Fall weather arrived last night! It was downright cold today, and I have to say I enjoyed it. Fall is my favorite season, and I'm looking forward to the chill in the air and the changing leaves and the general smokiness of the season.
I had a good time at Zumba tonight - we did a segment to the Cupid Shuffle, which I enjoyed, and Susie (the instructor) had put several of my favorite routines in the lineup. I skipped out on toning though, because I was up late last night and I just didn't have the energy for it (I feel kind of guilty about it, though ... I will do the toning exercises with extra gusto on Thursday to make up for it).
Bet you thought I had forgotton about my Harry Potter quote project ... I didn't! So, here we go: Book Six, Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince:
"'No, I thought not. You have not asked me, for instance, what is my favorite flavor of jam, to check that I am indeed Professor Dumbledore and not an imposter.'
'I didn't ...' Harry began, not entirely sure whether he was being reprimanded or not.
'For future reference, Harry, it is raspberry ... although, of course, if I were a Death Eater, I would have been sure to research my own jam preferences before impersonating myself.'"
"'Yes, Harry?' said Dumbledore, for Harry had come to a halt.
'The ring's gone,' said Harry, looking around. 'But I thought you might have the mouth organ or something.'
Dumbledore beamed at him, peering over the top of his half moon spectacles.
'Very astute, Harry, but the mouth organ was only ever a mouth organ.'
And on that enigmatic note he waved to Harry, who understood himself to be dismissed."
"'What is Dumbledore up to? said Scrimgeour brusquely. 'Where does he go when he is absent from Hogwarts?'
'No idea,' said Harry.
'And you wouldn't tell me if you knew,' said Scrimgeour, 'would you?'
'No, I wouldn't,' said Harry.
'Well, then, I shall have to see whether I can't find out by other means.'
'You can try,' said Harry indifferently. 'But you seem cleverer than Fudge, so I'd have thought you'd have learned from his mistakes. He tried interfering at Hogwarts. You might have noticed he's not Minister anymore, but Dumbledore's still headmaster. I'd leave Dumbledore alone, if I were you.'
There was a long pause.
'Well, it is clear ot me that he has done a very good job on you,' said Scrimgeour, his eyes cold and hard behind his wire-rimmed glasses. 'Dumbledore's man through and through, aren't you Potter?'
'Yeah, I am,' said Harry. 'Glad we straightened that out.'
And turning his back on the Minister of Magic, he strode back toward the house."
"'The Prophet is bound to report the truth occasionally,' said Dumbledore, 'if only accidentally. Yes, that was why we argued. Well, it appears that Rufus found a way to corner you at last.'
'He accused me of being 'Dumbledore's man through and through''.
'How very rude of him.'
'I told him I was.'
Dumbledore opened his mouth to speak and then closed it again. Behind Harry, Fawkes the phoenix let out a low, soft, musical cry. To Harry's intense embarassment, he suddenly realized that Dumbledore's bright blue eyes looked rather watery, and stared hastily at his own knees. When Dumbledore spoke, however, his voice was quite steady.
'I am very touched, Harry.'"
"'You are protected, in short, by your ability to love!' said Dumbledore loudly. 'The only protection that can possibly work against the lure of power like Voldemort's! In spite of all the temptation you have endured, all the suffering, you remain pure of heart, just as pure as you were at the age of eleven, when you started into a mirror that reflected your heart's desire, and it showed you only the way to thwart Lord Voldemort, and not immortality or riches. Harry, have you any idea how few wizards could have seen what you saw in the mirror? Voldemort should have known then what he was dealing with, but he did not!'
'But he knows it now. You have flitted into Lord Voldemort's mind without damage to yourself, but he cannot possess you without enduring mortal agony, as he discovered in teh Ministry. I do not think he understands why, Harry, but then, he was in such a hurry to mutilate his own soul, he never paused to understand the incomparable power of a soul that is untarnished and whole.'"
"'Harry looked around; there was Ginny running toward him; she had a hard, blazing look in her face as she threw her arms around him. And without thinking, without planning it, without worrying about the fact that fifty people were watching, Harry kissed her."
"And Harry saw very clearly as he sat there under the hot sun how people who cared about him had stood in front of him one by one, his mother, his father, his godfather, and finally Dumbledore, all determined to protect him; but now that was over. He could not let anybody else stand between him and Voldemort; he must abandone forever the illusion he ought to have lost at the age of one, that the shelter of a parent's arms meant that nothing could hurt him. There was no waking from his nightmare, no comforting whisper in the dark that he was safe really, that it was all his imagination; the last and greatest of his protectors had died, and he was more alone that he had ever been before."
Wow, the sixth book is intense, right?! The seventh is even more so ... we'll get to that one, eventually, though, and here's something to lighten up the intensity (this is mine and Alan's new favorite thing, and we wander around quoting/singing it all of the time now):
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