Harry Potter Readalong, Half-Blood Prince II: "Dumbledore's man through and through, aren't you, Potter?"

And yet again, I did not finish the reading. LOOK LIFE IS BUSY RIGHT NOW. But I did do some of it. And I skimmed the other parts. So we're all set.

Regarding this section: I. Love. Backstory. I love backstory so much, if you give me 5% current day situation and devote the rest of your book to backstory, I WILL LOVE YOUR BOOK 95% MORE. This is a big reason I'm liking A Visit from the Goon Squad, which I started prior to Saturday's readathon because I have no regard for your "standard practices."

So when they just spend large amounts of time visiting Tom Riddle's past, oh so very happy am I. Then it reverts back to present day and there seems to be some trouble on the Quidditch team, and okay. I guess I'm on board with that. But sekritly I'm hoping there'll be more backstory. And then there is! Oh happy day. We also get flights of verbal fancy with Dumbledore:

"From this point forth, we shall be leaving the firm foundations of fact and journeying together through the murky marshes of memory into thickets of wildest guesswork."

Nice.

I was reading some section involving Harry hating Snape (you know how it goes) and tried to think, did I EVER hate a professor. Because it seemed an important feeling to remember; Harry's attitude towards Snape seems ridiculous otherwise. This is his teacher. He shouldn't act the way he does towards him.

I was such a huge suckup in school, it was hard to think of a professor I disliked on a personal level. I had absolutely no social life in college (think of your college experience, then subtract all interaction with friends/sports/activities, and you have my four years) and I spent my free time in office hours or asking my TAs to work with me in coffee shops on my Russian/German grammar (btdubs: I might have had crushes on said TAs).

BUT then I remembered. A certain professor who decided she hated me on the first day of class. In terms of personal compatibility, it was like taking two items and trying to fit them together, but the points all jar against each other. We went so far as having a special meeting to discuss our mutual dislike.

this probably would have made the meeting go better

So now that that's resurfaced in the ol' brain, I'm with you, Harry. There's no getting around it. You're just gonna hate him. But make sure you call him 'Professor' Snape, 'cause that's just basic politeness.

The other thing I want to touch on — because recap posts seem pointless, we all having just read all or, y'know, part of the section — is the Harry/Draco thing. One of the main things I've noticed in this reread is how dissatisfied I am with how the characters are paired off.  JKR, I love you, you know I do. But you cannot write romance for shit. And I don't think you know how your characters actually feel about each other when it comes to happy squishy love feelings.

So there are a ton of Harry/Hermione shippers, and a ton of Harry/Draco shippers. I used to be vehemently anti-both, because I only wanted canon. Obviously in the last couple of years, things have changed and I've gotten far more sympathetic towards non-canon pairings.

thank you, Alison Brie

There's a lot to support Harry/Hermione in the text. Way more than Ron/Hermione, actually. But when I've had Harry/Draco explained to me — damnit, it makes a lot of sense. And does anyone really believe the Ginny thing? Yeah, sure, Harry. You just happen to fall in love with a girl — who creepily enough looks like your mom — after you've ignored her for five books, and even in the book where you're supposed to 'realize' you like her, you spend the whole time stalking Draco.

SLUGHORN...how about that guy.