Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

I have finally fin­ished read­ing _Harry Pot­ter and the Half-Blood Prince_.

And I would like to ask you, who have also fin­ished this book, how inspired was the cast­ing of Alan Rickman?

Spoil­ers ahead.

Really.

Stop read­ing if you have not fin­ished the book.

I’m seri­ous.

Stop now.

Okay…

Lots has already been said about the book. Snape on this side, Snape on that side. Dum­b­le­dore meant him to do it. He didn’t. Etc. I fall into the camp that Snape had to do it, because of the Unbreak­able Vow. In addi­tion, I think Dum­b­le­dore meant him to do it. (It has been said that Dum­b­le­dore would never have pleaded for some­thing so tran­sient as his life.) I think they knew it had to come to this. I think Dum­b­le­dore delayed Draco so that Snape could do the deed (remem­ber, Draco has not yet killed, so he is still redeemable). I think he inca­pac­i­tated Harry so that he would not pre­vent Snape from doing it. I think that Harry is wrong when he says that while there have been a long line of peo­ple stand­ing before him to pro­tect him (James, Lily, Sir­ius, Dum­b­le­dore) that he is now alone. I think Snape is there, too.

Fur­ther­more, I think that the final con­flict, the final _emotional_ con­flict in the series will not be between Harry and Volde­mort, but rather between Harry and Severus Snape. I’m sure Harry’s clash with Volde­mort will be the last thing that hap­pens, but I think it will not be the emo­tional cen­ter of the last book. But the moment when Harry learns that love is in fact the strongest power, blah blah blah, will be when he con­fronts Snape. Good or bad, Snape is the crux of Harry’s finally becom­ing the wiz­ard he needs to be to defeat Voldemort.

Or at least, that’s how I would write it.

Now if Ms. Rowl­ing would just get a move on.