Grow up Harry! (What HBP was lacking...)

[rijl_kent]

No: HPFGUIDX 158522

I know it's been quite a while since HBP came out, but it still bugs me--the story was 
good, but there was so much that WASN'T there.

Harry seems to get over Sirius's death easier than he did Cedric's. Not that I wanted a lot 
of angst over it, but I thought he'd still be grieving.

Harry is all of sudden "Dumbledore's man"  Those two didn't leave book five on great 
terms, and at the opening of HBP, all is well.  I guess there's some male bonding over 
shared pensieve diving, but that relationship wasn't really explored or explained.

Harry and Ginny happened pretty fast. I didn't expect lots of fluff from JKR, but after Harry 
slowly realizes his feelings, all of sudden they just kiss.  It's like a bad movie where the 
characters just stare smoldering stares and then suddenly are at each other tearing clothes 
sucking face. Couples getting together in the real world TALK, don't they?  And at the end, 
Harry just throws that away (for Ginny's own good) and she accepts it. WHAT?

For a book titled for Snape, we don't learn a whole lot. He's a mean bastard, not much is 
new. I wish we learned why Dumbledore trusted him. I won't go into the debate on 
whether DD knew about the Vow and wanted Smape to do it here. I guess we'll find out in 
7.

One of my biggest gripes is that Harry seems like he didn't grow at all!  I was really 
disappointed that he didn't learn soundless casting.  I know Snape is a lousy teacher, but 
Harry's _good_ at Defense.  Harry learned to apparate--did he really learn anything other 
magic of significance?  Harry's supposed to be able to defeat Tom, but his power seemed 
to be downplayed by Dumbledore.  I never expected JKR to give us a Super!Harry, but 
c'mon!

I guess I'm also disspointed with the major plotline, too. The whole book is essentially a 
prelude to a treasure hunt. I had high expectations for book 6. Now I have low 
expectations for 7.  Maybe that's for the best.

-end of rant-

Whew! had to get that off my chest. I'll go back lurking now. :)

Peace-
-Rijl

PS  I'm writing a story that has all the scenes I imagined could happen 6th year but never 
did.  As you can guess I include the things I complain about JKR not having. Harry will have 
very different confrontations with Snape, Draco and Voldie, too. If you enjoy fanfiction, 
give it a look. http://www.fanfiction.net/~rijlkent