While I liked Dudley making a token gesture to Harry, it came out of nowhere and was hard to swallow. Some development, please and thank you? Hedwig's death jolted me as well. I seriously could not believe she offed the owl. I was so sad. Meanwhile, I barely knew Mad-Eye enough for his death to be more than a blimp or a passing thought of, "aw, man, that guy was cool!"

While certain chapters remained more important then others, the main trio constantly running away from Voldemort and his bosom buddies soon turned tedious and I kept wanting the book to move on with the bloody plot, crying out when the HELL they will get to a bloody Horcrux already.

Yes! Rowling spent far too much time on this and then, at the end, they were just getting Horcruxes like boom boom boom. I didn't like that, especially since I had been anticipating Harry and Company having to solve and foil elaborate traps like the one guarding the false locket in HBP. Why the hell didn't Voldemort have a trap like that for each Horcrux? Making him think the diadem would be safe in the Room of Requirement turns him into a moron and using Gringotts really isn't his style.

Ron, PLEASE, it's been SEVEN years since you tagged along Harry's wild ride of intensity and danger, why the shit do you feel the need to shout in anger and storm off now. I don't give a crap you had on the R.A.B locket, that's not a valid excuse for me. GAWD.

WORDY McWord.

I screamed a "HELLZ YEAH" when he chop-sueyed Nagini with Godric's sword as I did when Mrs. Weasley goes APESHIT when Fred dies and Neville's grandmother proving she's got more guts then rappin' grannies do.

I am so happy Neville got his big moment. I had wanted him to be the one to off Bellatrix, but taking out the living Horcrux works for me. And in front of Voldemort while not caring that he just had his head set on fire. Screw Harry, Neville is my hero!

I actually had secret hopes Harry would die and remain dead.

I had a phone conversation with my mother in which she rather mildly said, "I think you're right. I want Harry to die."

To see even HE--Mr. Mastery of Wizardy himself--is flawed and just as human as everyone was a pleasing gesture.

I'm with you. I thought that was pretty awesome. Rowling took the archtype everyone thought he was and turned it on its head.

I really liked Narcissa deliberately lying about Harry- that he was saved by another mother's love deciding what was really important. "Screw the ideology we're fighting for- does it really stack up killing our children for it?" But a lot of the book hinged on Voldemort doing stupid things. Why wouldn't he check the body himself? You'd think he'd want to kick it around and do something macabre with it. Also, yes, the final exchange of taunts was cheesy and went on too long (and if I was Voldemort, I would so have Kedarvaed Harry just to shut him up) but I was pleased because I'm a Snape fan who got to shout, "VINDICATION, BABY!"

Epilogue: Albus Severus is love. And AS/S OTP! But the epilogue should have taken care of the loose ties you mentioned- like Harry's relationship with the Dursleys and Draco- rather than talk about things we really could have guess. Harry/Ginny- shocker! Never saw that comin'.

(I'm sorry, but Albus Severus is just something a fan would do).

Guilty. Guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty and I don't care. I loved Albus Severus.

RE: Ginny. I agree with you. It was a token romance. Harry doesn't end up with a girl he knows deeply and understands and that the reader has any sense that he and she have forged a connection or a bond. While I'm sure this does happen in the unrecorded events between the last chapter and the epilogue (God, I'd hope so!), the reader doesn't see it and the reader doesn't see Ginny get developed. She's thrown to Harry like a trophy. I don't like that- it doesn't sit well with me.

I'm mixed, too. I felt satified at the end... and yet there is so much I wish had been another way.