Goodbye to Harry Potter's avuncular headmaster

It is today that I felt like I have been hit by the Avada Kedavra killing curse--Professor Albus Dumbledore, headmaster at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, is killed in The Half-Blood Prince, the 6th Harry Potter book. I knew this major character's gay (does it matter?) but I thought all along that he'll see through Harry until the last book. I don't know, but I don't have a copy of The Deathly Hallows yet and I ought to start reading Jon Krakauer's Into The Wild.

But can a more-adult book distract me from staying hooked? You should have seen my family's addiction last Sunday--Marcus on The Sorcerer's Stone, my wife on The Prisoner of Azkaban, Kurt on The Order of The Phoenix, I watching the movie.

Merlin's beard!