General Thoughts on HBP

[amanitamuscaria1]

No: HPFGUIDX 133397

I've just been letting HBP percolate a little.
I agree with lupinlore/cubfanbudwoman - JKR does seem to have 
addressed fans' questions/niggles, as in the Ch.2 conversation 
between Snape and Bella. But what other author has had so much 
accessible critique whilst they're in the process of writing? I think 
it's amazing JKR has kept her sanity and good humour, and hasn't 
killed everyone off yet!

Kenney - Harry as intended Horcrux - agree, but I'm uncertain whether 
it was intended by Voldy or not, and even whether Voldy knows Harry 
contains a piece of his soul. It sounds as if V. was blown away when 
he 'went for' Harry, he became disembodied, and had to spend a long 
time getting back to a corporeal existence. Certainly not what he'd 
planned.

Aussie_lol - You got me thinking about the Lily/Snape thing - Harry's 
seen Snape's handwriting on many occasions - certainly adult Snape's, 
but didn't he also see young Snape's in the pensieve? People's 
writing has always been commented on in the series - Harry doesn't 
recognise this hand. OK, he doesn't recognise Dumbledore's voice in 
the howler to Petunia. But it's not usual to identify a book on the 
back cover. Snape probably wouldn't have wanted to put 'The Half 
Blood Prince' on the front page of any of his books, but why would he 
put it on his book anyways? Too incriminating, and Snape always seems 
to have been fairly careful. So when would he have written that? 
Perhaps AFTER finishing his schooling? Perhaps when James and Lily 
were killed, and he returned to Hogwarts - to teaching potions? What 
if that wasn't his workbook at school at all, and he got it out to 
swot up on his potions skills, having been much more interested in 
DADA, as the spells in the book indicate?

Dumbledore's 'death'. I'm very much in two minds on this. The whole 
cave scene, with DD drinking the contents of the bowl, then Harry not 
being able to give him water and having to use the lake water, which 
DD cautioned about touching? And the floating corpses - is it DD's 
power that stops him turning into one of them when he's either drunk 
the liquid or been splashed by the pool?
The scene on the tower, with Draco, was great. Draco blustering for 
all he was worth, unable to fathom why, when he was holding the wand, 
DD wasn't afraid of him. Not the way he'd played that scene out in 
his mind, I'm sure. So what's Draco gone away thinking?
The pleading, I'm pretty sure, was DD getting Snape to do what DD 
wanted him to, what they'd agreed to, whatever that was. It's not to 
say Snape didn't believe he was killing Dumbledore, I think he 
believes he's killed DD. I'm not sure DD didn't have another plan 
that no one was in on. It's almost like the other books - PS, where 
DD goes off the scene to let Harry have a go at protecting the stone, 
etc. etc. But there's a long time gap between Harry seeing DD blasted 
off the tower, and seeing DD on the ground below. Lots of time for 
DD, if he's not really dead, to have prepared anything.

Anyhow, I'll stop here. Too many ideas buzzing round.
Cheers. AmanitaMuscaria