I liked McGonnagall's reaction to Harry and Ron's fib about seeing Hermione. She really should know them better by now.

And I am rather shocked that Hermione would tear a page out of a library book, but that may just be me. Perhaps she foresaw the possibility that she would get petrified. Or perhaps she got carried away with breaking the rules.

The scene where the teachers round on Lockart was glorious. Snape's ``Just the man'' had me giggling from the go, and I like it when they all band together against an idiot. That is part of what makes book 5 so enjoyable.

More love for Lockhart: ``books can be misleading.'' ``You wrote them!''

The reveal was rather effective, I thought. It struck me that reading the book while knowing that Riddle is Voldemort is very different from reading it without knowing. Of course, that could be said for any reread, but I think one of the reasons why I think of it as one of the weaker books is that I could not discern any plot arch in the monster the first time I read it. Until the reveal of course (yes, I still thought of them as simple children's book and tuned my expectations accordingly). The Voldemort reveal is quite a good moment, especially because of Harry's having identified with him earlier, assuming he will help him even though he did not tell the truth about Hagrid.

But back to Lockhart (so much love). I like how Rowling punishes her (minor) bad guys. The punishment always seems to echo the crime. Lockhart's memory spell backfire is pretty much textbook poetic justice.

Second best quote ever from this book:
Mrs Weasley's ``Never trust anything that can think for itself if you can't see where it keeps its brain''.

Regarding the winding up: I am glad Rowling got the self-doubting ``Am I a Gryffindor'' out of the way by having Dumbledore nip that in the bud (well, book 2, at least it did not drag out until the end), and I like the idea of Voldemort transferring part of himself when trying to kill Harry. AI remember speculations that he had made Harry one of the Horcruxes. I still think that would have been elegant. Actually, thinking back over the horcruxes, I cannot remember what the last two were, so perhaps Harry was one after all? No, I don't remember. Aaaahg. It is a good thing we are holding this re-read, methinks.

I also liked that Malfoy's motives were not pure, unfounded malice, but that he was actually playing a political game of trying to discredit the Muggle Protection thing that he was complaining about earlier in the book. It make things fit together nicely. And it is always good when bad guys have a reason for being bad.