mpft.

amidst feeling utterly lousy after having seen my horrible grades for my first CA, which so happens to count as 30% towards my final module grade, i feel somewhat helpless and a wee bit disappointed as well.

don't get me wrong.
i'm not trying to act like some sort of emotional crack pot.

i feel helpless because i have no idea how to go about achieveing seemingly possible yet impossible grades in the eighties for my coming CA and project in order to pull up my overall grade. and i seriously need to get a good grade for this module in order for my CAP not to decline any further.
yet i'm feeling thoroughly disappointed after having read the latest collection to the harry potter series: harry potter and the half blood prince.

well, don't say i didn't warn, but obvious spoilers ahead.

hm. to start, i feel as though the fascination and enthusiasm towards harry potter has stopped at the fourth book for me, that is the goblet of fire.
her fifth and latest books seem to me, more like a desperate attempt at trying to pacify the readers and pardon me, to earn more millions while the harry potter craze is still pretty at its peak. Order of the phoenix 's storyline was a little more interesting than half blood prince , but both stories seem to be lacking in the magic factor that was way more apparent in the initial 4 books.. either that, or the whole idea of studying in a school as wonderful as Hogwarts, of being able to fly on broom sticks and play Quidditch, of being able to do just about anything with chants and a wand doesn't seem to intrigue me as much now.

i feel that JK rowling has stopped introducing more interesting characters, weapons, places or even sweets that her previous 4 stories were so filled with; and thats whats making readers far less riverted and glued to her latest 2 books. well, the only thing that helped to keep my attention to the book was the mention of horcruxes and of the identity of the half blood prince. to my disappointment, the half blood prince's identity was casually revealed and the story quickly diverted to dumbledore's death and the fate of hogwarts school.

in short, the whole 600 odd pages felt nothing more than a typical teenage book since the storyline was more concentrated on friendships and relationships; of harry finding new love with ginny, of how ron and hermione almost lost their friendship only to be re-united as more than friends.. and of dumbledore's deepening relationship with harry as a result of the prophesy mentioned at the end of book 5.

and if you still are reading on, major spoiler ahead!

well, after years of speculation as to whom will be the next to die, after the surprising demise of sirius black, i'm afraid to say that dumbledore will no longer be alive in book 7, possibly the last book of the whole series? That is to say, harry is now going to have to face you-know-who all alone now that he's about to turn 17, and in the wizarding world, 17 is the official age.. the coming of age.. just like how 21 is for our society. i'm guessing that the next books should be the very last, and it would be of how harry manages to track the remaning four horcruxes and eventually gets to dissipating the seventh remaining soul of lord V.

i think the most important factor that helped keep harry potter books far more riverting and intriguing was the magic factor.. in hogwarts and in the magical world, simple things that are present as well in the human world have that added magical touch to them that makes them, non-human. it is these non-human aspects of the stories that makes us envious, wishing that such a world would exist. i guess JK rowling totally perfected the art of writing children's books by touching one of our weak spots, that is our dream of having magical powers, of a desire to live in a world where castles, dragons, werewolves, centaurs, and unicorns exist, and where good usually triumphs over dark evil.

all in all, i still do admire JK rowling's ability to create intricate story plots and characters that seem real and falliable even though they posses magic. however, like dumbledore said, magic though seemingly powerful, can never help evade one from death and making mistakes.

i'm wishing that we can actually get to study subjects like occlumency (the blocking out of one's thoughts from the mind), potions, defence against the dark arts, which is nothing more than learning how to exersise deadly chants, astronomy, and transfiguration someday.....