculation.

I'm warning you; you might not want to read this. It may make you very upset. I almost wish I hadn't read it. So you're still reading, eh? Oh well, I warned you.

"British bookmakers suspended bets on which character would be killed off in the new book after they noticed a flurry of bets on professor Dumbledore from gamblers in Bungay in Suffolk, where the book is being printed, suggesting details had leaked out."

Comments

[antarcticlust.livejournal.com]

That's a cruel, cruel, cruel thing to post.

And then who'd head the school? Proff. McG?

[jackshoegazer.livejournal.com]

I sufficiently warned everyone. I didn't get so much as a spoiler warning as I read the article. :(

I'd imagine it would be McG. She seems to be the most qualified. I always thought Dumbly would die, but I didn't think it would be until the last book. Of course, this might not be true, so I'm trying to not get all worked up.

[kallisti.livejournal.com]

I'm willing to be we will see him a a ghost...and he will continue to run the school..as a ghost!

ttyl

[jackshoegazer.livejournal.com]

haha! nice one!

[gutzilla.livejournal.com]

That's a great idea! I forgot about the ghosts in the HP universe, we could have lost characters coming back into the story Jedi Master style.

[gutzilla.livejournal.com]

There's more going on with Dumbledore than we think...is he really all good? Mark that!

[jackshoegazer.livejournal.com]

Yes, he's all good. But he's complex. He could save Harry from all this crap, but he leads Harry through it. Like a real teacher. Dumbledore is like God in a way. He seems omnipotent and omnipresent and his plans are ineffable.

He's playing the Gandalf role. He mostly hangs back and directs people like chess pieces, occasionally making a big show to save the day. Watch, Harry is Dumbledore's most powerful piece.

Something I've always been curious about: On Dumbly's Chocolate Frog Card, it mentions his defeat of the dark wizard Greunwald (or something like that). I wonder if Dumbly's Greunwald experience was a very similar, parallel experience to Harry's Voldemort experience.

[gutzilla.livejournal.com]

Good points. The last book was a real disappointment for me, but I'll probably still end up re-reading it before the new one. I've come this far...

[jackshoegazer.livejournal.com]

Really? How were you dissapointed?

[gutzilla.livejournal.com]

Well, nothing happened for 23 whole chapters. The whole Umbridge thing seemed unecessarily "dark", and the ending was a convoluted mess of half-baked ideas. IMHO.

[jackshoegazer.livejournal.com]

I just felt that the ending was kind of predictable. It's odd because I just assumed there was a prophesy of some sort. There was no big twist at the end like in the other books, at least for me. That was my big dissapointment.

I think Umbridge had to be that dark. We needed something hugely unjust and wrong for Harry to rage against so we got to see him angry a LOT.

[jackshoegazer.livejournal.com]

Wait, I just realized something.. you say nothing happened.. but I seem to recall a Dementor attack, a lot of owls, a trial, a fair bit of yelling, secret meetings, threstrals, and arguements. I'm sure there was more, but I haven't read it in a few months.

[gutzilla.livejournal.com]

This was a large book, and the plot crawled along like a three-legged dog with a bullet in the gut until around Chapter 24. That was just my perception, but I will go back to it and re-read.

[jackshoegazer.livejournal.com]

You're right, in general, the plot did crawl, however, there was a LOT going on. We definitely saw more of the everyday happenings at Hogwarts than usual. Before, it wasn't uncommmon for several months at a time to be glossed over.

[tekelili.livejournal.com]

Killing Dumbledore would be a logical way to move the plot to a climatic finish, if I was JK, I'd kill him. Been suspecting it, really.

[jackshoegazer.livejournal.com]

I just figured he'd die in the 7th book, perhaps sacrificing himself to save Harry. (But it looks like that may happen sooner than I thought!)

[gutzilla.livejournal.com]

Harry needs to grow up quick to become the badass Auror he needs to be by Book 7 for the final smackdown. Dumbledore's the nearest thing he's got to a parent, so he must seperate himself and become an individual if he's ever going to be strong enough. He isn't likely to do this willingly being an orphan and all, therefore Albus needs to be removed from the equation. That's my theory.

I also think we haven't seen the last of Sirius, despite his "death" in the last book. I mean, he just fell through a curtain...what was all that about?!

[jackshoegazer.livejournal.com]

I fully agree with you on the Dumbly point.

The Veil Room was the old execution room and beyond the veil is where the dead go. Wizards just used to send naughty witches and wizards straight to the afterlife. So, yes he's dead. But I agree, somehow we haven't seen the last of him.

Wouldn't it be a nice walk on the dark side if Harry starts researching ways to bring Sirius back from the dead and ends up learning a lot of the big magic things Voldy did to prevent his death?

[gutzilla.livejournal.com]

That certainly would be damn cool. I think the thing I'd like most is for Harry to actually *do* more, to take some action as opposed to just having things happen to him while the other characters throw themselves about to cover his behind.

[jackshoegazer.livejournal.com]

I agree with you there! I'm waiting for big-bad-ass Harry, though repelling hundreds of Dementors in PoA was pretty bad-ass.