My reaction to Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

I've never been a part of Harry Potter fandom. I like the books immensely—I've read all of them in English and some of them in French—and I've seen each of the movies once or twice, but I don't do the online thing. The only serious Potterverse fanfic I've ever read was a Buffyverse crossover, the brilliant story The End of the Beginning by Marina Frants (in which Giles and Ethan run into some Potterverse folks in London in 1981, and end up getting mixed up in the war against Voldemort). I say all this to explain that this is the first time I've written about Potterverse issues in this journal, and it may turn out to be the last time, too ... but I've just finished reading the Half-Blood Prince, and I want to sort some things out in my head with regards to the Big Question of the book. This will involve drawing a comparison with certain events in the Buffyverse.

( Behind this cut I totally give away the ending of Half-Blood Prince ... and also of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, if anyone out there still worries about that! )