Lovely Little Shelf

I didn’t pause as long between books 6 and 7.  I decided to just go for it.  I was all hyped up after 6 and I couldn’t wait to move on.  So.  Here goes.

Just a warning, if you haven’t read the series, please go do that and then come back.  This is chock full of spoilers.

• Aw!  Dudley has a heart.  Sweet and cute. I also love everyone “becoming” Harry.  Such a fun scene.  Too bad it got crazy quick, huh?  Mad-Eye? Sob.
• Along with the twins’ shop, another thing I have made just amazing in my head is Bill and Fleur’s wedding.  I haven’t seen the movies yet and I’m pretty scared that this is going to be ruined.  I love weddings anyway, but a wizard wedding?  Look out.
• I love how right off the bat, Ron and Hermione are on board.  They don’t question Harry’s motives, don’t question the danger, nothing.  In this read-through I have been drawn over and over to the friendship between these three and it makes me a little weepy.  Even after they fight and Ron leaves and everything looks bleak, he comes back and is ready to fight with them.  I love it.
• I thought it was tough going through the “questioning Dumbledore” thing with Harry.  I think that Harry had Dumbledore so built up in his head that he was shocked that he was human enough to die.  I felt horrible for him that he waited until after Dumbledore’s death to start questioning his mentor.  I was really glad, in the end, when he got his chance to actually question him.
• To be honest, the first half of this book kind of drug for me.  I think that it was kind of intended that way: a lot of set-up, a lot of guess work and misses, a lot of movement but not much action.  Meh. The payoff is huge, but I really don’t have much to say about the first few hundred pages.
• Um, so somehow I forgot that Dobby dies.  I was just sailing along, not expecting it at all and it kind of hit me in the chest.  So. Effing. Sad.  Seriously.  Of course I love that he died in this noble way and for Harry Potter, just how he would have wanted to but still… so, so sad.
• I loved all the magic history we got in this book.  It made everything just seem really authentic.  Between learning more about Snape’s history,  the Hallows, the Hogwarts history, and all the stuff about the horcruxes, I felt like the wizarding world was just that much more compete.
• And the final battle. Eek. I cannot talk about Fred dying.  I just can’t.  Probably the saddest thing that happened in the whole series.  Totally gut wrenching.  I was sad when he died, but when I lost it was when Molly finds out.  Maybe it’s the “new mom” in me, but that was just about more than I could handle.
• I had also (somehow) forgotten that he got to “see” all the people that had died before him as he went to meet Voldemort.  Such a good little piece.  Him recognizing and getting to talk to his mom and dad and them assuring him that they’d be right there with him?  Again, sob.
• I love that all the books ended with this scene between Dumbledore and Harry where he comes clean and/or trusts Harry with something huge.  I am so glad that J.K. Rowling figured out a way to fit that into this book too.  This was such a perfect, beautiful scene.
• And Neville with all his guts and the sword and the snake!  Woo hoo!
• Lastly:  Ginny and Harry and their kids, Ron and Hermione and their kids…. so perfect.  I know some people think that this was too neat and tidy or something, but I love a good happy ending and I was way happy with this.

I want a little bit of time to digest the series as a whole and I’ll get back to you on my final feelings.  I know that I’m really glad that I slowed down and digested it all a little bit slower this time.  Why did it take me so long to get on this bandwagon?