I know that not everyone agrees, but I personally loved the end of this series. I grew up reading Harry Potter; my mom read it to me as a child, long before it was very popular, and I've followed it ever since. The Deathly Hallows came out the summer before I started the eighth grade, so I'd had years and years to re-read and think about the series, to speculate about what would happen to perhaps my most beloved literary companions.
I won't go into detail about all the predictions, theories, and personal desires I had about the end of the series, as that would make this post incredibly too long. But I will say that, since it had been a defining part of my entire childhood, I did desperately want for there to be a happy ending. In fact, I remember thinking that Rowling would be a terrible writer if it wasn't; to kill the protagonist would put such a harsh stop to the momentum of the plot, would leave so many questions unanswered! It had to be a good ending, I thought.
In my opinion, it was. Of course, I mourned the death of the people who were lost along the way, but I understood that they died for a noble cause (and that it would be poor writing to have everyone live--how unrealistic!). All I ever wanted was Harry's happiness, and I felt that ending the saga on the note, "All was well" could not have been any better.
As I have mentioned briefly in class, however, I never understood why Harry gave his children those names (or why Ginny let him). While I understand the appeal in naming your kids after the parents who sacrificed their lives for you, I just could never help but think that it was very weird to name your kids after your parents. I was willing to overlook that, though. But then we are introduced to Albus Severus.
Besides being an awful name, it made absolutely no sense to me that Harry would name one of his children after Snape. Yes, we learn that Snape was working for the Order with Dumbledore the whole time, but there are some things about his character that I am not willing to overlook or forgive. And while Harry is certainly a more forgiving person than me, I still couldn't imagine him picking that name. Snape was the one who informed Voldemort of the prophecy, essentially sealing the fate of the Potters. And when he turned sides, he did not do it for Harry. He didn't even do it for the good of the Wizarding community. He did it for Lily, and while there is some sort of weird nobility in acting and sacrificing yourself in the name of unrequited love, I think people get too caught up in that aspect of Snape's character. Yes, even I would agree that that did make up for his crime, but let's not forget about everything else.
Let's not forget that Snape was--to put it lightly--cruel to Harry during his time at Hogwarts. Let's not forget how he prejudged Harry, how he daily humiliated him in front of the class, how he took off House points for no reason, how he gave unreasonable punishments for petty--even justified--misdemeanors, how he insulted Harry, how he never bothered to actually listen to or get to know Harry, how he used Legilimency against Harry, how he gave Harry unfair poor grades, how he even tried to get Harry expelled! Snape may be a "good guy," but as I've said, he is not a good person. He was mean and he was vengeful, and even if I could find it in my heart to forgive him for those things, I would never ever name my son after him.
I know it sounds a little ridiculous, but of all the things that happened at the conclusion of this series, this is the one thing I could never get past. The confusion of the wandlore, of Lily's protective charm, of Harry's return from death, and of Ron speaking Parseltongue I feel can be explained given enough thought and enough looking at outside sources, and I don't even think that Rowling relied too heavily on deus ex machina, but nothing about this boy's name makes any semblance of sense to me, and I doubt it ever will.
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