WooHoo!
[QUOTE=Pleonast]
Don’t know if this was mentioned upthread, but I thought it was appropriate that each horcrux was destroyed by a different person: [ol]
[li] Diary by Harry [] Ring / Rock Hallow by Dumbledore [] Slytherin’s Locket by Ron [] Hufflepuff’s Cup by Hermione [] Ravenclaw’s Diadem by Crabbe [] Nagini by Neville [] Harry by Voldemort [/ol][/li][/QUOTE]
yep it was. nagini was killed last by neville. i thought it was a nice touch that the 2 boys born at the end of july got to destroy the first and last horcrux.
after reading the last few pages here i’m thinking harry should have tormented tommy-boy with the old school yard chant, “i am rubber! you are glue! bounces off of me! and sticks to you!!!” perhaps they have a different version in the uk.
i guess voldy was going for the “3rd times a charm” thing when he tried to zap harry.
neville’s mum wouldn’t have had the choice. unless she was the only chum of a death-eater that asked for her to be spared. tommy-boy only gave lily a choice due to snape.
I still think that someone other than Harry should have killed Voldemort. Like the during the final scene, instead of having Avada Kedavra bounce back, it should have just fizzled, while Harry fails to disarm him. This sets the stage for a totally unexpected raging George Weasley to come in firing to kill. I think such a combined effort fulfills the theme of the series better, namely that friendships and love are what set Harry & friends apart from Voldy, that people are willing to risk themselves out of grief or concern for others.
I don’t have a lot to add, but I started the book on Sunday night and read for about 4 hours and then finished last night reading until 1:15am. I am tired and on coffee.
I feel it was the best book of the seven. I was surprised by what a page-turner it was. 753 pages in about 9 hours. I do not normally read that fast. I average between 45-60 pages per minute, not over 80 ppm. It had a few slow moments, but she really kept this one trimmed down and yet still got almost every major character at least a little time to satisfy her fans.
I liked the redemption of Kreacher, it was nice touch and the death of Dobby was surprisingly touching. The Battle of Hogwarts was (excuse the phrase) “Awesome”. Professor McDonagal was the highlight of it, but I like Trelawnly going a little berserk with throwing the crystal balls, good humor. I loved that Neville stepped up as a real leader and got the sword and killed the snake. I liked that Ron and Hermione found a way to destroy the Horcrux while Harry was searching for the last one.
I expected Snape to have his redemption; I could not see JK allowing Dumbledore to be that wrong about Snape. I was surprised by how his redemption took place.
I was surprised she killed off Tonks and Lupin leaving an even younger baby an orphan. I fully expected either Harry or Ginny to die to give the book a truly tragic note. I prefer them having a ‘normal’ wizard family instead.
The part with Harry not dying and talking to Professor Dumbledore was probably the weakest part of the book, but she just barely made it work.
I know I am babbling, but I am going only on coffee right now, even after finishing the book, I could not get to sleep for about an hour, my mind was racing too much. She pulled off a level of excitement I have not experienced outside of Tolkien and Heinlein. I really enjoyed this book. It was more than a good read, it was a really well done conclusion.
Jim {Now, I need to slough through this very long thread to see others thoughts}
Still pretty fast. 
I’m surprised the book didn’t burst into flames moving that fast!
I have been reading through this thread, at least one person read it in only 8 hours. So, apparently the paper is flame retardant.
Jim {Geez, you think if I got any comments, it would be about what I wrote about the book, not the minor fact of what a page turner it was. 
)
Whoosh . . .
(bolding added)
Well, I differ as to how much of a page turner the book was, at least until the last chapters, but moving at more than a page per second is the page-turningest book I’ve ever heard of!
:smack:
Thanks, I did preface my post, by saying I was on coffee. I am very tired. I never should have read that late on a Monday night, but I could not put it down.
I have been going through this thread in off moments. Some great posts and great insights.
Thank you to all my fellow HP Dopers.
Jim
Reference the whole prophecy/Harry vs. Neville thing, I wonder if Voldemort’s plan wasn’t to kill off both of the babies. I know Dumbledore says in one of the books that it’s significant that Voldemort chose Harry, the son of a Muggle-born, and not Neville the pure-blood, as the baby likely to post the biggest threat, but I think it’s more in keeping with Voldie’s personality that he would want to cover all bases and bump off both boys born at the end of July. He just happened to find the Potters first. Which makes it complete chance that he marked Harry as his equal.
Of course, then you lose the whole “Lily didn’t have to die, it was her choice that protects Harry” thing.
I always thought from the way Rowling presented it that Voldemort wasn’t really aware that there were two babies that fit the description. Perhaps when he discovered one that did (Harry), he stopped looking, assuming that this was the one. He could easily have no reason to believe there was another, though this may depend on how prophecies normally work in the Harry Potter universe.
It would have been cool if it’d been Neville, though. I’d definitely read Neville Longbottom and The Philosopher’s Stone!
Unless I totally missed it, neither the book nor this thread has come up with any explanation for what Umbridge was doing with Moody’s eye.
She’s actually never been portrayed as a Death Eater (though she’s sure as hell about as nasty as you can get and not be one) and presumably wasn’t on the effort to nab Harry (though she’d certainly be delighted at his death). So how did she get his eye???
Umbridge sent Dementors to Harry Potter’s house. Why wouldn’t she have been responsible for sending some less-than-legal wizards to the house of Public Enemy #1?
Speaking of that, did anyone else make a mental connection between Harry’s status as “Undesirable Number One” and Gordon Freeman’s status as “Anticitizen One” in Half Life 2?
“Tell me, Mr. Potter, if you can, you have destroyed so much! What exactly is it that you have created? Can you name even one thing? I thought not.”
I believe she was using it to spy on her employees in the next room.
Umbridge got Moody’s eye because some Death Eater gave it to her - the Ministry is full of them at this point, and she’s furthering the agenda by enforcing anti-mudblood laws.
As I’ve said earlier, I love the book and I had a bit of a laugh that one of my wilder predictions came true; I guess that Voldemort would fly.
See, it’s all in the name. I just thought that was all very sly and tongue-in-cheek by Rowling
The Potter house in Godric’s Hollow has a plaque outside it saying that the house has been left in a ruined state as a reminder. Very much like Oradour-sur-Glane.
I am rereading it, slowly.
The scene re Dobby was moving and all, but upon reflection–Harry wasn’t all that fond of Dobby, was he? He was anxious and frightened of him at first, then he pitied him, then he treated him well, but essentially used him. It was Dobby who revered Harry. Is this a nobless oblige thing? I could see Harry being cut up about Buckbeak and Hedwig sooner than the house elf who gets him into trouble and almost killed. True, he did save Harry’s life a few times…and I’m sure HP was grateful-so is the burying just a show of respect and not one of grief? (or respect tempered with loss?) It reads as deep loss–and I just don’t see that.
I had other 
moments, but can’t call them to mind at present.