Wednesday, January 30, 2008

Overread and Understood #2

Book: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

Train: L

Spot: Between Lorimer and Union Square

Time: 2:00 p.m.

(Spoilers ahead, obviously)

I couldn't believe my luck. I had sat down right next to a man who was not only reading my 2nd favorite Harry Potter book, but reading the last few foreboding, bad-ass pages of it. And he was holding the book pretty low, meaning I could read it without being caught.

As I looked down at the jacket-less novel (was he embarrassed to be reading this?), I could recall running the full spectrum of emotion in these final pages, knowing I would have to wait at least two years before I would read any new HP.

Harry plays the hero and lets his dame (Ginny) know that it's about to get down-right dangerous up in here, and he can't risk her life in the same way he risks his own. Plus, Ginny was getting a bit too "clingy" for his freewheelin' ways, and maybe he wants to dip his wand in a few more cauldrons before settling down.

In a chapter called "The White Tomb", things are obviously going to get a little sad, though. And I knew the exact passage that did it for me, the one that might make me tear up right now in this train full of hipsters.

Scrimgeour takes Harry aside and asks for his help again. The Ministry needs him, he says. Harry doesn't have to consider. He repeats his earlier declaration of loyalty for his fallen teacher, that he's "Dumbledore's man, through and through."

The book owner, in his late 20s, reaches up to briefly wipe his eye. Is it an itch? Is breaking down and balling in the subway not an option for this man's man? Is he trying to be brave like Harry?

We finished the book and he closed it. I wanted to speak to him and find out where he stands on Snape. Find out where he stands on everything.

But, alas, this was my stop and I was already three hours late to work.

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