some nearly coherent thoughts on OOP

[Kimberly]

The whole thing left me with a little chill.  I liked it, and I 
appreciated it very much, but the book was so tense and angry that it 
seeped in and made me cold, and I still haven't completely shaken 
it.  I supposed that makes it a brilliant book, but it doesn't make 
it my favorite.  I am pretty proud of my prediction record though.

S
p
o
i
l
e
r

s
p
a
c
e

i
s

f
u
n
!
!
!

-I guess Hermione and Ron as prefects for pretty much the reason 
Dumbledore gave with that little tear.
-I knew (KNEW, I tell you!) that Ginny and Neville would both get 
more page time and development, and that both would rock!
-I guessed we'd meet my old pal Mundungus, but I'd kind of hoped he'd 
be more crotchety and less criminal.
-I guessed along with pretty much everybody that Percy would side 
with the Ministry, but was shocked that he didn't come around before 
the end.

I guessed the death wrong, though.  I assumed it would be 
Dumbledore.  While reading, I simply lost it and sobbed like a fool 
any time anybody so much as stubbed a toe.  JKR was evil telling us 
somebody would die.

On The Death:
I think I agree with whoever said Sirius had a bit of a death wish.  
Maybe wish is too strong a word, but laughing and telling someone 
like Bellatrix Lestrange "Come on, you can do better than that!" in 
the middle of a deadly duel...  maybe it was intended to psych her 
out, but I couldn't help but feel that Sirius has been so restless 
and cornered and just plain bored with his life that in some way he 
meant it.  Dying in battle has it's allure for a certain type, and 
recklessness for the sake of it fits in there too.  Had he thought 
through what it would mean to Harry if he did, he might have let the 
others do the rescuing without him, but his need for excitement was 
at least as instrumental as his love for Harry in getting him there, 
and then, in the heat of the moment, he seemed to embrace it.

I can't stop wondering about the arch and the veil and the fact that 
apparently Sirius's body wasn't to be recovered.  What does this 
mean?  What was the arch doing there that night?  What *exactly* is 
beyond that veil?  Is there significance to the duality of the word 
veil?  And once again, what *was* it doing there?  

I am honestly heartbroken about Sirius's death, but the truth is 
there were several others that could have devastated me even worse.  

On the new characters:
I agree there are too many.  I don't see why those we've had glimpses 
of in the past (like Diggle, for instance) couldn't have been used 
more instead of adding the Matrix pair (I too thought that as soon as 
they showed up in the Dursley's livingroom).  On the other hand, 
Luna, who initially caused the same reaction in me, managed to grow 
on me some, although I still think she should have used a name 
already established for this character.  Many names have been called 
out during sorting scenes that haven't materialized into characters 
(Moon being one of them, by the way!).  Also, Tonks's nifty ability 
kind of bugs me.  I mean, it's just a way of sneaking in another 
version of polyjuice that can be used at will.  Bah!

Eep! I'd better go get the laundry into the dryer now.

Kimberly