HP7 questions and reactions

[lucathia]

Some questions

♠ Hermione says on pg. 96 that she modified her parents' memories (which I'm quite horrified about!) but later on pg. 167 she says that she's never done a Memory Charm before. So this means she didn't use Obliviate on her parents, but some other kind of memory charm...?

♠ What did they do with Mundungus? Did they let him leave just like that? Seems kind of dangerous to let him walk out. (222)

♠ The Elder Wand. Was it Draco's wand (the one Harry used for a good section of the book) or was it Dumbledore's wand, the one Voldemort took from his grave? I thought it was Dumbledore's wand, but I think some people thought it was Draco's wand.




Reactions to stuff

♠ Hermione's insight. Her beaded bag...packing stuff beforehand...where would Harry be without Hermione and Ron?

♠ RAB. I'm sure everyone already guessed it. I was hoping for more of Regulus...but getting more of Kreacher was pretty nice too. Poor Kreacher.

♠ Regulus played Seeker! :O (187-188)

♠ The trio had to flush themselves down the toilet to get into the Ministry. That totally reminded me of Kyou Kara Maou. (241)

♠ The locket and how it affects the wearer. (around 307) That reminded of the knife in the HP fanfic The God of the Lost. Bringing out the worst of them while they're stuck in the wilderness...

♠ Hermione, Ron, and Harry each think a different Hallow is more useful. (414) I felt that it was very true to their character what they chose. I think I'd want the Cloak too, like Hermione, over the others.

♠ Heh, Remus is using Romulus as his alias on Potterwatch. (441) Knew that name had to come up sometime.

♠ 'Voldemort' becoming Taboo. I thought that was pretty awesome. Reminded me of novels like The Giver and 1984 where you're not allowed to say or do certain stuff or else you'll get penalized. And people have ways of finding out that you've said it. (445)

♠ Aberforth. Knew he'd play a part too. Goat patronus. *laughs*

♠ Harry=Horcrux. Was pleasantly amused to see it come true. I've seen it explored somewhat in Lost: Small Boy, Answers to Harry.

Other general Reactions

I quite liked the book. Having it set away from Hogwarts meant that it was packed full of action right from the start. Though, the part where Ron left was terribly boring; I fell asleep for an hour or so when I was trying to get through that part. I cheered when he came back, especially since he saved Harry when he came back. I was frustrated at Harry for being obsessed with the Hallows. When he uttered Voldemort and got them caught, I wanted to smack him. Truly.

I did not expect that the Death Eaters would take over the Ministry AND Hogwarts, that everyone would be forced into hiding. Just wow. I totally thought that Snape would be in hiding for killing Dumbledore, and there he is, Headmaster of Hogwarts in broad daylight.

The Ministry part was brilliant, especially how they all got separated from each other. The Gringotts break-in was equally exciting, and I finally got what one of the cover illustrations was about! Getting captured at Malfoy Manor...their escapes...

The book had a lot of articles...some of them got a bit long. All that information thrown at us. >_> But it was a good way to get away from Harry's POV. Harry's visions...for once, Harry used his link with Voldemort to his advantage. Dumbledore's past was well-woven into the story...it made him all the more human, and it made the Hallows more than just items that could help Harry.

Snape's memories...Snape, in love with Lily. Seems like the fans were right again. I easily accepted that. Loved mini!Severus with mini!Lily. I would never have thought that they knew each other before Hogwarts. Lily, calling Snape 'Sev'! I quite adored the glimpse of Petunia too. Snape's memories...I gleefully took in his meeting with James. A canon moment of the meeting of James Potter and Sirius Black! Finally! (Though I wish we could've seen Remus and Peter too). I did feel that Snape didn't sound much like the Snape I know from the previous books. He's much more of a softie. So very different. His love for Lily is so intense, it's scary. I do wish that he turned away from the Death Eaters because of moral enlightening...but well, I guess 'love' is good too. >_>

I loved it when the DA gathered together. I loved Neville's transformation. Neville was beyond awesome in this book, all the way until the end. Luna was quite awesome too (perhaps some Luna/Dean will result from this book?) Luna and Ollivander make a great eccentric pair.

The final battle was truly a great one. King's Cross was just brilliant. Harry circling Voldemort...figuring everything out...having the entire school watch him...

I disliked it whenever Harry was thinking of Ginny...I really hated it when Ginny wasn't allowed to do anything. Her part in this book was pretty pointless other than being the love of Harry's life for him to return to after everything's over. *snorts* I guess she keeps him going! It's just like how Tonks, who was a wonderful and strong Auror, got reduced to a mopey Tonks in Book 6 and we never again got to see her awesome Auror abilities.

The epilogue. Happily ever after? It feels ominous. Draco's wife's unnamed. Heh. The epilogue tells us nothing at all except that they're married and have lots of kids and I still don't see why Remus and Tonks couldn't have survived and this brings me to my next point.

Remus and Tonks (which means ranting on my part)

Tonks and Remus's marriage was so...sudden. Especially since we learn about it from the Death Eaters, and the moment we hear about it the DE are already hating on them. I was not expecting them to get married, not since I thought their romance from the previous book was sudden! The moment Remus let the trio know that Tonks was pregnant, I started dreading Remus's death, since why else would JKR rush their marriage so much, if not to make it so that the parents are expendable?? Since, they won't be truly gone, not with their child still alive...all that nonsense.

Once their kid turned out to be a boy (and Harry's named the godfather. Godfather!)...I wondered...surely history's not going to repeat itself again? A couple married during wartime giving birth to a boy...(I even thought, maybe Harry's going to die too and then young Teddy will become the new Boy Who Lived!! Bwahahaha...ahem.) Here was a good chance to have things turn out differently than how it turned out for James and Lily...here was a good chance for Remus to break out of the death, betrayal, distrust, prophecies and all that junk that surrounded the Marauders, Lily, and Snape. Here was a good chance for THEM TO SURVIVE TO RAISE THEIR KID IN PEACEFUL TIMES!!!

I believed Remus and Snape to be survivors. And yet, in the end, none of those from Harry's parents' time survived. That's just...ugh. What was the point to Remus's death? Was the point that there's no point at all? It was an off screen death as well...he and Tonks were just lying there. I even missed the fact that they were dead the first time I read it...I thought they were tired and resting. Shows how much my mind was trying to trick me!!! Other characters got death scenes. Hedwig and Dobby and heart-wrenching death scenes!! Harry felt like the world ended when Fred died. Moody...Harry even got his eye back. Snape...with famous last words. But Remus and Tonks...Tonks' death was even more pointless. If JKR just wanted to kill off all those from the MWPP era, Tonks could've been left out of that! I mean, it's not like she even appeared when Harry summoned his parents with the stone.

Some people seem to be thinking, "Well, at least Remus got to be reunited with Sirius." But no. No. That's just...Remus was finally able to move on, start a new life...his new life barely started!! Life isn't fair, but this is like annihilation. Only the new generation get to live. Sirius got stuck in prison for so many years. He finally escapes only to die. Remus has been shunned his entire life...he finally gets a family of his own and he dies. Severus hasn't even been able to live his life for himself. It isn't until after he dies that he's redeemed.

I'm annoyed. I feel that having Remus and Tonks survive would have had a great impact. It's Lily and James with the happy ending. Why can't any of the people from the MWPP era have a truly happy ending? I feel that they were killed only to have them conveniently out of the way, for Harry to be without any living adult support at all from the ones closest to him. At that point, I was evilly hoping that Harry would die too. I was kind of mad at him. ^^

*sigh*

This kills all post-war Remus fics that would have ever existed. (Well, except for fics set in the afterlife, but that's just not the same). And that makes me really depressed. I loved post-war Remus fics. ):


But yeah. Overall, I liked the book. It was a fitting ending and drew on a lot of stuff from the previous books, which is pretty awesome. I almost can't believe it's over...and really, I could've done without the time jump at the end. I'm not too fond of time jumps. I saw a spoiler online before I started reading and the time jump was part of it and I was scoffing at it!!


It's finally...over. I never thought I'd like HP so much.

Comments

[yoshikochan.livejournal.com]

Oh wow, I also thought that Hermione's memory thing was questionable, but I thought maybe I just read something wrong and ignored it.

Mmm I think they thought Mundungus was just a harmless coward, since he'd suggested that they use 7 harrys but the death eaters didn't know.

The elder wand was the one Voldomort had, Dumbledore's former wand. That's why when Voldomort used the killing spell against Harry it failed, because the wand didn't want to kill its owner ... or so says Harry. A little confusing because Voldomort did successfully strike Harry with a killing spell, but then again Harry didn't really die so perhaps that's why.

XD Hermione<3 ~ I didn't actually guess RAB but I read it on someone's lj after book 6 and it was pretty obvious once you find out. Oooo I also vagually thought about KKM with the flushed toilet. XD Mmm yeah the Hallow part was very interesting. Rowling does a great job of bringing out the characters in such small, simple ways.

I was thinking about it earlier, about how horribly hard it was to stop reading once you start - except for at the part where Ron leaves and they're just sort of wandering around. ^^; But his return was the best >.< it was the scene that gave me the best Happy feelings. ^__^;

I think the part with Harry becoming a godfather and then the parents dying was both foreshadowing (of their deaths), and also to draw parallels between him and Sirius. That now, he's taking the place of those who have died, sorta. =P Or something like that? ^^;;

Ooo, I didn't realize that, about how in the end all of the James Potter group died.

But in the end it was all soooo good!! =>.<=

[lucathia]

Okay, so it wasn't just me then.

I was wondering if they obliviated Mundungus before letting him go...though obliviating seems kind of extreme...but he knows where they are, he's a secret keeper too, and he's not all that reliable. It just seemed really risky. It's not addressed though, since I guess he's not all that important. >_>

'Kay, that makes sense. Well...the elder wand killed the Voldemort part that was in Harry, so technically it didn't hurt Harry...? The Voldemort part was that maimed creature at King's Cross, wasn't it? I wonder if Harry 'died' and came back to life, or if he just fell unconscious for those moments he was with Dumbledore.

I loved seeing Hermione put everything she learned into use. I squealed when Dean started talking with the goblins. It's so wonderful seeing glimpses of all the characters.

I know! It was so hard to stop. The book kept me captivated throughout almost the entire book since it was one thing after the other. Ron's return lifted up Harry and Hermione's mood. Totally lifted mine up too!

Harry becoming a godfather...that's another parallel that frightened me, since it made me think that Remus wasn't going to make it. And it really turned out that way. >_> But other than that, I really like the idea of Harry as a godfather.

It was truly a wonderful read. I feel sad to see the series end!

[yoshikochan.livejournal.com]

Hm, maybe they didn't think much of it, because later the house was found out anyways? But I think they did trust Mundungus not to give them away, or maybe they just figured it didn't matter at that point since Snape easily could have.

It was really hard to tell what happened at the whole King's Cross scene... Harry had the choice to die, though, if he boarded the train. It seemed to me that Rowling implied that he was at a choosing point, where he could go either way.

Yeah, Dean showing up with the others was exciting XD especially since not a lot was happening at that point in the book. Hermione was SO awesome, coming up with a story even while being tortured, and always keeping hold of the important things.

Harry is probably a really good godfather =) especially since that's one of the things he wanted and only had for a short period of time.

<3<3<3

[lucathia]

Hm, probably. It just wasn't very important to the plot, I guess.

Yeah, at King's Cross, Harry was able to choose. (Choosing to die was probably the easy way out.) So, I'm thinking that Harry didn't die yet, hence why he was able to choose...if he had died already, there'd be no going back. Or maybe he's just special like that. X3;

I was so excited when Dean showed up because finally, we got to hear about how the other characters were faring! Hermione was so awesome. I loved a lot of her lines.

I was excited about Harry becoming a godfather too (even though I was scared at the same time about what that meant for Remus!). I do think Harry will be a good godfather. I think he'll be awed with Teddy. ;)

[issen4.livejournal.com]

Yup. I wished Remus had listened to Harry and not taken part in the final showdown--I mean, what part of 'don't abandon your child' didn't he understand? Then Tonks followed him, and... gah.

[lucathia]

I would have been happy if Remus didn't take part in the final showdown. I was hoping that Harry's scolding about abandoning his child would keep him alive!! And Tonks...>_>

I feel bad for Andromeda. First her husband. And now her daughter and her son-in-law both at the same time.

[xenium.livejournal.com]

- Memory charm
I went @@; at it too, JKR probably wrote it out of order before deciding what to do with her family. Or, if you want to give her a benefit of the doubt, it was Ron who generalized it as "memory charm", may be Hermione just meant she never did Obliviate before... Since Obliviate would only make you forget, she must have used some different spell to make her parents think they were some other people who lived in Australia anyway...

- Mundungus
I don't think he was ever mentioned after that... they probably just thought he was a good-for-nothing crook that never the less wasn't a traitor (they did discuss about Mundungus-suggested-7-Potter-and-Death-Eaters-were-surprised-about-there-being-seven thing before) and probably beneath the Death Eater's notice anyway. Besides, he was dragged in to the place by Kreacher, so he wasn't told where it is and can't betray it's location even if captured and tortured for it. I think it was careless of them too, but ah well.

- Elder Wand
I think it's Dumbledore's old wand. But it was also Draco's.
Ollivander said you have to win it from the previous owner, not by killing the owner. Draco disarmed Dumbledore before Snape was there to kill him. Hence the wand belong to him without him knowing. Then Harry defeated Draco, so he owns it (along with Draco's own wand... two for one deal yay) now.
The first time around Harry didn't *do* anything when Voldie kills him, so there weren't any "conflict of interest" for the wand, I guess, so it worked anyway.
The last time, Harry went Expelliarmus at Voldie, owner's will takes precidence and the AK bounced. (but seriously, you're facing your worse enemy, the evil overlord, who is about to kill you, and you try to DISARM him?! dude)

I liked the book okay up until the epilogue, it felt rushed and unneeded. If I want to know anything about what happened 19 years later, it'd be things like what happened to Lupin's orphan (we did know he grew up alright, but still, what happened in between? who raise him? does he have monthly problem? etc) how did George cope etc. Not who married whom and had what strangely named kids. = =; (and did Luna just dropped off the face of the earth?)
And I agree about the treatement of Remus and Tonks.

And did I mention I love Neville? he's been my favourite since book 1, feel so proud of him XDD That alone is enough to redeem anything I dislike (or hated even) about the book ;P

[lucathia]

Yeah, I'm thinking it has to be some other kind of memory charm...or else it doesn't make sense.

Mundungus isn't mentioned by the trio after that. Even though he was dragged by Kreacher to the place, I'd think that he'd recognize it? Well, if he didn't, I suppose they could've had Kreacher drag him away after that.

It makes sense that the Elder Wand sees Draco as the owner from HBP, but I didn't get how Harry's winning over Draco's first wand would entitle him to the Elder Wand. Or is it just that Harry 'defeated' Draco? As long as the previous owner is defeated in some way, the Elder Wand sees the new person as the owner? Heh, I laughed when Harry used an Expelliarmus at Voldemort at the end against AK. The beginning hunt where Remus lectured Harry that the Expelliarmus wasn't deadly enough and that it was becoming Harry's signature move totally foreshadowed that. Harry is just sooo stubborn.

Indeed. There was a lot of stuff I wanted to know about, especially more about Teddy, but the epilogue didn't cover anything that interested me much. It was just eerie with all the similarities Harry's children have with Harry and his parents and history just feels like it's going to repeat all over again. Perhaps Harry's telling Albus Severus (Is that really his first name??) that he gets to choose what house to be in is the breaking of tradition? And Draco's slight inclination shows that all enmity has been resolved?

It would have been nice if George and others appeared in the epilogue. Fred...I was flipping through the book again and came upon Fred talking about how when he gets married, he's not going to bother with all the nonsense and everyone can wear whatever they like. ;_;

Neville was so wonderful in this book. That sort of made things a little better. I was afraid he'd get slighted. So happy that he didn't get pushed aside, that he grew to be very brave and self confident and made such a difference!

[ulqui.livejournal.com]

I think Hermione altered her parents' memories. She didn't delete them. Or something like that.

I loved Aberforth. Hehe, goat patronus :))))

Neville and Luna were awesome!

...he and Tonks were just lying there. I even missed the fact that they were dead the first time I read it...
Me too! I thought that was so weird!


If you still want to do a mail swap: What's your shirt size?

[lucathia]

I'm thinking so too now. That seems like it should be an even more complicated charm. I hope she was able to lift the charm. >_> Though after lifting it, what will her parents think? They'll have been living a year under the charm thinking that they don't have a daughter...

Aberforth was quite wonderful. Passing off the goat patronus as what the DE saw instead of a stag was just tickled me so. :)

I read past that and thought "Oh good, they're resting. They're still safe!" But uh, it turned out that they already died. I guess it was meant to be peaceful. >_>

Shirt size? Size S! :) I'm so looking forward to this! :D

[hungryforburger.livejournal.com]

OOO i cant believe you read the book already! jeez, i really have to get started on number 3, and its soo tempting to read this poooost so i will know whats gonna happen:P

[lucathia]

I started reading around 2-ish on Saturday. I finished at around 2 AM. Took me a long time! Of course, I fell asleep in the middle of it...had dinner and all that too though.

Don't read this post and spoil yourself!! Well, that is, if you ever plan on reading the books.

[gem2niki.livejournal.com]

I think your reactions to certain scenes are almost the same as mine XD But I'm too lazy to write about it.

When he uttered Voldemort and got them caught, I wanted to smack him. Truly.
Same here haha. He's such a flawed chara XD;;

Gringotts break-in
Oh I enjoyed that chapter a lot. The suspense how they were going to get through the whole thing. But did the sword come through the sorting hat at the battle scenes with neville cutting the snack head, even tho that dwarf snatched it away?

The whole gathering moment was awesome indeed XD;;

Her part in this book was pretty pointless other than being the love of Harry's life for him to return to after everything's over.
I really didn't like that whole Harry and Ginny as well XD;; It seemed so sudden how he fell in love with her in Book 6 and then they're all married in the end and have three kids!..It's like wth...

Remus and Tonks
I thought they were resting too!! And then when the narration mentioned Remus and Tonks and Fred were dead...I was like WHAT?! I think J.K.Rowling was having a ball killing off a lot of chara just for the heck of it XD;;; Poor Fred ;_;

You are a Harry Potter freak @_@;;; Haha from your post compared to mine. haha.

[lucathia]

Harry can be so frustrating at times. I was already annoyed at him when he started getting obsessed with the Hallows.

Have you seen the cover art from some other edition that has the Gringotts break-in on it? When they released the cover art, I was wondering what that one was illustrating! All that stuff must have burned. @_@ At the final battle, I believe Neville pulled the sword out of the sorting hat just like how Harry did back in the second book. Neville certainly was in need of it! (And it was against a snake again!) Haha, Griphook must've been gob-smacked when the sword disappeared right in front of him.

The epilogue was written a long time ago though. @_@ So JKR must've had plans for Harry and Ginny to end up together a long time ago..but still...all the romances in book 6 was just so sudden. Book 7 didn't make me like it any better...since we didn't get to see Ginny much at all except for her being told to stay out of the battle because she was too young. And then? Bam! They're married and have kids. >_>

Same for me! I didn't know Remus and Tonks were dead until Harry was thinking about Fred, Remus, and Tonks being dead. I went "HUH????" and had to flip back to the page about them resting peacefully. ):

=P

[luiplayer.livejournal.com]

I enjoyed the book but there were some events I was disappointed about.

1. Story was a little boring without Ron.
2. Remus and Tonks deaths were wasted without showing either how they died and why.
3. The school won yet over 50 unnamed people die (Cannon fodder)
4. Not much of an epilogue (except for Voldermort dying) before the Nineteen-Year jump.
5. Draco didn't do much. Ginny didn't do much. Harry and Ginny didn't sound right 19 years later since Ginny didn't do much.
6. Elder Wand story by Harry was still a little confusing. Wouldn't that mean someone could just simply "defeat" Harry and once they find the wand at the Headmaster's room, use it?

Enjoyed Dobby's heroic efforts, Snape's true feelings and actions (kinda figured he was actually working with Dumbadore), and Neville and Luna's character progression. James was a jerk haha.

Seen this?
http://www.cnn.com/2007/SHOWBIZ/books/07/30/potters.afterlife.ap/index.html?iref=newssearch

Makes the ending a little better. But I was hoping Luna and Neville were together lol.

[lucathia]

1. The part where Ron left the Trio was terribly hard to get through. I cheered when he came back.
2. I'm still disappointed that Remus and Tonks died. I've read that JKR had planned for Arthur to die but she couldn't bear it, so she had another 'father' figure die in Book 7. I wonder if Teddy was born just to make Remus a father figure? 0_0; I was hoping to see Remus go against Greyback (that seemed like what Book 6 was hinting at!) but I guess that plot was dropped...
3. Er, yeah. I wonder who those other 50 people were. T_T;
4. I hoped to see other people's reactions...post war stuff, but all we got were the kids and their horrible names.
5. Draco and Ginny were both so not part of the story. I guess they already had their moments in Book 6? It felt a little weird though, since they were so much a part of the story before and now they just became sort of insignificant.
6. Yeah, I felt it was kind of unsafe. Since, everyone now knows that Harry's the master of the Elder Wand. People are going to be challenging him left and right! Unless I'm not getting something...

Yup, I saw that interview. It's nice knowing what the characters are doing afterwards. I wish we got to see a glimpse of that in the epilogue! Haha, I wonder if Neville's still single, like most Hogwarts professors seem to be. XD;