Q2 Blog Post #2 (Late Coupon)

I never actually got started on A Change Of Heart, I simply couldn't get into it. I did, however, read the sixth Harry Potter book yesterday on my way to my cabin, The Half Blood Prince. I got through almost 3/4 of it in the 4 1/2 hour drive, and finished it after dinner once we got up here. I love the woods in the winter. It's so beautiful and relaxing.

**If you have not read the sixth Harry Potter, and want to, do not read ahead!

The Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling is amazing. I became engrossed in the book immediately after picking it up and turning the first page. The Half Blood Prince starts off with Harry stuck in his room, awaiting the arrival of his headmaster, Dumbledore. He does end up coming to get Harry, warning the Dursleys that Harry must return once more before he comes of age in the wizarding world to remain protected for another year. They proceed to The Burrow, where Harry's best friend Ron and his family live. We find out that Fleur Delacour (from the fourth book in the Triwizard Cup) is marrying Ron's older brother Bill, and none of the women in the household are too pleased about that. Everyone in the wizarding world is becoming more and more afraid of the return of Voldemort, taking precautions that wouldn't actually help them if the Death Eaters were to attack.

Everyone is now eating their words that they had previously scoffed at Harry with. He was right- the Dark Lord has returned and there will be a huge fight ahead of them if they are ever to be rid of him. The times are increasingly less safe, and pandemonium is beginning to break out where the Dark Mark appears.

Hogwarts seems to be the safest place to be- after all, Dumbledore is the headmaster. Harry finds out more than he's ever known about Voldemort's past as Tom Riddle, including his lineage and ambitions as a schoolboy at Hogwarts himself. Dumbledore shows him various memories that hold all this information, and Harry attains one from Professor Slughorn. This professor is a returning one, who is extremely interested in collecting "prize students" and attaining connections with various esteemed members of society. This memory that Harry attains gives both him and Dumbledore confirmation that Voldemort indeed, even as a 16 year old, was planning his ascent to the throne of Dark Lord. In the memory, he had asked Professor Slughorn how "horcruxes" had worked. It was evident he was planning on splitting his soul, and storing it in different objects so he would never fully die. He also said, however, something about splitting it 7 times. This would be unimaginable for any normal wizard, powerful as they might be.

Dumbledore promises Harry he can accompany him to destroy a Horcrux he has located. 2 of them had already been destroyed. Throughout this entire time, Harry has suspected that Draco Malfoy has taken his fathers' place as a Death Eater, and alerts his friends to keep an eye out when he leaves with Dumbledore to destroy the horcrux.

Dumbledore and Harry leave to a cave far away, encountering many different obstacles before they finally get to the middle of a lake in a cave that is filled with dead bodies with the Horcrux in the middle. Dumbledore is severely weakened while trying to get at the horcrux, and when they escape and return, the Dark Mark had been placed over Hogwarts. Harry and Dumbledore sped back to the school. As they were rushing in, Harry threw on his invisibility cloak and Dumbledore froze him with a spell, just as Malfoy came in and blasted Dumbledore with his own spell. It was his job to kill Dumbledore, but was not able, and Snape came in and used the "Avada Kedavra" spell on Dumbledore himself. Harry, unnoticed under his cloak and frozen, watched this all happen. There was a fight going on underneath them, the Order of the Phoenix had come to try and help.

The Death Eaters escaped- everyone was in shock over Dumbledore's death and Snape's betrayal. The funeral was held and many people from all over came. Harry made the decision that he would not rest until either he or Voldemort is dead- no matter how long it took. He had also been dating Ron's sister Ginny, whom he told he could not be with while he was seeking out the Dark Lord.

I really enjoyed reading this book, as I stated before, I could not put it down. The first time I read it (when it first came out) I literally cried when Dumbledore died. It seemed impossible that so much could go wrong, but then again, when has anything ever been easy for Harry and his friends? The journey ahead of them seems ominously long at the end of this book, especially without Dumbledore guiding them. There is also a lot of foreshadowing throughout this book, which is hard to catch the first time around. Harry hid his Potions book in the very Vanishing Cabinet that the Death Eaters got into the castle with. There are many other examples, such as when Hermione suggests that the person who had owned his potions book was in fact someone whose mother or father had had the last name of Prince, as the back read "Property of the Half-Blood Prince". (Snape's mother was Eileen Prince, and the book had belonged to him.)

I plan to read the last book in the Harry Potter series next.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Stacey