I keep thinking I'm going to be able to put my thoughts on this last
book together in some coherent way, but so far I haven't had much
luck, so please forgive me, this is pretty much just a random list
of thoughts/questions/reactions, etc.

-The defeat of Voldy: I had faith in Rowling from early on that in
the end, it would not come down to a question of Harry *killing*
Voldemort. I had my hopes for how specifically this would end, but
in a lot of ways she surpassed them. I still tear up thinking about
the full circle of Harry sacrificing himself to give protection to,
well... everyone, taking his mother's sacrifice for him to its
ultimate conclusion - from the personal to the universal. It made
me think of the passage in Romans where Paul says how rare it would
be for someone to chose to die for someone else, and says something
along the lines of "maybe, for a good man, one might dare to die".
But Harry dared to die for a bunch of very realistic, very flawed
people, just like that passage says that Christ died while we were
still sinners. You can't get a more clearly Christlike ending than
that, can you?

-Master of death?: I am not sure how I feel about this part of it.
I get sort of bogged down and confused by the talk of mastery over
death. I was trying to follow, in reading Marianna's post on the
subject, but I can't imagine, or even want, mastery over *physical*
death. Surely it's meant to be spiritual death rather than physical
death that needs mastering, like the spiritual death that Voldemort
has created in his fear of physical death? In splitting his soul
through murder he's become less than human, less than alive. Isn't
that what's meant? And that's why Harry didn't keep the ring -
because it's wrong to try to tether the dead to this life (the
ghosts who didn't go on have been depicted as weak in their fear of
death...)? At least I hope that's what is meant. I've always loved
Dumbledore's talk of the "next great adventure". And a thought - in
turning back, Harry was sacrificing his death, as well as his life,
for the cause (giving up being on the other side, with those he
loves who went before him because his love for those he left behind
compelled him to go back and help them). I don't know, I'm still
confused I think. All I know is, I look forward to the next great
adventure, and I'll be sorely disappointed if I get there and
somebody calls me back without a really good reason *g*.

-Perfectly flawed characters: I love all of the shades of gray
throughout the series. There's not a character there who's purely
and perfectly good. Everyone is flawed, with their own
insecureties, fears, prejudices, guilt... I love, literarily, that
she didn't go whole hog toward "redeeming" Draco, even though I'd
always hoped she would - this more subtle change is far more real.
I love that Dumbledore had such disturbing skeletons in his closet,
and that that past helped make him the man he became, and I love
that he still had enough of that youthful, arrogant belief that he
knew what the "greater good" was that he, in a way, set Harry up to
die. I love that Ron (still and always the beloved of my inner
child) gave in to hopelessness and left, if only because I knew he
would come back. I love that James was kind of a bully, that Sirius
was nasty to Kreacher even while telling the trio that the true
judge of someone's character is how they treat their "inferiors". I
love that Percy was blinded by ambition and rule-following, and I'm
relieved and grateful that he eventually saw the light. I love that
Lupin struggled with making the easy choice (leaving his family to
protect them from himself) over the right choice (sticking around
and making it work). I think there's someone in the books for
everyone to relate to, and it would have cheapened things if that
wasn't there. If there was, for example, no Mundungus Fletcher,
weak-willed and self-seeking, but grudgingly on the side of good,
or, of course... Snape.

-Severus Snape: And yet I was hoping for a slightly lighter shade of
gray for Snape. I was a little disappointed that it was just his
somewhat obsessive love of Lilly that turned him away from his Death
Eater past. As the most tragic, layered, intriguing character I've
ever read, I wanted to see some philosophical break with Voldemort.
I'm sure that his love of Lilly did lead to a change of heart
philosophically, but Snape's story is one of the few disappointments
I have with Deathly Hallows, still. I wish we'd have spent a little
more time with him. I wish that, before he died, *someone* had
looked him in the eye, knowing the truth. Although maybe he
preferred it that way, not feeling he deserved the satisfaction. Or
maybe he still so hated most of the good guys that it wouldn't have
been satisfaction at all. I don't know. But I think his sacrifice
was greater than anyone's, including Harry's, in it's way. He never
knew love (well, requited love anyway) in his life, he never had
friends, or even the pasted together kind of family that Harry
built. He was alone and untrusted by both sides his entire adult
life, and from what we know of his childhood, it was no better. In
some ways I feel like this series was the story of Snape, and I just
wish I'd gotten a little more insight into him in the end. Like I
wonder if he thinks it was all worth it in the end. I wonder if it
hurt him to watch the Muggle Studies teacher die? I wonder if he
and Minerva were friends, even a little? I wonder does he even
believe or expect a reward in the next great adventure, or did he
take on the burdens he did believing he was already damned? I
wonder if there was love between him and Dumbledore, or just...
cooperation?
I just wish I knew more... Does anyone else have thoughts on what
was going on in his head and heart all those years?

-Neville: I couldn't be more pleased with Neville. He has been so
close to my heart throughout the series - I have to admit that I
identify with him in my heart of hearts - insecure, unsure,
seemingly weak. And yet Neville never gave up. I believe even if
he never did learn to do magic as well as his peers he would have
soldiered on, and fought anyway. He's just one of those people
whose strength is on the inside. I am thrilled that it was Neville
who struck the final blow against Voldemort's immortality.

-A silly question - was Vernon Dursley's mustache always black? I'd
always pictured him as fair, with sandy hair, but I can't find a
complete description.

-Dobby: The passage where Harry dug Dobby's grave was one of the
most touching moments I've ever read. And I loved Dobby's epitaph -
"A free elf". But the situation is tied to that other
epitaph: "For where your treasure is, there will your heart be
also". Harry lived his first 11 years (or 10 of them, anyway),
isolated, alone and unloved. He is uniquely suited to understand
the great gift of friendship and love. But in his desperation for a
course of action during those long weeks on the run, he starts to
lose focus and forget where his treasure is, and look for an escape
hatch just like Ron did, focusing on the Hallows as a way out of his
destiny. But then Dobby comes to his rescue, and dies in the
process. Dobby's treasure has been clear for a long time - he
risked his life to protect Harry in CoS just as sure as Harry's
mother gave up hers in the beginning. When the comical, deranged
little elf died coming to his rescue once again, Harry couldn't help
but be reminded where his treasure lies. The people who have given
him the love he never knew as a child. The people who have been
risking their life for him since the beginning. And so he has to
give up what he sees as his chance of avoiding death, and focus on
simply doing what's right for those he loves - freeing them from
Voldemort's reign of terror, no matter what the cost to himself.

-Stages of grief: I think I'm still in the denial phase in terms of
the end of Harry Potter, but I admit when Harry realized that Lupin
and Tonks were dead, I leapt directly to Anger. I was so upset that
she (Rowling) made another orphan. It took me awhile to accept that
from the literary perspective it's a powerful statement (which is
why, while I cried and cried, I accepted Fred's death even as it
happened), and goes hand in hand with the way she's pulled no
punches all along, but on a personal level, I was devastated that
lovely troubled Lupin was allowed such a short window of happiness
in his life. Which I guess was the point. It was very affecting,
and very effective in illustrating the tragedies of a fallen world.
But what did disappoint me, as it seemed out of character, was that
in the epilogue she makes it clear that Teddy didn't live with Harry
and Ginny. I have to assume he lived with his widowed grandmother
since Harry was only 17 when his parent's died, but... well, after
Sirius, you'd think Harry would have wanted, as soon as possible, to
have his own godson with him. That was the only other true
disappointment I had with the book, besides wanting more from the
Snape story.


Oh wow, I've rattled on like crazy. There's just so much there -
it's so rich! But I'm going to stop now, (hopefully) before you
regret letting the wordy girl join the group.

Kimberly