When I went to get the book I was absolutely terrified. Terrified out of my MIND that something would go wrong.

But nothing did, and now that I've read the entire thing, heard NO premature spoilers other than that Ron was Gryffindor Keeper, and established that there weren't any missing pages and that Neville Longbottom came out alive, I can't help but be terrifyingly... relieved.

Well, there was a point when it became clear to me that Ron was going to come out alive, and the twins were quite safe, and really Neville I felt was in the greatest peril and I think I'd just give up all hope in life if Neville, who symbolizes all that is good, pure, and innocent in this world, died.

Fred and George. MY GOD. I aspire to be Fred and George. I was so unbelievably proud. For once I understood what the words "swelling with pride" meant, because that's what I was doing. Swelling with absolute, complete pride when they flew out of the building like that because I was willing Harry, Ron, and Hermione to do it themselves. Dumbledore's gone, therefore it seemed to me hope was gone, what with Umbridge.

You see, Umbridge represented all that is evil in this world. I'm serious. Umbridge was like, a version of my stepmom. Seriously.

My stepmom was tyrannical and controlling in a similar way to Umbridge. There's no rule against THAT, so I weed my way through it unscathed and she decides to make one. Troublemaking is impossible with people sometimes. How does anybody expect one to pull a good joke on somebody when you're being watched?

Anyway, that's not necessarily why I was mad at Umbridge. It was also because she created the illusion of being trapped, and it was terrible. Absolutely, positively, terrifyingly awful. I could hardly breathe. I've never felt that way when reading a book. NEVER. With every fiber of my being I wanted the three of them to leave. I wished for nothing more.

Harry and Cho made me laugh probably as much as Ron did, and yet at the same time I recognized I have what Hermione has. You see, she has knowledge of how to act around girls because she IS a girl, yet she's had very little contact with the opposite sex. I suspect this has a lot to do with her hair, and the fact that she and Ron are in loooooove. Anyway, I agreed with Hermione's opinion that Harry had very little tact, but I think Cho could have done with taking lessons on tact as well. That's it. Let's bring up the boy that my new boyfriend saw die on my first date. I mean, what the hell--?

The whole Dumbledore's Army thing I absolutely loved. It was brilliant. "Dumbledore's Army." Magnificent. Absolutely spiffing. (And I was quite sure that Harry spent his magic galleon in that little tea/coffee shop but I turned out to be wrong, I guess.) I loved how Neville's so determined. I also loved the fact that Fred and George came to it, and that Ernie MacMillan (or is it McMillan? I can't spell, I guess) reappeared and was very pro-Harry (as opposed to anti-Harry in Chamber of Secrets). I can't tell you why I like that kid. Just that he's okay, really. Hannah Abbott and Justin Finch-Fletchley always struck me as rather stupid; plus, Justin Finch-Fletchley's got a last name resembling my biology teacher's (hundred points if you can guess which character actually has the SAME last name). Actually, Hannah Abbott amused me utterly with her panicking about the exams, as I could see that being me. I tend to do that with exams.

Also I was absolutely positively terrified when Arthur's bitten by the snake.

BUT, on the up side, I was beside myself with glee at the reappearance of Lockhart, and as I discovered Arthur was going to survive I felt very little to be sad about later on, and was only joyous with the thought that Lockhart had returned for a little bit.

Now, as per what they say, Lockhart is a git. However, I find him highly entertaining and he never passed the line from "a good joke" to "highly irritating."

Lupin's reappearance made me even happier because I love Lupin. I love him so much. I love him like I love Ron and Fred and George.

Also I would like to get this clear:

PERCY IS EEEEEEEEVIL.

I can tell he's not going to admit he was wrong about everything. But, you know.

Luna Lovegood I found incredibly impressive. I mean, seriously. She was so... odd. Of course, I didn't see myself in Luna Lovegood. I know I'm exceptionally odd, but I think it's more in a Weasley fashion (feeding a salamander a Filibuster Firework, for example, is something I would do if I had access to a salamander and a Filibuster Firework).

Now I must confront the idea of NEVILLE. I was really, absolutely, positively panicked in the chapter Behind The Veil that Neville'd had it. I seriously thought it was he who would snuff it.

Of course, he didn't, for which I am thankful.

Therefore I started the Neville Admirers Support Association, or N.A.S.A. (I have far too much fun with acronyms. They do a body good!)

Also the book, aside from being dark, was probably the funniest. I think I appreciate the books more as they get to be around my age level. I will never understand how J.K. Rowling characterizes people but she does it so perfectly. I behaved somewhat like a couple of the characters in the first year, and the same as in the second, and as they age, I age, and I know that she's doing it right because, well, I'm aging at practically the same rate. That is one reason why I'm pretty happy that I re-read the books NOW, and that book the fifth should come out now: because I'm 15, and so are the Potter kids.

Now I shall rant about the lack of Ron Weasley in this book.

WHERE THE HELL WAS RON?!

I mean, I realize that the fourth book lacked Hermione exposure to a similar extent, but really. The fourth book lacked Ron exposure to quite a distance as well, and the fifth lacks Ron exposure doubly. I find it incredibly irritating and would like to throw a stack of toast at whoever thought that Ron was not going to appear in this one very much, OR confess his undying love for Hermione. Honestly.

As for Draco Malfoy. I was talking to Diana about a lot of this and she came to the conclusion that the people who write Draco Malfoy fanfiction must not be reading the same books as we are, because Draco Malfoy sure is a slimy bastard who could do with an ass-kicking (much to my satisfaction that he actually got one in this book). I must say I agree completely with her, inasmuch as I've only read one fanfic where Draco Malfoy is the asshole that he really is.

Speaking of fanfic. I would like to say HA-HA to all those people who wrote fanfic that's completely screwed up now. Hence, my newest proverb: That is why we do not mess with what we do not know. Because you just MIGHT have written a fanfic wherein the Lovegoods were all completely alive, and had never heard of Luna Lovegood or her father who runs the Quibbler, and it may have been perfectly legitimate until...

[Cue horror music]

BOOK FIVE.

AHHHHH! [Screech screech screech!]

This is also why it's inexcusable to write book-based fanfiction before you've finished the book(s), unless it's one of the following:

1. A parody.

2. A short!fic. Preferrably humor. It must take place in the recent past--that is, if it's a Potter fic, it must take place in the past five years, from when the books began to where they are now. The only exception is if it's a parody or humorous, in which case it doesn't need to be completely accurate. You must also not deal with anything that you do not know for sure about, and if you don't, at least don't blatantly say it. You may imply it, but you cannot obviously state something that could possibly be untrue. (For example, in my fic I meant to think that Dumbledore was the Headmaster of Hogwarts at the time it took place, though there's a large probability he was not. At any rate we KNOW he taught there at the time the story took place, so he wouldn't be completely oblivious to Hogwarts goings-on.) At any rate if something you write in your fic turns out to be incorrect, at least it was only a short!fic. Imagine if it was a novel-length, ten-part series.

ANYWAY. There ends my fanfic rant.

But my fanfic stars Professor Trelawney in her third year at Hogwarts and Remus Lupin in his fifth, and it's got no romance, so don't worry (Trelawney/Lupin might burn my eyes out). So if you want to read it, you can click here. (The teaser is that Sybill Trelawney is a third year Hogwarts student who can't See for her life... until she's offered money to predict exam questions.)

I also loved the fact that it was SHE who came up with the prophecy (and Neville being the other option! Imagine!). I'd wondered for years what her first real prediction was, after I read Prisoner of Azkaban (which, I think I even have evidence, I bought on its release date of September 16th, 1999 [I think it was that day, anyway]).

This talk of Professor Trelawney, who for some reason my respect has increased for (as well as Petunia Dursley), brings me to one of my/my favorite paragraph in the book:

The teachers were, of course, forbidden from mentioning the interview by Educational Decree Number Twenty-six, but they found ways to express their feelings about it all the same. Professor Sprout awarded Gryffindor twenty points when Harry passed her a watering can; a beaming Professor Flitwick pressed a box of squeaking sugar mice on him at the end of Charms, said "Shh!" and hurried away; and Professor Trelawney broke into hysterical sobs during Divination and announced to the startled class, and a very disapproving Umbridge, that Harry was not going to suffer an early death after all, but would live to a ripe old age, become Minister of Magic, and have twelve children.

By the thing about the watering can I was cracking up; by the sugar mice I was laughing at a good joke; but by Trelawney's announcement I was in tears and I fell off the bed. I was amused beyond belief.

Now there are only three remaining topics to cover.

One of them is Tonks.

Now, I like Tonks, and she was very underexposed in this book, but...

I must say, I would definitely choose going by "Nymphadora" instead of "Tonks" (reminds me of a toy truck; with just one small and completely possible typographical error you might type "Tonka"). Also I might commit suicide if my cousin was Draco Malfoy, and I'd DEFINITELY commit suicide once I considered that my uncle was Lucius Malfoy.

Wouldn't most normal people?

The next topic is Dumbledore's explanation at the end. Never have I been so satisfied with his explanation, and, though I broke my own rule in beginning a fanfic titled "A Complication In Sorting And A Sorcerer's Stone" (which can be seen here), I was positively shocked to discover I'd read the signs correctly in the paragraph of the book that Hermione reads aloud. It certainly seems that the "Neither can live while the other survives" part I got down, anyway.

But, insomuch that I was waiting for this explanation for YEARS, I don't care WHAT it was, I would have been happy. If Dumbledore had sat Harry down and told him his parents had NOT died; and that his mother had turned his father into a yak before disintegrating into a candied sweet potato, I would have been HAPPY. You hear me? H-A-P-P-Y. I didn't CARE what he said.

The fact that he said what I'd already decided to make up immensely satisfied me, and furthermore the fact that I have PROOF that he said what I'd already decided to make up satisfies me even more (seriously--check the publish date at fanfiction.net).

However, I was pretty angry that he, like everybody else, seemed to be putting Ron down in his Prefect-ism. I think Ron is perfectly capable of being Prefect but nobody else seems to think so. The fact that Dumbledore even joined that league thoroughly disgusted me and turned me sort of anti-world for a few minutes, before the appearance of Fred and George in leather.

The next, last, and most unavoidable subject is that of Sirius Black.

No, Siriusly.

Hoo doggy.

Alrighty. First allow me to wipe this tear...

...right then. Here we go.

Sirius Black. Well, I thought he was a neat fellow, but I guess I never knew how much I truly loved him until he was gone.

I mean, sure, he--like all boys--can be a jerk at times. But I still liked him and he made up such a huge portion of what was Harry, and at any rate, I remembered how I felt in the third book when, even though he got away, Harry wasn't going to be living with him. This seriously depressed me.

Well, after remembering this, it still took a while for the fact that he was dead to sink in.

The problem with his death was that it lacked finality. I mean, it wasn't like a quick Avada Kedavra, snuffing it. He goes through the veil and then, you know, Harry's sure that he's merely behind the veil, and I was just as sure.

Eventually it was known that he wasn't coming back, and I didn't feel as shocked because it lacked that finality.

I understand that Sirius had to die for a reason. I understand that the reason is mostly all dramatic element, and that it is to show how truly big the return of Voldemort is. First Cedric, then Sirius... these weren't random deaths. They were murders. Murders that are only committed because of the terror Voldemort brings upon people, magic or non-magic.

That's the point. I know people who've been saying his death was pointless. But his death DID have a point, and it was to show you how truly big this was. The great magnitude it DID have.

Finally, I realized, much like drama (which I still devote an hour or more to every day), how much I think about Sirius Black now that he's lost. I mean, he always pops up when I'm thinking of Harry Potter, but suddenly, when I think of him, I remember he's not there anymore.

His presence was SO enormous that now I feel... empty. There's a spot in the Harry Potter books that is uncomfortably unfilled.

Plus, recall his last words to Bellatrix. Something along the lines of, "Aww, come on, you can do better than that."