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

[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.