fox | Order of the Phoenix

Well, if you've read the book, odds are you know that nothing I have to say about anything before page 805 really matters worth one good goddamn.

In case you're interested, though, last night -- early this morning -- I was reading merrily along, thinking

-- V. pleased, though not esp. surprised, by Aunt Petunia.

-- Dude, there's both inking and jossing happening here. (Laura's thing about all pureblood families being related, for instance, came up, as well it might have, because it made perfect sense. On the other hand, I've got Lucius Malfoy close to ten years older than canon now does. Drat. Also, there's an uncle or a cousin or something -- right? someone has a brother named Rabastan ... and I have a character named Rastaban, meaning one of us has spelled the name wrong, though possibly intentionally. I'm not renaming mine, though. So there. [g]) [edited to add: google says i'm right. rastaban is beta draconis, and rabastan turns up only once, on a french web page called "recherches de noblesse", as part of someone's surname. HA. (i suppose it's possible she meant to use the french surname instead of the name of the star, but in a family with a kid named sirius, it doesn't seem so likely.)]

-- PERCY! [whimper]

-- Sirius. and. Remus. That is all.

-- Delighted that Ron and Hermione are prefects.

-- Mrs. Weasley's boggart made me cry.

-- I'm right with Hermione and Ron on the being-ready-to-smack-Harry thing, with this attitude he's got; yes, things suck for him, but it wouldn't kill him to give it a rest and not always take it out on his friends.

-- Yay for Ron playing Quidditch.

-- Not sure what to make of the new girl.

-- Jesus damn, that detention. I can't believe the absolute horror of that detention was never discussed among the adults.

-- This book is not for children.

-- I mean it. We've been saying since Prisoner that the series is getting darker with each successive book, but the we're moving by leaps and bounds, here. (I tried to think back to high school math -- I threw out arithmetic, geometric, and Fibbonacci sequences, and settled on exponential.) This book was grim from start to finish; I can't think of a single instance of anyone having any fun. Even the twins' rabble-rousing had more to do with desperation than merrymaking. I don't know if I can face another one, never mind two.

-- ARTHUR!

-- not arthur. thank god.

[edited to add: also -- (1) the guys at the lexicon are right; there's an awful lot of talk about socks. more than in any of the previous books. wonder if she's up to something (something else), or if that's just a red herring. and (2) anybody have ideas as to the identity of the eavesdropped on trelawney's prophecy? okay, anybody have other ideas?]

... and so forth. I'm very, very proud of Neville; quite disappointed, actually, in Hagrid, for having it in his head that taking care of his giant brother is a worthwhile use of Harry and Ron and Hermione's time, not to mention safety; relieved that McGonagall is all right; and satisfied, I suppose, that Dumbledore is self-aware enough to realize that he's made terrible, terrible, terrible mistakes -- possibly aware enough that he'll be able to make better judgments in future, when lord knows everyone will need them.

But that's all secondary. None of it matters. I'm perversely pleased to report that I genuinely didn't see it coming; I thought it'd be Percy who died, and then Arthur, and then Minerva, and then Hermione -- she had me, every time someone got hurt, and it didn't occur to me that it could be who it was until the moment before it happened. All the possibly-spoiler-laden speculations in the world (Hagrid and Dumbledore being the front-runners) couldn't have prepared me for this.

How can I go see the Prisoner of Azkaban movie now? I suppose it's a good thing it's not coming out for a long while yet.

[moan of grief] sirius ...