Harry Potter & The Deathly Hallows - POTENTIAL SPOILERS

[Olgar Shiverstone]

Just finished reading, after the book arrived from Amazon at 4. Good read, and a worthy successor and ending to the series. Lots of exciting scenes,

Spoiler

even if there is a bit too much time wasted mooning about the woods for 1/3 the book

. Glad to see at least one of the pre-released "hacker" spoilers was completely off base.

To Steel Wind's question:

[sblock]In Chamber of Secrets, it's clearly established the sword comes when needed, and appears in the Sorting Hat. For some reason, I seem to recall hearing the hat was originally Gryffindor's ... but not sure where. That would certainly help explain it.[/sblock]

As to deaths:

[sblock]
Massive body count in this book -- they'll have fun keeping the violence in check for the movie. Voldemort (obviously), Snape, Bellatrix, Fred, Remus Lupin, Tonks, Mad-Eye Moody, Scrimgeor, Wormtail, Colin Creavy, Dobby, Hedwig, Crabbe, plus lots more Death Eaters and Hogwarts red shirts ...

Harry (sort of), but then not ...

George loses an ear.

Draco doesn't get it, little git.[/sblock]

As to the ending:

[sblock]
I think all thosse who predicted Harry as being the seventh Horcrux were justly rewarded. The series had been building to this for some time. And I'm glad the mystery of Snape has finally been resolved to (reasonable) satisfaction. Wish the epilogue had had an update on Luna, though ...[/sblock]

Still, some mysteries not resolved:

[sblock]
- Where do ghosts come from (though the background on the Ravenclaw & Slytherin ghosts was interesting)?
- How do the pictures of headmasters retain sentience? Dumbledore was still guiding Snape after his death.
- What kind of critter is Crookshanks, anyway? JKR has said he's not a normal cat, but he's not an animagus, either ...
- The last word wasn't "scar". Wonder what happened?
- The female house elf Dobby helped (name escapes me) ... no sign.
- Who becomes the next Hogwarts headmaster?
- Probably a number of other loose ends I missed, too.[/sblock]

 

[Donovan Morningfire]

Just finished reading...

And absolutely loved it. Only put the book down once to scrounge up some food somewhere in the 500's.

Guess I have to eat my words on Harry not being an accidental Horcrux, since that's exactly what he ended up being.

As for Olgar's unanswered questions...
-> Nick pretty much explained where ghosts come from in OotP, witn Snape expounding on the topic in HBP.
-> Crookshanks is part cat and part some other magical beastie, Kneazle I think. Rowling put the answer to that up on her website.
-> As for the last word, she said some time ago it had gotten changed from scar. But it was in the last sentence.
-> Winky was probably sleeping off another butterbeer binge. But with Kreacher leading the charge, I find myself asking... who cares?
-> I'd imagine McGonagall would get the job; she's the logical choice, since Snape only got the post due to Voldemort's meddling.

And it would have been nice to see a where Luna ended up nineteen years later. But at least Harry got rewarded for a childhood of sacrifice and trouble. After all, he'd already had a lifetime's worth of trouble before he'd even graduated.

 

[drothgery]

Just finished reading...

And absolutely loved it. Only put the book down once to scrounge up some food somewhere in the 500's.

Guess I have to eat my words on Harry not being an accidental Horcrux, since that's exactly what he ended up being.

It bugs me that every cheesy internet theory seemed to be true...

[sblock]
Harry was a horocrux.
Snape was actually okay, and had a thing for Lily.
Harry ended up with Ginny.
Hermione ended up with Ron.
[/sblock]

... but it still turned out to be a pretty good book. Add to the list of unanswered questions, though -- did you notice that except for Neville, the '19 years later' section doesn't mention what any of the (now grown-up) kids do for a living.

McGonagall probably was headmaster for a while, but it doesn't seem likely she still was by the epilogue; she's not that much younger than Dumbledore.

 

[The Grumpy Celt]

More characters (Hagrid, Percy, Neville and McGonagall for example) should have died... but then I always think that.

The government had to have been in shambles after the story.

If it was said, then I missed it, but I wonder if Harry did become an Auror.

 

[Digital M@]

Spoiers ahead

I thought it was OK. Many things in the story bothered me. Personally, Hemione played too bg of a role, she did everything in the first 3/4 of the books. Ron and Harry night as well have been monkies picking bugs from each others fur. Harry did not practice improving his spell casting abilities, silent casting or anything to better prepare himself for the conflict he knew was coming. I fugured rage and fear would have been motivation enough.

We read the same backround information about Dumbledore 4 times in the book, each time with a different flair, but really it was all the same info and IMO was not that interesting. What bothered me the most is that is brought angry brooding Harry back.

There was lots of conflict, but not enough suspence, but that may be because I read the book in one sitting. I will re-ead it in a month or so over a lnger period of time and I may digest it differently.

I was also bothered by Harry ending up unconcious after each combat sequence, it became overused and predictable. The accidental Horcrux was a really bad story line (IMO), I just did not want to see it in the story, I did not feel it was going to add any dimension to the characters or the book and it seemed forced. I also did not understand why Harry toght he could not share info on the Horcrux once V knew Harry was destroying them. That annoyed me. The sword in the hat was annoying only because the Goblin tanking the sword was such a big deal. Harry had conversation about deals with Goblins, the 3 main characters discussed it, the goblin betrays Harry before harry can betray him. In the end none of that made any difference and it did not make for a richer story.

Overall the book did not flow as well as some of the others, characters seemed kind of flat, and I was not immersed into the non acion story like I was in HBP.

Honestly, the pace and direction of the book went a much different direction than I thought and that could be coloring my opinion. I did like how the sequence at Hogwarts went. I like the buildup of supporters, the multi-faceted battle, V's understanding and exploitation of Harry's weaknesses. Albus's brother was a great new character, the mystery of where help was coming was well done, Severus's back story was good, but I would of liked to see him have a more active/sacradicial death, he was such a good character, I mean you knew he was a good guy but you still hated him, but liked him deep down inside.

 

[kingpaul]

Add to the list of unanswered questions, though -- did you notice that except for Neville, the '19 years later' section doesn't mention what any of the (now grown-up) kids do for a living.

That did irk me when I read the epilogue.

 

[Steel_Wind]

If it was said, then I missed it, but I wonder if Harry did become an Auror.

Response below

Spoiler

It didn't say. I would wonder why he would want to be one by that point, honestly. After all, he's the Great Harry Potter, ArchWizard by that point. He's got nothing left to prove. Besides, working for the Ministry in such a direct way would have bothered him I think.

Also, wouldn't he be sick to death of the idea with so many friends lost to the war?

I would have thought his real calling was shown in OOTP - to be Hogwarts' Defence against the Dark Arts teacher. It was clearly what he was best at - and there is no arguing that not only was he a natural at the subject - but above all he was also a natural teacher.

Moreover, that way (and unlike Voldemort) - HP could have grown up and stayed to live at Hogwarts. It was, after all, his home.

 

[kingpaul]

Spoiler

After all, he's the Great Harry Potter, ArchWizard by that point. He's got nothing left to prove.

Maybe

Spoiler

because he has nothing left to prove he wants to live in "retirement". He has enough gold from the Potters and the Blacks to be able to not work.

 

[drothgery]

Things that may interest only me: Seeing Lily and James' gravestones with 1960-1981 on them, and seeing that Harry had his first birthday in the company of his parents, pretty firmly establishes the 'real world' timeline of the story.

It means that the main timeline of the story ended in 1998 (and Harry was born in July of 1980).
The '50 years ago' flashbacks in earlier books were set during or just after WWII (and if spillover from the Muggle Europe of the 1930s and 1940s didn't have a lot to do with Dubmledore's attitude adjustment I'd be shocked).

 

[Donovan Morningfire]

It bugs me that every cheesy internet theory seemed to be true...

[sblock]
Harry was a horocrux.
Snape was actually okay, and had a thing for Lily.
Harry ended up with Ginny.
Hermione ended up with Ron.
[/sblock]

Looking back at the books overall, Rowling actually left plenty of clues that each of those were the case. The hook-ups mentioned in the books were fairly obvious, especially the last set, which I think you'd have to be half-blind to not see it coming.

As for the Half-Blood Prince, it does vindicate that Dumbledore knew what he was doing, and further explained why Snape was so biased towards Harry. After all, how painful would you find it if the eyes of someone you loved were looking at you from the face of someone you despised?

For Harry = Horcrux, seems the internet theory was only half-right, since they said that Harry would have to end up dead as a doornail and that someone else (often Neville) would have to carry on the fight.

... but it still turned out to be a pretty good book. Add to the list of unanswered questions, though -- did you notice that except for Neville, the '19 years later' section doesn't mention what any of the (now grown-up) kids do for a living.

McGonagall probably was headmaster for a while, but it doesn't seem likely she still was by the epilogue; she's not that much younger than Dumbledore.

According to Rowling, McGonagall was a "spritely" 80-something, and that wizards live much longer than Muggles. Dumbledore was over 150 and still very active and able, with Aberforth only a few years behind. So it's quite possible that she could still be Hogwart's Headmistress when the new batch of Potter kids were going to Hogwarts.

As for jobs, I agree with kingpaul in that Harry, much like his father, didn't need to work given the vast amount of money in his vault. Besides, he only wanted to become an Auror so that he'd have a better shot at defeating Voldemort. With that out of the way, and given his changed attitude towards the Ministry in general, it was no longer an attractive career path.