Harry Potter and The Half-Blood Prince- spoiled.

[Divine]

I was afraid to open my eyes in the morning because I thought a Basalisk would be in the room with me. xD

I was even worse. When I closed my eyes I could here the stupid Basilisk uttering the I'm so hungry for blood things.

[SpiraLethe]

Snape is a Death Eater. He made the Unbreakable Vow because if he had not, he would have betrayed himself to Voldemort (him being the one sheltering Pettigrew may make him a very high positioned Death Eater). Bella would have told on him and his cover would have been blown.

I know he's a Death Eater. What I meant was, why would he need to prove himself in front of Bellatrix? Voldemort is the one that matters. Even as a Death Eater, it's not required of him to help Draco in such a way.

[Josephine]

Maybe he felt sorry for Draco. I know I did.

I also felt sorry for Narcissa. She's a cow, true, but she loves Draco and doesn't want him to be a Death Eater.

[Tharkun]

Yeah, I get the distinct impression that he did feel sorry for Draco. Looking away from Narcissa, twitching when she brings up the possibility of failure... not that he knew what Draco was doing, of course, but he knew enough just from Narcissa to feel sorry for him.

[Hil]

Hehe...I like that part when Crabbe (or Goyle) took a polyjuice potion and turned into a little girl and Harry snuck up on "her" and was like "You're a pretty girl, aren't you?"

Ok...first off...I forgot most of what happened in the 4th and 5th book. This is because I read them so fast I think...and a while ago. Actually, I remember most of the 5th, but not the 4th. I guess I'll have to reread it. (I read the first 3 twice and have the movies) I took my time on this one...in no hurry to finish it. In fact, I just finished it last night. I wanted to savor the book.

What I don't understand is whether Snape really is evil. In Harry Potter and the Sorceror's Stone, he put a countercurse on Harry when Quirrell was cursing him. Why? I know he had a promise to Dumbledore or whatever, but did he break it in this book because of the unbreakable vow? Why did he want to help Draco and go back to how he was?

Saving Harry definitly helps solidify his "good guy" image in the eyes of Dumbledore. Back then, Snape didn't know Voldemort has returned.

The Unbreakable Vow between him and Narcissa intrigues me. Why did he do it? He need not prove himself in front of Bellatrix, or does he? Maybe he's secretly in love with Narcissa </ridiculous notion>. (Snape? Love? HA!)

Snape is a Death Eater. He made the Unbreakable Vow because if he had not, he would have betrayed himself to Voldemort (him being the one sheltering Pettigrew may make him a very high positioned Death Eater). Bella would have told on him and his cover would have been blown.

Dumbledore said that Snape felt remorse for what he did (telling Voldemort about Lily and James Potter). Did he ever stop being faithful to Voldemort, or did he just make Dumbledore think he had to build 'trust' between them? I think it was the latter...

[Xandra]

Book one starts in '91... even if it was published in '97....

So it starts in 91, so it would be 96. That's Major, right?

To clarify for everyone:

Summer '91-Summer '92 = PS/SS

Su '92-Su '93 = CoS

Su '93-Su '94 = PoA

Su '94-Su '95 = GoF

Su '95-Su '96 = OotP

Su '96-Su '97 = HBP

PROBABLY Su '97-Su '98, but who really knows? = Seventh book

Snape is a Death Eater. He made the Unbreakable Vow because if he had not, he would have betrayed himself to Voldemort (him being the one sheltering Pettigrew may make him a very high positioned Death Eater). Bella would have told on him and his cover would have been blown.

What cover? Voldemort and the DEs know he's a double agent- just like Dumbledore and the OotP know: they both think he's for their respective sides. As we now know, however, he's probably really on ol' Tom Riddle's team.

Which is what makes things fun. To read, anyway.

[Tharkun]

No. No, BGryph has to have been right. Snape saved Dumbledore's life after he destroyed Marvolo's ring. There's no good reason for it that I can fathom if he's with Voldemort.

This sucks. If Chapter Nineteen is anything to go by, Dumbledore decided that he had to die really early on, which is far more stupid than I would have expected of him. There just aren't enough honest traitors in fiction.

Although I'm a lot more able to cope with Redeemable!Peter than I thought I would be.

[Hil]

To clarify for everyone:

Summer '91-Summer '92 = PS/SS

Su '92-Su '93 = CoS

Su '93-Su '94 = PoA

Su '94-Su '95 = GoF

Su '95-Su '96 = OotP

Su '96-Su '97 = HBP

PROBABLY Su '97-Su '98, but who really knows? = Seventh book

Wait a minute, how do you know that? They don't say what year it is anywhere in the story.

[Tharkun]

Wait a minute, how do you know [the dates]? They don't say what year it is anywhere in the story.

Because Nick died in 1492, and his 500th Deathday was in October during CoS.

[Kuri]

This is sort of random as far as what you guys are talking about, but do you guys think Dumbledore is a Parselmouth? I was wondering because of the memories where everyone is speaking in Parseltongue and Dumbledore just asked Harry if he understood it. I was just curious as to what you guys thought. I honestly have no idea myself.

[SpiraLethe]

No. No, BGryph has to have been right. Snape saved Dumbledore's life after he destroyed Marvolo's ring. There's no good reason for it that I can fathom if he's with Voldemort.

This sucks. If Chapter Nineteen is anything to go by, Dumbledore decided that he had to die really early on, which is far more stupid than I would have expected of him. There just aren't enough honest traitors in fiction.

Although I'm a lot more able to cope with Redeemable!Peter than I thought I would be.

Even if Snape did have a chance then, I don't see why he'd do it. It was Draco's job. Only when Draco obviously could not do it, would he have to step in.

Hehehe... honest traitors...

[TDG]

This is sort of random as far as what you guys are talking about, but do you guys think Dumbledore is a Parselmouth? I was wondering because of the memories where everyone is speaking in Parseltongue and Dumbledore just asked Harry if he understood it. I was just curious as to what you guys thought. I honestly have no idea myself.

Yeah, I was wondering about that. I mean, why would he even have the memory if he couldn't understand that ? He knew they had a big discussion in Parseltongue and the memory isn't as significant without the bits in Parseltongue, though it does touch on the Horcruxes...

I dobut it though seeing how he's shocked when Tom Riddle says he can talk to snakes (I wonder what the authorities would think if they found out one of the Orphanage's orphans had been playing with snakes and forcing rabbits to kill themselves...)

[Igg]

Wait a minute, how do you know [the dates]? They don't say what year it is anywhere in the story.

Because Nick died in 1492, and his 500th Deathday was in October during CoS.

That is deeply, deeply sad.

From one nerd to another.

[Wind]

*emerges from huge amount of speculations read to catch up*
HPB was the best yet.

And Dumbledore was a fool to trust Snape... I'm still hoping Snape was good after all, but the interview with JKR is against that.
So yeah, the old clever man was a fool in the end?
At least this time none of my favourite characters died.

Draco is a spoiled little brat, and serves him well.

Shame about the Quidditch, I'm going to miss that.

[hiddenneggs]

Nah, Dumbledore was right about Snape. Yes, of course Dumbledore could make mistakes -- but that point was hammered home too often in HBP. Clearly we're meant to think this was one of those cases; we're meant to believe, for the umpteenth time, along with Harry that Snape is evil and on the side of Voldemort. And it's because so many people now recognize JKR's patterns and techniques, and therefore recognize the misdirection for what it is, that she resorted in the interview to implying (but significantly not directly stating -- she doesn't want to flat-out lie) that Harry and the Order have it right this time.

Snape really is a nasty git . . . but he's on "our" side.

Major theme of the series is love. Love is the power Voldie knows not -- he mistakenly believes love to be a weakness. Likewise, trust.

Jo Rowling is not going to tell us that trust is ultimately a weakness . . . not unless the series ends with Harry Potter becoming the new Dark Lord.