I need a summary of HBP

[mysid]

My brother (the Philistine) has not read any of the HP books, but he has seen the movies. He's a reader by nature, but he's been too busy with law school for much recreational reading. ANYWAY, now he's done school, and after trying (unsuccessfully) to get me to tell him what happens in DH, he has promised to read it.

But first, we need to get him up to speed. The deal I made with him was that after he went to see the movie-OotP, I would summarize HBP for him (my least favorite of the 7 books so I won't make him read it), and then he would read DH for himself.

I could summarize HBP for him myself, but I do have a tendency to give too much detail, and I don't want to bore him to tears. I'm sure someone, somewhere, has posted a good summary of HBP which gives all the pertinent (i.e. need to know for DH) details. Could one of you kind people point me to it? Thanks!

Comments

[gehayi.livejournal.com]

Well, you could always point him at hbpspork--where the bad points of the book were sporked--chapter by chapter, as if it were a fanfic--and the good points (considerably less, alas) were praised. (We tried to be fair.)

He might also like Mike Smith vs. The Half Blood Prince (http://pages.prodigy.net/mike_p_smith/hbp/intro.html). You have to love a guy who refers to the character of Harry Potter as "the Rowling Family College Fund." (However, HBPspork is shorter.)

[mysid.livejournal.com]

Thanks!

[yuan-18.livejournal.com]

He's a reader by nature, but he's been too busy with law school for much recreational reading.
*shakes fist* Stupid law school! Heh, just kidding, and seriously, gotta admire the people who are dedicated enough to go to law school.

my least favorite of the 7 books so I won't make him read it
Mine too. Order of the Phoenix kicked its ass, and I wasn't sure OotP would ever be able to kick anything...

And lastly, for your summary...WIKIPEDIA!!! I made a feeble attempt to reread HBP which didn't work and the day before the 7th book came out, I looked it up there and read it. It covers a lot of main points and has some interesting trivia as well.

[mysid.livejournal.com]

Thanks! I looked over the Wikipedia summary, and I think I'll make a copy of it, add a few details, and pass it along to him. (I don't want to send him the link because he might get the bright idea to read Wikipedia's summary of DH as well--and I really want him to read the book!)

[kawaii-tenshi27.livejournal.com]

There's always Spark Notes.

Or you could just tell him 'Voldemort figured out he could split his soul into pieces by killing people and then hide the pieces in either animate or inanimate objects - that diary from the 2nd book/movie was one. They've all got to be destroyed before he can be killed. There are, presumably, seven bits of Voldemort-soul lurking about, one of which is in Big V's new body. Dumbledore destroyed one - a ring with a stone in it - and located another - a locket once belonging to Slytherin - which turned out to be a fake, because someone with the initals 'R.A.B.' had already stolen it from it's oh-so-clever hiding place. Voldemort's snake is supposed to be a fourth. Then there's a cup that once belonged to Hufflepuff, and, probably, something either belonging to Ravenclaw or Gryffindor (though the only known object belonging to Gryffindor is the sword from CoS, which is soul-free). Oh, and Malfoy's supposed to kill Dumbledore, but even after he disarms him he can't do it, so Snape kills Dumbledore. And Harry and Ginny finally hook up, then break up, so Harry and the other two Musketeers can go a-hunting for horcruxes instead of finishing school.'

Possibly, that's still too detailed, but I think it covers all the bases without ruining DH by being too horribly obvious about anything. Some mention of Bill (and his injuries) and Fluer might be helpful, or the fact that Harry had Snape's old book, and had to hide it and all the deal with the Room of Requirement, but a number of people I know who read all the books didn't actually pick up on the fact that the tiara from HBP was the diadem until it was spelled out, and it most likely won't be in the movies, anyway (considering all the other stuff that was skipped), so I think you're safe skipping it as well.

Sorry for the ramble. Hope you found a decent summary, since mine obviously is wonky.

[mysid.livejournal.com]

Your summary may be wonky, but it actually covers some of the important details that Wikipedia left out.

[kawaii-tenshi27.livejournal.com]

What did Wiki leave out?

[mysid.livejournal.com]

Well, for one thing, it left out an explanation of what horcruxes are. And for another, it didn't list what objects Voldemort used for his horcruxes.

Granted, Wikipedia did provide a link to a page about horcruxes which presumably explained all that, but since I was sending my brother a summary stripped of links, that didn't do much good.

Wikipedia also left out Remus/Tonks. (Too bad JKR didn't.)

[kawaii-tenshi27.livejournal.com]

I still can't believe she killed them both because she couldn't kill Arthur in the fifth book. That's just not fair on so many levels.

[mysid.livejournal.com]

I believe she had originally planned to kill Arthur in Book 7 (not 5)--but then substituted Remus. If she'd gone with her original plan, it would have been Arthur's "spirit" instead of Remus's standing there in the forest scene telling Harry that he died fighting so his children could live in a happier world.

Personally, I much preferred Remus in that scene. (Remus and Sirius reunited in the afterlife--le sigh.)

Arthur's near-death in OotP was merely to throw us off guard for Sirius's death: rumors that someone would die preceded the book's release, Arthur came close to dying so readers would think, "This is it!" and then would relax when he survived, and then Bam! someone else does die. (She pulled the same trick in HBP with Aragog's death and funeral preceding Dumbledore's.)

[kawaii-tenshi27.livejournal.com]

She said in an interview that Arthur was going to die in book five - the snake attack - but she couldn't do it, so she saved him. I didn't know he was supposed to be in the scene at the end of DH, in Remus's place, but, yes, I am glad Remus and Sirius were together again. I'd have been happier if they'd never been split up to begin with... ::pouts:: I still haven't forgiven her for that, even if her point made some sense, I think she made a lot of stupid choices.