Okay, I finally got to spend all of Tuesday reading the book since I finally cleared my last art deadline. Anyway, my thoughts -

When the 7 Potters appeared I immediately started to imagine how much fun this will be in the movie. When they started stripping, I immediately thought of Aimée. Then I started to think of a bunch of Potters getting undressed and some of them having to get out of the bras they were wearing. Then I wondered whether Dan Radcliffe in a bra would leave Aimée confunded...

Anyway, when Potter left Privet Drive the way he arrived - Hagrid & the motorcycle - I knew we were going to see a lot of circles closing. I suspected a revisit to Gringotts since there hadn't been a major scene there since book 1. Later I suspected we'd see the Chamber of Secrets again (when it was mentioned that the diadem was lost in the bowls of Hogwarts). Of course, I never expected it to just be Ron & Hermione running off to the chamber on their own, and there was still the Basilisk corpse? Whuh? Are you really telling me no one considered the discovery of the chamber worthy of a major wizarding expedition in the last 5 years? Bloody odd, if you ask me.

I, like nearly everyone, took the death of Hedwig to be official notice that All Bets Were Off.

One troubling plot point - Snape gets Harry's departure date from 'the usual source' which is never actually revealed. It probably was Mundungus as I got the impression that when Dumbledore was telling Snape to plant the 7 Potter plan in Mundungus's head, meetings with Mun were not uncommon, but I felt that this fact could have done with clarification.

By the way, I really liked that it was seven Potters - one for each book.

With all the callbacks, I really feared that the beaming blonde thief in Gregorivitch's place was going to be Lockhart. Soooo glad that we didn't have to see that prat again - insane or otherwise.

I also thought at one point that when Dumbledore defeated Grindelwald, he left him pretty nuts and completely harmless, and that Grindelwald had been put out to pasture as the harmless Xenophilius Lovegood. The notion of Luna being the daughter of a great dark wizard was also rather amusing.

I had no problem with the long camping sequence. I actually found the (much shorter) Rimmauld Place section more tiresome because they were too comfortable; they were well-fed and were able to plan at their leisure. Sure, there were Death Eaters almost on their doorstep, but I think the bleak struggle to simply stay fed and ahead of their enemies in the camping section was a more applicable mood for the book, and more compelling.

I think the journey from the Gringotts atrium down to the Lestrange vault was way too quick. It made the place seem very small and not the labyrinthine vault that I always imagined.

Thank god, JKR didn't kill off Mr. Weasley in OotP. The last thing that bloody mopey book needed was a mourning Mrs. Weasley.

The off-screen death of Tonks & Lupin seemed right to me. Since everything is from Harry's perspective, it would make the battle seem too contained if he were to witness every major death. The sudden shock of their demise hits us like it hits Harry.

I've been saying since book 2 that I expected that when the shit finally came down that either Harry would save Snape or vis versa leaving one or both of them very conflicted. So, Snape's actual death was a major shock. And I loved it. Nothing else in the book stated quite so clearly that siding with merciless evil was such a treacherous undertaking. Also, I think that since so much of Voldemort's killing in the book was done in anger, the cold, almost genteel demeanor of Voldemort as he had Snape killed made the scene all the more horrific.

I think the Kings Cross 'afterlife' was well handled. Yeah, heavy exposition but brisk. I don't think that Harry's Horcrux was the scar. I think its absence in the 'afterlife' is because this was an idealized Harry, as evidenced by the fact that he didn't need his glasses either.

Harry taunting Voldemort by calling him Tom - priceless.

I don't think Neville killed the penultimate Horcrux. I think he killed the last one. I think Voldemort actually killed the one in Harry when he first zapped him in the forest and that's what caused Voldemort to crumple. With that gone, that's why the second Aveda Kedavra finished him off; there was nothing else left of Voldemort in Harry. Yeah, you read that right, Neville is EVEN MORE THE MAN!

That Voldemort, he just doesn't learn does he? Maybe a quick Stupefy might not have rebounded and then he could just have an animated sword run Harry through. Stoopid Dark Lord, no Dark Donut.

I was surprised that Draco didn't get to do something at least semi-heroic at the end. I felt his rebellion against Voldemort had been brewing all book long. I guess he just couldn't grow that spine in time.

I find it amusing that the Wand Allegiance plot point was the biggest Handwaveium in the book. Crazy literal, neh?

Oh, and one last thing that I haven't seen anyone discuss; I was really impressed with the cover to the U.S. Edition of the book. While the bright warm colors were a shock, they were also a nice change after the last couple of dark gloomy covers. But, what I'm really admiring here is what scene they chose to focus on and how it was represented. As I read the book, I kept having new theories; at first I thought his arm was outstretched to receive the ghost of Hedwig (and that the background figures were the ghosts of the dead), then I thought it might be him releasing Dumbledore's Snitch to activate whatever was inside it. Finally, I realized that he was catching the Elder Wand, and that made me realize that the shot of Voldemort on the back wasn't him trying to reach Potter before he completed some action, but that Voldemort was actually falling backwards dead. Really, brilliant misdirection in that cover.

I find it amusing that the Wand Allegiance plot point was the biggest Handwaveium in the book. Crazy literal, neh?

Heh. Housepoint to the Reasonables.

Mine! it is MINE! None for Luna Reasonable!

Since the Gaunt's had the Resurrection Stone and the Potters had the Invisibility Cloak, the two families should be descendents of two of the brothers, right? And the thord brother had no descendents because he got his throat slit straightaway.

Oh, that's neat.

Excellent point about the cover, Pete.

So, there's no support for the idea that Harry's "The Elder Wand is actually mine" expo was just a mindfuck on Voldy?

Mine! it is MINE! None for Luna Reasonable!

glares at spouse

What, we don't share housepoints? And you do realize that the symbol of our house is Clovis, right?

What, we don't share housepoints? And you do realize that the symbol of our house is Clovis, right?

And yet, you still don't get that when Clovis rules the world, he won't be sharing with you? You get to be #1 minion, and that's it.

Ahem.

And yet, you still don't get that when Clovis rules the world, we won't be sharing with you? You get to be #1 minion, and that's it.

If that's true (which I don't believe for a minute), then that "we" had better be a typo. IJS.

Um... typo. Fixed now.

Pfeh, I'll be lucky if I'm #100 minion.