I can't help seeing all the Buffy parallels, man.

Me, either!! When the school all rallied to fight, it was Graduation Day all over.

My DH, who has now also finished, mentioned that he thought Viktor Krum would appear later in the book and he was sort of disappointed that he didn't.

When Harry is in "King's Cross" talking with Dumbledore, I took the mis-shapen baby thing to be the piece of Voldemort that got stuck on Harry. My DH took it to be (what's left of) Voldemort after some of the Horcruxes have been destroyed. I think I'm right because of the fact that everyone gets to make his or her own choice -- Harry chooses to go back, but he can't choose for Voldemort so that thing has to just be a piece of Voldemort. Maybe.

Sparky, I agree. I thought it was the physical manifestation of the bit of soul that made Harry the horcrux.

I can't help seeing all the Buffy parallels, man.

Totally, and what ChiKat said about Graduation Day, and I totally thought of the Series finale when Harry was encouraging Ron to have his moment and smash the locket. But it was when everyone was streaming into the room of requirement that I thought, "JK Rowling soooooooo watched Buffy."

I thought it was the physical manifestation of the bit of soul that made Harry the horcrux.

That's what I assumed too.

I agree with what everyone else is saying, basically--it dragged a bit in the middle, was great fun at the end, was fabulously grey in parts, yay Neville, etc, etc.

Also agree that Fred would make a fabulous ghost, either at Hogwart's or the joke shop...

What everyone has said, especially including all the "Neville, BDH!" and "Fred, noez!" "Harry can't die now that baby Ted has no mummy and daddy!" and "'what a wonderful payoff' as opposed to 'obvious'" and the bit about the middle dragging a bit: I didn't mind the length of the "wandering lost", just the breadth of the repetitive squabbling about the same things. I just think something more interesting could have been done with that tension and feelings of futility, instead of simply "Ron is a git, triplefold with the locket".

I will mention that I was actually expecting rather a higher bodycount, which may be my adult inclinations foisting themselves upon what is still really a children's story. I did feel the "Oh crap, all bets are off" once Hedwig went down. But then JKR seemed to pull back and put the kid gloves back on. I really wanted to see our kids really come to face with the "kill or be killed" of it all, maybe some moral dilemnas involving "but they're under the Imperius curse, and aren't committing these acts of their own volition". Maybe just have someone they merely stunned or disarmed come to and a chapter later come back and kill a student.

Hmmm, what? Wrong book? Oh.

It's interesting reading all the reactions (both locally and afield).

Some folks think it's too fan-ficish.

Others (like on P-C's LJ) are trying to sort out the wandlore order of Elder Wand succession.

Most people dislike the epilogue. Which is a little weird since that kind of flash forward is usually very satisfactory (see: American Graffitti, World According to Garp).

Even though Ron is one of The Trio, his big moment seems kind of small compared to Neville's Big Moment. Plus Ron was, once again, a git.

Offing Remus and Tonks offscreen was kind of lame. People were more moved by Dobby's death.

Lots of resonance with: Buffy, Narnia, LotR. (Name your heroic mythic cycle.)

Teddy Lupin does kind of remind one of Teddy Ruxpin.

Teddy Lupin does kind of remind one of Teddy Ruxpin.

Thanks for that image!

Others (like on P-C's LJ) are trying to sort out the wandlore order of Elder Wand succession.

I just got back from watching HPatOotP (finally) and I was trying to remember if the wand battle b/w Dumbledore and Voldemort is the same in the book. If so, that sort of screws with the whole Deathstick theory.

Hey, guys, I haven't posted here in a really long time, but I was reading all of your thoughts and I just had to post.

I loved this book so much. I think it's my favorite of all of them now. The stuff that really got to me was Ron's departure and return, everything that ever happened to Severus Snape, and of course, when Harry walked into the forest, turned the stone three times, and asked his family to stay with him to the end - gah!

I think it had to have a happy ending because so much crap had happened to Harry prior to this final chapter - this book was all about triumphing over death, and I think that really meant Harry coming to terms with all of the people he had lost previously. Or really, just the notion of loss.

Other things I liked (although there was so much):

Harry calling him Tom Riddle at the end - I've always thought that everyone should call him Tom and not the self-important name he gave himself.

Harry naming his son Albus Severus - Snape always was, even before this book, sort of a father-figure to Harry (a semi-horrible one most of the time, but still).

Dumbledore telling Snape that maybe the Sorting hat chose Snape's house too soon. That and when Snape asked to look into Harry's eyes before he died just about killed me.

Neville leading the resistance at Hogwarts and kicking some serious ass (and with plants, too!).

The fact that Voldemort ultimately bit the dust because he, just like everyone else (except Dumbledore) underestimated who Snape was as much as he underestimated Harry.

For the 'shippers out there, from Wikipedia:

Harry, uses it once to summon his parents, Sirius and Lupin.

See what trouble not using the serial comma can get you into?