Yea, I agree that it was time that he died and that Harry needs to go it alone, as most 'heros' do. It didn't come as a shock to me as I'd guessed he'd probably be the one to die - actually, I thought he'd be the one to die in the 5th book, even with all the rumors about it being Hagrid dying, I was totally shocked about it being Sirius, I was in tears when I read that. I wasn't so upset when I read about Dumbledore, but it was still sad. I didn't enjoy the book as much as I have done some of the others (3rd, 4th and 5th being my favourites), I felt that the plot was perhaps a little weak, and it took me a while to really get into the book, I felt it started a bit slow, I think JK was concentrating too much on laying down the groundwork for the 7th book to be based on.