I thought this was the best one so far, definitely the most dramatic. So much happening at once! Now you're probably thinkin' "Holy crap, she's done already!". In case you're wondering...I believe it was 7 1/2 hours in total I spent reading. I from 12 to 3 last night, and from 11:30 to 4:15 today. Okay, so now that I'm done with calculating how long I read for...
One of my favourite parts of this book was the fact there is so much Draco in it. Excuse while I party *happy dance*. I was seriously getting worried about him during the first chapter, because I had been reading a theory about him (link a few entries back) and it was shaping up like what the person said. Anyway, he plays a large part in this book, which is enough to keep me happy.

More goodness, the Ron/Hermione is so much more pronounced, with so much pay-back dating and snogging, that it made my head hurt. They weren't a definite couple by the end of the book, but there's always hope. Bill and Fleur are getting married. Harry and Ginny were dating (HOORAY!) but due to Harry's need to do everything alone (holy! Acting like Voldemort much?), had to break up. Tonks and Lupin hook up. I find it cute, in a weird way...

Harry is suddenly excelling in potions due to instructions in his book jotted in by a mysterious someone named the Half-Blood Prince. He's also learning some new spells, like Sectusempra, a veerrry strange curse that causes a lot of blood. Which he uses on Draco *strangles Potter*. Despite Hermione's nagging that the book is evil, Harry continues to use it until he is forced to hide it from Snape.

Speaking of Snape...he got the DADA job! *falls off chair* I was so shocked. The new potions teacher is some idiot named Slughorn who plays favourites. A lot. We also get a lot of backstory on Voldemort, and something that I found really interesting: It is the fault of Voldemort that the DADA job is jinxed! Ever since he was denied the job, they haven't been able to keep a teacher for a year.

So, who dies? Dumbledore. Yes, Dumbledore is the latest to go. It was quite sad actually, I almost cried (but I didn't.) Do you know who killed him? That slimy git Snape. Who just happens to be the Half-Blood Prince! Oh yeah, Snape is the HBP! I was so shocked, he was pretending to be pure blood the whole time! He deserves to be MSG'd for pretending to be pure when he's not!

Draco let the death eaters into Hogwarts. Through the vanishing cabinets, that kind of worked as a portal. There was a ruccus up in the Astronomy Tower, and finally Snape came up and then everything happened so fast I don't know if I completely read it...I just remember Avada Kedavra and POOF Dumbles is dead. So the following results in a chase through the castle and the grounds, until finally Harry has a showdown with Snape where the git reveals he is the HBP. And that next part is kind of blurry, I know Hagrid was there.

So in this book, Dumbledore is giving Harry the backstory of Voldemort. They then have to go on this mission to find these Horcruxes so they can destroy the parts of Voldy's soul that are in them and weaken him so he is easier to defeat. They find one in a cave, but it turns out to be a fake, which sucks because Dumbles got severely weakened in the ordeal. The real one has been stolen by someone with the initials "R.A.B". I have no clue who this is, and neither does anyone in the story. I sense that just as HBP used to be the 3 magical editorial letters before this book, RAB will take over that particular station.

So, I think that's about it for my take on the book. Should you have read this without finishing the book, you can't blame me for being spoiler'd as I put the warning in many, many different places. So there.