Harry Potter, Deathly Hallows (spoilers allowed)

The blob creature is the part of Volde's soul that was in Harry, and I totally agree with you on the bitch line.

 

As to the Ginny point, I think I disagree, though I mised her here. Book 6 belonged to her & snape, this one is back to basics with the big 3. I would buy & read an alternate view book 7 about the year in Hogwarts with her as the Harry figure & Neville & Luna as the sidekicks, with alot more Snape, Hagrid & McGonagall + the whole Order.

 

Yes, the blob creature is Voldemort's soul. That is why Harry tells Voldemort he has seen what Voldy will become. He is actually trying to save Voldemort, but, of course, it's too late.

 

Finally finished reading the book, and did so without seeing any spoilers. All in all, it was a good read. Thought it was really slow in the middle, but the last 250 or so pages really picked up. In fact, I couldn't put it down and ended up reading the final 300 pages last night.

I thought it was highly predictable, but when you think about the fact that you've had six books to formulate the final book, a lot of hints had to be dropped along the way. For the most part, only a few things threw me for a loop.

Some thoughts I had about the book:

Would have liked to see a more dramatic death for Snape. Like when Harry was listening in on Snape and Voldemort's final conversation, I was hoping Snape would see Harry through the Invisibility Cloak (I've always had this feeling Snape could see through the cloak, but said nothing). I was hoping Snape would then anticipate a move by Harry and try to help him take down Voldemort, sacrificing himself for Harry to get a free shot on Nagini. Of course, that would be hard to write with the showdown taking place later between Harry and Voldy. I just would have liked to see Snape have a more noble death. It seemed too sudden and forced to fit the story. Elder Wand be damned, Snape should have put up a fight.

The battle scene was one of the best reads ever. I could see it all happening, hear it all happening and at times feel it. When Harry's old friends started arriving at the Room of Requirement, I got that little "Oh yeah, it's on" chill. It was well-written.

The walk to his death was a great scene as well. I was confused by the appearance of Lupin, though. I didn't realize he meant that much to Harry. I was thinking Dumbledore would be one of the "ghosts". Even Dobby would have been understandable, given that wonderful scene earlier of him burying Dobby.

The Doe Patronus really threw me off. At first, I immediately thought of his mom (it's only logical since his dad's animagus was a stag). Even though I knew Snape was good, I never put that together.

The middle of the book (IE the camping scenes) were really repetitive and useless. Guarantee that will be cut when the movie script is reworked. I was never so happy as when Dean Thomas and crew finally showed up. Thank you, the plot can now move on.

The epilogue could have been better, but I think she did it that way to leave open to imagination. My guess is that Harry and Hermione are both working at the Ministry "For the Greater Good". Ron is a keeper for a professional Quidditch team (hence the "I'm extremely famous" line. LOL) I liked the touch of Neville becoming a professor. But who is headmaster now? Percy? McGonagall? I may have missed that.

Harry's kids names were a bit patronizing to me. James, Lily and Albus? I know you want to pay tribute to those three important people, but why not make James, Lily and Albus their middle names and give them their own identity. I'm going to guess that James' middle name is Remus and Lily's middle name is Nymphadora. LOL And I cringed a little when he said "Albus Severus". I understand Snape played a big part in his life, but he REALLY hated Snape. Don't you remember the first few books how much he despised Snape? I don't know that I could go from really hating someone to naming my youngest child after them. I could have gone without that.

But I'm just nitpicking. We all have our own perfect ending. I thought the series turned out really well the final book was certainly not a disappointment.

I also think she's left it open to return to the series in the future (maybe with Albus as the main character or whatever). I don't think she'd consider it now, but a couple of years down the road, she'll start to miss telling the story of Harry Potter.

 

You can find the answers here: http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/19959323/

As for his occupation, Harry, along with Ron, is working at the Auror Department at the Ministry of Magic. After all these years, Harry is now the department head.

“Harry and Ron utterly revolutionized the Auror Department,” Rowling said. “They are now the experts. It doesn’t matter how old they are or what else they’ve done.”

Meanwhile, Hermione, Ron’s wife, is “pretty high up” in the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, despite laughing at the idea of becoming a lawyer in “Deathly Hallows.”

 

Just returned from a week's vacation, where I spent the first day reading the book while my wife made fun of me. Oh, well...

My impressions are similar to a lot of what's been posted, so I'll keep it brief.

1. Snape's death was anticlimactic, but somehow fitting. For him to have a full-on heart-to-heart with Harry explaining everything would have been out of character. I wish he had been able to put up more of a fight before he checked out, but all in all I thought explaining his backstory with the Pensieve worked well.

2. I remember a point about halfway through the book where I thought to myself it was dragging a bit, but then we got to Dobby's death. It was moving, and I was surprised at my reaction because I always found Dobby to be an annoying character. That was good writing.

3. Same with Kreacher. After despising him for punking out Sirius, I was surprised to feel pity for him when his full story was revealed.

4. The passage describing Harry's walk of death, along with his parents, Sirius and Lupin was just great. I was blinking back tears for the whole thing -- especially when he asked "does it hurt?" Ditto the chat with Dumbledore while he was dead/comatose/in limbo.

5. From the time that Neville led the Big Three back into Hogwarts until the end of battle, there was no way in hell I could put the book down. My beach house could have caught on fire and I wouldn't have noticed. Can't wait to see how that plays in the movie.

6. I liked the epilogue. I thought it left enough questions unanswered that JK left herself a way back if she wants to fill in the blanks with more books down the line.

All in all, I can't say it's my favorite book in the series (that would be No. 6), but I'm sure it will grow on me.

 

That would be a good book -- what all went down at Hogwarts that last year.

If Rowling wanted, she also could do books from the view of characters like Sirius, Lupin, etc.

One thing I really liked about the books is that it's a battle between good and evil, but people takes sides but they doesn't mean they are eliminated. It's like life. You still have to live with them.

Draco is a punk and Harry and the order know his parents are Death Eaters from early on but they live with it.

 

I'm not sure that Snape could have had a more noble death than to realize that his part in the story had been completed, and it was time to step back and allow Harry to complete the journey that Dumbledore had started for him. Really, what else was there left to do?

 

Snape could have killed a Death Eater. He could have died saving Harry somehow (which he didn't actually do; he risked his life, but his death had nothing to do with his double agency). He could have killed the snake and thus taken out one of the horcruxes.

 

One thing I did like about Snape's death, and you can sense it better if you go back and read it a second time, is that right before he goes, he says "Look at me ... look at me ..."

Rowling made it a repeated point throughout all the books that Harry had his mom's eyes, so it seems clear that Snape was wanting one last look at Lilly to remind him of what all his sacrifice has been for.

Rowling didn't really want to make Snape too much of a hero, because it's clear he made mostly bad choices besides Lilly. But he was capable of love, and that's what ultimately makes him redeemable.

Here is Rowling's answer when asked this very question by the kids at the Leaky Couldren

 

I think that Snape, McGonagall and Mrs. Weasley were Rowling's favorite characters.

 

How could Dumbledore and Fred/George not make that list?