The Progeny of the Pure-Blood

I have never, in my entire life, read a book in two days. This is due, mostly, to my immense love for books, and how I like to devour them slowly and taste every word. However, I have now broken this trend.

It started at two o'clock in the morning on July 21^st. I could only stay awake until 5:00. Then I read all day Saturday, pausing only for meals and a two-hour nap with the book open upon my stomach, my finger poised on a paragraph regarding some boring thing the Trio was doing in the woods. At 4:30 Sunday morning, I went to bed again, more than halfway finished. Currently, it's 3:07am on Monday morning and I only just finished a few minutes ago. And the one word that is singing in my head? Disappointment.

When I returned home from my midnight party at Borders and sat down to begin, it was bittersweet. I stared at the cover, half afraid to open it. It was blurry, Harry's face swimming, because my eyes were filled with tears. I finally cracked the binding and read the first words, those of J.K. Rowling, dedicating the book to me because I've stuck with Harry until the very end. Yes, and I will stick with him still. Even though the prat married Ginny. The next words, those of Aeschylus and William Penn, I read aloud, my breath short with a mixture of anticipation and mourning. I also read the first few bits of the first chapter aloud, but then I realized that I'd have no voice if I continued on this way.

The first chapter felt bizarrely like fanfiction, of which I've read little, but of which does have a very distinct "feel" to it. Voldemort's character seemed oddly... uncharacteristic of Voldemort, which would only appear in this first chapter. Now, in Half-Blood Prince, there was all of this talk from the Malfoys about how angry Voldemort would be if Draco failed at his mission to kill Dumbledore. Well, Draco failed, and it's never mentioned in this book. Voldemort doesn't reprimand him, doesn't seem angry, doesn't even bring it up. Very unsatisfying.

But as I continued reading, I realized, with a jolt, that this was not fanfiction. No Harry Potter fan would kill an innocent snowy owl. It is unnecessary and cruel, and why Jo would do such a thing is beyond me. And it was the only death that I cried over, in the entire book, though there would be many more to follow. Yes, I am the vegetarian, PETA type, I'm afraid. I thought about calling them and reporting her, in fact...

I was grieving Hedwig so thoroughly that I hardly noticed Mad-Eye Moody's death. But later, I realized that this was because it was so brief, and so unmentioned afterwards. I must pause in these thoughts to say that I felt about this book the same way that I felt about the Order of the Phoenix film - it was BIZARRE. There were just many things that didn't feel right. And the book was very unlike the J.K. Rowling that I've known in the past.

Oh, backtracking, I thought it was nice that Dudley had a little redemption, though I felt that it, too, was brief. Perhaps Jo should have written eight books, because everything was just too rushed and she couldn't give it the attention and detail and emotion that it deserved, and this bled through the entire novel. NO other Harry Potter book has felt this way. Cry. I still wish she'd released it 06-07-08. The woman needed another year, and then maybe she would have gotten it right.

Of course, I should clarify that I did, indeed, enjoy the book. How could I not? This series has touched me like nothing else has in my life, unless you count Hanson, and I do. So, yes, I liked the book. But I think that my fondness for it is entirely based upon Snape-like loyalty, because when I look at it from my faint objective standpoint, it is very flawed. And I enjoyed it far less than I expected to enjoy it.

Ladies of the HP Theatre Fan Trip, I would like all of you to turn to page 161 and relish the words in the middle of the page. Yes. I shrieked aloud at that.

All of this new stuff about Dumbledore was great, and I loved seeing how very imperfect and infallible he was. He was human, just like the rest of us, and like Sirius said, there was light and dark inside of him. At first, it scared me, because I was like, "Okay, if Jo has all of these previous questions to answer, why is she giving herself new questions to answer?" It turns out that she answered her new questions superbly, but in effect, her old ones fell by the wayside. Apparently, she does not spend enough time on the Lexicon, run by the brilliant and lovely Steve Vander Ark.

I was so excited by Kreacher becoming a cool and loving house-elf! That was the bomb, I must say. Harry realizing that all he had to do was be kind to the elf and he would win his devotion - that was wonderful. And something that all humankind should know, but most fail to realize, I imagine. You get more bees with honey, and whatnot. Most people seem oblivious to this.

Anyowl (but not Hedwig, cuz she's dead), Voldemort and his "fellows" taking over practically the entire Wizarding world was appropriate and terrifying (and something I entirely forgot in my own version of Book 7, regrettably). It gave the book the hopeless and desperate feeling that it really needed to be the dramatic climax that it was intended to be. And it reminded me nauseatingly of our own government, using fear to control its people.

Ah, the fighting of the Trio. They are the best part of all of these books. Even as make-believe characters, they have such amazing chemistry, and even as three young actors on a screen, the electricity is brilliant between them. The best scene in OOTP, hands down, is the three of them talking in the Common Room after Harry kisses Cho. It's so enchanting that it gives me goosebumps, even after seeing the film a ridiculous number of times (four). So, in not so short, I was thrilled by this fight between them, even though we temporarily lost Ron. It was still stimulating, and I was getting dreadfully bored of hearing about them doing absolutely nothing in the middle of the woods. Boy, did those chapters crawl by...

I knew they shouldn't have followed that creepy old lady... Is it just me, or does Harry have very little common sense? Sure, he has other wonderful qualities, but where's some good old street smarts when you need 'em?

I'm going to do this now. Where the frack were the Malfoys?! GOD, I love the Malfoys, and I am so disappointed at how little they were in this book. I certainly hoped for some revelations about the beautiful Draco and that he, too, wasn't really on Voldy's side. I really, really feel like Jo didn't do justice to Draco, as a character of her own creation. He is beloved by many of us in the fandom, and those of us who adore him were left hungry and... pissed off, if I'm being honest about it.

Okay, while I'm asking questions, who was really frustrated by the lack of time we spent in Godric's Hollow? Hiss! Now, I hoped to see inside of the house, and I hoped to see a little more emotion from Harry at his parents' graves, or at least a little more time spent there. Oi! If you feel the same way, read my fanfiction. Can't believe I wrote important things that Jo decided could be left out. RARR!

Ahem. Though I was wrong about most everything. There were some things where I got ridiculously spot on, and some things I felt I had better ideas than she did. Ah, well. It is what it is, isn't it?

I still love and admire Jo, even though she is an owl killer. She is still brilliant and wonderful, and I worship at her feet every time I read her battle scenes, because they are superb and something I'm quite rubbish at, myself. And the woman's imagination is paralleled only by those who have gone before her, like the beloved Tolkien, Lewis, and Carroll. And perhaps some current authors, like Anne Rice, though she's gone "gaga," I hear.

From the first moment I saw that doe, I knew it had something to do with Lily. But that was all that I knew. And the scene with Ron rescuing Harry and the two of them destroying the locket? That was the first time in my reading that I truly got onto the edge of my couch. And, boy, did Ron continue to impress after that point! I hope that, after all he did in Book 7, the poor kid can get out from beneath Harry Potter's shadow, despite Voldy Horcrux's awful words.

But I did expect more heroism from Neville. Sure, he took care of the last Horcrux and acted bravely and all that, but who wanted to see him torture Bella and avenge his parents? God, it annoyed the hell out of me that it didn't happen that way! Molly taking her down was slightly cool, but not half as cool as it would have been to have the Longbottoms' Revenge. At least he did end up teaching Herbology - knew that was coming.

The Three Brothers! Finally, a surprise! Something I wasn't expecting, something intriguing, something new. I was just sure that the Deathly Hallows were another way of talking about Horcruxes, but Jo did surprise me there. I would have never expected what she came up with, and it had nothing to do with Horcruxes or King Arthur, as had been often speculated. She did an outstanding job with this bit in the story. Though I would have loved to see Harry not die because he became the master of death, not because his blood ran in Voldemort's veins. Would have been awesome. Instead, the items went their separate ways and had no use as a threesome, though they were quite useful separately. I find that most people were confused by the whole Hallows thing, especially the Elder Wand, but it all made enough sense to me. We have to remember, of course, Steve's discovery: Jo Logic.

The main surprises that came to me in this book were the LACK of important events. There were things that I was just certain would happen, but they didn't, and the things that did happen were lame compared with what she could have done. We all thought that Wormtail's silver hand was going to be something awesome, and then it just turned and strangled him. Are you kidding me? She could have done loads of amazing things with Wormtail, but instead, you'll have to find them in fanfiction, because she failed us there.

And Greyback not being killed by someone he'd attacked? Bill, Lupin, even Fleur, who suffered at his teeth? Terribly uncool. I am very keen on justice, and Greyback's victims did not get justice.

Perhaps she didn't want to be predictable, and that's why she copped out on a lot of things?

I do still love her. I promise. Loads more than I love David Yutz, anyway.

At least we were all right about Ollivander being kidnapped. But what of old Florean Fortescue? Where'd she go?

And THE TWENTY-FOUR HOURS??? Oh my GOD! She didn't explain the twenty-four hours, and I am positively seething over it! And I'm still not happy with the rationalization for Harry's scar, when the killing curse leaves no mark, and a Horcrux backfiring into something (or someone) leaves no mark. Otherwise, Nagini would have a little lightning bolt on her forehead too, wouldn't she? Dammit. Damn it all.

Okay, we got nothing about that bloody Veil! Nothing! We all thought that she would explain it, and she didn't even bother! What about the rest of our questions? Who's the person who came to magic later in life? What on earth was the room that they couldn't open in the Department of Mysteries? What did Dudley see when the Dementor kissed him? Weren't we supposed to see the Ford Anglia again? And did Harry become an Auror after all? I answered every single fracking one of these questions in my ridiculous fanfiction, and she couldn't even bother? I am infuriated! And distraught. Absolutely fantastically distraught.

Sigh. At least Sev was good, after all. I knew it, of course, and had almost the same reasons in my own story. Though I would have loved a good Snape/Lily memory snog. But I wasn't shocked by any of it, of course. I'm glad Snape was loyal. But I wish, wish to GOD, that he'd died redeeming himself - taking down a Horcrux or helping Harry in some way. Dying at the teeth of Nagini was beneath him, as a character. Jo must not realize that Snape is one of the greatest literary characters of our time. He was brilliantly created by her, enigmatic and complicated and dynamic. I have always loved him for this. So when he died being almost eaten by Nagini, without any kind of closure with Harry, despite the fact that he'd helped Harry more than almost anyone, I was just... heartbroken, I guess. Once again, she didn't do herself justice, and she didn't do her fans justice, and she didn't do her spectacular character justice.

But I did really love the scene with Hermione snogging Ron and Harry going, "This is the moment, isn't it?" It was so magical that I read it over a few times and sighed happily to myself. Jo had a romantic success there. Very sweet.

The battle at Hogwarts was nothing short of magnificent. This was always Jo's forte. I enjoyed every minute of it, my heart pounding, my hands sweating (perhaps from holding up a fifty pound book for hours), my body fidgeting. I cannot believe that we lost Fred, and that Lupin and Tonks both died, leaving Teddy an orphan, though I expect that this was Jo's attempt at mirroring Harry to both the kid and Sirius. I was really shocked that we didn't lose any more important characters. I was certain we'd lose Hagrid, and one of the Weasley parents. Instead, we lost Fred, separating him from George. And somehow, it's crueler, isn't it? Yet, no one seemed to really mourn him for very long.

This was my main problem with the Epilogue. The crappiest Epilogue ever known to man, by the way. I wanted to see how on earth George got on without his twin, and what happened to everyone else! The other Weasleys, Luna, the Hogwarts staff! Instead, we got a few pages listing the names of the Trio's children. So Harry marries Ginny and they breed like rabbits. Barf-inducing. Really. Gag me with a spoon. But Jo was never good at romantic relationships, so I was pleased to see very little of that in this book. But what a disgusting ending. So unbelievably cheesy and beneath the series as a whole. I just wanted so much more, and that's the tagline, isn't it? I WANT MORE!

The best thing about finishing this final story is that I can now return to the internet, which I've been avoiding for days. But I expected to bawl my eyes out when I closed Deathly Hallows. I didn't, and I don't know why. Something inside of me is definitely devastated, broken. Yet... I found the book anti-climactic and unsettled. I want Version 2.0. And I think, for me, this is a good thing, because it helps soften the sense of loss. I was so terrified of reading this book, thinking I'd be entirely inconsolable, with all of my questions answered. Instead, I still have questions, and I'm still downright starving.

What a PITY.

I suspect Nargles are behind it.

UPDATE: Yes, I have read all of Jo's interviews and know that she does eventually answer some questions. I just think that she should have done that in the book.