Even Harry feels sorry for Draco by the end of the book. A little, anyway. I also assumed that RAB was Regulus, but it's entirely possible that she's just fucking with us.

The Half-Blood Prince thing seemed a bit pointless to me. I didn't feel like it had enough relevence to the plot to merit being the title of the book. Also I wanted to smack some sense into Harry. And Dumbledore at times, actually.

Heh. I haven't read it yet (my copy *should* be delivered to the office tomorrow), but I can't resist checking in here, and the posts of nothing but whitefont is cracking me up!

Steph L. (safe) ** Look -- A whitefont just for you!!! **

I was REALLY pleasantly surprised with the character development that Draco got here. I think he made wonderful progress from bratty, bullying kid to young adult here, and the shades of grey and depth of character we got given were far more than I'd dared hope for. Loved it.

I am particularly thrilled that this book, like OotP, continues to lend substance to my own conviction that Snape was in love with Lily. I totally buy that, and it just kills me. This is why he's always harping on about James rather than Lily - Lily was brilliant at potions, she was funny, she was snarky, she was eminently loveable. Slughorn says she'd have made a good Slytherin. This is SO the Lily I've been envisioning these past years, and I'm so chuffed to see her delineated thus in canon. Harry is the spitting image of his father (who was a fairly ghastly, bullying bastard of an adolescent), but with Lily's eyes. Snape is personally responsible for Lily's death - not intentionally - and it was THIS that made him turn his back on Voldemort and become Dumbledore's man. It was this death that made it all real to him, this death that is the 'greatet regret of his life'.

Snape's going through all this shit for love of a girl who knocked him back, and whose death he inadvertently caused. And whose death Harry caused too, by being the subject of the prophecy.

Ok, without giving away the substance of what Fay posted, she used the word "chuffed", which my American brain hasn't heard before. So, I looked it up on line -- at infoplease. And this online dictionary defines the term:

chuffed

Pronunciation: (chuft), [key]

—adj. Brit. Informal.

delighted; pleased; satisfied.

and

chuffed

Pronunciation: (chuft), [key]

—adj. Brit. Informal.

annoyed; displeased; disgruntled.

Well, that clears things up nicely.

Narrator -- great, now I know that there's (safe) whitefont for me. I'm spoiled! Oh noes!

Steph L -- Well, I didn't want you to feel left out.

I have never ever heard 'chuffed' used to mean displeased. Never. This is crazy talk.

Hey, all I know is what I read on the internets.

I think I may have heard an occasional "chuffed off". But chuffed still means pleased. It just does. And I'll chuff anyone who says otherwise.