t sniffle

hands out virtual hankies

I had to get out my book last night to read what was going to happen right after Gud left off yesterday and yeah...

There's lots of fighting, charging desks, flying crystal balls, and good old stunning spells. The spiders charge in and retreat with Hagrid in their midst. I don't think that's the end of Hagrid, but then I never thought one of the twins would buy it either. There are giants, then dementors, and Luna saves the day. I like how calmly she gets Harry to be able to use his patronus again.

They take the tunnel to the shack after Ron is reminded to use magic by Hermione. A nice little allusion to book 1. At the end of the tunnel are Voldemort and Snape. I left off after Snape is killed and Voldemort leaves the shack. Snape being killed isn't much of a shock since I never expected him to make it. I was sort of expecting Snape to be kill after finally betraying Voldemort. I wonder if this could mean that we never really find out which side Snape was on. That would be kinda cool actually. There is some more wand stuff, killing the previous owner does seem to follow the legend of the elder wand. I could see that simply yanking it out of somebody's hand is too low a bar for the legendary wand. Maybe it's all legend though, it would be sort of ironic if the elder wand was just a regular wand after all.

I wonder if this could mean that we never really find out which side Snape was on.

Oh, man. You really are at the point in the book where, no matter where you stop, things'll look different a few pages later, aren't you?

Oh, man. You really are at the point in the book where, no matter where you stop, things'll look different a few pages later, aren't you?

Which I think shows Rowling as a better writer than she is often given credit for.

Which I think shows Rowling as a better writer than she is often given credit for.

Oh, Rowling's an excellent plotter. One of the best around, really. Her prose itself is clunky, and a lot of her dialouge is awkward, but when it comes to plotting a neat course from Point A to Point Z? She's got it going on.

What Victor said.

Although I think that her prose has its moments, and I do appreciate her love of wordplay. But, yeah - one wouldn't recommend the books simply on the merits of her prose. Luckily the plotting and the world-building is top-notch, though.

Meanwhile, I'm thoroughly enjoying Gud's comments as we reach the climax.

Snape has died and gave his memories to Harry. Lupin and Tonks are dead, I wasn't expecting Tonks, but when Lupin asked Harry to be Teddy's godfather I thought Lupin was doomed. The Weasley family surrounding Fred was sad.

I stopped in the middle of Snape's memories. I was a bit surprised he knew Lilly before Hogwarts, I had always assumed they didn't meet until coming to the school. When I left off, Snape was telling Lilly they will be getting their letters and that someone would come to Lilly's house since she was muggleborn. I guess nobody came for Harry since his Aunt and Uncle already knew about Harry and Hogwarts from Dumbledore's letter. It looks like the theory that Snape loved Lilly is going to be shown to be true. I assume that means Snape has been working against Voldemort, but I suppose I'll probably know for sure shortly. Sucks to be Snape in any event.

Sucks to be Snape

True dat.