Deathly Hallows!

[hafital]

I haven't read anyone else's comments, yet, so I don't know what the reaction has been aside from a few people at work.


-- I can hardly believe it, but she made me love Snape. I mean, it was not a surprise that he would be revealed as being Dumbldore's man, but I had sorta wished he would remain evil, mostly because that would be going *against* the obvious. Yes, it might have diminished Dumbledore, but Dumbledore was already being shown as less then perfect. Anyway, I figured I won either way, really. Snape is either evil or not, but either would serve the story. I wasn't expecting his redemption to be so poignant, however, so moving, so goddamn sad. It wasn't so much his love for Lily (although that was heartbreaking), which I suspected previously and extended to protecting her son, but that it was those scenes from the pensieve, with Dumbledore. And his death. That's what made his redemption so much more than just being revealed as being Dumbledore's man. 'Cause really, he ended up being Potter's man. I always knew he would suffer for what happened up on the Tower, that he would be tormented by his actions, damned by it, I just didn't realize how terrible and horriblely sad it would actually be. I didn't guess that. I'm sure Snape/Harry fans love that! *wry smile* Which is still so not my thing, but Snape and Harry ended up having a wonderfully complex relationship.

-- Snape asking Harry to look at him, when he's dying, so he could see Lily's eyes, is one of the sadest things ever. And, the doe patronus, too.

-- One of the best things about these books, to me, is the making literal what doing despicable things does to the soul of a person. It's terrible for the victim, obviously, but it's as damaging, or maybe even more, to the soul of the person who murders.

-- I'm very sad about Fred, Lupin, and Tonks. I'm hugely relieved Neville survived, as well as Ron and Hermione. I actually thought Ron would be the one to go -- one of the Weaselys, it seamed to me before reading, would be likely to die, but it ended up being Fred, which is so sad, to split the twins like that.

-- I'm very glad Rowling "killed" Harry without killing him, and am impressed she made him one of the Horcruxes and still managed to keep him alive. I was still nervous even after the King's Cross chapter, that he would still die. Honestly, I wouldn't change how she ended the story, at all, even though it was a bit exposition overkill. I didn't mind.

-- Although I loved what we learned about Snape in the pensieve, I was a bit sad to believe Dumbledore had been quite so callus in his planning and was rather hoping she'd fix that, otherwise it would all have left a sour taste for me, not only Harry's death but Dumbledore's "betrayal". However, somewhere during Harry's march through the forbidden forest towards Voldemort I finally put it all together and figured out the plot, more or less, and then I was so relieved. :D Although Dumbledore isn't, and shouldn't be, considered perfect or entirely good, the King's Cross chapter was still nice to read and I loved how Harry kept defending Dumbledore to Dumbledore himself. I expect Dumbledore/Grindelwold stories. heh. I thought the story of Ariana to be heartbreaking and sad.

-- Loved Aberforth. :D

-- I was somewhat bemused with the Malfoys. Especially their love for their son, which, as we learned, is what saved them. Thought it was fabulous that Narcissa ended up being so critical, at the end. As well as Draco, actually, with that whole wand business, although he wasn't really aware of it.

-- Loved the pensieve scene on Snape's first journey on the Hogwarts express, and seeing 11-year-old James and Sirius. Especiallly Sirius, who remains my favorite.

-- Loved that Lupin, along with James, Lily, and Sirius, were the ones that appeared from the Resurrection Stone, to aid Harry on his quest.


-- Neville killing Nagini was a thing of pure awesomeness. Neville is a thing of pure awesomeness. I was so happy when he finally showed up, through the tunnel, a battle-scarred warrior. And, in a way, the prediction that was made at his and Harry's birth came true for both of them, which is a little bit of awesomeness all on its own.

-- I adore Luna. The one thing I wanted that the book didn't give me was to know what became of Luna Lovegood. I also would have liked to know who the headmaster of Hogwarts was. I fancy it was McGonagall. :D

-- I loved the final scene between Harry and Voldemort, even though I find Voldemort, as he's written, a bit too obviously evil, and thus OTT. My bit of fascination with the movie representation of Voldemort, however, continues! And I kept imagining how awesome Ralph Fiennes is going to be in that final scene. :D :D He does such a fabulous job making all that overtly OTT stuff work. *burble*

-- Rowling is still overly fond of ellipses. I find this distracting...

-- In short, it was great. I gulped it down as fast as I could. I'm sad its over, but I thought it ended beautifully.