Of half-bloods and half-wits

I finished the latest Harry Potter book (Number 6: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince) last night—by finished I mean I reached the last page, since the book doesn’t so much end as just not continue. Ugh.
Yet again, Harry is a moron. And, for the second time in as many books, so is one of the adults. And this one’s supposed to be a genius! At least he didn’t put something there and forget about it—instead he sees something and makes a stupid and dangerous decision when he has a lot of other options. I saw at least four other things he could have done there to avoid imbibing (and no, none of them were “give it to Harry,” though that would have been pretty funny—“yes, this is why I brought you along—drink this.” Still smart, though, since one of them might be able to remove the effects afterward and it isn’t Potter) but he didn’t even consider, just started guzzling. Excuse me?
This book had an additional problem, which was the title and the related subject—which had nothing to do with the plot! In every other book, the title has indicated an object (or, for the fifth, an organization) integral to events. In this one, it indicated a pointless mystery whose revelation added nothing and whose central topic meant little more than good grades and a chance to show up Hermione. Argh!
As usual, the characters are pleasant once you get past Harry’s sheer stupidity. Good take on teenagers. Too bad Rowling is losing touch with creating sensible adult characters in the process. I certainly know what I’d like the next book to be—Harry Potter and the Hard-Ass Editor. Not that it’ll happen, since it hasn’t yet, but I keep hoping.