Post-DH musings (No Spoilers)

[gioiamia]

So, I finished the book.  Wow.

I've posted my initial thoughts on it over at hpbook7thoughts .  I know we'll have lots of discussions going on over there in the days to come about it.

Last night I met up with angelicus and muffinkath7 over at Angel's house where we hung out and gabbed before going out to eat and gab and then stand in line for the book and gab.  I left them at the

Comments

[harmony_bites]

That could very well be what squares the circle--that Rowling was warning people not to romanticize Snape, because despite what was good, noble, and honorable, Snape is still a deeply flawed man, horrible and scarring to children on a daily basis, and it doesn't get excused by a terrible past--any more than it excuses Voldemort--after all, look how Harry rose above how he was treated and raised.

There could be a very different explanation though. I only came into fandom after HBP and kept hearing about these quotes that supposedly refuted my belief that Snape was still Dumbledore's man despite his acts in HBP.

Well, when did JKR say them? JKR said a lot of things about what would happen in future books that never came to pass. That Lily's and Jame's professions would be important, that Zabini would appear again in DH, etc.

But any writer--even a poor amateur like me, knows that characters and events change under your fingertips. I'm in a WIP now where in fact Zabini has become a major player--I certainly didn't intend for him to be when I started. But that actually is often the best parts of what you write, and the high about writing--what appears under your fingertips out of your subconscious even if against your outline and plan.

It could be that she was fully intending Snape to be a villain. But he wormed his way into her heart, and a character she never intended to be sympathetic took on dimension and life.

And yes, I did like from a writer's POV what she did with AD--but I'm still coming to terms with how he used people. Once upon a time, before HBP, when I *didn't* like Snape, my favorite character had been Dumbledore. In fact, the whole reason I started my re-evaluation of Snape is that I flat out refused to believe that man would plead for his life. So it's a bit startling now to come to terms with DH Dumbledore for me--far harder than it was to come to terms with HBP Snape.

[gioiamia]

It'd be interesting to start a list of all these things JKR said (or hinted) would be important by the end of the series. I was thinking yesterday about some of those you mentioned, plus the fact that someone was supposed to perform magic for the first time under stressful circumstances, the missing 24-hours at Godric's Hollow was never resolved, and she had always refused to tell us if anyone else was present when James and Lily were killed.