[Dilznoofus]

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The things that most irked me

1. Never seeing any other attempts at 'spells without speaking', although it seemed a rather important part of HBP.

2. General problems with the 'undefeatable' wand. However, I've followed different rabbit-holes of logic and can somewhat resign myself to that one.

3. The portrayal of Snape. I realized, as I'm sure most others had, that the root of Snape's problems with James Potter were related to Lily. However, when we find out more about Snape, I was hoping that he was becoming more of a great 'chessmaster', much like Dumbledore. In HBP, we learn that even in school he was a good enough wizard to begin INVENTING spells, which means he had some kind of further knowledge of magic than Hermoine in her best moments. He was also able to parry Harry's spells when he was fleeing Hogwarts, while everyone else basically just jumps out of the way. I think most everyone had realized that Snape was not going to end up as a 'bad guy' and to keep him so far removed from the final story, apart from the none-too-pleasing memory scene (which felt like a cop-out), seems nearly unforgiveable.

4. The lack of more complicated spells. We learn in the bar(or coffee shop?) scene that there is such a thing as 'magical theory', which explains how spells are created and what-not. In OotP, we see a glimpse into this world of more complicated magic in the abbreviated duel between Dumbledore and Voldemort. However, beyond the magical sphere around Nagini, we don't really get to glimpse into that kind of thing again. It seemed like it was generally the same curses/magic throughout.

5. As someone else mentioned, the use of the dark arts. It had seemed like it was a big, life-changing, soul-darkening experience to use them, but Harry fires off the imperius and crucio curses with little regard and no consequence. He uses it even in front of McGonogal, whose real reproach wasn't even about the dark arts.

I loved the series but the ending, as I've seen, could have been little but disappointing, no matter how great it was. The self-sacrifice scene made the book for me, of course.

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I agree about the Unforgivable Curses. The other stuff doesn't bother me a whole lot.

I'm kind of surprised at how bothered so many of you are by the plot holes and the somewhat contrived and cliche plot devices used to wrap up the story. It's an epic quest of a very traditional form. There aren't that many ways to end it satisfactorily without being fairly predictable.

Plot holes, to me, are not worth dwelling on. It's a book about wizards and witches. A lot of things are gonna happen that don't stand up to much scrutiny, but why bother scrutinizing in the first place? I happily suspend my disbelief when I encounter these little patches. They're just not that important to me.

It's the characters, who are so textured, so endearing and so compelling, that pulled me into this story from the start. Harry, Ron and Hermione are three of my all-time favorite fictional people.

Harry's march to his death was deeply powerful of course, but there were several other moments in this book that came close to matching it for me.

-- Hermione's devastation when Ron left the camp. We'd never witnessed her in such a state of misery and despair.

-- Ron's struggle with the locket Horcrux, as all his years of jealousy, anger, fear and insecurity were laid bare for Harry to see.

-- Harry and Ron's desperate attempts to get free in the Malfoy mansion as Hermione screamed in pain under the Cruciatus Curse. I don't know that I've ever been so angry reading a story.

-- Harry and Hermione at his parents' graves.

-- The scene when Voldemort tells the school he will let them go if they just turn over Harry Potter. Pansy Parkinson yells and points him out, and then all the students from each of the other three houses stand up to face her and defend Harry.

-- Percy returning.

-- Hermione kissing Ron. I'm a sucker I know, but I found this deeply satisfying and very sweet. I love Hermione so much, and I don't mean Emma Watson, who is too pretty and a terrible actress. I might be the only one here who uses the chapter illustrations to form a picture of Hermione rather than thinking of the movie.


The biggest problem I had is the jump from Dumbledore's office to 19 years later. I needed a chapter in between, where we can get some closure from the deaths of Fred, Lupin and Tonks. Couldn't we have had a day for the characters to reflect on all that had happened and to mourn the dead?

Also, I hate Fred dying. I guess it's mainly because I'm an identical twin. I can't imagine how George could go on after such a loss. I'm not sure I could. Just seems strange to make the Weasley family face such a bitter loss and then rob the reader of the chance to grieve with them, especially after we've come all this way.

The story just seemed to end a little too happily and quickly, given all the death and destruction and loss of innocence Voldemort left in his wake.