Book Five is...Halfway Done!

Actually, it's not even halfway done yet. I finished reading Chapter 16 out of the 38 total chapters, but I was getting restless and figured I would write a post anyway. There are a few things that I wanted to share so far. One, I wrote something a little bit ago because I was afraid I would forget all of it, so here's that:

"December 14th: This is the result of me not being confident in my memory abilities. I saw the fifth Harry Potter movie the day before my sixteenth birthday, which also happened to be the day before the seventh book came out. Too bad I didn't read the books then because that would have been a rockin' birthday present.  Oh well, I'm reading them now, and I'm in the very beginning of the fifth book. Before I read the rest of it, though, I want to put my mental "snapshots" down on paper so I don't get confused.  So here goes:

• Sirius Black dies
• There are these glass globe things that fall all over the place
• Harry takes some sort of special lessons from Snape and learns stuff about his father
• There's a standoff with Voldemort at the end and stuff
• EDIT (December 21st) Luna reads a magazine upside down

There might be one other one that I can't think of right now [that was the edit], but honestly, this is all I know about this book. Oh, and also, due to unfortunate circumstances involving failblog, I now know when Dumbledore dies, so I'm no longer paranoid at every turn of the page. :( "

Two, I started watching the movies with my family and friends, and in doing so, I have been reminded that I should share some of the jewels which are my favorite characters. I'm ignoring the obvious three main characters, so when you get through the list, don't ask me "WHAT?! You don't even like Harry Potter?" For the record, I like most if not all of the good characters, but the following are my absolute favorites (in order, pretty much):

1. Neville Longbottom - I loved him from the start.
2. Professor McGonagall - She's so freaking fair, it's insane.
3. Gilderoy Lockhart - Oh my gosh he makes me laugh.
4. Sirius Black - I've liked him since I first knew of him before I read anything.
5. Dumbledore - Um, he's just amazing.
6. Remus Lupin - Probably because I used to think he was Sirius in disguise.
7. Fang - He's so adorable!
8. Hagrid - Who wouldn't love him?
9. Hannah Abbott - She has my first name and is in Hufflepuff! Probably who I would be in this book.
10. Crookshanks - Because Scabbers can't be one of my favorite characters anymore.

So that's my top ten. A couple of problems with this is that I know at least Sirius and Dumbledore die, and so I'm not looking forward to that. Also, I'm sure there hasn't been one solid reason for me to like Sirius so much other than that I liked him so much after seeing the fifth movie with no Harry Potter knowledge at all. In the book, he seems broody all the time and pretty reckless, which I'm sure is going to result in his death, so I am not sure I would like him very much if I hadn't already made up my mind a long time ago.

Three, here are my few thoughts on the book so far. I stopped after they had their first big meeting in the Hog's Head about practicing Defense Against the Dark Arts secretly, to give you a frame of reference. So here's what I think:

1. Harry is mad all the time. I find myself getting frustrated with how easily he snaps on people, and how stupid he seems to be about keeping quiet in Umbridge's class. And I feel bad for his poor friends who have to deal with his angst.
2. Who the heck is Michael Corner? And I've had enough of this Cho girl. She shouldn't be moving on so quickly after Cedric's death. Harry and Ginny shouldn't be taken by other people. Trust me, I'm not near the Harry-Ginny shipper that other people are, but "being" Ginny, I do want them to end up together. These little hook-ups are not to my liking.
3. I freaking hate Umbridge. I know this should be obvious, but I want to punch her in the face every time she opens her stupid mouth! So I guess I should give Harry a little slack because he hasn't beat her up yet, but if I were given such horrid detentions, I would keep my mouth shut in her class.
4. Where is Hagrid?!? I expected him to be back pretty soon once they figured out he was missing. I feel something fishy is going on, and Lucius, stupid Lucius, has something to do with it. That is who I blame for this.

So that's that. I'll keep reading, and hopefully sometime soon I'll have the final post about this book ready!

Want to see my other posts about the series? Right here.