My first jumbled thoughts on HBP...
It's funny how I had a discussion with my co-worker a while ago about the unfortunate sap who was going to get axed by JKR. She firmly believed that Dumbledore would survive, and I said: "Just wait until Book 6 comes out, DD won't survive it." I was constantly expecting DD to die everytime he left the castle, and when he finally did die... yeah, I got a little misty-eyed. I didn't really trust him after Book 5, but immediately sympathised with him upon reading Book 6. And Dumbledore knew himself that he wasn't going to survive, that much I felt when reading this book.
Oh, and I really thought I was reading the wrong book at the beginning, the first time we didn't read from Harry's POV. Threw me around the loop for a bit, that one :)
Anyway, this book surprised me in some ways, yet there were a lot of things in it that I expected to happen, things like Snape and Malfoy. Though, however useless I found Draco, I now think that he actually has redeeming qualities.
And what is it with characters in HP that they don't learn the meaning of things until disaster happens?
Though I had expected this book to be darker, still, it was darker than I imagined: revived bodies of men, women and even children flaoting out of the water? A vicious werewolf taking a liking to children? *shudders* I love it, though! I feel as though we're finally getting somewhere!
I was somewhat disappointed that Sirius' death didn't really play a big role in the book, almost like JKR wanted to get his death quickly out of the way at the beginning with the mention of the will. I didn't really get the impression that Sirius' death had a grand impact on Harry, at all, but maybe I was expecting too much since I'm a bit biased towards Sirius (him being one of my faves, after all).
Another disappointed that I saw coming was Ginny, and when she and Harry finally got together I thought: well, ain't it nice, the miniature James and Lily look-alikes. Whoppee. NOT!. It was just that predictable to me.
Also, I had expected a bigger role for Lupin, dammit, but it was actually a nice surprise to find that, in the end, he may even have a chance at being relatively happy :) Maybe I should read bits of Book 5 again, since I honestly hadn't expected Tonks eyeballing Lupin at all :D Yep, I'm gonna do that tomorrow!
Was anyone else surprised at how Remus reacted upon hearing of DD's death?
Phew.