I dont see what in this book they can leave out in the movie. I think the fans deserve a long final movie to end this thing properly.

Body count:

Hedwig
MadEye
Dobby
Ted Tonks
some Goblin
Fred Weasley (still cant believe she didnt kill Percy)
Colin Creavey
Lupin
Tonks
Voldemort

7/23/2007 9:43:40 AM

I agree ^ There is too much in this book not to rightfully make a 3.5 hour movie. I mean for heaven's sake Return of the King was that long, and if it was shorter it would have been the worse of the 3.

And don't forget 2 others too. I mean waaaay more than 2 main characters perish.

I loved the way the book ended. I think the epilogue was short and to the point. All is well. We know who ends up together. We know who's finally happy. And while J.K. could have told us what their jobs are, who's Minister/Headmaster(ess), etc., maybe its better to still have a little magic to ponder after we close the book.

I for one almost 'ed over the last scene in the Battle of Hogwarts. When house elves, centaurs, Grawp, Hogsmeade, & pretty much every good thing Potter defended was willing to duel to the death over his demise was beyond moving in the emotion of finality.

I think the explanation of a human Dumbledore was wonderful. And who would have thought the Deathly Hallows were those items? Or even items, period!? And Neville's Gran appearance was hilarious and helped make his character come full circle. I agree about Luna too tho, she was used so much since she was introduced, it almost feels like J.K. unfairly forgot to give Luna her due. But alas.

In the end I wonder how the actors feel about this story. They, if anyone, are connected to these characters way more than any of us. I wonder if they'll throw a Harry Potter Wins Party! (Because some needs too )

I am more than happy how this ended. It give me hope that their is still good in the world. And thats the point of it all, no?

7/23/2007 10:00:29 AM

damn, I forgot Snape and Bellatrix

I really hope in the future JK puts out more material involving this world she has made. She said herself she has stacks of notebooks of backstory on every character even if they barely had a part in the book. There is no reason she can go with someone elses story, but id love to hear about the adult Harry, I thought for sure he would become HeadMaster

7/23/2007 10:18:39 AM

and Crabbe (the younger)

^ i'd like a book about the four founding people at Hogwarts... one going into more detail about Dumbledore and Grendelwald's relationship would also be appreciated. Particularly a depiction of their last battle...

[Edited on July 23, 2007 at 10:47 AM. Reason : .]

7/23/2007 10:43:13 AM

I wonder what Harry ended up doing after school, did he get a job? Or is he living off of his riches and I'm sure the gifts of the wizard world...

7/23/2007 10:50:20 AM

^ After getting AKed by Moldyshorts a second time removing/killing the piece of Voldemort inside, can Harry still talk to snakes?

7/23/2007 12:46:06 PM

I'd say no, since Dumbledore said that was why he could.

7/23/2007 1:12:32 PM

That was SOOOOOO GOOOOOODDDDDDDD.

7/23/2007 1:35:05 PM

I'd have to say the biggest deaths that shocked me were Hedwig and Dobby. I just was not prepared for those. The most tragic to me were Tonks and Lupin.

If the movie is not epic, I will be pissed. I can't wait to watch McGonagall shouting "Charge!" and I'm sure her scream when she sees the "dead" Harry will be heart-wrenching.

7/23/2007 3:20:04 PM

Narcissia Malfoys flip flop was awesome in the forest

is anyone else going to start their re-read today?

7/23/2007 3:22:23 PM

lol, i'm going to reread them, but this time in spanish

7/23/2007 3:43:22 PM

I just pray and hope the lady playing Minerva lives long enough to finish, and that she can do at least some of the sequences..."We Duel To Kill"


III

7/23/2007 3:54:06 PM

Quote :

"If the movie is not epic, I will be pissed. I can't wait to watch McGonagall shouting "Charge!" and I'm sure her scream when she sees the "dead" Harry will be heart-wrenching."

Fuck that, Kreacher mounting the house elf attack will be an Oscar-worthy moment.

p.s. gg Neville for fuckin' REPRESENTIN'.

[Edited on July 23, 2007 at 6:53 PM. Reason : ]

7/23/2007 6:29:36 PM

Quote :

" We did it, we bashed them, wee Potter's the one, And Voldy's gone moldy, so now let's have fun!"

Peeves is great

[Edited on July 23, 2007 at 6:56 PM. Reason : Neville should have gotten to kill Bellatrix, it's only fair]

7/23/2007 6:53:46 PM

i think everyone wanted to see Neville kill Lestrange, but i'm not going to complain too much about Molly going to town on her...

plus, Neville gets to be on the shortlist of people who have managed to destroy a horcrux (Harry, Dumbledore, Ron, Hermione, Crabbe, Voldy, Neville)

[Edited on July 23, 2007 at 9:18 PM. Reason : .]

7/23/2007 9:18:21 PM

Seeing Molly Weasley ice Bellatrix was awesome. Sure Neville would have been better, but the kid got to use a frakking magical sword to decapitate a snake!!!

And don't forget Peter Pettigrew. Wormtail finally owned up to his own traitor-ish self and let Harry live.

I think Harry and Ron both became Aurors. I mean what else do they have to prove?

Quote :

"The most tragic to me were Tonks and Lupin."

I agree. But right after Lupin asked Harry to be Teddy's godfather, you knew, you just knew, Lupin and Tonks we're going to die. It just made sense from Harry's parents dead and only having a godfather, Sirius, to him taking that same role himself.

7/23/2007 11:54:04 PM

my mom got the book on the 18th from deep discount and someone called and said they would send a harry potter t-shirt and a $50 deep discount gift code thing if she wouldn't tell anyone she got it early or any spoilers, they said theyd send her an email but i dont think they ever did.

7/24/2007 1:10:21 AM

7/24/2007 10:48:18 AM

JK Rowling just announced that she's not done writing about Harry Potter. She's going to include an Encyclopedia of sorts, that details back story and what happens to Hogwarts after the battle, and who becomes headmaster and things of that nature. It'll be a better epilogue than what is in the book for sure.

Quote :

"The author was shooting for “nebulous,” something “poetic.” She wanted the readers to feel as if they were looking at Platform 9¾ through the mist, unable to make out exactly who was there and who was not. "

Quote :

"Harry, Ron and Hermione We know that Harry marries Ginny and has three kids, essentially, as Rowling explains, creating the family and the peace and calm he never had as a child. As for his occupation, Harry, along with Ron, is working at the Auror Department at the Ministry of Magic. After all these years, Harry is now the department head. “Harry and Ron utterly revolutionized the Auror Department,” Rowling said. “They are now the experts. It doesn’t matter how old they are or what else they’ve done.” Meanwhile, Hermione, Ron’s wife, is “pretty high up” in the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, despite laughing at the idea of becoming a lawyer in “Deathly Hallows.” “I would imagine that her brainpower and her knowledge of how the Dark Arts operate would really give her a sound grounding,” Rowling said. Harry, Ron and Hermione don’t join the same Ministry of Magic they had been at odds with for years; they revolutionize it and the ministry evolves into a “really good place to be.” “They made a new world,” Rowling said. The wizarding naturalist Luna Lovegood, the eccentric Ravenclaw who was fascinated with Crumple-Horned Snorkacks and Umgubular Slashkilters, continues to march to the beat of her own drum. “I think that Luna is now traveling the world looking for various mad creatures,” Rowling said. “She’s a naturalist, whatever the wizarding equivalent of that is.” Luna comes to see the truth about her father, eventually acknowledging there are some creatures that don’t exist. “But I do think that she’s so open-minded and just an incredible person that she probably would be uncovering things that no one’s ever seen before,” Rowling said. Luna and Neville Longbottom? It’s possible Luna has also found love with another member of the D.A. When she was first asked about the possibility of Luna hooking up with Neville Longbottom several years ago, Rowling’s response was “Definitely not.” But as time passed and she watched her characters mature, Rowling started to “feel a bit of a pull” between the unlikely pair. Ultimately, Rowling left the question of their relationship open at the end of the book because doing otherwise “felt too neat.” Mr. and Mrs. Longbottom: “The damage is done.” There is no chance, however, that Neville’s parents, who were tortured into madness by Bellatrix Lestrange, ever left St. Mungo’s Hospital for Magical Maladies. “I know people really wanted some hope for that, and I can quite see why because, in a way, what happens to Neville’s parents is even worse than what happened to Harry’s parents,” Rowling said. “The damage that is done, in some cases with very dark magic, is done permanently.” Rowling said Neville finds happiness in his grandmother’s acceptance of him as a gifted wizard and as the new herbology professor at Hogwarts. The fate of Hogwarts Nineteen years after the Battle of Hogwarts, the school for witchcraft and wizardry is led by an entirely new headmaster (“McGonagall was really getting on a bit”) as well as a new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher. That position is now as safe as the other teaching posts at Hogwarts, since Voldemort’s death broke the jinx that kept a Defense Against the Dark Arts professor from remaining for more than a year. While Rowling didn’t clarify whether Harry, Ron and Hermione ever return to school to finish their seventh year, she did say she could see Harry popping up every now and again to give the “odd talk” on Defense Against the Dark Arts. More details to come? Rowling said she may eventually reveal more details in a Harry Potter encyclopedia, but even then, it will never be enough to satisfy the most ardent of her fans. “I’m dealing with a level of obsession in some of my fans that will not rest until they know the middle names of Harry’s great-great-grandparents,” she said. Not that she’s discouraging the Potter devotion! “I love it,” she said. “I’m all for that.” "

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19959323/

7/26/2007 9:56:31 AM

cool

i knew she wouldnt be done

7/26/2007 10:07:38 AM

yeah I've heard about the Encyclopedia

she has a ton of notes and back story on everyone, why let that go to waste

7/26/2007 10:38:29 AM

Nice, would love to have an encyclopedia with stories and thoughts....be interesting


III

7/26/2007 3:38:18 PM

i don't know, the history of quidditch and book of magical creature were way boring

7/26/2007 6:40:09 PM

Quote :

"1.talk Dumbledore has with Harry in his head 2. The stone bringing back all of Harry's dead friends/relatives "

maybe these parts were cheesy, but they were the tear jerkers! i was majorly tearing up when Harry's parents and Sirius and Lupin are with him as he walks to his "death."

and i loved Dumbldore's line about "of course it's in your head, but that doesn't mean it isn't real"



i was so glad snape finally was redeemed. i always thought he was good, but "The Prince's Tale" was a great chapter and really showed his inner self and why he turned out how he did. the epilogue was short and a little trite, but i also liked the part where harry tells albus that the bravest man he ever knew was a slytherin.


overall, loved the book!

7/26/2007 10:57:43 PM

Quote :

"(still cant believe she didnt kill Percy)"

I think that, from the POV of Percy, it was far better to have him basically throw himself at his family's feet and beg forgiveness for being such a complete and total asshole since the end of Book 3.

I wept for Fred, though. And Lupin and Tonks were shortchanged by getting whacked off-camera, when Dobby got like two pages of funeral.

And Neville Longbottom is officially King Badass.

7/26/2007 11:14:29 PM

^^ click the link above and watch the video of Rowling and the kids, she talks about how Snape isn't really a good guy, everything he did including the bravest parts were because of his love of Lily, not because of any kind of altruism... if there had been no Lily, then Snape probably would have been one of the worst of the Death Eaters

7/27/2007 8:17:37 AM

Yeah, he still hated James and hated Harry. But I think he was "good" in a sense. He knew that Voldemort didn't give a crap about him, and I think he really did love/admire/respect Dumbledore too. I think it was the remorse for what had happened to Lily that drove him to the "good," but I think it was still there. You'd think Petunia would have mentioned that she had met Snape though.

Quote :

" 'I heard - that awful boy - telling her about them - years ago,' she said jerkily. 'If you mean my mum and dad, why don't you use their names?' said Harry loudly, but Aunt Petunia ignored him. -- Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Chapter Two. "

What if she was referring to Snape here and not James?

7/27/2007 8:42:07 AM

I bet she was because I wouldnt think she had met James while they were in school

7/27/2007 8:53:54 AM

^^^ i see what you are saying, but he's still a good guy in many ways. there are many other characters that are only good or bad because of things that happened when they were younger. i don't think it matters if he did his good out of love for lily, because she had been dead a long time and he still did it. and i don't think he hated harry. james, certainly, and with pretty good reason, but not harry.


and if dumbledore likes him, that's a pretty good recommendation

^^i think you are right, good call

[Edited on July 27, 2007 at 8:59 AM. Reason : d]

7/27/2007 8:58:14 AM

^^^^

dumbledore's whole point about love being the greatest magic

7/27/2007 9:46:09 AM

I thought Snape did get a proper send off, making sure Harry knew the truth. Though Snape was evil, he was perfect in his role...he played it to the hilt and carried out every order with excellence.

The more I thought about the Percy situation, the more it fit...yeah he deserved to die, but to come back and face his family, tell them he was wrong and join with his brothers....deep family roots.

Fred...I hate that he died...I had to stop and put the book down...Fred & George keep the humor alive. Not sure if I will be able to take that scene in movie

Neville....as was already stated...King Bad Ass...He took being in DA serious and flipped the school up-side down.


III

7/27/2007 10:07:18 AM

I know this chick who had to work a bevarage cart for a golf tournament on Monday. Apparently , she couldn't wait until she got off work to finish reading the book, so she tried to read while driving and hit a tree. It completely fucked up the golf cart. I asked her if she had to Confund her boss to keep her job.

7/27/2007 10:50:48 AM

^ She used the Imperious Curse and got a raise instead.

7/27/2007 11:33:31 AM

^^ & ^ you guys are such huge nerds

I think Snape was good and bad, as timswar said. But love being the greatest magic of them all, does lean me towards believing he did care about Potter enough to save him for his mother. So we dont know if Snape would have tried to protect Potter in the Battle of Hogwarts if Minvera did not chase him away, or if anything he did in the past was only on orders from his master at the time.

I'm re-reading chapters since I finished, b/c its like the visuals you get are so great you cannot forget them. You want to experience it again and again.

7/27/2007 1:36:35 PM

I think that in the Battle of Hogwarts if they hadnt been trying to kill Snape he was trying to get to Harry to share the memories with him then.

Harry is lucky he was where he was when Voldy wacked Snape or who knows what would have happened.

7/27/2007 1:39:20 PM

^^I choose to be a nerd

7/27/2007 2:00:46 PM

Quote :

"NOT MY DAUGHTER, YOU BITCH!"

~ Mrs. Weasley
ftw

The whole Dumbledore inside Harry's mind thing reminded me a lot of what anime does when there is some kind of cathartic moment that reveals cryptic revelations.


Ginny is still, by far, my favorite character (in the absence of Sirius ) although Neville has really come a long way from book one. I really didn't like Fred dying (nor Tonks and Lupin for that matter even though theirs were a bit more understandable after the "godfather" foreshadowing).

[Edited on July 28, 2007 at 10:31 PM. Reason : .]

7/28/2007 10:20:02 PM

I thought the book was great. An enjoyable read that leaves you a little sad it's over. My only issue is that when they were in hiding the book seemed to drag. I was thinking get on with it already.

^on that note, I did want Ginny to play a bigger role in this book.



[Edited on July 28, 2007 at 11:21 PM. Reason : ,]

7/28/2007 11:05:27 PM

^ Get out of my brain!

7/28/2007 11:28:25 PM

Quote :

"Ginny is still, by far, my favorite character"

^^, ^ I agree with both of you. I wished that JK had put more of her in the book. She is obviously what allows Harry to love the most and she apparently does some of the baddest magic for the Weasleys. Sad to see she wasn't a bigger part of the book...

7/28/2007 11:49:49 PM

Just finished...very very surprised that hermione AND ron both survived..

i thought the part at the end with the elder wand was awesome... since draco disarmed dumbledore, he won the wand's allegiance..but he never laid a hand on it. then when harry took draco's wand...he won the allegiance.... so ultimately, the wand in dumbledore's tomb was harry's to have...great part

interesting he decided to put it back in the tomb to break the curse (unless he does not die of a natural death)

7/29/2007 12:07:14 AM

Pardon me if this was obvious, but did Harry not die because he possessed the Hallows? I assume so, but I was reading so fast I may have missed something.

7/29/2007 12:40:54 AM

^ It was a combo of Voldy having Harry's blood and the fact that Harry willingly let himself be killed just like his mother did.

7/29/2007 1:38:26 AM

^^ What ^ said. It was all about the protective charm that Harry's mom put on Harry that allowed him to live. Because Voldemort took Harry's blood, the charm remained active or something.

7/29/2007 2:39:51 AM

In the interview that Rowling gives, she says Harry becomes and Auror, doesn't this seem to counter the last line of the book? I know that Voldy is gone, but there is still dark magic and the whole reason that Aurors exist, so if Harry goes into that field, he isn't going to live a peaceful life.

7/29/2007 4:47:48 AM

^^ Also Voldy shot the killing curse at Harry with Harrys wand, i would think that played a part as well.

The Horcrux in Harry was killed like in the other Horcruxs the part of the soul can die and the item remain in tact

7/29/2007 10:48:53 AM

^ yeah, that was more along my line of thinking, that the Horcrux combined with his mother's protection made it so that the part of voldy's soul wound up taking the shot instead of harry (similar to Fawkes taking an Avada Kadavera for Dumbledore in OotP)

7/29/2007 11:02:01 AM

Speaking of, I thought for certain that fawkes would play a role in this book...i was mistaken

7/29/2007 11:16:44 AM

^^^^

but after dealing with Voldemort for 6 years, you would think the typical day in the life of an Auror wouldn't be too bad

7/29/2007 11:30:27 AM

I enjoyed the book, but how on earth they make that into a movie that won't last 5 hours, I have no idea.

I for certain thought he was going to die before I started reading it.

I liked how Severus was handled and how Harry got to see him and his true self. One of the best plot devices again and again in all books: love for the girl you cannot have and what that causes.

It was a bit confusing in points. Where Harry meets the author that he thought had Gryffindor's sword. I had to read it a couple times to realize if she was attacking him or he was seeing the sword and "snake? where'd that come from?"

Also, by the end of the book, how many people did the characters use polyjuice to morph into? 20?

Very dark book, but I think that makes it more realistic. Good end to the series.

7/29/2007 9:10:32 PM