"'I am not worried, Harry,' said Dumbledore... 'I am with you.'"

Well, that was devastating, amiright?

Even now, 8 years after the book came out, I still don't know how to process or deal with the fact that Dumbledore is dead. I just... I mean, I know exactly why JK did it (mainly because she spells it out in a faiiirly heavy-handed paragraph- "he could not let anybody else stand between him and Voldemort." etc etc.) and why she did it in the way she did (mainly, I'm going to assume, to make me believe once and for all that SNAPE IS EVIL. Because, believe it or not, I totally bought that. Until... You know.) but that doesn't mean I have to like it. What it actually means is that I have to WEEP, and then worry about Hagrid (Hagrid loves Dumbledore SO MUCH) and then feel even sadder because how are the good guys supposed to win without Dumbles? HOW CAN THEY?!

But, instead of wallowing in my misery, can we talk about some nifty narrative devices* that I liked a lot? FIRSTLY, I enjoy that Harry is all invisible and body-bound whilst Dumbledore and Malfoy are having their showdown, so that we get to see what's going on, but Harry doesn't have to be involved in any way. I realise this is important IN OTHER WAYS too, but purely narratively, I think it's great. AND, then I like how there is a massive amount of drama when Harry is chasing Snape and Malfoy, and it's very fast and confusing, but THEN you get all the other characters going through what else happened that same evening so you don't miss out on anything, and it's like they're piecing everything together while you are also trying to figure out what just happened. It's just... I like it, ok?

Now! The grand list of things I didn't even remember happened at all!

1. This little exchange that Hagrid overhears: "'Well- I jus' heard Snape sayin' Dumbledore took too much fer granted an' maybe he- Snape- didn' wan' ter do it anymore.'" I mean... You know what I'm saying here, right?! Right.
2. Voldemort totally cursed the DADA job! Everything makes sense now. 
3. Snape was the one who heard the prophecy and sent Voldemort after Harry's parents. NOW. This was the BIGGEST revelation for me, and also the one that causes me the most trouble, because how can Snape be SO mean to Harry all the time, when actually he is genuinely the cause of his parents' deaths? I mean... Seriously, Snape, think about what you're doing, yeah?
4. I absolutely forgot about poor Bill's beautiful face. And Fleur's actual, now proven, awesomeness. "'I am good looking for both of us, I theenk!'"

Seriously, for all these things, I was just like:

Absolutely no memory at all. It's a shame, really.

I am skipping the bullet points this week (I'm too sad. And also, lazy as hell) but before I finish, I just want to do a bit of a shout out to Neville and Luna. I feel like we of the readalong are very much in love with both Neville and Luna (as well we should be!) and so almost every week we go 'OMG NEVILLE DID THIS AND LOL LUNA I LOVE YOU!' and that kind of makes me forget that in the book? They're kind of like the least popular people ever. They're the only ones who still check their DA coins for more meetings because they don't really have anything else to do, and this just BREAKS MY HEART. But then, at the same time, this is a part of why we love them so much, because we appreciate the qualities in them that no one else does, right? And besides, real world popularity>popularity in a book, right?

That's all I have. Apart from, also, the blues. But I'll be ok. Now to find a copy of Beedle the Bard for next weeks post...

*I don't even think these are 'devices'. So, um, narrative things? And stuff?