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Okay, I've finished it by now (10:23 this morning. I read from 1 to 5, slept for four hours, then again from 9 to 10:23. So that's...5 hours and 23 minutes, including food breaks. But I read through those). I don't expect everyone to have, but at least soon.

If anyone else discovered the spoiler post in the HP forums on Wednesday (Thurs? Don't remember) then you already know who dies. If not, then I'll white it out: Snape kills Dumbledore. When I got the spoiler I had two panic attacks. When I got to that part of the book, I almost passed out from hyperventilating.

So, whaddya think? I liked it. Best so far. 7 promises to be GREAT.

OMG! Two other people who have read the books! -glomps you both-

I've been going off my nut out of annoyance since noone else I know had read and finished it.

I was suprised that I almost cried too.

I was shocked when snape did what he did to dumblie. BUT I have major gloating rights to my friends because I have argued for ages that snape was secretly evil and a double spy!

But watch book 7 go an take my rights away, well not for a while.

As for reading time: got the book at around half midnight last night, read till about 5:30 - 6 AM where i was starting to get serious problems with staying concious or even trying to sleep (I had, had about 2 hours sleep in the past 24 hours - four if you add on the extra two hours where I slept...) Then woke around 2 carried opn reading and maybe finished about maybe half five?

so about 8 - 9 hours in total for me. But this does include dancing about like a looney, squueing for about 10 minutes over everything intertesting, thinking about stuff, eating, going to the toilet etc. so maybe somewhere about 6 - 8 hours for actual reading...

Spoilers Ahead. If you haven't read it, why the hell are you here?




























I felt that way, too.

Anyway, I'm rather proud (and alone) in saying that I still love Severus Snape.

Other then that... I expected Dumbledore to die, and I expected Sev to be the HBP. And Draco... awww, he so completely needs a hug...

Harry is a conceited, arrogant, immature little a*****e in this book. I despised him.

Yeah, I also thought her style was a bit different. Not the best of the books, but it's extreamly good. Gaah, I'm still crying. crying

My official, 750+ word review. I submitted it to Mugglenet.

Although it was much, much darker than all the other books, Half-Blood Prince wound up being my favorite by far. The angst, the romance, the wicked awesome new spells, the mystery...it goes on and on. On a scale of 1 to 5, it was a 10.

The Half-Blood Prince turns out to be this guy who wrote notes all over Harry's used Potions textbook. Can't tell you who he is yet, but I will tell you his notes are absolutely ingenius and pretty much earned Harry perfect grades all through Potions. NEWT Potions. Yeah, he made it in. Harry's OWL grades below (with the American Muggle grade equivalent, although a P isn't considered a pass):

Astronomy: A (C)
Care of Magical Creatures: E (B)
Charms: E (B)
Defense Against the Dark Arts: O (A)
Divination: P (D)
Herbology: E (B)
History of Magic: D (F)
Potions: E (B)
Transfiguration: E (B)

That's about a 2.4 GPA. Bad. Very bad. Harry wants to be an Auror, remember? Hermione's all O's, with an E in DADA. That really surprised me. I would've thought that anyone in the DA would've gotten an O, and the mere fact that she didn't ace it was enough to make me remark that the world is ending. There's something decidedly fishy there, methinks. Ron is pretty average.

As for DADA teacher, first get this. There's a new Potions teacher, a man called Slughorn. He has a talent for spotting students that will end up famous. The current captain of the awesome all-female Quidditch team, the guy who runs Zonko's...etc. He picks a few students from Harry's year, Harry, Hermione, Ginny and Neville among them. They're called the Slug Club. I don't like him all that much.

And if there's a new Potions teacher, where's Snape? you ask. Well, I'll tell you. The DADA job. He finally got it, smelly, slimy git that he is. I hate him again. More details on that later.

Onto the topic of ships! Okay. At the start of the book, Ginny's dating Dean. Ron dislikes this. So do the rest of the Weasley boys. Ron and Hermione are acting as usual--nothing actually there, but a lot that they're too stupid to see. Ron dates Lavender for a while, mostly to make Hermione jealous, I think. Lavender calls him Won-Won. I started sharpening my knives. In retaliation, Hermione goes out with this stupid, thick-headed seventh-year. It lasts about an hour.

As for adults, Ron and Fleur are engaged. Hermione and Ginny have to put up with Fleur and her plans. They call her Phlegm behind her back. At the end of the book, we find out that Tonks is in love with Remus, but he keeps telling her he's too old and too dangerous, but she doesn't care. It's really sad.

On the Harry front. He takes Luna to a party--just as friends, which I thought was very kind. Nothing was happening for quite a while, until he and Ron found Ginny and Dean rather occupied in a hallway. Harry gets quite mad, despite the fact that he keeps imagining himself as Dean. After about 200 pages of wait, there is a Gryffindor Quidditch victory. Party in the common room. Ginny hugs Harry, and, in front of most of Gryffindor House, Harry kisses her.

I screamed. Loudly. IIIIIIII waaaaaaaas riiiiiiight...

All through the book, Dumbledore is showing Harry memories about Tom Riddle/Voldemort through the Penseive. We see his parents, eleven-year-old Tom going into Hogwarts, Tom finding his last living ancestors, etc. It's almost sad.

Then we find out Voldemort's been tearing off little bits of his soul and hiding them in things. Dumbledore and Harry go after one, but Dumbledore is badly weakened. They return to the castle and find the Dark Mark over it. Malfoy (that's Draco) points a wand at then and tells them he'll kill Dumbledore. Yeah, he's a Death Eater now. His mother had a conniption. But he can't manage to do it.

Just when we think they're saved, POP! Up comes Snape, and...he kills Dumbledore. That's right, Snape Avadas Dumbledore. That's the spoiler I got the other day. That's what I was freaking out about.

Snape turns out to have been the Half-Blood Prince. That was his old textbook Harry found. Snape's father was a Muggle, and his mother's maiden name was Prince. Hence, Half-Blood Prince. Glorifying the pureblood half, yet pointing out the Muggle half. Strange...

End was sad. Although the next book looks really cool. Harry says he won't go back to Hogwarts; he's going to go out and find the other things Voldie put his soul in. He reconciles to the fact that he can't hide behind those he loves any longer.

The End.

Why are we hating Harry now...? I mean, apart from dating the Weaslette, I absolutely adored him in this book. Especially during with his converations with Scrimgeour, not that he was backing Dumbledore, but that he was truly showing independence and maturity. I suppose it's a good think he's losing his dependency, considering recent events.

My only hope now is that he doesn't do anything foolish like kill Malfoy or reignite his Ginny lust.

I hope they close Hogwarts. That'll allow for pure adventure into the quest of gathering Horcruxes, fighting baddies, making friends, and finally blasting Voldemort into pieces.

I went completely fangirlish to see Regulus mentioned a whole three times in the book. And then there's the whole R.A.B. thing, well, you know who I think it is.

And now we finally know what Blaise Zabini looks like! I was so excited to hear, he sounds exotic and handsome. I always imagined him being a mixed boy, but it seems like everyone else assumed him for a Tom Riddle lookalike.

...... I cried like I've never cried after reading ANY book. My mom got really scared. I was soooo conifdent that Snape was still good.......... that upset me most of all.....
My thought is that he's majorly confused. He's not entirely devoted to one side. He may do some dramatic and depressing sacrifice scene for the good guys OR the bad guys in the next book. Preferably the good guys. I pray for him. (not in a seriously religious manner) I do think that he will die in book 7, as depressing as that sounds....

Aelina_Songmaker: Its Bill who is engaged with Fleur. I think that was a mis-type.

Oh yes I wasn't as happy with the writing of the book as well. It did sound alot like a fanfic. The beginning was confusing. I almost stopped reading when I read the first two chapters. The couples were mad! Although I did like the Luna stuff in this book. Draco sounded like a wimp all through the book and Snape is now off my good people list. Even though he was never on it.