Nora's Reading Room

1. about Snape
I don't think he is "Voldemort's man through and through."雖然他在第六集尾聲時親手殺了Dumbledore,似乎鐵證如山地將他推到了邪惡勢力的一方。但我卻隱隱覺得這其中仍有很大的詮釋空間。甚至"Dumbledore被Snape所殺"這件事也很可能是他們兩人事先套招和沙盤推演過的，就如同Dumbledore曾經在洞窟中命令Harry無論如何都必須強迫他喝光盛裝鍊墜盒的盆中毒藥，Snape也得到命令必須在非常情況下動手殺死Dumbledore。
如果說在第六集中Rowling揭露了許多Tom Riddle之所以成為the Dark Lord的過程與細節，讓我們更瞭解他的人格塑形與行為模式。相較之下Snape這位專擅鎖心術的魔藥學老師、遊走在正邪邊界的雙面諜，我們除了知道他母系的姓氏是Prince,關於他的身世背景經歷顯然還有許多未釐清的細節，環繞在他身上的重重謎團，使得這個人物似乎比Voldemort更加神秘而難解，也讓Rowling隨時都能穿插一個足以使劇情翻盤的關鍵。

2. about the prophecy
"Do you think every prophecy in the Hall of Prophecy has been fulfilled?"(Chp. 23)
在第五集兩方人馬為了預言水晶球而大鬧魔法部的情節還歷歷在目，最後當完整的預言由Dumbledore親口告知Harry時，許多人都認定哈利波特終將如預言所示，與Voldemort同歸於盡。但我一直認為Rowling不可能如此斬釘截鐵，而在第六集Dumbledore為Harry"上課"時，有一段關於預言的討論，Harry似乎並沒有真正瞭解Dumbledore想傳達的意思，而我也懷疑the prophecy是不是真的會實現，畢竟在第六集的字裡行間仍透露了轉圜的餘地。

3. about R.A.B.
另外一個在書末間接登場、極可能是第七集關鍵人物的，就是在假的鍊墜盒中留下字條的R.A.B.,我不知道這會不會是Serious Black家族中的一員，抑或是這個神秘的wizard為自己取的某種稱號，只能等待Rowling來揭謎了。^^

5. my favorite quotes
第六集中個人印象比較深刻的對白：

"How often this happens, even between the best of friends! Each of us believes that what he has to say is much more important than anything the other might have to contribute!" --said by Dumbledore in Chp. 17.

"Voldemort himself created his worst enemy, just as tyrants everywhere do! Have you any idea how much tyrants fear the people they oppress? All of them realise that, one day, amongst their many vicitms, there is sure to be one who rises agianst them and strikes back!" --also by Dumbledore, in Chp. 23.

嘿嘿，初次拜訪～
我是看不懂英文版苦等中文版，卻好奇得要命的波特讀者。

目前我聽說第6集裡跩哥Draco似乎有轉變？
可以煩版主洩漏一下嗎？
感恩～ ^^

anarch你好：

歡迎來到我的blog.
不知道你是從電影還是小說開始認識Harry Potter的呢？我的印象是從電影入手的人，通常不會對Draco Malfoy(played by Tom Felton)有太大的惡感。^^

相較於前面五集，Draco Malfoy作為哈利的對手，卻鮮少有發揮的空間，形象充其量只比他的兩個跟班Crabbe & Goyle好一點而已，仍然不脫丑角反派的窠臼。第六集裡，在父親被捕入獄，Voldemort以他父母的性命為要脅，要他取Dumbledore性命的狀況下，Draco的確面臨了前所未有的壓力和心理危機，要讓這個角色有血有肉大可以從這個角度著墨，可惜的是Rowling並沒有花太多的篇幅去描寫。

在書的前半部份我們仍然是透過哈利（偏頗）的角度去觀看Draco的行為，直到第24章哈利無意中聽到Draco在廢棄的廁所裡偷哭，我們才瞥見他脆弱的一面。在第27章他雖然達成任務讓Death Eaters潛入Hogwarts,卻遲遲不敢對Dumbledore痛下殺手，是出於恐懼？脆弱？還是人性本善的一面？書中並沒有清楚的交代。我不敢奢望第七集裡Draco會有什麼發揮，畢竟要交代的故事情節太多。不過Draco Malfoy究竟只是個平面人物還是會有所成長，也許要到完結篇我們才能有定論了。

非常感謝版主的說明，我會很期待中文版的 ^^

PS：我是先看小說再看電影的，小說除了第1集看得不大耐煩外，2～5集我都非常喜歡 :)

不客氣。:-)
聽說中文版最快九月就會出版了，應該不用等太久。

hope you would read my comment to the book.

To Nora,

Please read carefully: "neither can live while the other survives" does not mean both of them will end up killing each other and die! It simply means that "one of them will end up killing the other" and that's it! The one that kills the other can absolutely be living a happy life henceforth.

Scott

Hi, Scott,

Thank you for correcting my false impression of the prophecy.
I must admit, I'm not a scrupulous reader.
And I guess it never occurred to me that Harry would eventually triumph over Voldemort and "live happily ever after." It's not that I don't believe Harry Potter and his pals will defeat the Dark Lord and his followers. Yet it seems to me a victory as such can only be won at a cost of heavy casualties.

About the mysterious R.A.B.

Mugglenet just made a wild guess on R.A.B. According to them, R.A.B.= Regulus Arcturus Black, the younger brother of Sirius. I personally think this makes reasonable sense. Regulus has been a Death Eater after finishing his studies at Hogwarts. According to Lupin, he only lived a short while after stealing the locket Horcrux.

Interesting readers may visit http://www.hp-lexicon.org/wizards/regulus.html


Scott

Correction. I should have said that "According to Lupin, he only lived a short while after ceasing to be a Death Eater", as Lupin himself is unlikely to know about the stealth of the locket.

To Scott,

That's my second thought on R.A.B. as well. :-)
Yet I assumed the middle name would be Alphard.

The following is my reply to Lois' post about one month ago, in which I gave a more detailed explanation about the identity of R.A.B.. Lois also made some interesting guesses about HPVII in her blog.

BTW, the Harry Potter Lexicon is also a website I like to consult from time to time. It's really handy having such a comprehesive online reference for The Harry Potter series.
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發佈者 nora - 8月10日 上午 12:52 (Originally posted in Lois' blog)

Well, I still had some good laughs while reading the first half of the book. The "Felix Felicis" episode is amusing, esp. Harry's feigning and Ron's reaction.:-) The Half-Blood Prince, regardless of its numerous shortcomings, is still a good read, at least better than the Order of Phoenix.

I believe Snape is on the good side as well, not because of his mother though, but because of Lily Evans, for whom Snape seems to harbor a secret affection. Again, it's about "love." :p

As to the identity of R.A.B., as you can read in my blog, my guess is Regulus Alphard Black, Sirius's younger brother, the former Death-Eater who "got in so far, then panicked about what he was being asked to do, and tried to back out" (from the Order of the Phoenix). The middle name Alphard is in honor of their uncle. R.A.B. was probably long dead when he tried to destroy the locket horcrux.

As to the last part--the lightning bolt scar as the last piece of Horcrux...um...it's an interesting guess but seems to defy Rowling's logic about horcruxes. Maybe I was mistaken by assuming Nagini as the last piece of Horcrux.... Isn't it risky, according to Dumbledore, to put a slice of your soul in a living creature, not to mention another human being? Isn't a horcrux supposed to be a dangerous and deadly weapon (certainly not against oneself but against one's enemy)? Anyway, Tom Riddle's diary wasn't that lethal, either. :p