Harry Potter & The Thread for People Who've Read It!!!

[Andrew Curnow]

For those of you who've already read in a single day the 607-page tome that is Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, this is the thread to discuss, praise, moan, and otherwise chatter about it.

I'm only two chapters in, so I shan't be joining you for quite some time...

[Milky Tears]

I've only read the spoilers and the last few pages. Does that count?

[Rob McCow]

I resisted the temptation today to pick up a copy in Sainsbury's, flick to the end and start saying things like 'My word, I can't believe he's dead!' and 'Wow, that's a clever way to defeat Voldemort!' and so on.

[WhiteCrow]

I have to say I was in a hurry to get the book yesterday, and now am in no hurry to read it. I think I'll wait for a proper sunny weekend and read it in the garden.

I'm probably alone in wanting spoilers. I think if a character I really like is going to die, I'd rather know now.

[Anthony Williams]

spoilers (read at your own peril!):

those who die:

Voldemort
Wormtail
Bellatrix Lestrange
other Death Eaters
Snape
Fred Weasley
Lupin
Tonks
Ted Tonks
Mad-Eye Moody
Hedwig
Dobby the House Elf

what happens 19 years later:
Harry and Ginny get married, have three children - Lily, James and Albus Severus. Ron and Hermione get married, and have a two children - called Rose and Hugo. Malfoy's son is called Scorpius. Neville becomes a Professor of Herbology at Hogwarts.

Ant x

[Si Hunt]

For a book that was supposedly so in demand, there were an awful lot of lonely copies stacked up in town yesterday with no-one killing each other over them. Tesco's oh-so-generous pricing offer was 10 for the book, unless you spent fifty quid in store. You spoil us! And there was me thinking of nipping down the road to Asda and getting it cheap without having to buy anything at all.

Si.

[Pip Madeley]

Tesco's oh-so-generous pricing offer was 10 for the book, unless you spent fifty quid in store.

It was a fiver on Saturday but even so, bit of a rubbishy offer. You could of course visit your local library and reserve a copy for free.

LIBRARIES. THEY'RE LEGEN-wait for it-DARY.

[Dave Lewis]

Or buy it for 8.87 in Sainsbury's...

I loved it, and I loved the fact that it had a happy ending. I'm even more pleased that I was wrong about almost everything, except that Snape was ultimately on the side of good, not bad... I'm pleased that he was, not that I was right about it. I can't say much more 'cos I'm tired, physically and emotionally.

Dobby's death and funeral was possibly the saddest moment, but Harry's message to young Albus Severus Potter before he caught the Hogwarts Express at the very end was the bit where it seemed like I must have had something in my eye...

[Dirk Gently]

I totally agree with you Dave, the final chapter was good, I wanted the happy ending but I thought there might be one tragedy to deal with but ultimately the ending was brilliant. I was a little disappointed that there wasn't an 'aftermath' chapter to tell us what happened after the final battle. Harry just has his chat with Dumbledore's portrait & that's it.

Yes, Dobby's death was the bit I thought that J.K.Rowling might have had her now infamous 'howling with grief' moment. It was certainly not expected by me.
I knew Severus Snape was on Dumbledore's side & I was just waiting for him to make contact with Harry but it never came until it was almost too late. I personally thought that Dumbledore would have left Harry his pensieve & a few choice memories to help Harry rather than those memories come via Snape, rather a touching moment when Snape looked in to Harry's(Lily's) eyes as he died.

The Wand lore was interesting & made complete sense which is always nice.
The only irritating point in the whole book was Harry saying Voldemort's name when Ron had expressly told him it was Taboo. Ron said that was how the Death Eaters had found them before & as Harry says "Vol-", Ron says, "HARRY,NO!" & Harry continues on "-dermort" and the death eaters turn up. I mean it's not that Harry ignored Ron but he continued to say it. If Harry had said Voldermort & then Ron had shouted NO! it would have made it look like Harry just forgot but the way it was written makes it look like Harry just finished saying it because that's what he always did in front of Ron.
It just made Harry look like a big mouthed idiot that then got them in trouble.

I can see all the wandering around the countryside being axed in the movie, in fact this almost felt as if it had been written in such a way as to make it easier to cut it down in to a film script. I mean all that stuff with Luna's father will be reduced to Ron & Hermione telling Harry the Deathly Hallows story from the book Dumbledore left Hermione & from Ron's fairy tale.

But aside from that & the lack of a longer ending it was a brilliant book.

[Dirk Gently]

what happens 19 years later:
Ron and Hermione get married, and have a daughter called Rose.

Ant, did you read those spoilers for yourself of copy someone else's? Because that one is not entirely correct.

[Dave Lewis]

Isn't it? It looks alright to me.

[Dirk Gently]

No, it should read;

Ron and Hermione get married, and have a daughter called Rose & a son called Hugo.

We see 4 people waiting in the smoke when Harry arrives with Ginny & the kids.

[Rob McCow]

The first line about Harry in the book tells us that he's bleeding. And there's a couple of quotes at the start about death.

He's doomed!

Although there are 7 of him now. So far, it's been a lot better than any of the last two books.

[Dirk Gently]

Death is Harry's constant companion, from the start to the end.

[Dave Lewis]

We see 4 people waiting in the smoke when Harry arrives with Ginny & the kids.

That's what I thought you meant.

[Rob McCow]

And... rest.

Let's get this clear. I hated the Harry Potter books. I read them and got some small amusement in places, but overall they were poorly paced, full of terrible black holes of confusion in the writing and painfully derivative. More importantly, they were largely dull, Harry was never an engaging hero and I spent a lot of time yawning.

But.

The Deathly Hallows was a stonking, brilliant read. It wasn't without weaknesses, but it was an action-packed piece of brilliance from start to finish. Far, far outstripping the last two books and in my opinion, the best of the lot by miles and miles.

It's easy to list the problems - it's episodic, Ron, Harry and Hermione go from one adventure to the next with little rests in betweeen (except at the denouement where Harry is awake for about 36 hours and 12 chapters.) The invisibility cloak is massively over-used. (But then, if you had one, you would use it all the time, wouldn't you?) There's a slight tick-list attitude in the story, in that we revisit everyone and everything, paticularly in the final battle.

And that's about it. Because the rest was magnicificent.

My favourite bit - where Ron returns. He says to Harry: "Dumbledore gave me the deluminator because he knew I'd leave you" and Harry replies "No. He gave it to you because he knew you'd come back." That made me sniffle the most.

More opinions later!

[SiHart]

I've just finished it and I have to agree that it is probably the best of the series (although I'm terribly fond of Azkaban too). Just exciting moment aftre exciting scene and it was all terribly exciting!

Si xx

[Paul Clement]

Conversely, I thought it was the worst of the series bar Order of the Phoenix. It was writing by numbers, getting everything done so that she reach the climax. There was no tangible plot to this instalment other than that, and whereas before, I could excuse J K Rowlings poor prose because she could still tell a good story, the same can't be said of Deathly Hallows. The 'final battle' was the only bit that I really enjoyed, as she took a neat way of getting round it by having the main protagonists spend most of their time trying to defeat Draco and co.

[Andrew Curnow]

For the record, my favourite is the first, which even if none of the others had ever been written is still a gorgeously well-written, inventive, colourful, classically brilliant children's book.

Anyway, back to t'Deathly Hallows, and me and Little Miss finished it off tonight with the last chapter, plus the epilogue. Overall I've enjoyed it - it took a while to get going, and I didn't really take to it until the wedding chapter. The raid on the Ministry of Magic was superb, as was the battle. Dobby's death and its aftermath were strong too - of all the many deaths, Dobby's somehow came as the biggest surprise to me. I didn't really enjoy the raid on Gringotts chapter, which felt a bit daft, and "King's Cross" was a bit bizarre (in a 'Pertwee popping up in Zagreus' kind of way).

There was a 'ticklist' kind of sense to it (we get most, if not all, characters from the series in there, plus most, if not all, past locations) but it was cleverly done without ever feeling really contrived. It was nice to finally find out the truth about Snape, and in hindsight his final words were heartbreaking - because of course Harry has Lily's eyes.

Other moments that stick in the mind - Mrs Weasley's cry of "Bitch!" in the final chapter; Ron's departure; Ron's return; the reappearance of Percy; the fact that Grindelwald is mentioned in the very first book! The sense of 'Germany in the 30s' in the early part of the book, and at the Ministry, was very well done (continuing similar themes from The Order of the Pheonix) and I think this kind of 'multi-layered' element of the text will probably help them stand the test of time a little. That is to say, the books aren't just riding on any current wave of interest in wizards, but have some depth to them.

Nice to get a 'nineteen years later' epilogue, too, which rounded things off nicely without overdoing it. Ron & Hermione ending up together was no surprise, but it's nice to see it confirmed all the same. Ditto Harry & Ginny.

Incidentally, I was intrigued that a firm date was given to the deaths of Lily & James which means that the events of the books all in fact take place in the 1990s. I wonder whether there was a reason for that?

All in all, an enjoyable series - on the one hand, a firm edit on the last four books would have made them that bit tighter, but on the other hand there's something so gloriously rich about the whole world that the chance to revel in a bit more detail is a real delight.

All was well.

[Dave Lewis]

there's something so gloriously rich about the whole world that the chance to revel in a bit more detail is a real delight.

I heartily agree with you, Andrew.

As regards to the chronology of the series, JK (inadvertently?) gave the date of the series away back in the Chamber Of Secrets when Nearly Headless Nick celebrated the five hundredth anniversary of his death, and his cake gave his 'deathday' as Halloween, 1492. Thus, Harry and everyone's second year at Hogwarts began in 1992.

More Harry Potter dating fun (not that kind, Ginny!) can be found on Wikipedia.

[Andrew Curnow]

I hadn't picked up on that bit of Nearly Headless dating, Dave - thanks for the info.

I have to admit that I didn't quite 'get' the bit about Draco being the owner of the Elder Wand until this morning, when it all clicked together - last night I was thinking it was some kind of 'Dumbledore willed the ownership to him' kind of thing, but of course it's just a straightforward confusion isn't it. Voldemort thinks the wand is in the tomb, and the author does nothing to correct the confusion until the end - neat bit of deception!! Which means that Harry has all three Hallows without us realising.

Also... Is there any reason for the names Rose & Hugo, continuity-wise (ie, Ron & Hermione's kids)?

Edited to muse: Maybe it's simply a repetition of initial letters - Ron/Rose and Hermione/Hugo.

[Dirk Gently]

Er, without wishing to ruin your enjoyment of the last book, Andrew, I think you may still be a little bit confused. Harry never has all three hallows at the same time.
He always had the cloak, which is his by birthright, & he has the Stone (on the ring) from just before he enters the forest to face Voldemort but he drops that as he faces up to Voldemort. Harry only gets the wand when he defeats Voldemort in the Great Hall.

Voldemort thinks the wand is in the tomb,

The Elder Wand is in Dumbledore's tomb but as Harry says, holding the wand, using it, doesn't make it yours. Draco disarmed Dumbledore (who is the last master of the Elder Wand) on top of the Astronomy Tower at the end of Half-Blood Prince & it is this simple action that changes the allegiance of the Elder Wand to Draco. Draco has the allegiance of the worlds most powerful wand without ever having touched it. Harry then beats Draco (albeit by the simple expedience of pulling Draco's wand from Draco's hand) & this then means that Harry is then the master of both Draco's own wand & the Elder Wand.

[Andrew Curnow]

Oh I am confused then, blimey. I was thinking that the point was Draco had disarmed Dumbledore on the rooftop near the end of THBP, and that he had then actually taken the wand. I'm glad you explained that, as I would have really hated to explain it to anybody else and get it totally wrong!! Thanks, Tim.

[Dirk Gently]

For those who have read/listened to the entire series there's just a few questions left.

1, What did you think of the series as a whole?
2, Would you recommend the series to someone who's never read any of them?
3, Does the series now make sense to you?
4, Are you left with any niggling questions about what happens?
5, Did you enjoy the series enough to go through it again now knowing the outcome? Have you already done so?
6, What was your highlight of the series?
7, What was your low light?
8, What are your thoughts of J.K Rowling's writing style?

Any other thoughts.

[Rob McCow]

Ooo, Quiz time Potter!

1, What did you think of the series as a whole?
A lot of missed opportunities and far too saggy towards the end, but generally it was good in a soap-opera kind of way.

2, Would you recommend the series to someone who's never read any of them?
Er.... depends who it was! If they weren't so well known I wouldn't recommend them at all, but they're rather important now.

3, Does the series now make sense to you?
In terms of understanding the story and the character developments, yes. In terms of why Harry was so rubbish most of the time, no.

4, Are you left with any niggling questions about what happens?
Was Ms.Trelawney alright? I can't remember.

5, Did you enjoy the series enough to go through it again now knowing the outcome?Have you already done so?
Good heavens no!

6, What was your highlight of the series?
Either Voldemort's return in book four, or the start of book one where they try to hide in the lighthouse.

7, What was your low light?
Where do you begin? 80% of books 4, 5 and 6 is just waffle, but the worst bit must be where it's revealed to be blooming Voldemort again in book 2. It closed down the series and meant that everything that happened afterwards would be (to some extent) a re-tread of what had gone before.

8, What are your thoughts of J.K Rowling's writing style?
Generally atrocious and hammer-heavy in slapping on the emotion, but easy enough to read.