Young Adult Book Club discussion

1) My favorite part in this book was being able to see into Snape's memories. It explains his hatred towards Sirius and Harry, and also shows that people can change.

2) Umbridge is horrible! But she makes a good villain. I don't believe her teaching style was very effective, especially for 5th years taking their O.W.L.S. Gilderoy Lockhart was probably much worse. Her punishments were inexcusable, however. I don't care WHO this women is, if I found out she was torturing my child with that blood quill I'd have her fired. I can't believe she got away with that for the whole year! Even if she didn't allow it in the owl posts, the students still go home for holidays....

3) --

4) The O.W.L.S are similar to the S.A.T. These tests are good for measuring the students' book knowledge and using spells in a controlled environment. However, they won't know if they are really qualified for (or if they enjoy) a career until they get some experience in the field.

5)What is the significance of meeting Luna Lovegood in this story? What dimension does she bring to the story?

6) I loved Dumbledore's Army. It was nice actually seeing (or rather, reading about) the students studying these spells so intently. They don't always seem to care about studying spells, even though they love magic so much :)

7) Any other questions or comments? Does anyone believe Sirius' death could have been prevented if Dumbledore, or the other adults, had been more open about the prophecy and/or Voldemort's connection with Harry's mind?

I also really enjoyed seeing into Snape's memories. It made his character more dimensional and created the first real hidden revelation that Rowling was plotting. Up until then many of the surprises were things the reader could not logically expect. They were fun but not in a 'I've been dropping clues for you to pick up on!'

I think the purpose of Umbridge and others is for readers to connect with the unfair teacher(s) everyone experiences. Rowling is playing to people's interest of reading about how they persevered through school despite everyone being against them.

There is no substitute for experience. Book knowledge is a wonderful thing but it is the combination of the two that moves mountains!

Luna is important for the story bc she adds the teenage crush to the ongoing drama. Her character paves the way for the other characters to shift their emotions and start to experience romantic feelings with others.

I did not enjoy Sirius's death. I felt that it was too exhausting to have him be the fake nemesis of book 3, literally drag him into the sway of things and then kill him off prematurely. There was so much character development that Rowling destroyed I felt cheated as a reader. I'm okay with him dying but I really wanted to know more about his backstory, to see him interact with Harry and Snape more.

Robin wrote: "I agree with you on Sirius's death. I found it odd that a character that could have made a huge impact in Harry's life was killed off so quickly. I too feel that there is more that I would have lik..."

That's a good idea summer with Sirius. The pair could have had a mini-adventure that perhaps could have been tied to a mystery that Harry's parents were working on as kids at Hogwarts or something.