rusty_halo

Friday night, Jane (

jaydk) and I went to a Harry Potter party at a big Barnes & Noble. We're not big HP fans, but we just decided to go for the fun of it. It's not often that you see that much excitement over a book. The party was pretty big; it had a Hagrid lookalike, face painting, free Harry Potter glasses, and quite a few news reporters showed up. It was cute to see bunches of kids with painted faces and witch hats were running around.

We got there around 10:30pm and waited in line (the line ran all through the bookshelves, so it's not like we didn't have anything to entertain us) until the new HP book went on sale at midnight. I think we finally got out of there after 1am, then we hung out for a bit and then headed home. I started the book that night, and finally got to sleep around four or five in the morning.

Saturday was the Buffy party at

herself_nyc's apartment. Jane,

drujan,

soulmate815, and

villagechick and her husband were all there. We watched some Spike stuff (all of "Something Blue," some of "Triangle," and then some clips from a wonderful all-Spike tape that

drujan brought). Mostly we talked, though, which was very nice. Also, Jane surprised me with a birthday cake (my birthday is next Saturday, but I'm going to be away) and a gift ("Labrynth" for my new DVD player). It was very sweet of her. (Thanks Jane!)

The party ended around 11pm, which is much too early for me, so Marlaine (

soulmate815) and I went out to have coffee and talk. We had a long and interesting conversation which went on until almost 3am. Then I came home and read more Harry Potter until 9am. Finally slept, woke up around 3pm, and read more. I finally finished it a bit ago. Sad to say I was somewhat disappointed ...

I like that the HP universe is getting darker. The problem I had with it is that the darkness often felt tedious rather than really disturbing or interesting. All the stress over the exams just gave me icky flashbacks to high school and made me want to put down the book.

I do like that the series is dealing with more adult themes, though. It started to feel like Animal Farm, the way it was showing the Ministry's repression and control over the school, and all those annoying decrees. I love its portrayal of the press as in the control of the government, and I liked that Harry discovered that his father wasn't the saint he thought he'd been.

I didn't like the prophecy; after five years, it was such a letdown. Okay, either Harry's going to kill Voldemort, or Voldemort's going to kill Harry. Well, yeah. It's not exactly a surprise, and I don't see why Voldemort thought it was so important to find it. I was really hoping for more Voldemort in this book altogether, since his role has been increasing with each book, and since he returned in the last book it would've been nice to have more focus on him. But instead he was barely there, and his final appearance wasn't all that big a deal. It wasn't nearly as cool as his appearance at the end of the previous book. Overall, this one just felt like it was treading water; it didn't really get anywhere.

I liked that Harry's growing into a realistic teenager; his anger, after all that's happened to him, makes perfect sense. The kid needs some serious therapy though.

And, to be selfish, the thing that bothered me most was that my favorite character died. I was thinking in the back of my mind that maybe HP could be my next fandom; I've been actively seeking a new obsession since I lost interest in BtVS. But it would have been fandom oriented around this particular character, and without him I'm not all that interested. :(

Also, someone really needs to tell J. K. Rowling to chill out with the ellipses.

So, I've now come out of Harry Potter induced hibernation and will now be catching up on my email, website, and friends' list.