Snape was redeemed in the public eye by Harry's speech to Voldermort when he confronts him in Hogwarts.

He saw nothing. Dementors aren't visible to muggles.

Just because he didn't see the dementors themselves, doesn't mean that he didn't see something. After all, that is what dementors do. They make you relive your worst and most terrible memories.

Just like Harry relived the night his parents died when he was attacked in the Prisoner of Azkaban, Dudley had to "see" something that made him react the way he did. I too am curious as to what Dudley was so afraid of.

I could have sworn that she said we would find out. Maybe it's in there somewhere and I just didn't see it. I'll have to try and read it closer when I go through it a second time.

Also, agreeing with everyone about the ending. Harry, Hermione, Ginny and Ron are not the only characters that I care about. By the end of the book, their futures were obvious. I want to know about some of the characters whose futures were more ambiguous.

Notice that she didn't even really use Luna Lovegood in this book. Or Ernie Macmillan. Or Neville. Or Ron. The good chunk of the book was Harry and Hermione, wandering around and doing things.

When I first finished the book, I thought it was really good. Looking back at it, the book could have been a bit longer. For the character's she didn't kill off, she could have given them a bit more time. I mean, Luna Lovegood was a somewhat important character in Book Five. Dropped like a rock. She even sent Ron away for a couple chapters. Did she not want to write lines for him?

I thought the epilogue was even worse. She could have given a bit more or just not given us one. I would have actually preferred to have not an epilogue. All I got was that Ron and Hermione are married and so are Ron and Ginny. And they have kids and can't name them really well. (Hugo and everyone's already mentioned Albus Serverus). Nothing about what they do, which irked me the most. Rowling gave us a tease, which as everyone person with a functional sex organ knows, is far more terrible than nothing.

Although, killing characters left and right was a nice touch. Shows the abject cruelty of war. I don't know how they're going to make this movie PG-13. On one hand, I'd prefer to see a rated R version.

Overall, a decent way to close off the series, but I'd expected a bit more. The Deathly Hallows aspect felt a bit forced, but I enjoyed it more than I thought it was. However, the book felt like a really large collaborative fanfiction, picking up themes here and there.

Guys, mark your spoilers, or I'm going to have to label it on the thread title.

Or put your spoilers in the other Deathly Hallows thread because for some reason there are two.

Why not just go ahead and merge both, and label the thread as one containing spoilers?

A thought just came to me about Harry and why the dementors affected he more than other people (based on a revelation from book 7):

Just a thought I wanted to put out there.

I only have one thing to say about this book.

http://www.mugglenet.com/editorials/...wer/nt23.shtml

Thanks for the link. I don't usually read things like that, but glad to see I'm not the only one to have had that thought, even if I'm somewhat late to the party. ;)

On another note, I just read this comment from someone and to my mind makes a lot of sense (and also explains the importance of the Deathly Hallows):

Wonder when will Rowling start answering fan questions again on her site, I'm pretty sure there's alot we all wanna ask.

JK Rowling, in an interview with the Today Show, talked about the future professions of the characters after the events of the books:

Well at least she told us in one way or another... She should put these on her site as well though...

Thanks for the link!

One thing I missed out on: All the previous books had a fairly good recap of the previous happenings at the beginning, this one didn't really have much. It sprinkled things throughout the book, saying that Harry learned something "last year", but I missed getting a good recap. I haven't read HBP since the week it came out.

There was a little too much description of what was going on in the middle. I pretty much knew what she was going to write before she wrote it with regards to what happened whenever Harry and Hermione moved from place to place.

I totally agree here. Rowling seemed to go out of her way to set up this final group of six, Harry, Ron, Hermione, Luna, Ginny, and Neville. We get this inkling that they are all friends (well, 5 of them anyway) and that Harry likes naming kids after people he used to love. Well, that's great. But, seriously, for a 750 page book, after probably 3,000 pages and 7 books, I think a little more could have been put into the finale, if you're going to bother to have one.

And we even get those 5 people and only learn the profession of Neville? Give me a break.

I mean, consider what an important character Hogwarts was. I mean, they basically destroyed the entire thing in the final 150 pages...was it rebuilt? Exactly the same? Did they make new things? Do you use magic to rebuild a castle?

What about the older people in the book? Harry's only 46 or 47 at the end, so, surely, most everyone is still around. And how is the ministry run? Etc., etc.. I felt cheated at the end.

Her responses to all that she was shooting for “nebulous,” something “poetic.” She wanted the readers to feel as if they were looking at Platform 9¾ through the mist, unable to make out exactly who was there and who was not.

As from the link Stop Sign posted above.

Still, I say "meh" to that.

JK said she might be doing an "encyclopedia" with more details, donating the proceeds to charity. So maybe you'll get your fix. Apparently Dean had some great backstory that never came out.

Despite being a fan of detailed epilogues, I thought what she did was enough. You just get a little snapshot of what life is like after. Elegant. We don't need the details of the new laws on house elf reform or what happens to each and every character. I DO think one or two lines on Luna should've been sidled into the epilogue, though.

man....i hated snape for the longest time, but after this book, dang....he's awesome

I'm not the hugest fan or anything, but I won't be very happy if I have to pick up some encyclopedia to fill in the gaps that should have been in the books. Some bizarre reference-like book shouldn't be part of the canon.

I finished the book a few weeks ago after probably reading half of it in one night. I liked it, I didn't think the ending was amazing but I wouldn't say it was a bad ending. I agree with what's been said about the epilogue, it should've contained a bit more information other than 'hey look, they all shacked up and made babies'. Other than that, I personally loved the chapter that covered Snape's story, it made his death heart breaking; especially when he said "Look at me". And so much death! Saying that, I really thought one of the main 3 would die - so I was quite surprised that she didn't kill any of them off. Saying that I was quite surprised at the happy ending, but then I remembered that it is a childrens story essentially.

Overall, I liked it, it was an enjoyable read and a good ending. I'm just praying that there isn't a spin off series.

This just out: Dumbledore is gay.

I'm a little stunned, though it's not unsurprising that any author would say something about a major character after-the-fact that could cause an uproar. That Harry Potter's mentor and primary father-figure in the world is a homosexual will no doubt only be important to the adult readers, and the whiny-pants that are clinically opposed to homosexuality, especially homosexual parenting.

(And, no, I didn't see the thread in General Discussion. That one should be merged into this thread, IMO.)

Sort of brings a new light into what ol' Rita's been writing about Dumby and Harry, doesn't it? :D