I only slept about three hours last night, on account of finishing Order of the Phoenix, complete with crying breaks. siriussiriussirius Then: Coffee! Pizza with my BFFAEAE Annabeth! Work (highlight: "She's going to show you where the books are! Librarians do that sometimes.")! Buying my favorite movie now on DVD and a new bag at the Gap! Buying dinner at Earth Fare, along with organic truffles!

On my first complete re-reading of the series, I'm also finding myself much more interested in Snape. I've always thought he was interesting, but I'm paying a lot more attention now that I know his whole story. I still don't like him. I wouldn't call him a favorite character (that's still Sirius! And Fred Weasley. And Harry. And Dumbledore. And Ginny. Luna. McGonagall....)

Also, Death Eaters. What do they think of their actions? How did Barty Crouch/"Fake Moody" feel about getting to know Neville and comforting him after his reaction to seeing the Cruciatus Curse? Knowing that Neville's reaction was because of his own actions? Was he proud of what he did, or did he think it was justified? And for what purpose? Was Voldemort going to instill a new world order that would in some way benefit people like him? Bellatrix is just crazy and evil, Voldemort the same, and Snape is a product of the environment in which he was raised. I feel that some Death Eaters are given redeeming qualities (the Malfoys love for their son, Draco's ultimate inability to kill Dumbledore), so they cannnot be meant to be purely evil, but if they are not, why do they do such evil things? I suppose it comes back to Grindelwald and Dumbledore... They think order will be brought to the world through such people? I'm totally working through this as I write, this probably makes no sense. When I have a Doctorate in Harry Potter Studies, this would be a good exam essay! In fact, I'm going to post this question on facebook and see what responses I get. So more on that later.
Now, to get back to Half-Blood Prince! Or, to quote... "And now, Harry, let us step out into the night and pursue that flighty temptress, adventure."