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Jul. 22nd, 2007 02:46 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
auntiemeeshI kind of stumbled into acquiring Deathly Hallows yesterday. Ran into a friend who ended up with two copies and wanted to sell one. So after spending the day at the library working on the Paper of Doom III, I came home and settled in for some serious reading.
Rambling and not necessarily orderly thoughts ahead.
I think we all had speculations about what the outcome would be, who would live, who would die, etc. The only thing I would never have forgiven Rowling for would have been a Gandalf-like resurrection of Dumbledore. Which, thankfully, we were spared.
So it turns out Snape was a good guy after all, despite his general loathsomeness, and he served Harry well in the end. I really was pretty sure Rowling was going to kill Harry, but I like how she handled that whole situation, Harry's willing sacrifice subverting the curse so he didn't really die. A little bit of a cheat, because the larger plot would have gone the same way, even if he had died, but still, I'm glad Harry got to live.
Yay for Neville! How awesome that he was the one to kill Nagini, proving his bravery and worth once and for all (not that it really needed proving again, he's been doing ridiculously brave things all along - I think he would have done every bit as good a job as Harry if he'd been the one chosen, even though he would have done it a bit differently, I'm sure).
My heart broke just a little bit when Harry was walking into the Forbidden Forest and called up his dead loved ones to escort him. There were a lot of hard lessons for Harry, especially learning to accept that the people he loved weren't perfect, that everyone has both good and bad in them and that at different times in their lives they made different choices, but that they were still the people he loved.
There was no way we were going to get through this whole book without people we cared about dying. I almost cried for Fred, so full of spirit and life and a sense of the fun of living, but at least he died laughing, in the midst of a good moment. It felt a little different with Lupin and Tonks, for some reason. Particularly for Lupin, who had finally made peace with who and what he was. I kinda like the idea that James, Sirius and Remus are together again, creating mischief and mayhem in whatever sort of afterlife they've found.
Being the sort of person who likes closure and wrap-ups and loved the fact that the LotR continued for a couple hundred pages after the climactic finale, I was glad to get at least a little glimpse into Harry's future. I'm not a shippy person, but they all ended up in the pairings that I expected from about book two, on. I loved seeing them with their kids, how they've become such a big, extended family. I absolutely adored the relationship between James and Albus (we met them so briefly but they were so clearly drawn).
I can just picture the kind of relationship Ron and Hermione have. I bet they fight all the time and at least once a year they're not speaking to each other, but in the end, they'll always work it out.
In the end, when it comes right down to it, I'm happy in the knowledge that Harry is surrounded by family and all the love he was denied by his blood kin when he was a child. That's the best ending one could hope for him.
And how could I forget, Draco named his kid Scorpius! That is just all kinds of awesome.
Well, the original plan for today was to finish my paper and then finish the book, but I've finished the book and I now have a headache from all that concentrated reading, so I have a feeling the paper might wait until tomorrow. That still gives me three days to do the other paper, so I'm not totally screwed over.
Rambling and not necessarily orderly thoughts ahead.
I think we all had speculations about what the outcome would be, who would live, who would die, etc. The only thing I would never have forgiven Rowling for would have been a Gandalf-like resurrection of Dumbledore. Which, thankfully, we were spared.
So it turns out Snape was a good guy after all, despite his general loathsomeness, and he served Harry well in the end. I really was pretty sure Rowling was going to kill Harry, but I like how she handled that whole situation, Harry's willing sacrifice subverting the curse so he didn't really die. A little bit of a cheat, because the larger plot would have gone the same way, even if he had died, but still, I'm glad Harry got to live.
Yay for Neville! How awesome that he was the one to kill Nagini, proving his bravery and worth once and for all (not that it really needed proving again, he's been doing ridiculously brave things all along - I think he would have done every bit as good a job as Harry if he'd been the one chosen, even though he would have done it a bit differently, I'm sure).
My heart broke just a little bit when Harry was walking into the Forbidden Forest and called up his dead loved ones to escort him. There were a lot of hard lessons for Harry, especially learning to accept that the people he loved weren't perfect, that everyone has both good and bad in them and that at different times in their lives they made different choices, but that they were still the people he loved.
There was no way we were going to get through this whole book without people we cared about dying. I almost cried for Fred, so full of spirit and life and a sense of the fun of living, but at least he died laughing, in the midst of a good moment. It felt a little different with Lupin and Tonks, for some reason. Particularly for Lupin, who had finally made peace with who and what he was. I kinda like the idea that James, Sirius and Remus are together again, creating mischief and mayhem in whatever sort of afterlife they've found.
Being the sort of person who likes closure and wrap-ups and loved the fact that the LotR continued for a couple hundred pages after the climactic finale, I was glad to get at least a little glimpse into Harry's future. I'm not a shippy person, but they all ended up in the pairings that I expected from about book two, on. I loved seeing them with their kids, how they've become such a big, extended family. I absolutely adored the relationship between James and Albus (we met them so briefly but they were so clearly drawn).
I can just picture the kind of relationship Ron and Hermione have. I bet they fight all the time and at least once a year they're not speaking to each other, but in the end, they'll always work it out.
In the end, when it comes right down to it, I'm happy in the knowledge that Harry is surrounded by family and all the love he was denied by his blood kin when he was a child. That's the best ending one could hope for him.
And how could I forget, Draco named his kid Scorpius! That is just all kinds of awesome.
Well, the original plan for today was to finish my paper and then finish the book, but I've finished the book and I now have a headache from all that concentrated reading, so I have a feeling the paper might wait until tomorrow. That still gives me three days to do the other paper, so I'm not totally screwed over.
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Date: 2007-07-22 09:24 pm (UTC)Good point also about how sad the loss of Lupin is, now that he seemed happy and finally accepting himself and his family.
I wasn't surprised at all by the pairings at the end, but ever since the 5th book I always thought that Harry and Luna would have made a cute couple...
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Date: 2007-07-22 09:33 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-07-22 10:22 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-07-22 09:46 pm (UTC)Awwww. :)
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Date: 2007-07-22 10:35 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-07-22 10:30 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-07-22 10:35 pm (UTC)