Deathly Hallows #1

First off, a few thoughts/predictions about this book:
-Dumbledore is dead. Jo said so very clearly after book 6
-Snape...I'm still not sure. I'm not as ready as some to believe he's good. When I re-read book 6 last week, there was more doubt than before that Snape is good. I can still see it happen, but I suppose if I had to choose, I'd say he's bad. I think more accuratley, he's in it for himself. I kinda' think he'll live, but have some sort of horrid consequence he'll have to bear the rest of his life
-Harry will have to die (or at the very least, give something valuable up) in order to kill Voldemort

And now, for the chapter reflections:

Chapter 1
Interesting that books 4-7 all start w/ something related to Voldemort & the bad guys. Sorta' sets the tone for the books as darker than 1-3. This intro chapter yet again reinforces my doubt that Snape is really a good guy. While I might see that he did kill Dumbledore on his orders, I'm not convinced it was out of pure motives.

Chapter 2
Let me just say that I think I hate Rita Skeeter w/ about the same level of loathing as Harry. She drives me crazy, mostly, I think, because she lies and mis-represents reality - and people believe her! This chapter was very interested, however, in giving background on Dumbledore. I'm interested to see if we find out more about his family, especially his brother. While Rita is more interested in his mother & sister, I think his brother is still alive and may play a more important role (though the past seems to be important in this vein as well).

Chapter 3
I really like what Rowling did here. Though Uncle Vernon & Aunt Petunia didn't really come around, it was neat the way Dudley started to. I realize he's still been a jerk to Harry, but he seemed to be starting to get it, starting to realize things haddn't been right between them. Harry seems to me to be the type of person that'd have a hard time accepting that, but he did alright, at least w/ the goodbye. I'm not sure if this will be the last we see of the Dursleys or not...I lean towards not, but I could see it as being the end.

So far in the book, I've felt like there has been alot of set-up, not much happening. I haven't felt the page-turning drive I've felt in the other books yet. I'm sure its coming, just not quite there yet. Though I think that's good, kinda' get us warmmed up before getting into the meat of the action and story

Chapter 4 & 5
And speaking of action, here it comes. And boy did it hit all of a sudden! I really wasn't expecting the action to begin so early. All of a sudden we have crazy death eaters and an appearance of Voldemort! The thing w/ Harry's wand...very interested, and I really don't understand it. I wonder if the fact that Fawks' feather is in his wand makes a difference at all? I mean Fawks is still alive, though not around currently. I don't know if he is able to have some influence on the wand? Don't know, and unfortunatly, as Harry has mused, Dumbledore isn't around to explain it too us. However, the flash in the mirror chard is interesting. I seem to remember that Harry tried to use it to see Sirius after he'd fallen thru the veil and it didn't work, so it shouldn't work for Dumbledore, but I know something's important about that chard...interesting to see what it'll be