This is me, testing my script to hide spoilers on the front page. MUFFLIATO!

One of my co-workers just announced that she thought the epilogue was the WORST epilogue she’d ever read. I can see what she’s getting at. I mean, I was thrilled to get confirmation that everybody lived happily ever after, but it did feel a little bit like fan fiction, didn’t it? (And I would definitely make fun of a kid named “Albus Severus.”)

Also – man, there’s a lot of inbreeding in the Wizarding world, isn’t there? They probably have more genetic diseases than the Amish.

grr epilogue – It’s obviously her way of saying that nothing exciting never happened in the wizarding world ever again so don’t expect any more books. Was terrible… I am tempted to rip those pages out of my book!

However, I was soo happy that I was right on a few things – snape loving lily, the locket belonging to black, harry being a horcrux, dumledore planning his death… however, I think it was done sooo much better that I could have ever imagined.

Loved Hogwarts up in arms – I was having flashbacks to season 3 finale of buffy where all of sunnydale high decides to fight.

PS – kris, your tonks was way better than the hollywood version!

PPS – so glad Neville didn’t die!

I loved the ending because it was exactly as I would have wanted it for my own little wizards. I think she tightened just about every loose end I could think of; and don’t mind the fanfic aspects, maybe she is paying tribute in a way. And as Kris points out, we do need to move on. I may have to reread all the Pullman books before I start on the books from last Christmas though.

I just remembered one of my favorite aspects of the book: There aren’t any moral absolutes anymore. In Book 1 you had Good Guys and Bad Guys, because it was a simple story for younger kids. Here we are in Book 7… and now we know that things aren’t really like that. Dumbledore, James, Sirius, Lupin, Ron, X. Lovegood… They all fail to live up to an ideal, and that’s okay. Even Molly Weasley, as perfect a mother figure as you could imagine, was being selfish and annoying in the leadup to the wedding. And then of course there’s Snape, who was never quite what he seemed. Even Draco and his parents were allowed to be seen in a sympathetic light. The only person who deals in absolutes is Voldemort, and it’s his inability to accept his own limitations that drives him to try to conquer death in the first place.

Pretty heady concept for a kids’ book.

In essentials it ended up fairly much as I expected, and I knew it was going to, especially after the Deathly Hallows were explained. Did anyone else find it somewhat pathetic that Hermoine’s parents were made to immigrate to Australia the way they were? And where was The Trace back in Chamber of Secrets when Dobby did the hover charm that Harry was blamed for? The epilogue definitely sucked – what became of Kreacher/the Dursleys etc etc. – yes it did read like fanfic.

When I turned what I thought was the last page and saw a 19-year-later epilogue, I literally moaned out loud. It would have been much better without the cheesy epilogue.
A couple other notes:
– I loved the fact that each of the horcruxes was destroyed by a different person.
– A little too much wandering aimlessly around the countryside … I was very, very happy when they finally got to Hogwarts.
– I was glad to see Neville kick butt at the end, but I’m still scratching my head over why he was able to pull Gryffindor’s Sword out of the sorting hat. After much searching of the interweb, I am apparently expected to believe that a true Gryffindor is able to summon the sword via the sorting hat regardless of where the sword is located? Is that a part of the Harry Potter canon established earlier in the series that I have forgotten? It seems like a huge leap.
Otherwise … fantastic, fun read that I’m glad I finished asap so I can’t run into any spoilers. I finished it in 2 sittings, starting Saturday afternoon and finishing Sunday afternoon (Marlin and I went to see OOTP in IMax/3D on Saturday evening, so it was a total Potter weekend for me).

I also liked that it wasn’t only Harry’s ability to love that helped end Voldemort, it was Snape’s unrequited love that started his whole downfall. Or rather Voldemort’s inability to recognize Snape’s love as something more than desire.

Ok, I’ll go ahead and say it: I didn’t much like it. Some of my reasons are posted at the link above, but briefly summarized: Too much countryside, not enough Hogwarts. Too many wham-bang “Harry ran then ducked then cast blah blah” action scenes, not enough wry Rowlingisms, too much ripped from other fantasy series (most notably Tolkien and Lewis, but others too — including that irritating Ma Weasley BITCH! bit), and too many arbitrary 2nd-lvl deaths/not enough 1st-lvl deaths.

At any rate, I’m sure I’m in a Mudblood minority, so for now I’ll just throw out this nitpicky question: Why wasn’t Kreacher freed by Harry giving him the locket? Does jewelry not constitute clothing?

THANK YOU, Kevin! I am totally with you. I was reading everyone’s comments, wondering if my lack of similar enthusiasm was due to finishing the book at 2 a.m. last night? I’m still so tired, I’m not even sure I can articulate it as well as you…but yeah. I definitely wasn’t feeling it as much as I thought I would. (Tissues, Kris? What, when Hedwig died? I felt like she was just offing the “dispensable” characters, but saving those we *really* cared about. None of it affected me the way Dumbledore’s death did.)

I thought I’d get more of an explanation on Sirius going through that veil in OOTP. What was it?

And in this book…when RAB went back to put the fake locket in the basin, he drank the poison. How did new poison get in there for Dumbledore and Harry to find, when they got to the fake locket years later? Am I missing something?

And another thing that annoyed me…Voldemort clearly says at the end that he’ll wait for Harry IN THE FORBIDDEN FOREST for an hour. Where do Harry, Ron and Hermione go after Harry sees Snape die? Back through the Womping Willow tunnel, which comes back out RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE OF THE FORBIDDEN FOREST. What, it took Voldy half an hour to get back to the forest the long way, so he conveniently missed them? (Did I miss something?)

Anyway, I feel like Harry as a Horcrux really ended up lamely. Everybody was talking about it as a possible theory when book 6 ended, and I think it was in JKR’s original plans maybe…but I feel like she almost altered this theory so many fans had already “guessed” it. I thought it was a little half-assed. Not that I wanted Harry to die or anything, but all of Dumbledore’s explanations in “King’s Cross” were a little lame to me (again, 2 a.m.)

I guess on the whole, I was thoroughly entertained, but it just wasn’t all that I had hoped or expected. Not a disappointment, but not sure it was worth staying up until 2 a.m. to finish!

(I waited the entire book to hear Harry finally tell Ginny how he feels, and never got that satisfaction. Instead, I get a flash forward to him being all grownup and a dad and married to her. I couldn’t even picture it.)

So. tired.

Liked it a lot, agree with the sometimes long episodes that don’t really lead anywhere, but thats happened in all the books.

The one thing that i really noticed is when wizards don’t do magic when they should to do a simple task. there were a lot of incidents of this but one i remember is when they were manually moving bodies and injured from the battlefield during the hour of waiting. i was reminded of this when hermoine told ron something like “you ARE a wizard!” when he suggested that crookshanks could stop the willow from wailing. there were LOTS of thiings like that in the book.

epilogue was lame…especially that much later, i could have dealt with a year or 2 later, but 19?!?!

the hogwarts battle was great. what happened to all the giants during the final battle, they just decide to take off? they went to deliver harry’s body, and then just picked up and left? it is a book, but if you say they were there, and then they’re not, its the little things that bug ya.

I loved the book but I must agree with many of the previous comments. The epilogue almost made me gag! It was sweet and all, but it made everything seem too much like a perfect fairy tale ending.
I was really bored during the preparations for Fleur’s and Bill’s wedding and when they were wandering from place to place aimlessly. Those pages could’ve been put to better use; I would’ve liked to have seen more of the battle.
I never doubted Snape’s loyalty, and agree that it was easy to see it coming. Kinda teared up when he admitted to Albus that he had always cared for Harry.
I though Bellatrix was awesome in this book. She’s a great villain, but I think I’d rather seen Neville kill her.
To answer the question, I think the thing in King’s Cross was Voldemort’s soul, and it died a little more with the destruction of every Horcrux. Before Harry, or Voldemort I suppose, killed Voldemort, Harry told him he had seen what he would become- to try for some remorse.
It was ironic that Lupin reprimanded Harry for using “Expelliarmus” when they were trying to leave Privet Drive, and told him not to let that be his expected spell, when that is exactly what did Voldemort in.
The house elves held it down in this book. I was so sad for Dobby, too. Support S.P.E.W.!

P.S. I know it’s irrelevant, but what in the name of Merlin’s pants happened to Dolores Umbridge?! I wanted to see her die a painful death

That’s true, Kris. After all, “we must not tell lies.”

Re: Voldemort flying everywhere.
Hary makes a statement in the book about Voldemort having to het “close enough” to apparate to a location. The war at Hogwarts was excellent, I’m hoping the movie truly does my imagination justice!

I thought Dumbledore’s use of the Elder Wand let him freeze Harry under the invisibility cloak. It was able to mend his wand when Hermione’s couldn’t.

Oh yes. Then it applies to sorting hat too. Voldemort sets it on fire during the battle and then 19 yrs later we have Harry telling his son that the hat takes peoples’ opinion into consideration… so maybe here was a missing scene in which Harry, before leaving the elder want in headmaster’s cabin touches the ash-remains of hat with its tip and says “Reparo”..
But I am more inclined to believe that its a hole in the plot which was neglected..

I was just glad harry didnt die and the fact mrs. weasley killed bellatrix with style. I didn’t expect that coming from her, she’s always been kinda sappy in the books o.O.

Dammit. I was hanging out for this scene. THEY GAVE IN TO THE FUNDIES!