Finished with HBP.

[rikibeth]

Yeah. Well. I hadn't expected to be done this soon, but circumstances... um... happened.

See, we had it on Amazon pre-order. And I knew Christy would get first crack at it 'cause she paid for it. So I wasn't expecting to be able to START until today.

Got home from work yesterday morning, and two things: I wanted to sleep, and the book hadn't arrived yet.

I got a couple hours of sleep after shadowflyer fed me, but he managed to wake me up as he was leaving for a recording session. And told me I might not want to look at LJ, 'cause his friendslist was spoileriffic. I explained that pretty much everyone on mine had pledged to use cut tags, and he said "but people are using spoilery ICONS on the comms," and I said "I dropped most of my comms and I don't subscribe to the ones you do, no [Unknown site tag], none of your others." Then I must have gone back to sleep for a few minutes because I dreamed that he told me that it was George who died, which did not faze me.

Well, having been teased like that, I couldn't sleep properly. So I dragged myself down to the computer. Let me take this moment to praise my friendslist for being vigilant with the cut-tags and NOT using spoilery icons. I am now going to have to go back to where everyone started reacting and read what all of you had tosay under your cut tags.

But anyway, even though I was not spoiled by my friendslist, I found myself with a very distressed atalantapendrag IMing me. Now, mind you, the hardcopy still hadn't arrived. But she was so distressed that I went ahead and started reading the online text version she had a link to, so I could talk about it with her.

She kept me company all through my read-through. And I tried to distract her with scattered bits of RP along with my commentary. I read it for about eight hours straight.

Um... damn.

I'll go through the chatlog and extract my comments... but for right now, I am coping with having Immortal Beloved knocked into a cocked hat.

Well, sort of. The first half, the MWPP-era half, stands with very few changes. Several of our fanon bits are now canon, including the absolutely crucial plot hinge of the soul jar. Where the heck did she get the name "horcrux" for it, anyway? It was nice to see tandem Apparation/Apparition (when did she change THAT, too?) confirmed, and it's still POSSIBLE to stretch the principles to have allowed Severus to Apparate directly to Evan without knowing exactly where he was, if he put enough determination behind his visualization of Evan himself, I think. The slight change in his mother's name and the family background is trivial, in terms of plot, although the family crypt thing might need some shifting.

But, well, the second half that includes the resurrection is now wildly AU. I can see how to make it compliant... but until book 7, there's really no point. And Nemesis is just impossible as it stands. Although, entertainingly, the ritual that broke the anti-Apparation wards on Azkaban is still pretty plausible... timing shifted, maybe, and Severus' reaction would have been colder and less angsty, but...

Whatever. My fic's AU, and I'll deal.

I am reserving judgement on characterization until book 7.

GOD, some of the scenes read as if Jo took 'em straight out of fanfics.

Dumbledore NEVER understood where Severus was coming from, did he? He didn't even fucking TRY.

I have some thoughts about the whole "power of love/able to love/pure of heart" thing, but they're a little incoherent. I have no problem with the reading that Voldemort's evil came about because he was incapable of love. But as for that pure of heart thing? If Jo is suggesting that ONLY the pure of heart are capable of love, I have a big problem with that. I could agree that as long as someone is capable of love, there's the potential of redemption from evil, atonement for evil acts, etc... I would disagree STRONGLY that committing evil acts RENDERS you incapable of love and puts you beyond hope. It could, certainly, but it doesn't HAVE to mean that.

I couldn't care less about the teenage romantic issues, really, so I won't address them. Except to say that I think Pansy is the biggest fag hag at Hogwarts.

Remus/Tonks... dude, how many of us have written those words coming out of Remus' mouth, but addressed to Harry, huh? And I think it's a damned good thing she's a Metamorphmagus, because she is SO going to have to be a bloke and top him a lot of the time, because I still think he's mostly GAY GAY GAY. But that's not to say it couldn't work. I can pout because we wanted it to be Tonks/Charlie, and this leaves Charlie all alone, but that wasn't central in any case.

Percy... I cannot tell you how much my heart goes out to him. Horrid, horrid siblings. Everything Azalais has written about Weasley family dysfunction is SO TRUE. Poor Percy-love.

I'm winding down. I'll read all of your stuff and comment. Comments welcome here too.

She better hurry up and write book 7.