And the Half Blood Prince is...

Severus Snape! For those who have not yet gotten a copy or are still reading the 6th installment of the Harry Potter series, be warned: this blog will provide details on the book as well as the blogger's take on the book.

I woke up bright and early Saturday morning, in anticipation of the queues that will surely mar my otherwise exciting day of delving into the second to the last Potter novel. We had not reserved a book anymore, as our previous experience showed there were enough copies. True enough, those who did reserve books queued up for a longer time than we who rushed to the bookstore before it opened. By 9:20 AM, I had in my hands two copies of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince -- one for myself and the folks at home, and another for a friend.

We shopped for paint supplies as we have ongoing improvements at home, and as soon as we got home at around 1:30 PM, I couldn't get myself to put off reading. By 8PM, I had finished, and felt that while the story sufficiently answered some of my questions (posed in my earlier blog), there was a feeling of uneasiness that certain things 'ended' the way they did:

1. Months before the release, rumors abound that a major character dies in the story. Yep, just as my brother and I guessed, Dumbledore is the one killed in this book although we were surprised he died through an unforgivable curse courtesy of the Half-Blood Prince aka Snape whom he trusted. The death itself was a little to contrived for my tastes, and because Dumbledore had been repetitively professing his full confidence in Snape, I suspect it was 'staged' for the benefit of Snape gaining Voldemort's unconditional support.

2. Theories concerning the Half-Blood Prince pointed to a new character that was to be introduced by Rowling here and then play a larger part in book 7. From the moment Harry got his hands on the Potions book that was the property of the Half-Blood Prince, I suspected the owner was either Voldemort or an older student much like Hermione who excelled in every subject. I was a little surprised that the title 'half-blood prince' referred to Snape who was son of Eileen Prince, a pureblood witch, and a Muggle father. Although it did make sense it was Snape as he wrote very useful notes on the margins of the said school book concerning certain potions that were difficult to make without such tips as the number of clockwise motions to make when stirring, etc.

3. Cho Chang did not figure anymore in the story, but I was not surprised Harry fell for Ginny Weasley, Ron's younger sister who previously had a crush on Harry and was saved from the diary of Tom Marvolo Riddle aka Lord Voldemort. It was a little disconcerting, however, to learn Ginny had become sort of a heartthrob in school, changing boyfriends as often as she changed shirts (well, almost).

4. The Ron and Hermione relationship takes a different turn at around three-fourths of the book, after Ron had broken up with Parvatil and Hermione was speaking with Ron again. Although I like Ginny, I was hoping it was going to be Harry and Hermione.

5. No mention of Sirius Black returning as a 'ghost', although he is mentioned a few times particularly when Harry suspected Tonks was in love with Black. It turns out Tonks is in love, but with Remus Lupin who felt he was 'too old' for her. Thus, when Tonks' Patronus was seen by Snape who remarked it was an 'interesting' change from her previous Patronus, and Harry further described the same Patronus as a four-legged creature, our previous suspicion of it being a memory of the huge black dog which Black turned into was wrong. Lupin's werewolf would have been right on the mark.

The book is generally a history of Voldemort, with most scenes referring to Voldemort's youth and the memories of various people of the magical world concerning the most powerful dark wizard of his time. Of course this can only lay the foundation for Harry and Voldemort's final battle, where the knowledge gained by Harry regarding Voldemort's weakness taking center stage and giving him a fair chance against the more experienced wizard.

I predict the last book will start off with Harry looking for the rest of the objects where Voldemort hid his soul, successfully destroying them, and then leading others to the culminating final battle between good and evil.