More DH chatter...

[rillalicious]

Okay, so like I said, I'd read all the spoilers first, and I went into this book thinking that Dumbledore was going to come out like this horrible, bigotted manipulator, but in the end, I didn't see that at all. If anything, I like him more now than I did before. I thought the King's Cross chapter was brilliant insight into his character (even though I felt that the details of the backstory were totally extraneous).

I loved him being regretful, recognizing that Harry was a better man in ways that he could never be, and not recognizing that knowing these things made him a better man than he thinks he was. (There has got to be a better way to word that sentence, I just can't find it.)

I loved Aberforth. Such a great peek into Albus's character from him. And he was fascinating in his own right as well. I adore him being the contact for Neville, and Percy, too, for that matter! There was just so much interesting stuff about him. Aside from my affection for goats.

This human side to Albus that we hadn't seen before absolutely captivated me: that he was fallible, that he knew it, that he wanted to keep Harry from making the same mistakes. And I guess I have a different take on the idea that he used Lily to manipulate Snape. I saw it more as using Snape's love for Lily to guide him toward redemption. Snape seemed to have genuine concern and love for Albus at the end (when Albus told him he was dying), and I don't think that would have developed in a darker relationship. I loved the memory scene of Snape leaving the office after talking to portrait!Albus. She used so few paragraphs to make this character suddenly come into his own so well.

That said, I did find it a bit odd that Harry--regardless of how brave he'd discovered Snape to be--would name his child after the creepy guy who'd been obsessively in love with his mom for decades. Personally, I would rather have seen a snarky portrait of Snape in Harry's house. (On the other hand, then there would be no AS/S. And that would be a shame.)

As far as the backstory, I still haven't figured out what JKR had in mind exactly, but I could do without the thought that canon now includes the implied rape of a 6 year old. That might have been what turned me off to the whole Ariana subplot. It felt a lot more Stephen King than JKR, and very much out of place.


So those are my thoughts after one reading. I think I definitely need to reread this one. So much to think about.