I've written previously about the loss of innocence apparent in this present volume. Harry appears to be growing up with his readers. This book is definitely not for young children. Whether or not Harry is killed off in the upcoming volume of this series that possibility is definitely prefigured here. The death of his God-father in the last book ended his last familial attachment--he has also inherited Black's London home. The prophesy foreshadows the death of either Harry or his nemesis Voldemort; we learn in the first chapters that Malfoy has been recruited to kill Harry and that the sinister Severus Snape is still in league with the Deatheaters and operating undercover at Hogwarts. We keep hearing about people who have died and students who are withdrawn from the school, especially after a student is infected by a cursed bracelet. Favourite establishments on Diagon Alley and at Hogsmeade are closed and gone. There are definite sinister undercurrents at play here.
But it is Harry himself who is undergoing the greatest changes. He's undergoing puberty and the stirrings of sexual drives are disturbing his stability. His classmates are not as reticent. Ron and Hermione are still at odds over her attachments to outsider Krum. Ron is described as snogging another classmate much to Hermione's annoyance. French kissing or tonsil hockey may be activities that teenagers engage in but the use of this offensive word in a book for children is questionable. It's this last that I have found most jarring in this story.
