Okay, if that title isn’t indication enough for you kids who haven’t read the book yet, RUN. Though I’m not getting into the spoilers right away. First is the journey. Because it’s a fun little story.

July 20 th, I’m going to sleep early because I want to be early to pester the book store that does not open until 9am when I get a call from Wissa, who wants to go now to pick up her book from Save on. I didn’t get my book from there, though, so she offers to make a trip of getting it the next morning.

So, on the 21 st, I’m awake at 6 (leg cramp woke me up) and at around 7:30-8 we’re on the road to Save on. Dead. We get her book and I pet it in the car on the way to McDonalds. We don’t read it, but we want to. I want to check the scar rumour and she does it for me, though ends up reading the last two sentences. A spoiler dangles tantalizingly in front of me. Damn her.

On the way to the mall afterwards, I check it myself and DAMMIT DON’T DO THAT! It may or may not spoil it for you (Didn’t for me, did for her) but it hangs there for the whole novel. Anyway.

We read a little in the car before we head in, with her book in hand, and wait. Another guy is there, so we choose to be good and not read it, especially since it’s a little odd for people with the book already to be waiting for a book, neh? There was a snag once they opened in that they wanted my receipt (Which I never keep, dammit!) and that was easily remedied.

On the way home, I read in the car out loud. It was better this way. She dropped me off and I headed straight to my room. Got the book at 9am. I finished at midnight. Worked for four hours in the middle. It is 607 pages long. And this is what I thought.

I am so happy with it. I was so worried after the sixth book, but the pacing and the writing seems to have evened itself out and she’s done a fairly good job of it overall. I mean, sure, there’s still things that bothered me with various aspects, and I’m pretty sure she used some words that didn’t exist here and there, but she’s known for little grammar errors getting past the editors. Overall, lovely.

And it needed to be that long considering everything that happened. There was so much death and pain all over the place, and nicely balanced, I thought, by lighter moments. It was dark, don’t get me wrong, but the way I take dark seems to be different.

Hedwig’s death right at the start, followed so soon after by Mad Eye Moody’s, was really jolting, though. It was good timing for her to tell the readers that this was not going to go smoothly for anyone. And smoothly, it did not go. They got Harry out of his Aunt and Uncle’s place, but not before Dudley shows some oddly placed gratitude to his cousin for saving his life a couple books back. It’s oddly touching. And then the death I mentioned earlier, happening during the escape.

The wedding was, I found, largely skimmed over. More emphasis placed on seating the guests, then the after party. Not that I mind, but Harry seemed so enamoured with the wedding, I’d hoped to know more. But it’s not like anything lasted too long. They were in the middle of a war. The death of the minister meant that the party was attacked for potentially concealing Harry Potter, and off everyone was, Hermione having packed everything into her purse (Bag of Holding!) and the trio began on their quest.

Breaking into the ministry was brilliantly executed, though I did find it a little odd how they coincidentally kept meeting up. Then again, they always seem to do that, so it’s really no big deal, right? They got in, got what they wanted and freed several people from needless imprisonment and death. Hope in the midst of a damn lot of pain.

I’ll admit that the curse on Voldemort’s name was really clever. It was subtle and a means to track, which was great. And they used it well too.

The turmoil was coming. They didn’t really do anything but carry around a Horocrux for a long time and Ron was bound to split off and leave. It’s his job to get mad at Harry and go away for a while. No surprise, really, but it at least had a point this time around. So he could go out and come back with information of what it was like out where the normal witches and wizards were. Sure, he didn’t until Harry almost killed himself, but that’s another Ron pattern, isn’t it? He gets mad, then when he comes back he’s usually doing something to help and this tie “Help” was saving Harry. And destroying the Horocrux with the sword at the bottom of the like he pulled out along with Harry.

He brought back some nice world building news, too, not the cheap stuff. Told them about the registration, told them about Snatchers going around trying to gather up the ones who didn’t have any Wizarding blood. Told them gradually, mind you, over several chapters as it came up.

Before that, though, they head to Godric’s Hollow. And they get their ass kicked by an old lady who is actually a snake hiding inside an old lady. Not before visiting the graves of his family, though, several other influential names, and the Dumbledores’ which were now giving Harry so much trouble and doubt. But overall, fun. And Harry breaks his wand.

But back to the heart of it. Luna’s father has the most ridiculous name ever and he does a lovely thing in exposing things in order to try and keep Harry there. I didn’t think it was all that subtle that Luna was taken. Thought it was pretty damn obvious that he was acting the way he was because they’d taken his daughter. Nice touch, of course, but I thought it was obvious. Hermione at the end, there, though, was good.

And then Harry lets “Voldemort” slip instead of YKW and BOOM! Tracker activated and they’re caught pretty damn quick. They’re taken to the Malfoy manor and surely doomed, though there’s little twists of fate here and there hat seem to keep falling into place. They torture them one by one and with Hermione distracting the guards above, they find out they aren’t alone in the dungeons of the manor, nor are they going unwatched. The dues ex machine known as Dobby shows up, saving the not-main characters, while Ron and Harry are left listening to Hermione screaming in pain. And Ron, lovely Ron, is going mad over not being able to help her.

Wormtail repays his debt, though. Lovely to see him falter for a moment and his silver hand turning on him. And he dies and I don’t really know how to feel about it. I mean, he’s evil, but he repaid the debt accidentally and got himself killed. I don’t know.

And then a lot of things happen, none of which seem too terribly clear. People are thrown into general chaos, people taking other people’s wands before Dobby comes back and saves everyone else. And dies for it. I’ll admit, I was more upset by Dobby’s death than most of the rest of the known cast. I mean, poor little house elf, right?

But life must move on and it was on to the next plan. They figured out where the next Horocrux was and they decide to break into Gringotts, a feat done once on a less guarded account. Harry here shows just how good he’s gotten at using the Unforgivables, which is a little odd but it works. And they go ahead and steal the cup out of the vault, escaping on a dragon with no means to now destroy the cup since the sword was taken in the escape.

So on they go to figure out what to do next. What do they do? Harry uses his link to the Dark Lord to find out where the last one is. Where else? Hogwarts. I’m kind of glad that Harry uses the link, though. I mean, the whole book he keeps seeing him and tracking him and it never goes the other way. They worry about it going the other way, but it never does. But on to Hogwarts!

Exposition first, though! They get into Hogsmeade in hopes they can get to Hogwarts from there where they are helped by a gruff barkeeper who turns out to be Albus Dumbledore’s brother, Aberforth. Exposition about Albus and an odd painting of their sister later, who else but Neville shows up in the painting and comes out to greet them before dragging them through the secret way to Hogwarts.

Hogwarts is in turmoil. No surprise. Snape’s Headmaster and Death Eaters are on staff. Dumbledore’s Army is still there, however, and Harry has a Horocrux to find. He heads out to find the bloody thing, the diadem (tiara) of Ravenclaw, along with Luna. The Ravenclaw common room is where they start the battle, really, by taking out one of the death eaters, then another, and getting Minerva McGonagall to start on the plans to take back Hogwarts by force. In the Room of Requirement, turns out the Order’s shown up and everyone’s ready for a fight and the students are all being evacuated through the Room of Requirement too, so everything’s taken care of and Harry’s left to look for the tiara in peace. Sort of. There is a battle raging in the rest of the castle, after all.

He finally runs into Hermione and Ron on the way, who have destroyed the cup with a basilisk fang down in the chamber of secrets. Well, Hermoine did it. And the world rejoices?

The Room is emptied because Harry knows where the tiara is at last and knows where it is. He goes into the room as it was when he got rid of his potions book and finds the tiara still on the statue where he put it. Not to have this be easy or anything, Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle show up and start fighting. Though this time, Malfoy’s a nervous wreck and the other two are having fun. Crabbe sets the room on bloody demon-fire, which kills him and destroys the tiara. One more problem solved.

Though soon after, Fred dies and that’s overwhelmed Dobby for me. I mean, it’s FRED! Of the twins? And Ron’s out for blood, which I thought they should have let him go get because I loved Fred and wanted to see him avenged immediately. Then again, I knew one of the twins had to die and with George deformed (He had his ear cut off in the escape from Pivet Drive), Fred was probably the one. But it’s still Fred and I am sad.

So they go to the shack, see Snape get killed and retrieve a vial from him. We don’t see what the vial is before discovering now that Lupin and Tonks are now dead. I’m a little numb to this after Fred, but it was a bit happy and a little sad. They were dead, but they died together. And now Harry, presumably, would live on to take care of their kid and his godson. Well, it seems, anyway.

Then we find out what’s in the bloody vial. It’s Snape’s memories. The history of Snape is essentially that he was in love with Lily, got cold feet because the dark lord wanted to kill her along with her husband and child, and agreed to protect Harry for Dumbledore because he was Lily’s son and he felt obligated to. And then, here’s the kicker, he’s protecting him so that when the time comes Voldemort can kill Harry. Because Harry’s a Horocrux and Voldemort needs to be the one to get rid of him.

Yeah.

So he leaves on his own. Bumps into Neville on the way and tells him that the snake needed to die. And he goes, sees Voldemort, and lets himself gets killed. Because that’s what he’s got to do.

And I seriously need a cliff notes version of what happens next, but essentially, it’s Harry and Dumbledore sitting at King’s Cross station doing a lot of exposition and Harry waking up and playing dead. Tells Mrs Malfoy that her son’s alive and she goes along with pretending Harry’s dead, Hagrid being forced to bring his corpse into the castle. People get mad and upset that Harry’s dead and Harry feels loved. Or something.

And then Neville, Neville of all people, cuts the head off of the snake and the battle begins anew. I assume Percy avenged Fred (Oh yeah, he came back to the family, by the way) but seeing Mrs. Weasly killing Bellatrix LeStrange was what I needed. I felt better about Fred. Harry reveals that he is not dead at this point and the final duel begins.

This scene was kind of painful. The two of them circled each other for, like, ten minutes spewing out exposition while everyone else in the room watched. That doesn’t happen. It hurt me on the inside, and it was all over with one spell shot by each of them. Voldemort dies. The world rejoices.

And to make sure it’s wrapped up and that people know the series has ended, we jump to the future. Where everyone’s gotten married and has had kids to go off to Hogwarts, and they’re all meeting at the platform. Ginny has not been permitted to name any of her kids. It’s kind of a touching ending. And the last lines I looked at in the beginning? The one’s that didn’t spoil it for me because I thought it could still mean Harry dies?

The scar had not pained Harry for nineteen years. All was well.

Scar rumour was false. The ending, though, seemed oddly nice and had that full circle feeling. I was pleased. And they edited!

I will admit I was a little disappointed that one of the trio didn’t die, though. I kind of thought they would. It seemed like it was once of those things that should have happened, but didn’t, you know? But it doesn’t bother me so much as the wonder of what happened to the rest of the cast. I mean, there’s a sense of finality and closure, and I feel closure, but I’m still kind of wondering what the hell happened to everyone else. Fred and Bill had a daughter who is dating Ted Tonks. Malfoy has a son. But there was more cast than that, wasn’t there?

Oh, Neville became a teacher at Hogwarts too. That’s just awesome.

But yes, I was happy with it. I have my closure. There’s bits all over the place that weren’t completely solved, but it was fun anyway. Although I hate to admit it, it’s nice to have the series over. And she wrapped it up well. And, having given away the plot except for what the Deathly Hallows are, I think I can make it through the day.