The new Harry Potter book will be released this weekend! To get myself in the spirit I've been rereading the series, although I skipped Book 2 because of 1. limited time, and 2. I don't particularly like Book 2. At the moment I'm nearing the end of Book 4, which means I won't get through Book 5 again before the new installment comes out. I'm not too concerned though. :) I didn't preorder or anything so it's not like I'll have Book 6 sitting around pressuring me to hurry up. I figure I'll just go pick it up whenever I get around to finishing my reread, and in the meantime I'll be sure to avoid any and all persons who have read the book and are dying to spoil it for me.
It's funny how much more critical of the books I become the more I read them (and the older I get). Don't get me wrong, I still enjoy them! I think JK Rowling does a great job with her characters and I love the magical world she creates. Plot-wise, I think she definitely hit her stride in books 3 and 4. She always manages to surprise you at the end, and it's cool reading them over again and seeing all the little clues she left that you never picked up on.
Most of my complaints are pretty small. One, she's not very good with adjectives. Book 4 is always the one where I notice this the most -- she uses "extremely" and "large" waaaaaaaaaaay too much. As I recall, in Book 5 she wasn't nearly as bad, so either she's improving or she has better editors. :) I can overlook it for the larger story, but it does grate on my nerves after awhile. There are also some small inconsistencies throughout the books, but I think that often happens during a series so I'm not too worried about that either. The third issue I have is believability, which is slightly more problematic. (By believability I mean the story has to be believable within the world created by the author.) Mostly I only had a hard time with it in books 1 and 2 -- as I said, I really think she hit her stride once she got to Book 3. :)
Anyhow, that's pretty much just a long-winded way for me to say that I still like the books, even though at this point I've read most of them five or six times. :)
So on to the predictions. Actually I really only have the one, and most people I know have heard it already, but I figure I'll throw it on here anyway. That way when I turn out to be right I'll have proof that I knew ahead of time. :P
I am quite convinced that Harry's father was in Slytherin.
Here's why:
1. First, Rowling has never actually said which house Harry's dad was in.
2. In Book 1, Hagrid told Harry that "there's no wizard who went bad who wasn't in Slytherin." This is cleverly worded because it makes it sound like all wizards who were in Slytherin went bad, but that's not what it actually means. All bad wizards (that went to Hogwarts, anyway) were Slytherins, but not all Slytherins were bad.
3. By inference from the previous statement, Peter Pettigrew must have been in Slytherin.
4. Though students from different houses do intermingle in the school, it seems the closest friendships are formed between students within the same house (this is just by observation). Thus it's most likely that Peter Pettigrew's closest friends were in the same house as he, which puts Remus, Sirius, and James in Slytherin.
5. Slytherins are supposedly cunning and use "any means to achieve their ends". From what we know about James Potter, obviously he didn't put a lot of stock in obeying the rules.
6. Relating to #5, Harry definitely takes after his dad. Plus, in both of the first two books, the Sorting Hat told Harry he would have done well in Slytherin.
7. Isn't it just something JK Rowling would do? :)
So... I may not know who the Half-Blood Prince is, but that's what I do have. I think it will come out in Book 6, but if not I guess we'll just have to wait for Book 7, no biggie. Anyway, I think it makes for a good plot point and definitely will bring out the inner struggles of Harry. From the beginning of the series Harry has idolized his dad, and then in Book 5 he comes to realize his dad was actually a human being (as opposed to the superhuman ideal you get from before), so now he'll have to come to terms with being related to the enemy (Slytherin) and really getting a better sense of what makes a person good or evil. I think it will be good. And I think for all my criticism of JK Rowling's writing, she really does know how to make a good character.
Oh, Joe has a prediction for Book 6/7 also. He thinks Voldemort is Harry's dad. If he turns out to be right I will get rid of all my HP books and never read them again. I am tempted to say I would burn them, but they cost so much money that I probably wouldn't actually do that, even if she does break my heart in this way. I WOULD get rid of them though, and you can hold me to it. But I really don't think Rowling is dumb enough to pull out that old (tired, definitely done) gimmick. :)