The Inevitable Let Down

WARNING... THERE ARE HALF-BLOOD PRINCE SPOILERS BELOW... I WILL TELL YOU WHEN TO STOP READING!!!

I've been re-reading Harry Potter... with a vengeance. I started several weeks ago, picking up a hard-cover copy of Harry Potter & The Sorcerer's Stone (I had the paperback to both that and Chamber of Secrets, but they were never returned from The Lair of the Wookiee) and began to read it. My thought was to re-read all five, leading up to the release of the new book, The Half-Blood Prince.

So, with working two jobs, church, drama and loving my wife, I managed to pace through the books... I shot through Sorcerer's Stone's 300 or so pages in a matter of about two days... I immediately bought the next one, The Chamber of Secrets, and then proceeded through it so quickly that I went ahead and picked up Prisoner of Azkaban when I was only 1/2 done with Chamber...

It was also in re-reading Chamber that I finally grasped my favorite character, Ginny Weasley--more on her later.

Quickly, I finished Azkaban, already having bought Goblet of Fire... the 700+ page behemoth, the first in the now-trio of "Fat" books that Rowling has written.

As I started reading through Goblet of Fire, I began to prepare myself for a truth... I was past the halfway point in the series. Last Saturday, as you may have been able to read on a previous blog, I bought the newest book, The Half-Blood Prince, but still continued on to Goblet of Fire... I stayed up until 4am reading it, finishing it later that night.

I picked up my then-favorite of the books (i'm currently re-evaluating what my favorite is...) Harry Potter & The Order of the Phoenix, and I began to brace myself. I'd immersed myself in Hogwarts lore for three weeks now, laughing at Ron and Hermoine, feeling the bitterness with Harry when Snape's being a jerk, enjoying the new cast of characters I began to discover along the way--Tonks, Moody, Kingsley--and I new that as soon as I finished Order, then the new book... there would be no more.

This is how I felt several years ago, when I picked them up the first time. I shot through the first three, took a little time in Goblet of Fire, and then sat down and began to read my new copy of Harry Potter & the Order of the Phoenix (which my then-girlfriend Stephanie bought for me the night it came out). I dashed through it in a weekend, and then felt a sense of loneliness, cause darn it, I had to wait to see what happened....

And now, after finishing Order last night, then beginning Half-Blood Prince (reading again until 4am) and then reading it all day today... I finished it a few minutes ago. And even though I braced myself, I feel like I've just been pushed off of a cliff.

SPOILERS BELOW... STOP READING IF YOU WANT TO KEEP THE BOOK'S SURPRISES AS SURPRISES

I have a habit of flipping through books when I buy them... so I knew a few things going in...

Dumbledore buys it. Snape kills him. Something called Horcruxes play an important part. Malfoy goes from being a Class A jerk to a #1 SOB. And, most importantly to me, Ginny Weasley and Harry hook up.

Let me just explain... from the outset, Ginny has been taken with Harry, even as she sees him as an 10 year old girl in the first book, when Harry himself is only 11. She can't even talk when he comes in a room. She plays a major role in Chamber of Secrets, still taken with Harry, and darn it, I just find her so lovable... were I a student at Hogwarts, I'd totally want to hang out with her. For the longest time, Hermoine was my girl... but after re-reading all of them, I gotta say, I favor Ginny. Don't know why.

Anyway, as I read, I waiting for these parts to come, finding out what leads up to them, learning not only that Dumbly dies, but why he dies, finding out not only does Snape do the dirty deed, but how he does it...

And now, I'm done. I have to wait another two, maybe three years for the conclusion. I'm a little perturbed that Harry seems to have left Ginny (for the same noble reasons Peter Parker leaves Mary Jane at the end of Spiderman I--so though I understand it, it still leaves me bitter), because they should be together. Because I said so.

Geez... Im a nerd.

And man I'm tired.

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