*SPOILERS!!* Chapters 31 till the end *SPOILERS!!*

[Fins]

I also loved during the 1st part of the war where the battle is raging and Ron and Hermione kiss and Harry says something like... 'hey, remember... the war!'

[blackngold]

You know what else I loved - the whole Voldemort/You-Know-Who thing coming back to bite Harry in the a$$.

[phoenix73]

sjr, Harry's eyes were important for a couple of reasons-- they were a constant reminder to Snape of the only woman he ever loved, and they were the last thing he saw before he snuffed it. "look....at....me," right? that's how i read it, anyway. To see Lily's eyes in James' face must have been hard for him, but i bet also enabled him to continue to work for harry's survival throughout those 16+ years.

All I can say is, WOW. LOLLIPOPS FOREVER! and fins, i brought it to the board, yes, but i got the theory off of a HP For GrownUps forum on yahoo, i think, at least 4 years ago. Not my stroke of genius, especially as so many people got their on their own.

for the record, Love of Lily Left Ire Polluting Our Poor Severus. RIP, I say.

Kreacher broke my heart. we were so close there, but kreacher being dragged beneath the lake and then having to watch regulus succumb.... i couldnt have dreamt that up. I was convinced regulus drank the potion and died from its affects soonafter.

loved Percy's return. glad to see he stopped being an arrogant, power hungry toe-rag and grew into a real man.

OBHWF - Richard, with you on the epilogue. More detail, less exposition. What about everyone else?? Does Dean end up with Luna? and, for healer, was so glad to see Seamus have such a part.

Am currently rereading various parts of the book, out of sequence. finished late saturday night, and am still recovering!

I never dreamed in a million years that Petunia was referring to Snape when she was talking about "that awful boy." I never doubted for a moment that it was James. Shows why JKR is JKR, and I'm not.

I am so sad that it's over, but it was SUCH a tale, so rich in detail. This is a marvelous book, and I agree that they will have a hell of a time making it into a film.

[Fins]

So let me get this straight.... Harry's eyes were important because they reminded Snape of Lily so he had to keep Harry safe??? And on the flip side of that, Snape treated Harry bad because his appearance reminded Snape of James??? There must have been a tremendous amount of conflict within Snape and am a bit surprised that the 'bad' part of this dichotomy didn't take over. If you remember in HBP, Snape says that he waited for Harry to show some extraordinary wizard talent for the DE's to rally around. I would think that after a couple of years, Snape would have abandoned protecting Harry, especially after Voldy returned. It would seem to me that DD and Snape would have had some other magical 'arrangement', like an unbreakable vow as an example, to keep Snape on DD's side.

[blackngold]

I think his love for Lily conquered all. Yes, he hated that Lily's eyes stared out at him from James' face, but he hated Voldemort even more for killing her.

Was Umbridge a Deatheater? Now at best she was a half muggle. I think the whole thing with the locket proved she was covering something up with the Selwyn story. I just want to know how she ended up with Mad Eye's eye when the only people who knew where to find his body were the Order and the Deatheaters.

[blackngold]

I'm still having a little trouble reconciling Snape's feelings for Lily and his worst memory. It was one thing if he had been silently longing for her from afar, but she was his friend. Now in book 7, JKR hints at a little estrangement, but it had nothing to do with James. What I mean by that is that he wouldn't be inwardly seething at Lily about her relationship with James. Why would he call her a filthy mudblood? I understand that he would be embarrassed that Lily rescued him, but still, this is your friend from the time you were seven.

[Fins]

I agree BnG... I would love to hear JKR expand a bit on their relationship.

[blackngold]

A friend of mine puts it down to a teenager in a stressful and embarrassing situation saying the wrong thing. It's as reasonable a suggestion as anything.

[* amanda]

I can expand a bit on their relationship.

Snape had a horrid childhood and Lily would have been the brightest thing in his life as a boy. He treasured her because of that. But without realizing it, he alienated her by his choices. Snape was in love with Lily by the time they were settled in at Hogwarts, and he had to watch from afar as she became beautiful, popular, and unfortunately attracted to the guy who bullied him. He chose to be in Slytherin and was physically separated from her, a Gryffindor girl. This small bit of separation was turned into a gulf by their choices of friends. He had low self-esteem so he only felt he could get some loser, rotten friends on a power trip that scared Lily. Similarily, she, the only person that made him feel good, started gallivanting around with his enemy; his enemy just so happened to be handsome and popular and privileged... everything he was not, which made it all ten times more agonizing for him. Instead of getting up, dusting himself off, washing his hair, and fighting for Lily, he threw his hands up in the air in surrender and, out of frustration and defeat, recklessly called her a Mudblood even though he didn't mean it. It's pretty typical and immature, but it meant no turning back for either one of them. We know what happened to Snape in subsequent years; he obviously sunk to new lows.

The thing is, he did learn the error of his ways... he learned how to stand up and fight for her. But only after her death. Then he essentially died for her.

... on a side note, I wonder if Snape's true self coming out will encourage or alienate Snape fangirls. As an occasional listener of Snapecast, a lot of girls (freakily so) are attracted to his bad-boy ways, his dark side, his seemingly self-serving ways which we know were so far from the truth. Now that he's this guy who died for the love of Lily Potter, I wonder if fangirls will have to pack up their Snape Slash and Snape...erm, nevermind... and move on to some other sci-fi-fantasy character.

[* amanda]

Just happened to think of something. We never learned how the Potters or the Longbottoms thrice defied Voldemort, did we?

[blackngold]

I agree with the Gryffindor/Slytherin gulf based on the friends they made, but Lily did not start going out with James until their seventh year. Even in Snape's last ditch effort to patch things up with her after his worst memory, Lily calls James a "toerag".

[* amanda]

Oh but she adored him long before she went out with him, and even when she called him a toerag.

Girls are just like that. ;D

[paulis1]

Loved the book myself. Have more to add later, but thought I might post about Draco.

In response to B&G's thoughts on the confusion of Draco and his family's reactions being confusing, I took some time to think it through and I do think Draco was being consistent. If you look at Draco as a bully, then things make more sense. Draco isn't a sociopath like his aunt Bella. He likes to intimidate and throw his weight/influence around. (Something, no doubt, he learned from his father.) The problem with Draco and his family is that they like to be the big muckity mucks, but only if they are on top. Lucius did not have any problem exerting his influence, as long as he was a favorite of the boss. The problem is that he blew it, REALLY BLEW IT, by giving away Voldemort's diary and exposing it to destruction. That was something Voldemort was NEVER going to forgive. Lucius might just as well have placed a neon "Kick Me" sign on his back for the rest of his life, one which Voldemort would never, ever, allow him to take off.

Voldemort did not kill Lucius, or his family, but he definitely used them at every turn. This could not have been an enviable position in the Death Eater franchise. As to Draco, he picked up that his family was in the dog house, and that they were likely never to leave it. As such, he was probably pretty put out and wasn't going to fully cooperate with Voldemort, nor was he going to completely disobey. He was also scared out of his mind. Draco couldn't outright lie to Bellatrix about the identities of Harry, Ron and Hermione. Bellatrix who would have reported his deception to Voldemort immediately. He acted like he was unsure instead.

However, when he got to Hogwarts and was back with his cronies, Crabb and Goyle, he could once again act the part of being the muckity muck. He hated Harry - the same Harry who exposed his family to Voldemort's wrath. So, it makes sense to me that he was willing to try and pull Harry down. Who knows, he might have imagined that this would be the only way to get back into Voldemort's good books.

As to Narcissa, I think she was looking for a way out of their perdicament. She got - as the saying goes - more than she bargained for with the return of Voldemort. She was more than ready to allow Harry to kill Voldemort, if it meant that she and her husband could keep their son in the process. It was probably an absolute relief to the Malfoys to see him go. Anyways, that is how I reasoned the matter through.

[Fins]

Paulis... that makes sense and understand them a little better now. However, I wouldn't have minded seeing Lucius get pasted! I found it pretty weird that Harry wanted to save Draco and Crabbe from the fire things. Perhaps Harry had hoped there was some redeeming qualities in them, which was a theme throughout the book.

I have to go back to read POA again but the line in the movie where Lupin and Harry are on the bridge talking about Lily being able to see the good in people, being kind to them... now makes more sense in the context of Snape. I wonder if Snape ever helped Lily become great at potions?

[kats]

I liked that, even though it was Harry's job to stop Voldy in the end, Ron, Hermione, and Neville all destroyed a Horcrux.

Loved Neville taking over the resistance at Hogwarts. I also have to admit that I didn't mind JK not showing too much of what happened at Hogwarts. She was able to show us what happened without slowing down the pace. Also loved the crowd around him at the end while he sat with the sword at his side.

Loved that anyone who spent time with Luna and got to know her (even forced in captivity) ended up liking her. Olivander and the wand. Dean walking with her. JK is so good at putting in positive messages.

The Malfoys acted exactly as I saw their character all along. They always were and always will be opportunistic. They look to their needs and no one elses.

Loved the interaction of the trio. How they reacted to the locket without giving the locket enough credit for their thoughts.

Liked the contrast between the Mirror of Erised showing your greatest desire and the locket showing your greatest fear. Also how neither your greatest desire nor your greatest fear should be acted upon or mooned over.

Liked that Dudley understood Harry in the end instead of just going along with his parents and appreciated Harry saving his life. Wish that Harry had come out of his room earlier and understood what was going on so that they could have become real cousins. Would have done Dudley some good.

So many great things that I can't think of them all.

My son and I are now listening to the CDs. After that I think I'll read the whole series straight through. It should be interesting knowing everything and reading again. It will be a different experience.

[* amanda]

kats said:

Liked that Dudley understood Harry in the end instead of just going along with his parents and appreciated Harry saving his life. Wish that Harry had come out of his room earlier and understood what was going on so that they could have become real cousins. Would have done Dudley some good.

I was going to mention this today. I loved that Dudley came around. In a fanfiction I read, it was Petunia who came around and was nice to Harry. But Dudley is an even better choice. After all of those years, he diverged from his parents, swallowed his pride, and decided to be grateful towards Harry. Maybe someday they really will be cousins.

I think that there were plenty of parallels between the Malfoys and the Dursleys. I liked that there was this kind of conclusion between Harry and Dudley. The difference between Draco and Dudley ended up being one of character: ultimately, Dudley decided to think about it and concluded that Harry was deserving of some appreciation and kindness. Malfoy, on the other hand, didn't seem to give a **** that Harry saved his life multiple times.

[paulis1]

What I find interesting is just how STUPID Voldemort was. I mean, does the guy ever learn anything, or not? First off, he should have learned something in that graveyard about the fact that Harry's power was quite a bit stronger than his own. Then, when Harry uses his wand against him in the beginning of the book he doesn't get the picture. Instead, he goes off hunting for a stronger wand. And, in the end, Harry goes and sacrifices himself (ala shades of Lily) to protect the people of Hogwarts. Does the guy ever learn??? Voldemort should have realized when Harry came to him and placed his life between the others that his reign of terror was at an end. The one thing that is consistent, however, between Voldemort and a common criminal is that intelligence just doesn't always figure in.

[paulis1]

"I found it pretty weird that Harry wanted to save Draco and Crabbe from the fire things. Perhaps Harry had hoped there was some redeeming qualities in them, which was a theme throughout the book."

Actually, my take on this is a little bit different. I think that Harry couldn't help himself from saving Draco and Crabbe because of who he is. His character was such that he could not live with himself if he didn't try to save their lives, despicable as they were. I think, if given the chance, he would have saved Snape before he knew the full truth because that was just who harry was.

Did anyone else find it a little bit funny when Harry and Dd were in the King's Cross world and Harry kept hearing the thumpings of that revolting piece of Voldemort's soul and Dd kept telling him, "No, there's nothing you can do about that." I thought there was a little bit of sly humor there - even though the imagery is sad and horrible.

[aurorbrecke78]

The Percy thing really should've been done sooner. But was glad he came back.

LOVED the house elf fighting along with all the Centaurs and others coming to fight. Loved Kreature Vowing to fight for RAB!

The 19years later seemed to funky. She could've made it the thickest book ever and put two more chapters on about who is doing what and such. Glad Neville is doing something he always excelled in.

[Richard]

Big news everyone (source is of course TLC)! In the interview to be aired on the Today Show this Thursday and Friday, Rowling says she'll 'most likely' write an encyclopedia and gives us the reprieve and the two deaths.

today.msnbc.msn.com/id/19935372/

Richard