There's a plot point which has been nagging at me, and I haven't seen it discussed elsewhere, so I thought I'd toss it out here. After Dumbledore dies and the Death-Eaters flee, Harry chases after them. Obviously, he can't catch them - not in this book, at least. We have to leave that for book seven. So he runs, blasting bad guys left and right, and gets close enough to exchange some jinxes with Snape before they get away.

But Harry was up on top of the tower and there were two broomsticks sitting right there. Can someone explain to me why he didn't hop on the closest broom and mow Draco and Snape down before they made it halfway across the courtyard?

I did enjoy the book, and I think for sheer complexity that Snape continues to be my favorite character. I don't necessarily like him, but I love what Rowling has done with this character. It's the same reason I loved Long John Silver in Treasure Island: he's more complex than the others, and you're never entirely sure what's going on. At least, the other characters aren't. Me, I'm convinced he's still a (relatively) good guy, which should make for some interesting conflicts in the last book.

I was a bit bummed about Dumbledore's death, though. Discovering that the necklace wasn't even a real horcrux made his sacrifice feel emptier. Not as meaningless as Tasha Yar's farewell from Star Trek: TNG (to use a random example), but it bothered me. Technically though, he died to save Harry and to insure that Harry would learn how Draco and the Death-Eaters pulled off their attack. But if he hadn't gone after that fake horcrux, he would have been far stronger, and probably would have roped 'em all up as easily as he did in the last book. Overall, I thought the death scene worked, but making the horcrux fake for the sake of planting a clue for book seven bothered me.

There's more, but I think I'll shut up for now. I suspect most folks are already sick of reading Harry Potter responses all over the LJverse.