“Fiddle-de-dee’s not English.”

Ah. I debated the need for a separate entry for this book. There’s much to say, and I’m not sure how to say what I want to say, but it’s a fitting end to a marvellous adventure. It was a great ride and I’m both relieved and sad it came to an end.

Not my favourite book of the series — I’ve always liked The Prisoner of Azkaban best — but I definitely liked it better than The Half-Blood Prince or The Order of the Phoenix, and the editing sort of improved at some points (the dialogue!), but didn’t in others (tl;dr in parts! I am ashamed to admit that there were times when my eyes sort of flicked to the bottom of the right-hand page when I was reading the top of the left-hand page because I wanted to check if the tl;dr was done with!). I suspect it was the time constraint working against Jo and her editors than anything else? (I should stop making excuses for other people just because I like their work, really.)

I finished the book in four to five hours or so, and I was bleary for work the next day because when I finished it I was staring at the ceiling, trying to make up my mind whether or not I like the book. I have yet to reread it, though. I’ll probably read through everything (or at least from Goblet of Fire) again, because I think I’m misremembering things. Hm.

We’ll just have a list here, with the items in no particular order, since I don’t think I’m capable of a coherent review.

What I liked:

• Harry. I like Harry. I can’t understand how people can plough through seven books and not like Harry. Oh, he goes off in capslocks of rage sometimes I suppose, and there are times when I find his motivation strange, but I still like the kid.
• Neville. ♥ Enough said.
• How Narcissa’s love for her son saved Harry.
• Dumbledore is human. Yay. Though keeping all that from Harry all this time — I can’t make up my mind about that. I was half-hoping, after the sixth book ended, that he was wrong about Snape because I wanted Dumbledore not to be infallible, but of course Rowling knows better than I do. Oh, Severus.
• Dobby’s great and daring rescue! Oh, Dobby.

Things that made me go OHSHI–! or broke my heart:

• What happened to Fred.
• And what happened to Dobby.
• Let’s throw Lupin and Tonks into the list as well.
• The trio being not a trio for way too long after Ron left.
• Ron, still insecure about all those things after all this time.
• Snape/Lily. It’s one of those things you knew would happen, but I never expected Snape was doing it all for her all the while. (Never mind that he did care for Harry in a way, even if he would never admit it.)

What amused me:

• How we learned the middle names of almost everyone in the course of this book. (Wait, what’s Sirius’ middle name?)
• “And what in the name of Merlin’s most baggy Y fronts was that?”
• Ron, in general.
• “Point is, people, don’t get lulled into a false sense of security, thinking he’s out of the country. Maybe he is, maybe he isn’t, but the fact remains he can move faster than Severus Snape confronted with shampoo when he wants to.”
• The Weasley twins, in general. (Allow me to insert a sad face here again.)
• The whole jumble of names in the epilogue!
• The epilogue!

What I didn’t quite get:

• The Deathly Hallows! Were they really that important to the plot?
• The Neverending Camping Trip. I was surprised when they were finally captured, though. I guess it was going on for so long I didn’t expect it to ever end.
• . . . The epilogue. It was lovely, really, in a corny sort of way, because Harry has everything he had always wanted, and all is well, but it was still corny.

The list would be longer if I actually ponder the book, so I’m stopping and posting this now.

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