Drinking game that would make reading this book much more enjoyable: drink a glass of your alcohol of choice every time a character offers another a drink in this book.

That's 1.

So Bella has never been in Spinner's End, but could apparate there. Interesting, since there seems to be an assumption in the fandom that you can't apparate to a place you've never been in before.

That's 2.

3.

Kind of ironic, considering that Dumbledore has just entered a man's home without an invitation and started ordering him around.

4.

Not rude at all.

…Also would have been better manners not to enchant glasses of mead to knock on your host's head. But hey, muggle-baiting is fun!

But not to muggles.

Come on Harry, you must know by now that Dumbledore has a very strange notion of what counts as rude.

Aaaaaaand that's 5. You better get yourself some water and peanuts, because the drinking has only just began.

Mrs. Weasley, the Bonks shipper.

Little did the disappointed eleven-year-olds knew, they were about to get a custom super-wand at Knockturn Alley instead.

What's the point of using a car when you can use the flu?

I wonder why is he toothless? Can't magic grow teeth, like bones? Malfoy had a jinx that did it to Hermione. Or does that only work where teeth already exist? Morfin also lacks teeth, but he doesn't seem to care much about his appearance anyway.

No, but I remember the one Dumbledore has.

The Human Torch, I imagine.

Right you are, Harry.

 

You tryna steal my gig, man? I had a good thing going, what with going from week to week, and now you come in here with a wrong week number a day before schedule. Is that how we're going to play it?

Anyway: reread. So glad we're finally out of OOTP. That was just a fucking brick of a book.

Bit of a departure from the usual way the books start, that's sure.
Quick aside: PM in 1996 (which is when this meeting presumably takes place) was Sir John Major. No idea who that is nor what his policies were.

I remembered this being the President of America, but that might be recent news playing tricks on me.

I'm liking this guy already.

Yeah, Fudge. Sure.

Joke falls a little flat when in his introduction Fudge already said the Ministry was in charge of local dragon populations.

"Stood aside"? Stepped down, I guess?

That's seriously one of my favorite lines in the entire franchise.

Two things: one, Snape is probably enjoying being able to torment one of James Potter's (presumably former) friends.
The second: elves makes make wine.

I dislike Snape as much as the next guy but this takes some real balls.

Snape possesses the gift of prophecy.

These guidelines from the Ministry are all pretty solid ideas. All common sense, of course, but sadly common sense isn't exactly common.

Sirius' will is canon. Forgot it was, honestly. Less complicated affair than the usual reading, at the very least.

Interesting.

ICE BURN

Slughorn's actually pretty observant.

On purpose or not? One wonders.

Presumably this is where their whirlwind romance started.

Eh, close enough for government work.

Suppose that dampens the immorality of Love Potions a little, if they only last a day.

I'd like to point out that Harry's actually spot on about all his theories about Malfoy so far. He has (or will) replaced his father, he has the Dark Mark (at least it seems he does in the movies)...

Cherry is a rare wood that makes for a wand of strange (and lethal) power. Hmm.

No description of her assets, proving once more that Rowling doesn't quite get how boys think.

Diiiiiiiiiiiiiick move.

 

Oh man. I got confused with the day. Week starts on Sunday in my weird country. I copied the week number from the schedule - apparently it changed.

Also, Elf made wine sounds a lot less attractive once you realize it's House-Elves making it, not LotR Elves.

 

Yeah, the elf-made wine seems a bit odd when the only known elves in this world are House-Elves.

Also, with every Re-Read I remember all the ways FanFics botched things up again and again and again. I especially like the Will part, since while it turns out Sirius did write a will that left everything to Harry, it kind of discredits some major assertions about it:

a. No fancy shmancy titles or Super-Vaults. Just the house and Kreacher.
b. No great revelation or shocking secret, it just gives Harry everything.
c. Dumbledore was the one who brought it to Harry's attention in the first place.
d. Goblins were absolutely not involved in any way, shape, or form.

Seriously, should we link the Re-Read to the FanFic community? If nothing else, it would be fun to see how they react to it.

 

In fairness, a decent chunk of all the food and drink in the series is made by house-elves, so maybe it's seen as a sign of a particularly good house-elf in-universe?

 

I think Dumbledore just gets a kick out of tormenting the Dursleys, Atram Noctem. Just a little harmless fun to lighten the mood of the scene.

On the subject of Wills, this is a thing. We see it in Hallows as well, with Dumbledore's.

 

Chapter 1: The Other Minister

All kinds of terrifying if you think about it.

Fuck you, Rowling.

Wonder what the outcome was?

Chapter 2: Spinner's End

Further to the earlier comments, there's a couple of possibilities here. Firstly, Snape clearly isn't living in the lap of luxury, so maybe it's actually not considered a particularly special drink. Alternatively, he tells Wormtail that it 'will do'. Maybe it's a bit of a calculated insult to Narcissa and Bellatrix.

Or it could just be a bit of world building colour that I'm reading too much into.

Yeah he has! /Cursed Child innuendo.

And daughters?

Chapter 3: Will and Won't

In fairness, he also left her another that had a baby attached.

Chapter 4: Horace Slughorn

Dumbledore's character in a nutshell.

Because a) he wonders why Dumbledore is wearing a ring, b) he recognises the ring as one Tom Riddle used to wear, or c) he knows about the Hallows?

Oh come the fuck on. You've spent the last fifteen years not telling Harry shit.

Chapter 5: An Excess of Phlegm

Shame. Theirs would probably work.

She was pretty shit.

Oh well.

These sound intriguing. I'm now picturing magical parkour.

Apparently not. Also, it occurs to me that HBP might not have had quite the same level of backlash as it did if Rowling hadn't made such a big thing of Harry learning advanced magic at this early stage, only for it never to happen.

Chapter 6: Draco's Detour

Why was Karkaroff still in the country? It's been over a year since he ran away, surely he could have managed to get somewhere else. And didn't Regulus get dragged into the water in the cave? How does Remus know how long he lasted?

Give it a year, Molly.

Hey, guys! It's Ron not being jealous of Harry's fame and privilege again!

How scandalous!

How come they aren't? They're openly insulting Voldemort, they are possibly known members of the Order, and at the very least they're known associates of Harry. They ought to be prime targets.

Holy shit.

Little insight into the Hogwarts timetable.

So it wasn't like Merope Gaunt dosed Riddle Sr up once and then left it until giving him an antidote then.

How come he didn't Vanish? This one works.

Chapter 7: The Slug Club

No, actually. I remember him wanting it in CoS, and I remember him having it at the end of HBP, but I don't remember it between those two scenes.

Not a terribly subtle way to show his development since this time last book, but effective enough.

Or sexual tension, to the shippers.

Chapter 8: Snape Victorious

Careful for what you wish for, Harry.

Say it a bit louder for the Ron bashers at the back?

 

HBP is, I think, a truly bad book, eclipsed only by DH (which is a catastrophe).

Given as how this penultimate tome is the one in which Rowling sets up her primary romances in a huge desperate rush much of the canon fodder for H/G and R/Hr lies in its pages. With regard to H/G Rowling had spent three books leisurely laying out Harry's feelings for and relationship with Cho while keeping Ginny firmly in the background, ignored as a love interest ... and then suddenly she realised she had to set everything up for Harry in the sixth book, from start to finish.

And so we have Ginny Ascendant! materialise in this novel, boosted into the stratosphere with a magical Hollywood makeover to become pretty and wonderful and generally awesome enough for the 'hero' of the series. A Ginny whose meteoric rise was so clumsily and blatantly arranged we readers couldn't help but roll our eyes at its shameless brazenness.

Behold! The creation of Ginny Weasley, Mean Girl! Mocking 'Phlegm' behind her back in an earlier chapter, tripping up Ron for laughs:

Behold! The creation of Ginny Weasley, the thug with bullying behaviour that is never punished -

Behold! The creation of Ginny Weasley, the Girl Who Dates! -

Behold! Ginny Weasley, *The* Girl of Hogwarts, suddenly so awesome 'a lot of boys like her':

Such was Rowling's desperation when she suddenly realised she only had the single volume to both start and finalise her primary pairing.

It would have been nice if Rowling had left Ginny as she is, the quiet girl of five books standing who nonetheless had grown up in OotP and rid herself of her star-struck behaviour around Harry. A lot of her girl readers might have identified with that. But no; Rowling had to go all Hollywood and magically convert Ginny into someone else entirely, leaving all those girls in the real world behind and pairing Harry with a nasty little starlet.

 

For me, the funny thing about Ginny is that my biggest complaints are about her is that she's a better version of the Mary Sues Harry always falls in love with in bad Fics.

1. A [relative] nobody suddenly becomes an extremely important character.

2. Harry falls for her in a sudden and poorly-written manner.

3. Can get away with pretty much anything.

4. No one has a bad thing to say about her.

5. She's a badass at Quidditch and the battle field.

I'm genuinely curious, why do so many Fics insist on Ginny being a bad person (unnatural obsession with Harry, giving him love potion) and giving Harry a Mary Sue when they could just slightly rewrite Ginny and make an outright Mary Sue? It cuts out the middleman and is a little closer to Canon than some American Exchange Student or something.

 

Because she is poor. Ew, poor people!

 

Looking back the main thing that really surprised me about HBP is how much material that I feel is necessary at this point in the story is not covered here.
Why couldn’t we have more pages devoted to plans and preparations made to defeat Voldemort instead of some rather useless chapters like the Other Minister in there (which could be condensed to 1 or 2 pages IMO)? I am not sure why this book is so much shorter than OotP when there were so much stuff that should be explored.

I am sorry but what do you mean by this exactly? You mean the main material for both of the romances listed are in this book?

OK so Ginny was in the background in the first 4 books no doubt about it (except for acting as a damsel in distress in CoS). However didn’t Ginny become a good friend with Harry at least on the same level as Neville and Luna in OotP? I thought that’s like a good first step to take to become friends with that person before romance. Also you did remember how Ginny stood up to Harry in GoF just before the Yule Ball right?

Alright some of Ginny’s behaviour are truly deplorable no question about it (most of them are not in the chapters covered in this thread). I am speaking as someone who isn’t a fan of HBP as a book or HBP!Ginny. I liked Ginny better in GoF and OotP.

Yes and this is really just a taster here as to how Ginny treated Ron over this book. Later we found out during the holiday Ginny and Harry were laughing at Ron behind his back. How nice.

Ginny hexed Smith because he was forcing her to recall an experience where she and her friends almost died (somewhat subjective whether that is acceptable behaviour I guess). Was Harry punished for hexing people for fun and Malfoy punished for using an unforgivable curse later on in this book?

She dated two boys before the famous Harry Potter over a period of almost 2 years. I think that is pretty conservative by high school standards don’t you think?

On the other hand, one thing that did amaze me about this scene is how the twins who normally isn’t afraid of anyone just backed off when Ginny their baby sister told them to after showing brotherly concerns.

Hmm I think realistically athletic girls do have a tendency to get really popular with boys compared with bookworms or girls with eccentric preferences. At times it just happened at a certain point with no advanced notice. I am speaking as someone who isn't thrilled with this arrangement either.

By the way, how do you explain the bookworm Hermione’s sudden transformation at the Yule Ball in GoF where she got the hottest guy that every girl was fawning over?

As for Ginny, I would have liked her better in this book if she apologised or showed some remorse for some of her actions but I never remembered us being shown anything like it, sigh.

On another note, it seems like Harry's irritation that Ginny left him on the train to go to see Dean is meant as a foreshadowing to the chest monster later on in the book.

One thing that puzzled me about the train ride and the Draco/Harry confrontation: why wasn't Malfoy smart enough to seize Harry's Invisibility Cloak? The most plausible explanation I can find is that he wished to conceal Harry as much as possible even if it meant he wouldn't get it.

 

I have an entirely opposite feeling. It seems clear to me that Rowling didn't have anything important - to the overall series/arc - to write other than the mandatory loss of mentor!Dumbledore in the climax of the book. What, then, to use as filler for the other 400+ pages, oh dear oh dear? So she fills it up with puerile juvenile games of romantic jealousy - which I found quite ugly, even 'offensive' (to a Hermione fan!) to read - and a few trips down Pensieve Lane which were boring and useless.

That's material that you and I would have loved to have read, but not what Rowling wanted to write. At this stage, IMO, she had no idea how she was going to get Harry over the finish line other than that it *wasn't* going to be by virtue of his own abilities or skill set. No, it seems clear in hindsight that Rowling was absolutely determined to keep Harry mired in the mud as a barely competent average boy wizard.

Hence, a couple of months after being told that he's been tagged to be the target of the world's deadliest dark wizard, our completely passive 'hero' ... disbands the DA. Doesn't stir an inch in learning new spells. Is content to have a total of - three? - sessions during the *entire year* with Dumbledore. Et Cetera.

Bleh.

Essentially. This is the book wherein the formation of both primary pairings are detailed as filler while we're waiting for Rowling to write the climactic death of Dumbledore. She'd spent five books with Ginny pining after Harry but Harry being totally disinterested. She didn't want 'romance' to interfere with the main storyline of the final novel, so in this single penultimate tome she had (a) Ginny suddenly become Mary Sue awesome, (b) Harry suddenly yearn for her, (c) spend most of the school year dangling Ginny out of Harry's reach and then finally (d) set them up together right at the very end.

And ditto for R/Hr. Fans of that pairing like to think that Ron was always attracted to Hermione from book 3 on, but there was little on the other side of the ledger until, again, Rowling rushed to set it all up in this second-last novel of the series.

Nope. Harry hardly noticed her. He wanted to turn her (and Neville and Luna) away on the rescue mission. On the 'romance meter' Ginny registered zero.

And anyway -

Leaving the actual romance to form and climax all in the one book, HBP; as per my point.

Yeah. H/G fans point out that one of the three things that Harry has in common with Ginny is their shared sense of humour (the other two things are quidditch and quidditch ). But it's (often) a *mean* sense of humour. Which doesn't make me happy about H/G at all.

I don't think there's much 'subjectivity' in it at all. "... and in the end he annoyed me so much I hexed him" - someone annoys you, you assault them ... that's neither civil nor legal behaviour. 'Annoying' isn't provocation that permits such a response. But if you're Ginny Weasley it's enough, and - if you're Ginny Weasley in this book - you won't be punished for any such extreme unmerited retaliation.

It's not the frequency, it's the mileage.

Ginny dated Neville for the Yule ball, switched to Corner immediately after - or at the ball itself? - and then dropped him for Dean -

Ginny comes across as a girl who *must* date. Switches from Neville to Corner instantaneously; ditches Corner, must-have-another-boyfriend-pronto-I've-picked-Dean.

Don't take my word for it; take Ginny's -

And so she did. With a vengeance. Ginny is the Girl Who Dates, who ended up with the Boy Who Lived.

It wasn't (just) her super!Chaser!and!Seeker!athleticism. It is *specifically* her 'good looks' which Rowling boosts into the stratosphere overnight:

Rowling needed to set Ginny up as hero-worthy material, have Harry notice her, have the romance play out and get establish, all in this one book. Hence the desperate and horribly awkward notification GINNY WEASELY IS HAWT NOW! presented to us at the start. Gah.

Yes. Yet another example of Rowling shoehorning something into the story in a desperate rush and clumsy artificial writing. A *lot* of that the last two books, when she suddenly realised she had only 1-2 books to wrap things (romances & action) up.

Well, he does justify his action - he wants Harry to remain hidden until the train gets back to London. But it's possibly short-term thinking on Malfoy's part. Could he have kept the cloak if Harry complained that he had stolen it?

(Main reason is because Rowling didn't want Harry to lose it, of course. So much of that in this book and the next - options the characters never consider because it would be inconvenient for their lazy author if they did so.)

 

I think your point about Ginny getting away with hexing Smith is coming at it from the wrong angle - she doesn't get away with it because she's awesome, she gets away with it because Slughorn is the one to see it. Literally any other staff member and she'd have been in trouble, she even says that.

 

Thanks for your comment Shinysavage, it does appear Brad is blinded by his Ginny hate and refused to see anything positive about Ginny in HBP.

It appears the romance jealousy is to get everyone to have some fun before the real action starts with Dumbledore’s death according to what Rowling said in interviews and apparently Rowling had tons of fun writing the romantic jealousy. The romantic jealousy apparently is meant to show the characters behaving as teenagers.
You’re wrong about Dumbledore’s lessons though. The fact of the matter is they were learning about Voldemort’s as a person. You do realise that people in a war has to understand their enemy to defeat them? They understood quite a bit about Voldemort as a person like how he thinks himself as special, how he likes to collect trophies, how he seemed to have made 7 Horcruxes, you know just to name a few things. But yes I agree Dumbledore should have taught Harry more than that but it does not mean they are useless.

There were five lessons actually. I agree it is pretty stupid for Harry to have his actions dictated by his chest monster and not thinking about his impending confrontation with Voldemort. He was still relying on Hermione to do his research for him like with the Horcruxes, sigh. Why doesn’t he demand someone to teach him a bit more advanced magic? The best explanation I can think of is that Harry thought Dumbledore would take care of everything and he can just sit back and worry about his normal everyday life, sigh.
Glad we both agree on this point.

First let me say yes it is probably better to have Harry and Ginny grow closer as friends in HBP before getting together in DH. This way we will have a bit more set up. As for romance interfering with the storyline, there were quite a bit of romance in DH as well, maybe not so much H/G but quite a bit R/Hr and R/T and B/F (even if you don’t like them don’t deny they weren’t there).
Like I said before sometimes a teenage boy just notices a girl that way especially after he spent an excessive amount of time with her (over the summer holidays). It happens in real life, there is nothing terribly wrong about it. Ginny was already pretty awesome in OotP right by replacing Harry as a seeker and doing a good job of it? Another point: why do you think Harry always described Ginny in really positive terms in the first 5 books compared with other girls like Hermione and Luna? Therefore all those trends were already there, it was just a few steps further than before.

:facepalmFine let’s have a look at some scenes in the first 5 books again shall we?

So what about the time when Hermione cried for a whole afternoon after Ron accidentally insulted her (nobody else had such a strong effect on her not even the capslock Harry in OotP)? When Hermione was hurt by Ron’s offhand comment about Riddle and Percy in CoS? When Hermione broke down after Ron’s guilt-trip comment and she reconciled with Ron in PoA (she didn’t for Harry over his Firebolt did she?) When Hermione got really angry that Ron preferred a good-looking girl before the ball? When Hermione asked Ron to ask her to the ball next time? When Hermione got jealous of Fleur for paying attention to Ron but not Harry? When Hermione was blushing and avoiding Ron’s eyes when discussing Viktor Krum and romance related subjects? When Hermione just seemed to melt after seeing Ron’s lousy Quidditich practice? When Hermione was really frustrated that Ron was clueless about girls but not Harry in OotP?
Yeah, you can deny all those hints meant Hermione does like Ron as more than a friend when put together (although I have heard people saying they are actually not friends) just like you can claim Rose and Hugo are actually Harry’s children, but don’t delude yourself by saying Rowling didn’t leave hints that showed how strongly Hermione reacts to Ron in anything related to romance. Just because you don’t consider them as hints does not mean they are not and tonnes of people saw them for what they were.

True Harry wasn’t interested in Ginny that way. Maybe you don’t see them as good friends at that time, but then Harry was just as close to her as with Neville and Luna. Only Ron and Hermione are closer to him. He was slowly expanding his circle of friends.

Apparently H/G is meant to make Harry happy and forget his troubles that I think is why Ginny is supposed to be Harry’s ideal girl.
Another thing I should have said before: Ginny was rude to Fleur because Fleur herself was being arrogant and rude about their home even when she was supposed to be their guest. It was a natural reaction. Her behaviour towards Ron, on the other hand, is inexcusable yes.

Wouldn’t you say having Ginny crushing on Harry counts as at least part of the romance? Even if that is wrong, it is only one pairing, it’s not like every final canon pairing all formed and climaxed in HBP so why is it a big deal?

OK so annoyed in this context meant being repeatedly asked to retell an experience where they almost all DIED which is pretty traumatic you know. She got angry and attacked which happened all the time with teenagers fully of temper. Yep Ginny got away because of Slughorn’s bias, so did Harry got away with hexing people using Prince’s book? Did Malfoy got away with using an unforgivable curse? Did Hermione got away with the attacking canaries? I asked you these questions last time but for some reason you didn’t answer them.
Brad will you answer the questions I asked you last time? If you cannot answer them, then you are being hypocritical because when Ginny displays nasty behaviour she was horrid when Harry was doing it as well it is fine?

Well it’s generally impolite to turn down someone asking you for a date unless you have a good reason to. It doesn’t mean they were boyfriend/girlfriend and there is no evidence they were. By your logic was Parvati Harry’s girlfriend? Padma Ron’s? Ginny was actually pretty impressive you know for sticking with Neville when she could have gone with Harry. She did not have a good time with Neville and she met someone else she wanted to be with and went out with him. Big deal.

What did she do here then let’s see. Oh she went to find another boyfriend after her first relationship is finished? Because that is so not high school right? Only militant haters would care that she changed boyfriends like a normal high school girl. If she must date, then she would have gone to find Harry or someone else right after she broke up with Dean. I am not even going to bother addressing this ridiculous point again about Neville being a boyfriend. You do realise that by the end Ginny only had one more boyfriend than Hermione did right (and only if you’re not counting McLaggen)?

Yeah because you can switch your romantic feelings on and off like a switch, right? What was Ginny supposed to do then about Harry? Just mope around and wallow in her crush? What if Ginny’s feelings never went away through no fault of her own, does that mean she needs to remain as a spinster all her life instead of trying to move on with her life? If we accept your version of events, you are also bashing Hermione for giving Ginny such horrid advice [FONT=&quot]and for dating Viktor Krum when she had no feelings for him.[/FONT]

First let me to say yes I think it is true Harry really only cared about pretty and popular girls that way. But then this is more of Harry's fault than Ginny's.

Harry was still a better seeker than her wasn’t she? She also had to work to became a good chaser didn’t she? Why do you have a problem with Ginny’s Quidditch ability when you don’t have a problem with Harry becoming the greatest ever the school ever saw as soon as he rode a broom in PS? Ginny was always described as in positive terms I wouldn’t bother to repeat it again. Also, do you have a problem with Hermione suddenly getting the hottest guy around and becoming a pretty girl at the Yule Ball?

Maybe Pansy was just gauging Draco’s reaction to mention a pretty girl? So what if Ginny was pretty and athletic? She was like that in OotP as well only to a lesser extent. There are pretty and athletic girls like that in school and it’s realistic for them to be popular because that is just the way things are at high schools. Ginny was hot sure, was Cho hot before in GoF? [FONT=&quot]Part of the reason is because the books were skewed by Harry's POV[FONT=&quot] (who I think at times is [FONT=&quot]a terribly unreliable [FONT=&quot]and biased nar[FONT=&quot]rator btw)[/FONT][/FONT][/FONT][/FONT][/FONT]

Did you read what I said before? Harry has always considered Ginny in very positive terms and it isn’t unrealistic for a boy to suddenly notice a girl that way. It happens quite often in real life. If it true came out of nowhere, why were so many H/G shippers able to cite lots of evidence to support the ship before HBP? Maybe you just didn’t see them? The only romance you can say that came out of absolutely nowhere is Remus/Tonks.

Yes probably true. Rowling chose for Dumbledore to return Harry’s invisibility cloak in PS and Lupin to return it in PoA. There is nothing unusual there other than to show Harry’s carelessness. Malfoy had a good reason not to keep it as well – Filch might have detected it before he entered the castle.