Spoilers.
All ridiculous spoiler-prevention methods have now been lifted. My apologies for the inconvenience.
Oh, God.
Friday night, I didn't feel like reading, but then I started, and I was just - gone. Nonputdownable. Reading this was like GoF: pure enjoyment - so good that I could forget that it was about to end, which was an awareness that coloured my readings of HBP and OotP. And throughout it, I was thinking, 'I'm so ready for this, Harry's so ready for this, bring it on' - but I finished about an hour ago, and about half an hour ago, it hit me, and because of the lack of my usual awareness of this fact, it hit me hard.
That was the end. It's over. We are never, ever going to get another book, we are never going to see Harry have a proper conversation with Petunia, we are never going to see George dealing with Fred's death ...
In case you're wondering, I thought it was beautiful. There will be no bashing here. It just ... really, properly just hit me that there will be no more. Nothing.
Oh, man, I don't know where to start. I scribbled things on paper as I wrote, which I don't really want to look at now, but I know that at some parts it is long reasonings of why Ron might now die, and at one particular point (can you guess where?) it just says PERCY in huge letters.
I loved the trio. I loved the Remus/Tonks. I loved the angst. I loved the "Seven Potters" in the kitchen, all getting naked, and Harry being all WTF STOP. I loved the amount of times Harry got naked. I adored Hermione's Australia!plan for her parents, and by adored, I mean it made me wobbly.
Ginny. Ginny, you are a filthy skank and I love you for it. OH MY GOD THE BIRTHDAY PRESENT I WILL NEVER BE OVER THIS. And RON. Oh, Ron, I have been waiting for the "don't mess around with my sister" speech for about three years and BOY DID YOU DELIVER. YOU EVEN USED THE WORD "GROPE".
I agree with the widespread opinion that while we have been promised that we would get to see that Ginny is a powerful witch in her own right, that promise fell kind of flat. Annoyingly. But WHO CARES when everything else she did was so awesome? The seducing. The lowcut bridesmaid dress and the wink. THE SWORD THAT WAS SO FUCKING AWESOME.
Oh and you know what gets a paragraph all of its own? HERMIONE'S BEADED HANDBAG. WITH A TENT INSIDE OF IT.
And. And. J. K. Rowling used the word 'bitch'. And because she has tiptoed around swear words so completely and effectively for the previous six books, I think I stared at that word, in print, for about ten minutes. What a character to pick for the first swear word ever. Molly Weasley > everyone else. And also I think it's perfect that Molly Wealsey was the one to avenge Sirius. Perfect.
I'm glad Neville didn't do it. Why? Because, 1. the idea of avenging people is cheesy, 2. Neville v. Bellatrix is even cheesier, and 3. in case you hadn't noticed, NEVILLE KILLED THE FUCKING SNAKE. HE RAN THE RESISTANCE FOR A YEAR. He was so much more amazing than I expected him to be, and people who are whinging about Neville's involvement are bad people.
Oh, God, I'm getting lost.
McGonagall gets a paragraph to herself. Because because ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ "That's very - gallant - of you -"
I think I need to write a defence of Remus Lupin, because I loved him in this, and it seems I'm the only one. For the first ten chapters, when he kept turning up everywhere looking like shit, all I could think was "Oh, stop being such a killjoy, just come out with whatever your lame problem is so we can get on with the plot." And then when he went to Grimmauld Place I kept thinking "you are so about to get demoted from the position of my favourite Marauder" - and then he came out with the problem - and Harry was so amazing, I was like YOU TELL HIM, HARRY - but God, I loved Lupin coming out with his problem. Some of the things Harry said towards the end were uncalled-for, but Harry was completely in the right. Lupin needed a serious kick up the arse. But. Lupin looking like a wolf for the first time, shrieking about how they didn't understand what an outcast he'd made her - and that bit was completely true, we have never ever seen the extent to which Lupin is an outcast, he was right to say that the trio have been completely sheltered from that - I know that it's never really sunk in for me. And talking about how they shouldn't have bred broke me - he was saying that he had effectively bitten his child. It was cowardly, for sure, but it was all done out of love for his wife and his child. Desperate, consuming, paralysing love, and I think the R/T shippers are going to hate me for this, but in a way, they have something to be grateful for: the beautiful intensity that was given to that relationship, because I honestly did not think that we were going to see that much of them.
Dumbledore. Oh, Dumbledore. I was so, so scared when I feared that she might turn around and reveal you to be a manipulative old bastard. Physically terrified. I still love you. ♥ God, I actually hated some parts of this book, where doubting Dumbledore was making me feel sick. And what you said to Snape about Harry being a Horcrux, about having kept him alive for this purpose - I can't put it into words, my - despair? Loss of the old Dumbledore, maybe, or predicted loss, because I never really believed that six books of omniscience and omnibenevolence would turn out to be nothing ... hguiryucmjtsgea this makes no sense.
So, where did I cry? I haven't cried in HP before, bar a little welling up at a few of Dumbledore's classic lines ('I am not worried, Harry. I am with you.') I welled up at the graves. It was Harry's line about wishing that he was down there too, and me thinking 'I don't blame you', and it being Christmas, and there being no Ron. I found the Ronless chapters very difficult reading, very oppressive, and all I could do was desperately hope that he was going to come back sometime in the next chapter, and he never did ... it was horrible. I also welled up at some bit of Harry and Hermione's, where she tried to tell him that Dumbledore had loved him. (You may have guessed that my book is upstairs and I cannot be bothered to go and get it.) But the tears didn't come till about two in the morning on the Sunday, when Ron came back, and there was the whole locket thing, and then I actually thought Ron was going to stab Harry, and then when Harry said that it sounds cooler than it is - "I've been trying to tell you that for years" - I bawled. Such a silly place to cry. I think it was relief.
Then, let's see ... more welling-but-not-quite-crying for Dobby (particularly his headstone.) I shrieked and rocked around on my bed when Percy came bursting through with the "Have I missed it?" I ♥ YOU PERCY. I ALWAYS KNEW YOU WERE A ROCKSTAR. And then, after Fred, who I didn't cry for, there was suddenly that surprise line about Remus and Tonks' deaths tacked on at the end, I burst into tears and cried for about half an hour.
And, um. WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED TO TEDDY?
And then I didn't cry until Harry said that he was too much of a "miracle" to die, and then I was gone, on-and-off, till the end.
"Does it hurt?" was particularly awful.
I loved Aberforth. I loved his resentment of Albus, I loved how he was a kickass character is his own right.
Ron kept me laughing hysterically throughout the whole goddamn thing.
Oh, the Harry/Ginny. I loved them so much more in this book than the last one it was unbelievable. There was SO MUCH H/G in this book, it was practically Harry/Ginny porn. And you know what was believable? That they were in love. I bought it. Completely.
Ron/Hermione. The calm, controlled way it happened made me think they were both going to die. And the House Elf kiss was SO CHEESY and SO CUTE. And omg I can't believe we're never going to have any more R/Hr build-up.
This post is now incoherent, but it is a few hours since I started it, and it's now 2:10 AM where I am, so you'll have to excuse me. God I wish LJ had a decent spellchecker.
The whole "The Battle of Hogwarts" chapter was amazing.
Harry v Voldemort was perfect. Perfect.
A couple of things:
Things I now ship:
- Harry/Dudley.
- Ginny/Lee - I actually wrote a fic with this sort-of in it. And stfu we all know that if you dance with someone once in your life there is genuine grounds for romantic interest.
- Harry/McGonagall.
- Did anyone else read a weird line at the beginning and think HARRY/HESTIA?
- Hermione/random men on the street. AWESOME.
- Oliver/Colin.
What made you think of fandom? The ones for me were:
- Harry pulling Draco onto his broom. I could hear the squeal of a million fangirls. On a random note, I loved him saving him.
- Remus: "marrying Tonks was a mistake." Again, heard the squeal, and this time, I replied with "Oh stfu he still loves her - omg he must he must." I was proven right. Against the fangirls in my head. Ahem.
- The Malfoy family. OK FINE I ADMIT IT I couldn't see the Malfoys being hilarious in love and thinking constantly only about themselves without thinking of Makani art.
Things that should become fanart immediately:
- Harry-Fleur/Bill (with the "slavish" expression).
- Harry-Ron having to touch Tonks with the furtive looks at Lupin.
- Fucktastically gorgeous canon!McG who is young (or looks it) and runs alongside desks with cuts on her face and long shining black hair and screams "CHARGE!"
So. Uh. What the hell is going on in the US cover? The Great Hall, but ... outside, and without the ... wands?
And WHOSE side were the spiders on?
The epilogue. I don't know whether I adore it or am repulsed by it. Why I don't like it is because ... well, you know.
I choose to believe that Lily and James is made up for by 'Scorpius Malfoy'.
And who the fuck calls their kid Albus Severus?
Exactly why I do like it, is said here by grasshopper: ... as I write this I am kind of falling in love with the notion that what many thought was a secondhand cribbing from far better high fantasy is actually about... a guy. Who gets married. Who has kids. Who has friends. Who goes on living. That's what Harry is, in the end, isn't it?
The last line. "All was well." When I read it, I turned the page, looking for the real end. I thought it was sinister. It seemed a bit ZOMGZ SEQUEL and thus intensely confused me. But, again, I steal from grasshopper: It's not happily-ever-after, it's just... that all is well, all is right, it's all you can ask for, all you can expect to be given [...] and it's fucking amazing. You may know loss and sadness and pain and fear, but that's part of being alive.
"Well". Well is a good word, I think.
And, while you're at it, read her rant on the "it's like fanfic :(" criticism.
Something else she points out is something I think makes the whole damn epilogue worth it: what Harry says to his beautifully-named son. "You can choose."
Perfect.
Oh, God.
Friday night, I didn't feel like reading, but then I started, and I was just - gone. Nonputdownable. Reading this was like GoF: pure enjoyment - so good that I could forget that it was about to end, which was an awareness that coloured my readings of HBP and OotP. And throughout it, I was thinking, 'I'm so ready for this, Harry's so ready for this, bring it on' - but I finished about an hour ago, and about half an hour ago, it hit me, and because of the lack of my usual awareness of this fact, it hit me hard.
That was the end. It's over. We are never, ever going to get another book, we are never going to see Harry have a proper conversation with Petunia, we are never going to see George dealing with Fred's death ...
In case you're wondering, I thought it was beautiful. There will be no bashing here. It just ... really, properly just hit me that there will be no more. Nothing.
Oh, man, I don't know where to start. I scribbled things on paper as I wrote, which I don't really want to look at now, but I know that at some parts it is long reasonings of why Ron might now die, and at one particular point (can you guess where?) it just says PERCY in huge letters.
I loved the trio. I loved the Remus/Tonks. I loved the angst. I loved the "Seven Potters" in the kitchen, all getting naked, and Harry being all WTF STOP. I loved the amount of times Harry got naked. I adored Hermione's Australia!plan for her parents, and by adored, I mean it made me wobbly.
Ginny. Ginny, you are a filthy skank and I love you for it. OH MY GOD THE BIRTHDAY PRESENT I WILL NEVER BE OVER THIS. And RON. Oh, Ron, I have been waiting for the "don't mess around with my sister" speech for about three years and BOY DID YOU DELIVER. YOU EVEN USED THE WORD "GROPE".
I agree with the widespread opinion that while we have been promised that we would get to see that Ginny is a powerful witch in her own right, that promise fell kind of flat. Annoyingly. But WHO CARES when everything else she did was so awesome? The seducing. The lowcut bridesmaid dress and the wink. THE SWORD THAT WAS SO FUCKING AWESOME.
Oh and you know what gets a paragraph all of its own? HERMIONE'S BEADED HANDBAG. WITH A TENT INSIDE OF IT.
And. And. J. K. Rowling used the word 'bitch'. And because she has tiptoed around swear words so completely and effectively for the previous six books, I think I stared at that word, in print, for about ten minutes. What a character to pick for the first swear word ever. Molly Weasley > everyone else. And also I think it's perfect that Molly Wealsey was the one to avenge Sirius. Perfect.
I'm glad Neville didn't do it. Why? Because, 1. the idea of avenging people is cheesy, 2. Neville v. Bellatrix is even cheesier, and 3. in case you hadn't noticed, NEVILLE KILLED THE FUCKING SNAKE. HE RAN THE RESISTANCE FOR A YEAR. He was so much more amazing than I expected him to be, and people who are whinging about Neville's involvement are bad people.
Oh, God, I'm getting lost.
McGonagall gets a paragraph to herself. Because because ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ "That's very - gallant - of you -"
I think I need to write a defence of Remus Lupin, because I loved him in this, and it seems I'm the only one. For the first ten chapters, when he kept turning up everywhere looking like shit, all I could think was "Oh, stop being such a killjoy, just come out with whatever your lame problem is so we can get on with the plot." And then when he went to Grimmauld Place I kept thinking "you are so about to get demoted from the position of my favourite Marauder" - and then he came out with the problem - and Harry was so amazing, I was like YOU TELL HIM, HARRY - but God, I loved Lupin coming out with his problem. Some of the things Harry said towards the end were uncalled-for, but Harry was completely in the right. Lupin needed a serious kick up the arse. But. Lupin looking like a wolf for the first time, shrieking about how they didn't understand what an outcast he'd made her - and that bit was completely true, we have never ever seen the extent to which Lupin is an outcast, he was right to say that the trio have been completely sheltered from that - I know that it's never really sunk in for me. And talking about how they shouldn't have bred broke me - he was saying that he had effectively bitten his child. It was cowardly, for sure, but it was all done out of love for his wife and his child. Desperate, consuming, paralysing love, and I think the R/T shippers are going to hate me for this, but in a way, they have something to be grateful for: the beautiful intensity that was given to that relationship, because I honestly did not think that we were going to see that much of them.
Dumbledore. Oh, Dumbledore. I was so, so scared when I feared that she might turn around and reveal you to be a manipulative old bastard. Physically terrified. I still love you. ♥ God, I actually hated some parts of this book, where doubting Dumbledore was making me feel sick. And what you said to Snape about Harry being a Horcrux, about having kept him alive for this purpose - I can't put it into words, my - despair? Loss of the old Dumbledore, maybe, or predicted loss, because I never really believed that six books of omniscience and omnibenevolence would turn out to be nothing ... hguiryucmjtsgea this makes no sense.
So, where did I cry? I haven't cried in HP before, bar a little welling up at a few of Dumbledore's classic lines ('I am not worried, Harry. I am with you.') I welled up at the graves. It was Harry's line about wishing that he was down there too, and me thinking 'I don't blame you', and it being Christmas, and there being no Ron. I found the Ronless chapters very difficult reading, very oppressive, and all I could do was desperately hope that he was going to come back sometime in the next chapter, and he never did ... it was horrible. I also welled up at some bit of Harry and Hermione's, where she tried to tell him that Dumbledore had loved him. (You may have guessed that my book is upstairs and I cannot be bothered to go and get it.) But the tears didn't come till about two in the morning on the Sunday, when Ron came back, and there was the whole locket thing, and then I actually thought Ron was going to stab Harry, and then when Harry said that it sounds cooler than it is - "I've been trying to tell you that for years" - I bawled. Such a silly place to cry. I think it was relief.
Then, let's see ... more welling-but-not-quite-crying for Dobby (particularly his headstone.) I shrieked and rocked around on my bed when Percy came bursting through with the "Have I missed it?" I ♥ YOU PERCY. I ALWAYS KNEW YOU WERE A ROCKSTAR. And then, after Fred, who I didn't cry for, there was suddenly that surprise line about Remus and Tonks' deaths tacked on at the end, I burst into tears and cried for about half an hour.
And, um. WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED TO TEDDY?
And then I didn't cry until Harry said that he was too much of a "miracle" to die, and then I was gone, on-and-off, till the end.
"Does it hurt?" was particularly awful.
I loved Aberforth. I loved his resentment of Albus, I loved how he was a kickass character is his own right.
Ron kept me laughing hysterically throughout the whole goddamn thing.
Oh, the Harry/Ginny. I loved them so much more in this book than the last one it was unbelievable. There was SO MUCH H/G in this book, it was practically Harry/Ginny porn. And you know what was believable? That they were in love. I bought it. Completely.
Ron/Hermione. The calm, controlled way it happened made me think they were both going to die. And the House Elf kiss was SO CHEESY and SO CUTE. And omg I can't believe we're never going to have any more R/Hr build-up.
This post is now incoherent, but it is a few hours since I started it, and it's now 2:10 AM where I am, so you'll have to excuse me. God I wish LJ had a decent spellchecker.
The whole "The Battle of Hogwarts" chapter was amazing.
Harry v Voldemort was perfect. Perfect.
A couple of things:
Things I now ship:
- Harry/Dudley.
- Ginny/Lee - I actually wrote a fic with this sort-of in it. And stfu we all know that if you dance with someone once in your life there is genuine grounds for romantic interest.
- Harry/McGonagall.
- Did anyone else read a weird line at the beginning and think HARRY/HESTIA?
- Hermione/random men on the street. AWESOME.
- Oliver/Colin.
What made you think of fandom? The ones for me were:
- Harry pulling Draco onto his broom. I could hear the squeal of a million fangirls. On a random note, I loved him saving him.
- Remus: "marrying Tonks was a mistake." Again, heard the squeal, and this time, I replied with "Oh stfu he still loves her - omg he must he must." I was proven right. Against the fangirls in my head. Ahem.
- The Malfoy family. OK FINE I ADMIT IT I couldn't see the Malfoys being hilarious in love and thinking constantly only about themselves without thinking of Makani art.
Things that should become fanart immediately:
- Harry-Fleur/Bill (with the "slavish" expression).
- Harry-Ron having to touch Tonks with the furtive looks at Lupin.
- Fucktastically gorgeous canon!McG who is young (or looks it) and runs alongside desks with cuts on her face and long shining black hair and screams "CHARGE!"
So. Uh. What the hell is going on in the US cover? The Great Hall, but ... outside, and without the ... wands?
And WHOSE side were the spiders on?
The epilogue. I don't know whether I adore it or am repulsed by it. Why I don't like it is because ... well, you know.
I choose to believe that Lily and James is made up for by 'Scorpius Malfoy'.
And who the fuck calls their kid Albus Severus?
Exactly why I do like it, is said here by grasshopper: ... as I write this I am kind of falling in love with the notion that what many thought was a secondhand cribbing from far better high fantasy is actually about... a guy. Who gets married. Who has kids. Who has friends. Who goes on living. That's what Harry is, in the end, isn't it?
The last line. "All was well." When I read it, I turned the page, looking for the real end. I thought it was sinister. It seemed a bit ZOMGZ SEQUEL and thus intensely confused me. But, again, I steal from grasshopper: It's not happily-ever-after, it's just... that all is well, all is right, it's all you can ask for, all you can expect to be given [...] and it's fucking amazing. You may know loss and sadness and pain and fear, but that's part of being alive.
"Well". Well is a good word, I think.
And, while you're at it, read her rant on the "it's like fanfic :(" criticism.
Something else she points out is something I think makes the whole damn epilogue worth it: what Harry says to his beautifully-named son. "You can choose."
Perfect.