Yeah, I'm late to the party (Beware spoilers if you somehow managed to keep yourself unspoiled)

[heavenly_pearl]

Okay, I have finally finished reading Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, so now I can finally weigh in on some subjects I've wanted to discuss, but didn't feel like I should without reading the book itself first.

First off, though, here's my final ranking of all the books in the series, after having reread the first six before getting to DH:

1. Goblet of Fire
2. Half-Blood Prince
3. Chamber of Secrets
4. Deathly Hallows
5. Sorceror's Stone
6. Order of the Phoenix
7. Prisoner of Azkaban

Deathly Hallows might have been a little higher had the first half not been so meandering. Once they actually found out what the Deathly Hallows were, the book was fantastic, but getting there was a little sluggish at times.

Likes

- The whole ending with the Battle of Hogwarts, Snape's memories, the scene in the forest, the duel with Voldemort... Amazing.

- Speaking of Snape's memories, I knew he had been in love with Lily and was one of the good guys. That was my main theory for the last book, so I'm glad I was right.

- Neville was awesome. Oh, and Molly, too.

- Percy came back! And he joked!

- Dumbledore's past was interesting, and made him more interesting in return.

- I so would have wanted to be a Ravenclaw. I love their common room. (And the whole story about the diadem, Helena Ravenclaw and the Baron was great.)

- Dobby's burial was very touching.

- I want to live at Shell Cottage. It sounds so lovely!

- The graveyard scene at Godric's Hollow.

- The wedding. I love Bill and Fleur. They're my third favorite canon couple after Ron and Hermione and Percy and Penelope.

- Lupin was adorable whenever the subject of Teddy came up.

- Ron and Hermione finally kissed (and so amusingly, too).

- The epilogue. Yes, I liked it (even though I do dislike it when epilogues don't have prologues to couple with it).

 

Dislikes

- Several of my favorites died - Fred, Lupin, Tonks, and Snape (although Snape's death made me like him even more than I already did, so that should probably be a like)

- Ron leaving the Trio. He's my favorite of the Trio, and with only Harry and Hermione around with nobody else to talk to, those parts were pretty dull.

- I missed all the school stuff. It would have been great to actually see what was going on at the school, other than just hearing about it.

- I missed everybody else, too, while the Trio were on the run. Things were much more interesting when they were interacting with other people besides themselves.

- I wish we could have actually seen Lupin, Tonks, and Teddy interacting as a family, rather than just hearing things. Lupin and Tonks are another of my favorite canon couples, and it annoys me a little that people think Remus wasn't really in love with Tonks. I can certainly see why they would think that, because it is true that we never got to see any happy, lovey-dovey scenes between them, and Remus was always too worried about things to express his happiness in front of Harry, but still... Oh, well.

- I could have lived without seeing Umbridge again, even if it was only during the Trio's break-in at the Ministry. I just can't stand her!

- Peter's repayment for Harry's sparing his life in PoA was lame and cemented for me the fact that the third book (in my opinion) wasn't all that necessary to the overall series (which is why I consider it my least favorite).

- I liked the epilogue, but Harry's kids' names are...not the greatest.

- Well, this isn't really a dislike, and things probably would have been less interesting if JKR had done this, but I couldn't stop wondering: Why didn't Dumbledore just will one of the Trio a portrait of himself so he could have told them exactly what to do, rather than only leaving them some vague clues? It would have made things a lot more easier for them. (Yeah, I know Dumbledore wanted to build up Harry's character some so that he could possess the Hallows without abusing them (aka: make the book last a year like the others), but come on! He was seriously leaving a whole lot up to chance by not giving them the best help -- himself -- available.)

Now, onto the aforementioned subjects I wanted to weigh in on.

First off, I know there are some people who think Tonks should have stayed at her mother's house with Teddy instead of joining Remus in battle so Teddy would be assured of having at least one living parent when the war was over. Had Tonks been an ordinary housewife with little-to-no experience fighting against Dark wizards, I might have agreed it was a stupid and selfish act on her part, but she was an Auror and a member of the Order of the Phoenix, and therefore had a duty to fight. In fact, if either of them had to stay home with Teddy -- which I don't agree with, but for the sake of argument -- I think Remus should have been the one. He taught DADA for one year and certainly was one of their better teachers, but he seemed to have more expertise in fighting Dark creatures like dementors and boggarts than Dark wizards like the Death Eaters. But he was also a member of the Order of the Phoenix, and therefore had a duty to fight in the war as well. I mean, when two soldiers, or two police officers, or two people of any dangerous profession have a child together, does one of them give up his or her job just so that the child is (theoretically) assured a parent if the other one is killed in the line of duty? Not usually. It's very sad that Teddy had to lose both his parents in the batlle (*sniffles*), but Remus and Tonks were both fighting to make sure he had a better future, and Tonks was not some lovesick woman who cared more about her husband than she did her child. 

Second, some Slytherin fans weren't very impressed with how their House was handled in the book, especially since all the Slytherins at the school decided to leave before the battle started. Personally, though, I think Slytherin did okay, considering. I mean, only seventh years and those sixth years who were seventeen would have been allowed to stay and fight, and the seventh years were mostly Draco's friends from what we've seen in the books. They weren't going to stay and fight, because most likely their parents were Death Eaters. Even if they had different views on the war than their parents, I doubt they would have wanted to actually fight them, you know? I don't think that makes them bad people. Plus, there's Snape, who was awesome, and Slughorn, who came back with reinforcements, and I'm sure there were probably a few Slytherins from Hogsmeade who joined in from the reinforcements. I mean, Phineas Nigellus even boasted that Slytherins had done their part in the headmaster's office, so I don't think it was a case of "Oh, all Slytherins are evil after all, despite what the Sorting Hat said about about all the houses having to come together, etc., etc." As for the stigma that still seems to be on the house even in the epilogue, I don't really see it. Sure, Ron was making jokes about what would happen if Rose didn't get in Gryffindor or married a pureblood like Scorpius, but he was joking. That's just his warped sense of humor. I seriously doubt he means it. After all, Harry tells Albus that it doesn't matter what house he gets into, and I, for one, think he truly means it. Of course, I'm not going to say the stigma is absolutely, 100% gone, but I don't think it's really fair to say that nothing's changed either. (I bet James' apparent dislike for Slytherin probably has more to do with Quidditch than his parents' influence, truthfully, because I just can't see Harry and Ginny raising him to think like that based on stereotype alone after all that's happened.)

Heh, this got a lot longer than I thought it would. *laughs* I think that's about everything I wanted to say, but if I think of anything else, I'll edit it in later.