SPOILERS FOLLOW

Summer comes round once more at Hogwarts as afternoon slides into evening, writes Richard Lea.

Ruth is on page 283 and is concerned about Harry's appointment as Quidditch captain. She doesn't think he's going to be a good captain "because he gets very moody when people don't listen to him", she says. "It's a good idea for the book, though."

She's quite impressed with it so far, calling it "one of the better books, because there's not so much droning on about Harry's scar hurting and so on." The Pensieve scene in chapter 10 was "an interesting bit," she continues. "It wasn't obvious straight away, you had to really get in and think about it."

Meanwhile Rowling glides smoothly along with a steady alternation of crisis and resolution - a little old fashioned, a little over-padded here and there, but comfortable and reliable nevertheless.

Our narrator has been working from somewhere near Harry's point of view ever since chapter three, and by the end of chapter 24 shows no signs of abandoning him any time soon.

This puts us directly in touch with Harry's stomach, which has been swooping, leaping and dancing the conga rather a lot. You see Harry fancies Ginny, Ron fancies Lavender, and Hermione keeps flashing odd looks at them both. Harry finally gets his snog on page 499 - JK celebrates with three-part rhetorical flourish - which almost provoked 'an outbreak of nervous giggling' right here in the garden. Perhaps I don't "like the kissing stuff" much either.

I'm also a little worried about the standard of teaching at Hogwarts. Students cribbing straight from old textbooks, copying each others' work, going walkabout at all times of day and night - it's an impressive feat of magic that the school wasn't closed down by Ofsted years ago.

Ruth's off to bed. Meanwhile the washing up calls.