the deathly hallows

[odycee]

So there we go, the end of the Harry Potter series. I really loved the book (despite some parts of it).

Let's get the biggest revelation of the book out of the way first: Draco ends up with a receding hairline!!! Heh.

Things I loved:

• I LOVED Dumbledore. I love that he was perhaps one of the most grey characters of the series in the end and the reason he never took the Minister of Magic post is because he couldn't trust himself with power. Dumbledore/Grindelwald OTP.



• I loved the Hermione/Ron - I especially liked the bit in Grimmauld Place where it looked like they'd fallen asleep holding hands.



• Harry got to go on Sirius's motorbike!
  
  
• I've never been particularly bothered about the Malfoys before but I liked their story in this book. Although - Scorpius? Does he grow up to wear leather bondage gear and become obsessed with wormholes?



• I was glad Snape really was working for Dumbledore, although I was getting a bit worried by the end that he wasn't.
  
  
• I like that I actually thought at one point that Harry was going to die. That, as Snape put it, Dumbledore had been raising him like a pig for slaughter.
  
  
• The bit with James, Lily, Sirius and Remus together and happy at the end. That definitely made me cry.
  
  
• How awesomely gruesome was the imagery of the dead bit of Voldemort's soul being an abandoned, flayed, mewling baby hidden under a seat? Do you think we'll get to see that in the movie adaptation?
  
  
• Mrs Weasley turning out to be kickass.
  
  
• I cried when Dobby died. Didn't expect that!
  
  
• I nearly forgot Neville! Neville FTW!!! Also, <3 Luna.
  
  
• The 'Snape sized hole' in the window after he had 'done a bunk'. I couldn't help but see a comedy outline of Snape being smashed into the window, including his bat-like cape.
  

Bits I did not love:

• Teddy Ruxpin? WTF?
  
  
• Still no explanation of the Veil. Oh well.
  
  
• JKR couldn't even give Remus a happy marriage before she killed him? Being a rabid Sirius/Remus shipper I'll admit I was ready not to like Tonks/Remus but dude, was this a car crash of a ship or what? Tonks loses her powers for a year pining and then has to cry and beg Remus in public to get him to agree to have a relationship with her. They then marry. Then Remus mopes about, knocks her up and decides actually he's made a mistake and decides to run off. Remus - you twat. Personally, if I was Tonks I'd have told you to not bother coming back. They have a child called Teddy. They then die. Off screen. And I didn't cry - not until we see Remus happy and smiling with Sirius, James and Lily. Poor Tonks and Remus and Teddy. :(
  
  
• Hedwig dying in her cage. :(
  
  
• Fred. :(
  
  
• The epilogue. Could have done without that.
  

I'm sure there's loads of bits I've missed that I wanted to comment on!

Comments

[elvinborn.livejournal.com]

I really loved that Hermione/Ron moment in Grimmauld Place.

I had really started to worry that she wasn't going to give Snape his reveal. I think I liked the reasoning, but I'll have to consider it more. The part of it that sort of sold me was the memory where he shows Dumbledore the doe patronus and D says "after all this time?". that was so ... I don't have the right word

Yes! the flayed abandoned soul thing was such an image!

I liked the Remus/Sirius/James/Lily with Harry thing too. All together there for the end. And I liked that Harry's willingness to die for all of his friends served the same protection as his mother did for him. That was nifty

Did JK just decide that she doesn't actually like Lupin? I never understood why she thought that Lupin and Tonks should hook up. And once she did it, I don't really get why she never committed to it. (other than maybe she secretly ships Remus/Sirius and just couldn't get past it) I hated how she treated both Remus and Tonks for the last two books. Tonks was better than all that nagging and pushing for him to marry her. And I will never believe that Lupin would actually leave his wife and unborn child for anything. At the very very least it could have been better if they had been allowed to die onscreen. We should have gotten to see him go down fighting. I'm almost as pissed about Lupin's treatment and thrown away death as I was (still am) about Sirius falling through a stupid veil.

Mrs Weasley rocks all.
Neville wins.
Luna is awesome

if they were going to include an epilogue, and I suppose that's just fine, it should at least have been better written and less fanfic-like. Why all the names? It was so very very confusing.