Number Four.

The point at which the series takes a hard turn for the ‘now its dark really’.

(Yeah, that was actually the second one, but thanks to J. K. Rowling’s skillful writing, no one noticed. Well… I didn’t anyway.)

This is the book with Rita Skeeter. I was dreading Rita Skeeter. As I mentioned last time, my least favorite part of this series is the embarrassing bits. Well, Rita Skeeter is the embarrassing bits, and she was even worse than I remembered. But I’d forgotten how well Hermione handled it, and also how only a one or two of the articles Rita wrote were about Harry.

The fact that I read a lot faster than I used to (I read the whole book in two sittings) sped up the pain too, so it felt less like an eternal mire of embarrassing things. Also, I didn’t care nearly as much. Maybe that’s because Harry doesn’t care as much as I remembered? Maybe that’s because I’m less good at getting into character’s heads then I was when I was younger, so it doesn’t hurt as much now? (I actually think this seems most likely, although I’m sure reading speed ‘helped’.)This made the book easier to read, but it detracted from my ability to empathize with Harry. A lot. Guy got basically no sympathy from me until he made up with Ron. (Which was a good chunk into the book!)

I would like Harry a LOT better if he’d been willing to reach out to Ron when Ron was being a butt-head. I mean, come on. People are butt-heads sometimes. Sometimes ignoring them is the right thing to do, but since I have NO evidence that Ron has ANY emotional problem solving skills–

Oh wait, I don’t have evidence that Harry has any of those either. No wonder Hermione has so much trouble with these guys! TEACH YOUR FRIENDS HOW TO COMMUNICATE, HERMIONE! ITS THE ONLY WAY YOU’LL HAVE ANY PEACE!

What was I talking about?

Things I liked about this book!

Mad-Eye Moody. Still cool. Not as cool as I remember, but I think that is because, knowing he was Crouch, I went through the story looking at everything he did and being like, ‘oh yeah, he is doing that because he is evil. Literally everything he is doing, he is doing because he is evil.’ Except being a competent Defense Against Dark Arts Teacher. He is just doing that because he is in disguise.

I hope Dumbledore took some satisfaction out of getting a one year of good education for his students out of Voldemort.

Probably he didn’t.

Because Cedric Diggory is dead.

It has been interesting to be reading this series knowing about Snape. (I should put a warning on the top. SPOILERS!!!! SNAPE IS A SPY FOR DUMBLEDORE!) Knowing about his backstory and stuff makes him more sympathetic, and also an interesting dude. But still a huge, immature, unfair JERK. But you know what? That is super sweet.

I like that J. K. Rowling made a character who is, basically, a really mean jerk, but he still is on the right side and, when it comes to big things that he thinks actually matter, he is doing the right things. Like, he loves Dumbledore, he’s going to do right by him, even if that means killing him to save Draco Malfoy. (Or at least, that’s how I remember it going. We’ll see when I get there, right?)

So like, even though he’s really a horrible person, he’s still a good person. You see? Because people are complicated.

And J.K. Rowling basically took the most hated (by the main characters) character, the one they profile, the one they make the flat bad-guy whenever they can, the one we’re kinda supposed to make the flat bad-guy, and turned him into this really complex person.

I mean really.

This is practically a story about Snape.

He may be the most character-y character in the whole book.

Except possibly Lupin.

But I might just be saying that because I like Lupin.