Jim Dale Audio's 2011:

If Book 5 had too much going on, I felt like this one was suddenly missing more than it had. I loved listening to it. The loyalties continue to be tested. The students, as well as the adults are pulled in every direction.

The mystery of Draco is handled so much less than I remember it being. And the pensive more. The importance of understanding beginnings grows from Book 5, where we were more immersed in Harry's and we transition seriously into needing to understand all of Voldermort's past as a human.

And yet the most important deciding scene for me on just what kind of people Snape and Dumbledore both are happened for me in this book, the first time it came out and again in here. Where I realized just how grey both their characters are, how right that is, and how much they would sacrifice themselves for the children each time.