Deathly Hallows Reaction Post
This may end up being a little stream-of-conciousness, though I've been done for a while now. Also - the postman was late, and I ended up bouncing by the front door waiting for him for a little bit. *g*
Generally, I liked it, and I'm expecting to like it more the second time around when I'm not spending the whole thing bracing myself for deaths. There were two points where I really thought someone had died that hadn't, and I was halfway into the "please let her not have done that, this is awful" ramble before it was okay again. The first one being at Luna's house, when Harry found out that she hadn't been home. I really did think she was dead and her mad father had just gone even more mad in the shock. *heartsLuna* Second bit was the Hogwarts fight, when Ron and Hermione disappeared. Two deaths JKR hadn't expected that upset her, and every time the scene changed I thought Harry was about to find their bodies. So I hope the second time around I'll be able to sit back and enjoy what's going on.
But - major caveat - I'm ignoring the epilogue. Just entirely. That okay with everyone? (Okay, I lie, I'm salvaging the line: "and he was probably the bravest man I ever knew"). But more on the epilogue later.
Plot things
Save some slightly overlong wandering without a destination, everything ran along pretty much as it should. The action scenes were all well done, and all the scenes that actually involved horcruxes were good. The changing locations worked better than I would have thought, given that the books have been set almost entirely within Hogwarts, and we got to revisit all the old locations plus a few that were new or that we hadn't seen. The final battle being within the walls of Hogwarts was exactly right, and what lots of us (me included) were hoping for. I would rather that a key plot moving point hadn't been Harry being stupid enough to forget that saying Voldemort's name was bad. And that the heroes would maybe consider that the DE might realise that Harry would end up at the Burrow. But I loved that the thing that screwed up the Ministry plan was them being the good guys, and needing to protect the wife of the man Ron was impersonating. Lots of other old plot points and throwaway lines ended up being important as well, and this is just more proof that JKR can plot and I can't! (Though, kudos to fandom for picking up a great number of said plot points)
Snape
*sadsmile* I knew (in an unspoiled way) that Snape would die. But he was on the right side, and he had the hard path and he did what he needed to do. Yes, fandom was right and it was all about Lily, but that's okay. He had a bad childhood to equal Harry's, and he fell in love with a girl and screwed it up, and then screwed it up again, and spent the rest of his life trying to make up for it. Snape's last act was to give Harry what he needed to win. He died and it's awful but it wasn't pointless or evidence of authorial contempt. Harry takes a minute during his pre-battle monologue to acknowledge Snape - he's the hero, and he calls Snape brave which is pretty much the most JKR can do to force that point home. Still - it was probably the death that hit me hardest, even though I knew it was coming.
Draco
:) Draco becomes important to the plot again! Okay, I had no idea why he was important to the plot until it suddenly became ALL ABOUT THE WANDS but I was worried for a bit there. He kept having these moments that hammered home his not being totally evil - fixating on the poor teacher, not properly identifying the trio - so naturally I thought he was doomed or these were red herrings. I've written Draco-converting-to-the-light, but I still quite liked the Malfoys just huddling there in the aftermath, all okay, not having had any last minute conversion. They were just not quite willing to go that last step with Voldemort. But Draco should not be allowed to name babies.
Trio-ness
- I can't decide if I'm disappointed in Ron or not. I was kind of liking that we had gone beyond (after GoF and HBP) of trio-infighting. And while I understand Ron's many issues, and that the locket was doing its thing, Harry told him everything he knew. All three of them knew that the horcruxes wouldn't be easy to get hold of, and why Ron believed himself to be suffering more than the other two is beyond me.
- Hermione still rocks. Is her memory-altering her parents so they don't know they have a daughter not simultaneously the saddest, creepiest and bravest thing ever? And she stays with Harry even when it gets difficult, and when she thinks he's fixating on the wrong things. She saves them all about every other chapter, and she keeps them on the right path. ♥
- Harry, bless him, spends a lot of time distrusting people to ensure that we do too. And he's angry for odd reasons and I didn't really believe that he was stupid enough to think that a trio of items that evaded death could be good. But I love him anyway. He's brave and selfless and pretty smart except that he has this huge blindspot about death and his parents. Otherwise he'd be even more impossible than he already is.
- I did, actually, like the Deathly Hallows as objects/fairytale. It's a nice look at the trio: Ron who wants the power/strength, Harry who is ever marked by death, Hermione who looks at the story and can't see why anyone would pick anything but the right answer.
- And that Harry doesn't go to Ginny, but to Hermione and Ron. The books are, really, all about those three, and that was an appropriate ending to the real book.
Students
Neville! Luna! Dean! Seamus! Ernie! DA! Random Gryffindors! Oliver. Cho. Lee. Neville got to kill the snake! Resistance radio!
However - the entiriety of the Slytherin student body is evil? Fail, JKR.
Adults
- McGonagall FTW: "we teachers are rather good at magic, you know. I am sure we will be able to hold him off for a while if we all put our best efforts into it"
- Fly-by Trelawny-love! Professor-love!
- Dumbledore I spent most of the book feeling vaguely uneasy about, then genuinely betrayed, and then mostly okay again. I kind of love that we've had all these references through the books of him being offered the Minister job, and turning it down, and how it turns out it's not just that he loves teaching, or hates politics. He's not entirely good, but he's good enough to know that, and guard against it. Nevertheless I was sad for his sister, and understood entirely Aberforth breaking his nose.
- Lupin, I used to really like you! Abandoning your pregnant wife is cowardly and unless she got herself pregnant to make you marry her it isn't her fault that you didn't mean to do it. I am in no way a Remus/Tonks shipper but running away without telling your - again - pregnant wife, that you're doing so... And then you both died, and it was thrown in so abruptly that I couldn't react to it properly at all. Maybe later.
Weasleys
Molly is awesome, but Ginny gets nothing to do. At all. JKR, this is why people don't like your ship.
Fred&George :(
Percy's return was welcome but really rushed.
The epilogue - ominous music
I have no problem with Hermione/Ron. Ginny/Harry does nothing for me at all. Ginny&Harry getting married, having babies named after dead people, and everyone meeting up for a happy "all was well" send-off felt like bad fanfic. I will accept that it's possible I'm reacting differently to younger readers who wanted a happy-ever-after ending to soothe them after all the death and destruction. But it didn't feel true, it just felt like what JKR thought would tie everything up. And, maybe, a little, stop people asking for more books. What I want to know is - who was Teddy living with? Harry's his Godfather, but Lily v2 says Teddy "would really be a part of the family" if he married their cousin. I'm now very worried about what this poor boy has been for the previous 19 years.
You know what would have been a good ending? Harry doing what Sirius couldn't - taking in his orphaned Godson and living as a pretty dysfunctional single parent. And then start dating single-Draco Not everyone needs to get married and have babies to be okay. These people will never be okay, Harry least of all, and if I ever fanfic this it'll be disregarding the epilogue, writing about how people struggle to put themselves back together after prophecies run out and the world is a lot more complicated than it looked.
But I still liked the book ;)