OMG! OMG! OMG! - SPOILERS WITHIN

[i_autumnheart]

Sometimes it really sucks to be a fast reader... I'm done with Deathly Hallows (it's 3:30 in the afternoon as I start this post, after starting at 9:30 or so this morning), but everyone I know is still reading... I'd never dream of spoiling things for them, but desperately need to make squeeful noises at something, so this journal is it. Please skip this if you're not fen - I'm sure I can be properly objective and augmentative later, but not right now!

Some stream-of-conciousness reactions...

• Malfoy Manor - thought it was the Riddle house at first, and then though it was a Malfoy suspended from the ceiling, but was wrong on both counts. The Malfoys are now trapped in their own home like Sirius was. Interesting - definite setup for eventual rebellion, cornering them like that.
• Harry at the Dursely's - no Ron and Hermione at Privet drive, so fandom got that wrong bigtime. Go Dudley for turning human in the end. Wonder what happened to them after everything?
• Loved the polyjuice decoys: I forsee fanart.
• The decoy escape.. no surprises about Moody (he was on my inevitable list, though I don't think I remembered to write that down last night in my predictions post). Poor Hedwig, though! Definite tears there :( And George's ear - do you suppose he can use an extendable?
• The Weasley wedding - had to be targetted: no point including it otherwise. Didn't expect Scrimgeour to bite the dust so early though!
• Quest for the locket... was pretty bang on about Kreacher and Regulus' roles, though expected they'd have more trouble getting the locket. Lupin so deserved that telling-off.
• I almost wanted them to not get the locket from Umbridge, just to see what Voldemort would to to her when he found her wearing it.
• Cheered to hear of Ginny, Neville and Luna trying to get the sword out of Hogwarts - I'd hoped that would lead the DA in the castle's defence.


• Hermione's bag of holding is a bit of a cop-out, though less annoying than the multidimensional trunks which popup in so much fic. I wonder if JKR plays D&D?
• The Bathilda and Nagini scene in Godric's Hollow is the most gruesome thing I have read in ages: Ick! Works well, though - I wonder what happened to Rita in the end?
• Ron was always going to have leadership issues in a small group, so they had to be sorted somehow. His facing those is the bravest thing he's done, and definitely worthy of using the sword. I figured immediately that the Doe Patronus had to have something to do with Lily, but did NOT guess Snape at all until the big reveal later - dodgy-looking deus ex machina setup there for a while, but nice payoff at the end.
• Loved the Potterwatch radio - Good to see that the remnants of the Order and the graduated DA members are doing something useful.


• The three brothers and the Deathly Hallows - did NOT see that one coming! Got so caught up in the idea of founders relics (which did fit so neatly with the stories of the Treasures of Britain) that I never considered other sources of McGuffin - except maybe Merlin, but his stuff didn't show up either. Sort of close, though - one of the secondary Treasures is an invisibility cloak, too. I was also right about them looking for a wand which Ollivander knew about, and about the Lovegood's knowing about something of Ravenclaw's: just completely missed that those weren't necessarily the same thing :)
• Dobby...definite tears again. I really wanted to find out what he thought about Kreacher's change of heart!


• Why has Fleur gone all housewifely? She's a triwizard champion, for heaven's sake! I'm a bit annoyed by this - and about Hermione doing all the cooking for the boys, too, now that I think about it. Make them pitch in, girls!
• Quest for Hufflepuff's cup: lying to Griphook was never going to end well, I was definitely surprised by the uses of Imperius, and the dragon-flight was cool but not as significant as I'd expected judging by the cover art that used it. Alas - no Norbert, and I feel hugely sorry for the dragon - a post-SPEW campaign for Hermione?
• Hogsmeade...Aberforth did not react how I had expected prior to reading the book, but bang-on what the Albus-and-Grindlewald subplot had been leading up to - no surprises by this point (the clues were pretty thorough early on) but nice confirmation that Dumbledore was a long way from perfect - something Harry needed to completely let go of the idea that he was unqualified to lead.
• Hogwarts - Go Neville! Absolutely loved how everything came together from this point on. I've read literally hundreds of (often very good) fics that tried to do this, but - sorry people: none of you came close.
• Ron getting into the Chamber of Secrets! I had expected that this would be Ginny, but this definitely works well - and still works as an echo of the end of CoS when Harry could get through to the Basilisk but Ron couldn't. I originally expected that destroying the cup would be Neville's job, but since Ron got a Horcrux, it's only fair that Hermione does too. The kiss was perfect :)
• Ravenclaw's tiara - not altogether unexpected, and the tiara in the Room of Lost Things was my next guess after the wand-which-didn't-turn-out-to-be-hers. Only I didn't write that one down, so don't think I get to claim it :) V. unexpected setup with the Slytherin trio first turning on each other, and then having that be the cause of both them losing a member and destroying a Horcrux - nice echo of what happened to Harry, Ron and Hermione with the Locket. Draco is so far in Harry's debt after this that he may as well have sworn allegiance.
• The first battle... v. funny in parts: McGonnagall leading a charge of desks is something that I desperately hope ends up on film. Casualties were inevitable, though, and the various students don't really surprise me that much, nor (I have to confess) did Fred's death - the plot sort of demanded a Weasley, it couldn't be Ron or Ginny, Bill and George have already paid, and we never saw enough of Charlie to get attached to him. After the reunion scene, it had to be either Fred or Percy.
• I can't believe she killed Remus and Tonks. Still haven't quite processed that one - such a waste... which may be the point, now that I think about it.
• Snape's death and reveal... I called that one, and the vast number of fen who were sure that Snape and Lilly had something going on were right as well. Having something going on since childhood was a surprise to me - but it definitely works. I want Petunia fic. JKR has told a story in twelve or so pages of pensieved flashback what would take most fanfic writers twelve chapters...
• Dumbledore manipulated Snape right to the end - and used that to manipulate Harry into the sacrifice that would kill the final Horcrux (and the Harrycrux people win there) and invoke Lily's sacrifice spell for all the people in Harry's home. Annoying to work with, but yes - definitely style.
• Harry's sacrifice - a little Deus ex in that conversation with Dumbledore, but I've never met a fantasy novel that didn't include a bit of that at this point. Narcissa finally getting the guts to act on her disaffection was set up from chapter one - and I was truly relieved to see Hagrid not dead.
• The final battle: all I could have hoped for: all the Wizarding world (not just the four Houses) uniting to stand up for themselves and Hogwarts, even after they think their savior is dead; Slughorn not running away; Neville...and the sword is back again, marking him as a true Gryffindor...and then Molly vs Bellatrix...and then Harry. He's come a long way, that boy. No escaping the Hero label now!
• The epilogue - sweet roundoff, but doesn't add much that the OBHWF shipper's haven't been writing for years. Nineteen years and with kids just starting Hogwarts means the two couples - and Malfoy - didn't get started on the families straight away, which is good. Neville was always going to end up in the Hogwarts greenhouses, but no mention of what the others four do, or of Luna at all. Plenty of scope for expansion there *g*.

I absolutely loved this book. Right from the beginning it was clear that things were going to start straight in, and that pace kept up right to the end. Many of my predictions paid off, but some were so far off base that it's already funny - and I like JKR's version better.

The one real annoyance I have is with the marginalisation of the female characters in the battle scenes. Sure, Molly got to take out Bellatrix, but why on earth were those duels sex-segregated - what's the point. I conceede that it's probably an accurate reflection of how people would actually behave even today, but it's an issue I have a tendency to be over-sensitive about, so it stands out for me. I guess I'm mostly annoyed that the Wizarding world is no more progressive than the Muggle one, which is silly, since it certainly isn't in any other field.

I loved that there was no 'happily ever after' - yes, there has clearly been happiness (and almost OBHWF *g*) for the protagonists, but not every problem the wizarding world faces has been resolved - Gringotts and the goblins, for instance (especially since they don't have the sword anymore), or the house elves' enslavement.

There are some loose ends that I would have liked a little more pinned down - what happened to the Grangers, for instance? Has Hermione used this to leave the Muggle world for ever? What happened to the Twins' shop? Did the Malfoy's have to pay, or did changing sides at the end leave them free? But even so - this sort of thing is what the really good sort of fanfic covers so well, so I'm sure someone will fill it in for me :)

Phew - well, that's taken me two and a half hours to write (I wish I wrote as fast as I read), so maybe more people are done now. Off to poke LJ and see who's here...

edit: added a spoiler warning to the title in case any of my non LJ friends are reading this on a feed.