I want Snape to be a bad guy, honestly, but I think chapter two is the clever way of misdirecting me away from it.

I never assumed Snape was a bad guy. I always had him pegged as a representative of "people who hate you can still be on your side, so you'd better be careful about those snap judgements." A bit of a lesson in tolerance and "it's not about you"-ness.

I feel differently about Snape this time. I guess without thinking I was, I took Harry's view.

If I'd only read the books and not the reactions to, I'd be perfectly happy with Snape being a hateful good guy. I just ... I just want people to be Jossed, I suppose.

I could be nicer.

Go away, Perkins.

connie, that's always been one of the main reasons why I like Snape.

Rereading the book I kept noticing all these details about Harry and Snape's relationship. Several times someone either compares Snape to Harry, or Harry thinks about how much he's learned from the HBP, etc. In a weird way, I think Snape has sort of become another father figure for Harry (although Harry would never admit or even realize this).

Maysa - That is brilliant, because, as we all know, a father is not always a good thing (at least, not until you have more perspective than Harry has, so why should a father FIGURE be?

I've been surprised with Harry's father being showed to be a mean-spirited bastard, more of the theme of "the good guys can be real jerks sometimes". Harry has to come to terms with that, plus his near-gutting of Draco.

I think Dumbledore wanted Harry to see Draco not wanting to kill DD as well. There was the note that Harry feels a bit of pity for Draco now, which means he's stopped automatically categorizing Draco, at least, as "bad guy, not worth caring about." Once you see the bad guys as people, it's hard to demonize them. It's all being muddled up into shades of grey, which is an amazing thing in a "kids' book". No wonder people get antsy about it, it shows life isn't neat.

Between Harry's dad's actions in the Pensieve in OotP and Ron's thoughtlessly cruel comments being not only shown but commented on, I've been rather pleased at the demonstration that being a good guy doesn't always = being good.

Well, I sat there convinced that Dumbledore would be back ANY SECOND and the bitca faked me out several times. Grrr. I am clinging to the notion that Snape was acting under Dumbledore's orders because I was more upset the headmaster had been WRONG than that he was DEAD.

I have a pet theory (that I don't actually believe at all) that Snape IS Harry's father. I enjoy looking for "evidence" of this. It is my own personal "Paul is Dead." Every time someone mentions Harry looking like James I'm all "it's a glamor! it's a glamor!"

I think Dumbledore will likely stay dead, but I don't think it's necessarily a betrayl of the readers or bad storytelling if he does not. There is all the phoenix stuff. And there is the offer to fake Draco's death. And there is the fact that it would be marvelous strategy for Voldemort to think that Dumbledore is out of the picture while he is, in fact, even more able to battle all the darkness.

I enjoyed the increasing parallels between Voldemort's life and Harry's and that but for that flicker of love in Harry they could have gone on the same path. Harry is at last going to be tempted to go along that path -- Ron and Hermione SAY they'll stay with him no matter what, and Harry is happy that he'll have "one last golden day of peace left to enjoy with Ron and Hermione" but he doesn't ACCEPT their offer to stay with him. He may well be turning his back on all the people who love him (and he's never been particularly convinced that it is love which has kept him good). I'm convinced this is key and am eager to see how it plays out.

Oh, and the ring still exists even though the sliver of soul has been removed -- if Harry IS a horocrux he doesn't have to die to destroy the bit of soul. I also wonder if he might have become one accidentally.

Go away, Perkins.

Cries.