Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

[simons_flower]

My PoA review.
My GoF review.
My OotP review.

I will start with the essentials I asked for at the end of my OotP review:

My HBP essentials

• Tom's backstory.
• "You don't have to call me sir, Professor."
• The "meeting" with Scrimgeour at the Burrow at Christmas in which Harry reasserts he's Dumbledore's man.
• The Cave.
• Harry chasing Snape post-Dumbledore in

Comments

[brumeux77]

Just a quick note on a couple of your nitpicks.

# The restriction for underage magic.
What happened to the restrictions on underage magic? Didn't Ginny worry about getting citations for it when using magic at the Burrow?
I'm pretty much sure that it was established in the books that the presence of an adult witch or wizard in the house confused the underage-detection magic. Certainly Fred and George never got into trouble for all the things they did at the Burrow.

# The Dark Mark above the Astronomy Tower.
Two things about this: (1) why wasn't it green? and (2) why -- or how -- did a bunch of children's lit wands dispel the Mark?(1) Forming the Dark Mark out of clouds instead of green as in the books is consistent with the way it's been handled in previous movies. I don't like it either, but it is established movie canon. And (2) I thought that scene was very powerful (especially as it wasn't hokeyed up with beams of light shooting skyward) because it was an example of the Power That He Knows Not triumphing over Voldemort's

[simons_flower]

"I am about to die" goes with the entire chapter. I expect all of that chapter to be there. It is my absolute favorite chapter in all the books -- I think it brings Harry's character into sharp focus.

re: underage magic. Yeah, I sort of figured that the kids would be masked, but it still bugged me with the prevalence.

re: Dark Mark. I still don't like that it's not green, even if it's been established in previous movies.