Random Observations (aka the stuff I jotted down while I was reading): -

  1. Sirius, you dork.
  2. Page 448 - Red Herrings - WOULD SOMEONE PLEASE JUST DIE ALREADY?!
  3. Parings -For the Ron/Hermione people, some bickering. For Krum/Hermione people (aka Flidget and Flidget alone) um. . she's still writing to him? For the Harry/Cho people, some snogging to go with the bickering. For the Harry/Ginny people, bupkiss. Ha! For the Sirius/Remus people, please note the absence of any significant others and the fact they are continuing to act like a married couple. Oh, and they're living together. For the Severus/Harry people. . .oh J K Rowlings, do you have any idea what you've done?
  4. Occlumency - The Good Ship Snape/Potter is now unsinkable.
  5. Chapter 27 -
  6. This is all going to lead to Centaur porn.
  7. If she hadn't been warning us for the last 3 years, plus that whole "logical plot progression" thing and all, this would so be fan abuse. Pity about logical plot progression.
  8. Harry, you dork. The sad thing is I remember being this stupid at 15 too.
  9. Oh god I can't take another hour of reading. WOULD SOMEONE DIE ALREADY!! (But not you Sirius, anyone but you. Or Lupin. Or Snape . . . but after 683 pages everyone else is free to bite it.)
  10. Except Neville. Neville, you are so cool. When did you get so cool?
  11. Well fuck.
  12. You do really bad death scenes, Rowlings.
  13. I hate you, Rowlings.
  14. Really, really hate you.
  15. I mean it.
  16. You'd better be planning something with that fucking archway.
  17. Please?
  18. What the hell kind of ending was that anyway?
  19. I hate you so much right now, Rowlings.

So I've read it and now I'm waiting for everyone else to finish (damn time difference) and I'll probably have to re-read it again just to get everything but, damn. You know how people have been saying she's been reading the fanfics? She's certainly noticed we like the angst. So yeah, I mean, initial reactions are mainly three things - one, that Draco definately doesn't seem to be destined for redemption. Two, I kept waiting for Snape to stop being an ass and have some sympathy but he didn't or that maybe Harry would stop being dense and say something and I'm pissed but I'm still holding out that one of them will come around in book 6 and that may be the only reason that I'm going to read it and AAAAAARGH I'm not a S/H person, I swear. And three, that Sirius/Remus is pretty viable right now given that he's fucking DEAD and you can't really pair off a dead man so Remus wins by default. The only good thing about all this is Sirius didn't turn out to be a rockstar. I've got other things to say about Weasleys and such but right now I'm in too much of a sulk.