Thoughts on The End

When I first finished Deathly Hallows, I felt a supreme amount of sadness and nostalgia, the end of an era as it were. As a whole I was satisfied with the conclusion of the series.

The epilogue I thought was unnecessary and I still dislike it supremely. I won't turn this blogpost into a diatribe against the epilogue - but in my world it doesn't exist. In class we discussed our problems with the names of the children of Harry and Ginny, and Ron and Hermione - I still think that Rowling, an author whose skill at naming her characters always impressed and delighted me, dropped the ball with Hugo, Rose, Albus Severus, James, and Lily. I will however accept Scorpius as Draco's son - because that seems appropriately hilarious and serpentine.

My thoughts toward Dumbledore - I am still sorting out even after the rereads. The man who seemed, not perfect, but at least well-intentioned was revealed to have more hidden motives in this book than any other. I expected that we would learn more in Deathly Hallows about Dumbledore than before, but when the book was first released I didn't even think of an obituary possibility in the Daily Prophet. The relationship between Grindelwald/Dumbledore and the Ariana debacle shocked me when I first read it. The idea of two friends, Rowling called it "a fraternal bond" in an interview (http://harryahistory.com/2010/02/vault-xx-dumbledore-and-grinde.html) whose friendship, an escape for Dumbledore from "the responsibility of a damaged sister and a wayward brother" goes awry with an obsession for the Hallows and ends in a three-way duel killing their sister. It explained the distant relationship between Aberforth and Albus which I had been curious about, but opened the a new jar of unexplored facets of Dumbledore. I admit that when I first finished Deathly Hallows I was quite angry with Dumbledore, I think I went through the same steps as Harry trying to come to terms with all the information given in Deathly Hallows. I have come to accept that his actions - at least when it came to the period of time when Harry was alive - were all meant to protect Harry and in the end give him a chance to live a happy life as he deserved.

I am happy with where Harry, Ron, and Hermione ended up as characters at the end of Deathly Hallows - excluding the epilogue. I was in the large minority - an oxymoron perhaps but still true - who always hoped that Harry and Hermione would end up together. I personally thought Luna and Ron would be delightful together because they accepted each other's quirks easily. This book caused me to dislike Ron the most, Half-Blood Prince gave it a run for its money of course, but I also ended up appreciating Ron so much more after he returned. I think giving Ron the ability to speak Parseltongue to get the horcrux is ridiculous though. The whole point of the language is that it is an innate ability rather than learned - if that were the case then the Death Eaters who have heard Voldemort speak to Nagini so often must be fluent in Parseltongue.

Aside from the criticism though - I really did feel satisfied and quite sad when I finished the book, and I reread the series many times afterwards. But we can always go back to Hogwarts when we need to, because it is sitting on a shelf just waiting to be revisited.