Wow. OOTP does indeed rock.
Forget fanfiction. Forget everything on the damn internet, that's how good it is.

It is surprisingly dark. But that makes it so much better. As Harry's growing up, so are the books, in style and content. The first book wouldn't have scared anyone over the age of eleven. In this one, I suspect younger children will be turning the page with barely suppressed terror. It's all very psychological and scary. Eeeeek.


Who has Luna seen die? (And Hagrid for that matter, since he can see the Thestrals too.)
Do the Death Eaters still think that Neville might be the subject of the prophecy? That gives Dumbledore a useful card to play later.
Will Malfoy end up in Azkaban now, and who'll be doing the guarding there?
Will Percy manage to conquer his pride and rejoin his family?
What about all that weird shit that's in the Department of Mysteries then, eh?
Can Harry actually swallow his pride and learn from Snape?

And the person who dies does indeed make perfect sense, now that I think about it. But for a while I thought it was going to be Percy, because he'd end up fighting on the wrong side. Then I thought it was going to be Hagrid. Then Mr Weasley. Then McGonagall. Aaaagh! Stop playing with our brains, Joanne!

And there's more Ginny, a lot more McGonagall (this is a good thing, especially the way JK writes her), an unexpected return of Lockhart, and just more good stuff in general. Rah. I thought it was better than GOF actually. (Dearie me, I just typed GOD there before I noticed the typo. I don't like it that much. Honest.)


Anyway, it is top stuff. I'm going to read it again in a couple of days and make sure I pick up all the little extra references.

In other news, I have discovered that there are approximately a hundred dead flies on my windowsill, hiding behind a blind that I hadn't opened for a few weeks. I have no idea what's killing them, but it really made me go "eeeeewwwww!!!!!" this morning.

So either a) I'm sleeping next to something that kills flies by the dozen, or b) there's something in my breath when I sleep that kills flies by the dozen, because I haven't noticed them dropping dead around me when I'm awake. Either way, eeeeewwww.

My Gran is visiting for the next few days, seeing my piece get performed and my sister get awarded Dux.

The Italian youth hostel have finally told me how much to pay (I know in theory, but it's a bit discomfiting not to have anything from them saying so) so that's good. Need to sort out publicity for that tour once I have a programme. I've also had an enquiry from a Canadian group who want to go to France at the end of May, which I should be able to fit in rather nicely. I'll try to avoid having them stay in Paris though.