The Day After

[cleolinda]

So, I've caught up on my sleep a bit... and started on a leisurely reread of the book, particularly since I'm not going to spend the whole thing terrified of what awful thing might happen next. As with the previous two books, I can't really say if I liked it or not, because I was too busy racing through it in terror, but it was funny and suspenseful and sad and the only thing I was really disappointed about, besides the deaths (naturally enough), was that we didn't have a gigantic What Immediately Happened to Everyone We've Ever Heard Of chapter. Possibly one with a lot of funerals and memorials. You know, while we're there.

WARNING: From here on out, I will LJ-cut spoilers on this journal, but they will be in the comments. Read anything at your own risk.

Record First-Day Sales for Last ‘Harry Potter’ Book.

JK Rowling reading from Deathly Hallows (videos).

A fitting finale for Harry (review; some spoilers); Review: Rowling brings Potter to magical end; Final ''Potter'' book: ''Stunningly beautiful'' (no spoilers). What I find so interesting about this is that the mainstream press seems to love the book; it's (some of) the fans who seem pissed about it.

‘Fan’-tastic Wizards Cast Spell Over ‘Harry Potter’ Midnight Madness Event.

List of characters killed in DH, via Wikipedia.


Part I: The McWane Center Party

McWane Center pictures on Flickr (none of them are mine, btw); Witching hour for Potter fans at McWane Science Center.

Witches and wizards abounded. From Harry to Ron to Dumbledore, scores were present as the center conducted one of the thousands of book-release parties in the final hours before the midnight release of "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows."

Costumes were popular. One participant wore a hat with the Gryffindor lion atop it.

I saw this and started shrieking and pointing--Luna's Quidditch hat, remember? So awesome. There were a number of good costumes--lots of really good Quidditch players and students, several good Lunas with cork necklaces, a number of Tonkses with colored hair, and a McWane staff member who had an absolutely perfect pink Umbridge suit. And their Professor Sprout was adorable. And there was an older gentleman who seemed to be in charge of things who had the most fantastic black robe spangled with gold stars and moons--seriously, I have to find you a picture of this guy, it was awesome. He stood in the "bookstore" and thanked people for coming as we turned and walked out with our books; he reminded me a lot of Dr. Berte at Birmingham Southern, for y'all local folks. Oh! And they had a portrait of the Fat Lady! Except it was a very nice lady in fancy dress and a wig standing in a "portrait" box who asked us for the password when we first came in. "Uh... please?" said Brett the Vet, thinking quickly, and she laughed and let us in.

Along with the heroes, such unsavory characters as Draco Malfoy and Dolores Umbridge were present. Copies of the Marauders Map helped guests find their way around.

These were effin' cool, by the way. They folded out just the right way and looked like the real thing on the outside, and had layouts of the four floors on the inside. The cafe had been dressed up as the Leaky Cauldron, for example, and different areas were designated by very attractive signs.

At a charms class everyone gathered to eat smoking crackers. In Herbology, Professor Sprout helped kids paint with plants.

The woman in those pictures actually looks more like a Trelawney; the Sprout I saw was one of the greeters--she was standing with Umbridge. And someone was teaching astronomy out with a big celestial globe out in a concourse! In a Ravenclaw robe! It was adorable.

(Wait, smoking crackers?)

Visitors could also sample the center's usual range of science exhibits and activities, but Harry Potter and Hogwarts magic were the attractions as visitors counted down the moments to the witching hour when Harry's fate would be revealed.

Eh, they weren't that great. They were very much oriented at young, young children. "Ollivander's," for example, was a table where you made "wands" by stuffing a sparkly tassel-pom thing into the end of a white tube. There were Flying Lessons, however, up on the second floor of the building, and kids were actually on a mechanical seat that went back and forth over a net over the first floor. It wasn't so much a "lesson" as "Holy Christ, my child is suspended over a net and a shitload of nothing," but it was definitely an A+ for effort. Oh--and the Defense Against the Dark Arts lessons, holy God. The woman in charge of that (see picture: short dark hair, very nice, very unassuming) was calmly tossing some kind of chemical powder at this kid's foot-long lighted match until a THREE-FOOT BALL OF FIRE ERUPTED.

As the clock neared midnight, the third floor at McWane filled with fans waiting to grab their copies of the seventh and final book in the Potter series to learn Harry's ultimate fate. Even Moaning Myrtle with a toilet seat around her neck joined the lines.

Heeeee, I didn't see Myrtle. I did see a woman in her 30s in a simple but effective Bellatrix costume--it was the grey streak in her hair that did it. Also a number of Mini Snapes running around. I was irrationally terrified of running into a McWane Staffer Snape who would be in character and, like, snarl at us for having Dippin Dots outside the snack room.

At the midnight hour, the door to a Flourish and Blotts bookstore opened to cheers from the crowd. The fans pushed through the doors to grab their copies of "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows," only to race away to their curtained four-poster beds to read the night away.

Okay, this is the part where it was fucking insane. There was no pushing; it was very orderly. They had the brilliant idea of having you pay for your book ahead of time and then giving you a voucher, so that at midnight, it was just a matter of us all filing through, handing the voucher to one girl and taking the book from another. Really smooth, really quick. (Whoa: "McWane Center staff members managed to distribute all the reserved books in a lightning fast 8 minutes, to the pleasure of the over 1,000 attendees.") No, what was insane about it was that there were hundreds and hundreds of people there, and I'd say it was about equally divided among adults, teens, and very young children. And when midnight struck? People shrieked their heads off. Okay, I was ready for that; the mostly-adult crowd at B&N did that for HBP. What I wasn't prepared for was that everyone kept shrieking. "Flourish and Botts" was a large room on the top floor that had three doorways into the main hall/concourse, so we were in three very jumbly lines, which I'm pretty sure wound back around down the stairs. And every time a new clutch of people would reach those three holy threshholds, they'd start screaming like the fucking Beatles were waiting for them. ("TOUCH THE DOORS!" the girl behind me was screaming, "TOUCH THE DOORRRRRRS!," much the way one might shriek "OH MY GOD THERE'S RINGO TOUCH HIS SHOULDER!!!!") They'd scream when they got to the doorway, they'd scream when they got to the table, they'd hoist the book high and scream when they walked back out, and everyone else would scream in transports of reflected giddiness back at them. And then when the Lovely Emily and I reached the table, they gave the last book to her. Okay, not the last book, but they had to open a new box to get mine, and the poor girl in charge of that was frantically trying to wrestle the thing open while I just smiled patiently and listened to The Fangirl Rapture behind me. I have never seen anything like it in my life--certainly not for a book--and if I ever see a fraction of that hysteria for a book that I wrote, I could die happy.


Part II: The Obligatory List of Observations

>> HEDWIG? SHE FUCKING KILLED OFF HEDWIG? ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME?

>> The breaking of Harry's original wand: I think I was almost as upset about this as I was about Hedwig dying. I mean, really, really upset. At least at the end she FIXED THAT.

>> And what did they do for that year at school they missed? As the Lovely Emily said, sure, Hogwarts Class of '98 could get jobs without finishing school after, you know, saving the world, but I feel like this is something that would be very important to Hermione: she couldn't live without having NEWTs to ace, you know? What jobs did everyone get? I still want to know if Harry made Auror like McGonagall promised. Did anyone go take Fred's place in the joke shop business with George? Please tell me someone did. And what does Ron do? Hermione? Ginny? Neville's a professor, but did he hook up with anyone? Apparently JKR nixed Neville and Luna in some interview, but there seemed to be some kind of suggestion of Dean and Luna hooking up (doesn't he take her hand at some point)?

(I still can't believe JKR killed Fred. I mean, I can in the sense that war is horrible and horrible random things happen, but--that's just horrible, killing anyone's twin brother. Kill them both or don't kill them at all, seriously.)

>> It's not that I didn't like Rose and Hugo as names, but... where exactly did they come from? You know, next to Harry's walking memorials kids.

>> Battle of the Unfortunate Names: Albus Severus Potter or Scorpius Malfoy?

>> As someone on FW noted, each horcrux is destroyed by a different person. Nice.

>> Is Dumbledore kind of an ass, y/n? I mean, beyond the simple fact that yes, he had a dark past, and the fact that the "I cared too much about you" scene in OOTP is now fraught with the extra level of "I was raising you to sacrifice yourself for the greater good, not just to fight someone who wanted to kill you, but now I care too much." I may have been reading too fast, and this is why I'm doing a reread, and Snape's Pensieve memories may be purposely biased, but... Dumbledore seems a little cavalier about things at times. Ideally, when you have a saintly character, a dark past should be something they overcame to be a better, richer, more complex character. Which Dumbledore does, in theory. There's just a point where... I don't know, I'm just not sure he ever got it. I'm not sure he ever did overcome it to be the wise man we thought he was. I wanted him to have become a wise, if flawed, man through that dark past, and I'm sure that's what happened on paper, but... yet... there's just something a little bit off about the whole thing.

>> Wait, so... the Muggle boys did what to Ariana? Did... did JKR actually go there with that?

>> "Look... at... me..." So... Snape's dying wish is for Harry to look at him. With his green eyes. His green eyes that are totally his mother's eyes. Lily's eyes. I'm, like, 35% touched and 110% creeped the fuck out.

(Interesting point: a lot of people had been complaining that the Snape Loved Lily theory was trite, but it's interesting that, since Lily is the one thing that keeps Snape on the side of good, essential assholery and all, it's yet another example of The Power That the Dark Lord Knew Not.)

(Another example: Narcissa totally screwing Voldemort over to find Draco.)

(Hey! Snape is "that awful boy" Aunt Petunia mentioned to Harry, not James!)

>> youngcurmudgeon, regarding "The Prince's Tale": "I think this is the only place I can say this: Snape's Patronus is a teal deer."

>> Speaking of the Malfoys, I loved that nothing really happened to them. Lucius, who has been one of the major antagonists of the series, is just reduced to sulking in his own mansion and then running around Hogwarts with Narcissa searching for their son. They weren't given any huge comeuppance, but at the same time, all importance was stripped from them as well--they weren't even important enough to bother killing. And that's kind of why I love that Draco and his new family are in the epilogue--he's still there, but he's been so totally outclassed by the kids he tormented, the variously-blooded kids who rocked the Battle of Hogwarts, that there's not really much place for the pureblood ideal in the new wizarding world. He's just... there.

(Who did Draco marry? Pansy Parkinson would have been my first guess, but... wouldn't Rowling have just mentioned her by name instead of "his wife"?)

>> I was upset when Lupin and Tonks died--they didn't even die, they were just revealed as casualties!--but I'm kind of okay with it, now that I see how Teddy Luxpin Lupin is now to Harry as Harry was to Sirius, and that the three Marauder spirits walked with Harry to his "death." I mean, it sucks for Tonks, who was a fabulous character but died mostly so Teddy could be an orphan, as opposed to Lupin, who at least had a purpose in the afterlife, but as a writer, I tend to take comfort in any sense of purpose.

This is also, I see now, why Moody had to be dispatched pretty quickly. Moody was one of the strongest protector characters they had, and if JKR hadn't removed him, the trio probably wouldn't have to have fled so soon. It's also the reason Harry's Daddy Issues had to pick a fight with Lupin--Lupin was far too strong a wizard to accompany the kids. The kids had to do it on their own.

>> I want Hermione's Beaded Bag of Holding like whoa.

(Hermione made her parents think they didn't even have a daughter and sent them to Australia! WAHHHH. I guess we can infer that she brought them back, though, because that's what she said she'd do if things went well.)

>> I also love that girl-hapless Ron finally got a clue from that book, and that the book wasn't all about "wandwork." If you know what I mean. And I think you do.

>> "Happy birthday, Harry! I give you... sex."

>> If you had told me last week that Dobby's death would be horribly touching and Kreacher would become one of my favorite characters, I would not have believed you.

>> The flayed baby under the chair in the "King's Cross" chapter: My understanding is that Harry and Dumbledore's souls are standing, whole and upright, in some kind of afterlife. The baby is what Voldemort would be if he were there--i.e., that's all that's left of him: nasty and freakish and small.

(Only Dumbledore could be a year dead and still have the Power of Exposition.)

>> So apparently the Sorting Hat has the power of summoning Gryffindor's sword from wherever it may be (in COS, I think it was in the headmaster's office when Harry needed it for the basilisk) when a True Gryffindor needs it. So... now there's a really pissed-off goblin out there somewhere.

>> If I reread nothing else, I have to reread "The Battle of Hogwarts," because that was like 100 pounds of awesome in a one-pound beaded bag. Neville Longbottom and his Gran, vive la résistance! Minerva McGonagall, Commander of Desks! Molly Weasley, Pwner of Bitches!

>> Things I can't wait to see in the movie: The Seven Potters--Daniel Radcliffe will have a field day with that. For some reason, I really want to see the trio in their formalwear out on Tottenham Court Road. I really want to see Happy Homemaker Kreacher. If Yates does the last movie, I want him to whip out The Power of Montage for the interminable camping section. And if Cuarón does it, I want him to bring the Children of Men battlecam to the Battle of Hogwarts. EEEEE.

BRING ON THE HALF-BLOOD PRINCE SET PICS!

Comments

[raynala.livejournal.com]

Shit, I totally missed that whole "gryffindor's sword coming back" thing. I knew there'd be something I missed in this whole thing. The only thing, so far. Siiigh. It's so fantastic, and you're summing up most of my thoughts excellently.

[raynala.livejournal.com]

One thing, though. N, for Dumbledore being an ass, although he could have been a little more tactful about it. XD; I think he knew that Harry really wouldn't die, but he had to make Snape make Harry think that he really was... blah blah. So, he wasn't raising him to die, just raising him to suffer and almost die. Thing. Ack. Dumbledore is, to put it mildly, an enigma.

[live-in-morocco.livejournal.com]

i loved the battle of hogwarts chapter. i thought it was so fitting that the final stand came down to hogwarts, and it wasn't all just harry or the trio - it was everyone. and like, literally everyone - even oliver wood came back.

[live-in-morocco.livejournal.com]

p.s. hey cleo, have you ever investigated wizard rock (http://www.wizrocklopedia.com)? it's this whole subset of harry potter fans that express their love for the fandom through the power of RAWK. i loooove it and i am going to be very sad when it eventually dies out.

[sound-of-bells.livejournal.com]

And if Cuarón does it, I want him to bring the Children of Men battlecam to the Battle of Hogwarts. EEEEE.

AOIHDGIOUSHFUIHSDIF I THINK MY BRAIN WOULD BREAK. I THINK IT WOULD HONESTLY BE RENDERED USELESS.

Oh my god, when I got to Ron's line about wandwork I had to read it a few times to make sure that she had actually written it. And then I laughed. And laughed. And laughed.

[particle-person.livejournal.com]

HEEE. That, and also "by Merlin's wrinkled little —" or whatever it was Ron said.

[akathorne.livejournal.com]

That sounds like an AWESOME party. I kind of feel bad for all the people who aren't into Harry Potter, because they are missing out on so much fun.

I think I'm enjoying the afterglow of the reading much more than the lead-up. I was so nervous - that I'd be spoiled, that Harry would die, that Ron would die, that Hermione would die, that I'd be disappointed. Now that I know, I can relax and enjoy the whole series and look forward to the rest of the movies.

[sideofzen.livejournal.com]

Well, I think some fans are pissed because they have their own expectations and favourite characters, and what not. Mainstream press isn't really attached like that.

The "wandwork" line was hilarious. I loved it.

[trash-addict.livejournal.com]

Molly Weasley, Pwner of Bitches!
I've read much snark and observations, but this made me laugh. A lot.

And wow
"Look... at... me..." So... Snape's dying wish is for Harry to look at him. With his green eyes. His green eyes that are totally his mother's eyes. Lily's eyes. I'm, like, 35% touched and 110% creeped the fuck out.
I hadn't even thought if it that way. That IS kinda fucking creepy.

I'm trying really hard not think about what might have happened to Ariana. Jo went some seriously dark places in this book, but would she go...there?

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

I made sure to mention the Lily's eyes thing because I've noticed, in discussions I've skimmed over in the last day or so, 9 out of 10 people go "OMG I DID NOT NOTICE THAT!" It was pretty much the *only* thing I could think of at the time, for some reason. Well, that, and "Wait, what's he bleeding, now?"

[crumpeteer.livejournal.com]

The winner of our local bookstore's costume contest was Snape dressed up in Neville's gran's clothing, buzzard hat included. Entertaining to say the least.

I thought it was a bit rough of her to kill only one twin. Sheesh Rowling, I understand your wanting to hurt the Weasley's, but please, don't just leave one twin hangin' like that.

And what happened to Luna? I'm a fan of Neville/Luna, so maybe it's good I don't know.

And poor, jerky, tragic Snape. I find the "look at me" part making me go both "awwww" and "errrr" at the same time, though it was clear Snape had no love for Harry, simply the bits of Lily he saw in Harry. I find it interesting the qualities of accepting those not so popular is a trait both Harry and his mother shared and it was ultimately something that helped Harry win in the end, as Harry's friendship with outcasts and oddballs, just like Lily's seeing something in the undesirable Snape binds together a lot of people who normally wouldn't be working together.

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

The winner of our local bookstore's costume contest was Snape dressed up in Neville's gran's clothing, buzzard hat included.

Oh, that's fantastic.

[megathy27.livejournal.com]

(Who did Draco marry? Pansy Parkinson would have been my first guess, but... wouldn't Rowling have just mentioned her by name instead of "his wife"?)

I think that's the direction he was going before the sixth book, but by the time the Battle of Hogwarts was over I imagine he'd changed after what was a pretty traumatizing experience (for the whole family, by the look of it). Pansy Parkinson wouldn't be quite his type anymore; not that he'd go for someone like Hermione or Ginny, but I think his priorities changed somewhat.

[rosetapestry.livejournal.com]

(I like to think he had to marry Luna, just so he could keep the good-looking blonde thing going in the family. Besides - imagining the family get-togethers at holidays with the Malfoys and the Lovegoods could keep me laughing for quite some time!)

Observations on your observations:

[stokerbramwell.livejournal.com]

I too wish we'd found out more about what had happened to them after the Battle of Hogwarts. I was prepared for a "Where Are They Now?" epilogue, not a "and they had 2.5 beautiful children and bought a nice house with a white picket fence" epilogue.

I find it interesting that Ron and Hermione chose the name Hugo over something more meaningful like, oh, say...FRED!

Albus Severus Potter wins my award for awkward name. I mean, the Malfoys have a history of pretentious names.

Dumbledore IS a bit of an ass, but he's at least smart enough to realize that he's a bit of an ass. I believe he's known Harry would survive ever since Goblet of Fire. Everyone remember the "gleam of triumph"?

I believe JKR did, indeed, go there with Ariana.

I had not made the connection with "look at me" and Harry's eyes. *SHUDDER*

Speaking of creepy, "Happy birthday, Harry! I give you... sex" is a bit unnerving when you consider that Harry's snogging Ron's little sister.

I loved that Narcissa screwed Voldemort over. In fact, I was glad to see a number of nasty characters showing extra dimensions, including Dudley.

Flayed baby = the torn fragment of Voldemort's soul that was in Harry. Just think: for every single one of those Horcruxes, there's one of those things in agony on the Other Side. Small wonder Harry tried to give Voldemort one last chance to feel remorse and pull himself together. That's quite a nasty fate awaiting him.

Re: Observations on your observations:

[glass-radical.livejournal.com]

I find it interesting that Ron and Hermione chose the name Hugo over something more meaningful like, oh, say...FRED!

I KNOW. What was James' middle name, did they say it? It better be Fred or Remus...just saying.

[palmetto.livejournal.com]

My truly moronic theory as to Rose is JKR doing a Doctor Who shoutout similar to the shoutout she got in the third season.

[lady-moriel.livejournal.com]

HA HA YES.

(Speaking of which, Remus and Tonks AREN'T DEAD. THEY AREN'T. SOME DEATH EATER WAS FOOLING AROUND WITH EXPERIMENTAL SPELLS AND SENT THEM TO, LIKE, ROSE'S PARALLEL UNIVERSE. AND THEY LIVED HAPPILY EVER AFTER THERE.)

[jainamsolo.livejournal.com]

Your list of observations has me really wanting to reread right now, except my husband's got it now and he's only halfway through. ARG.

"Happy birthday, Harry! I give you... sex."

HAHA. YES.

[amberdulen.livejournal.com]

I don't think Draco would have married Pansy after she all but gave him up to the Dark Lord at the end there.

Never know, though. Gosh, do I need to re-read this.

[sigma7.livejournal.com]

"Happy birthday, Harry! I give you... sex."

And had Harry kedavra'ed Ron for interrupting the Great Deflowering right then and there, the Ministry of Magic probably would've rubber-stamped a pardon with an all-too-knowing nod and a muttering of "mitigating circumstances." Quoth Zombie Hedwig: ya rly.

[aranel13.livejournal.com]

Rubber stamped, eh? Whether or not that was intentional, I'm glad I didn't have food or drink anywhere near my computer when I read that.

[spidey-88.livejournal.com]

Part of me thinks that JKR kept mentioning Harry being naked (the 7 Harrys chaning clothes, waking up naked in King's Cross) because of Dan's onstage naked fame. You know the fangirls are going ballistic if any part of that makes it to the screen in the film.

[tiftnk.livejournal.com]

The only thing I can possibly think of is that "Rose" and "Hugo" were Hermione's parents names. Because those are really just....awful, otherwise.

[rosetapestry.livejournal.com]

Hugo just makes me think of Hugo Weaving, so for a moment I thought maybe Ron and Hermione had just become big fans of LotR and the Matrix or something...

[naeelah.livejournal.com]

There's just a point where... I don't know, I'm just not sure he ever got it. I'm not sure he ever did overcome it to be the wise man we thought he was. I wanted him to have become a wise, if flawed, man through that dark past, and I'm sure that's what happened on paper, but... yet... there's just something a little bit off about the whole thing.

Those are my thoughts as well. However, I think the point of his not entirely getting it, even after all his years of being Very Wise, is to drive home how deeply regretful he is about his sister. And the fact that it remains the one thing he can't get over also drives home that he isn't really a bad guy, so it absolves him of his past in a less direct fashion. Personally, I like that Dumbledore has this flaw. I think he'd gotten over his desire to master death for himself, and only wanted to master death for his sister.

[lady-moriel.livejournal.com]

I loved it, for the most part, but I'm...seriously depressed over Remus and Tonks. They were my OTP, my one remaining ship that could conceivably live on for years after the end of canon...and this makes me feel as bad as a Harmonian (speaking of which, how awesome is it that Voldemort ships H/Hr? Ouch, man), but, you know. I wanted to marry Remus, too. >_< I also totally forgot that Neville got the sword from the Sorting Hat. Which...yeah, wonder if they just decided to give it back to the goblins and be done with it to make sure Bad Things didn't happen.

[scornedsaint.livejournal.com]

loved it, for the most part, but I'm...seriously depressed over Remus and Tonks.

Me too. Like, to the point where I think my mom's a little worried about me. I actually yelled "NO. THEY'RE JUST SLEEPING" when Harry saw their bodies.

(And: fellow depressed Harmonian represent!)

[glass-radical.livejournal.com]

FRED. AUGHHH.

Honestly, this Hugo thing confounds me. FRED, JKR, YOU SHOULD HAVE NAMED HIM FRED. We need something to ease that pain, man!

[wmetoile.livejournal.com]

I like to think that George had a big moving painting of Fred made and hung it on the wall in the joke shop for all times, so he can hang there doling out advice about skiving off classes and shagging veelas.

[flamingtoilet.livejournal.com]

Two words. emo!Snape.

And yes, JK went there. I noticed "effing" showed up a lot in the book too. I would've loved for them to just bust out and say FUCKING but, ya know... still *technically* a children's book. I guess.

And, wow, I like exposition as much as the next person, but sweet jumped up Jebus the "books-within-the-book" stuff just was killing me.

[trash-addict.livejournal.com]

I noticed the 'effing' a lot too, and was a little surprised. But then again, didn't someone get called a 'slut' in the last book (or am i just imagining that?)

[kismeteve.livejournal.com]

110% creeped the fuck out.

WORD.

Wait, so... the Muggle boys did what to Ariana? Did... did JKR actually go there with that?

I think she did.

Tonks got screwed, man.

If someone had told me I'd cry at Dobby's funeral, I wouldn't have believed them, but oh, I cried.

[flamingtoilet.livejournal.com]

Me too. Like a little bitch. Of course, I do the audio books, so actually hearing Jim Dale saying the words "HERE LIES DOBBY, A FREE ELF" just killed me.

[stardustshine.livejournal.com]

Hedwig has always seemed like such an afterthought to me. She's never really been that important, it seems like, except when she was grumpy over being kept in a cage and being Harry's only wizard-type company at the Dursleys. I feel like JKR just wanted to get her out of the way so she (JKR) didn't have to explain where she (Hedwig) was all the time.

Although, when she kept pointing out that Hedwig was in the cage ignoring Harry and not moving, I totally thought he was going to open the cage and discover her to be stone dead for no apparent reason. OMG IT'S AN OMEN!

Also, again with the one scene not from Harry's POV. And was it really even NECESSARY? Why bother?? Surely there was some way she could have gotten the information across without doing that.

The scene with Kreacher may have been my favorite in the whole book.

I'm a happy-ending junkie, but I kinda felt empty about the end...like...YAY EVERYBODY'S HAPPY LET'S EAT CAKE! I'd much have preferred a section on the aftermath. To me, it was like she suddenly remembered it was supposed to be a children's book, and if she just slapped the happy on at the end then she could get away with all the stuff she did.

The wandwork line was the best line in the whole book.

I was also bizarrely disappointed at the resurrection of Harry. I mean, I didn't WANT him to die, and I really hoped he wouldn't, but if you're gonna do it - just do it already. I feel like she kind of wussed out at the last minute in some bizarre way. :oP

I don't know, I really liked it right up until Snape died, and then maybe it was just because I went into OMG WHAT HAPPENS SPEED READ mode, but everything after that was just...wierd.

I feel like I'm developing split personalities with this book and my two sides keep arguing with each other. "Well that was great!" "Yeah, but that part wasn't so good." "Well, but that other part was great!" "Yeah, but this part could've been better." etc etc.

[aki.livejournal.com]

She had to kill off Hedwig, really, for the Great Camping Journey to take place. I mean, can you imagine the poor owl stuffed in Hermione's handbag for the majority of the novel? No. She wasn't necessary to the plot, she would only have been in the way... At least this way, she died in battle.

Albus Severus and Scorpius

[fox-gloves.livejournal.com]

Fandom's way of revolution is now the good ship AS/S.

But fear not, because you know that Scorpius will one day bother the fuck outta some dude named John Crichton.

And seriously? I would've gone with something WAY cooler than Albus Severus and Scorpius. Like Optimus Prime and Megatron!! Cause those? Strike fear into EVERYONE'S hearts.

Re: Albus Severus and Scorpius

[graysen.livejournal.com]

lol...Optimus P. Malfoy would have had me laughing for days.

[threerings.livejournal.com]

I don't know about the Hugo-Fred thing. Not that I like Hugo, but I can imagine George might not be comfortable with having another Fred around. Honestly, I just can't see George ever really getting over it. :(

[ladyvoldything.livejournal.com]

Or naming his first son Fred and then being super buddy-buddy with him whilst simultaneously being insanely, obsessively, fearfully, psychotically overprotective of him. And then naming his other kid something like Alastor or even Colin or something, then ignoring him and immersing himself in his work.

[stringertheory.livejournal.com]

Ditto to everything you said up there. Just, DITTO.

Also, I MUST have an animated icon with "The Battle of Hogwarts" and the lines: Neville Longbottom and his Gran, vive la résistance! Minerva McGonagall, Commander of Desks! Molly Weasley, Pwner of Bitches!

And you've made me very excited for the film version as well. Maybe we could get a director who would use BOTH The Power of Montage and the Children of Men battlecam? That would be made of awesome.

*goes back to her own leisurely re-read*

[glass-radical.livejournal.com]

I'm kinda halfway there:



you may nab if you wish (anyone)

[themadfish.livejournal.com]

I hope Neville ends up with a completely mind blowing hot girl, and he's considered the stud professor that all the teenage girls have a silly crush on. Cause that would be so competely different from his status as a student, and he deserves it. I want Pimp!Neville.

I noticed the Lily eyes thing, but it seem creepy to me at all. I just feel sorry for Snape. I just hope he died contented and his heart semi-healed.

Albus Severus Potter --just...ugh. I kept on getting confused with all the memento names.

As for Dumbledore...I don't think he's a horrible guy. I just don't like him.

I also want to know what went down between the spiders and Hagrid. Were they kinda like--"WE'RE GONNA KILL YOU--ooh....we actually do like you. We're gonna let you live, but our natures are more aligned with the Dark Lord so we're not exactly gonna let you go free either."

[jennnk.livejournal.com]

I would do Neville in a heartbeat. heart. beat.