I remember you saying that.... good call..
I knew Snape had to be in love with her but I never guessed it was from so young...
I’d sure love to know how Lily and James got together because she didn’t really think too highly of him and his attempts to get her to go out with him.
Next Book : “Lily and James - Life Before Harry”
I think she started to like him when he saved Snape from Lupin. ANd Snape then began to really hate James because not only did he save his life but also because he knew Lily had changed toward James. That’s just my thought on that. :)
I also had another prediction that was way off though. :) I thought Neville’s toad was an animagus. That was way off. :)
I finally finished reviewing all the posts and I love the insight presented. I am a casual fan, I guess. I have seen the first four movies and just a month ago decided to read the books. I bought the paperback set and would read one, see the move, read the next, see the movie, etc. I got a copy of this last book on Monday and finished it Wednesday morning.
Here are a few of my impressions and fantasy epilogue scenes:
I would have loved to see Snape join the Marauders and Lilly as they escorted Harry through the forest. It would have spoken to redemption, forgiveness, and to the acceptance Snape so fervently craved and deserved.
I would have loved to see Dudley at the train station, proudly escorting one or more of his children onto the Hogwart Express.
I would have loved to see Draco reformed and married to a mudblood.
It would have been great to see the children of other magical peoples boarding the train, like little elves or goblins or centaurs.
I was impressed by the theme all the way through the series and emphasized at the end that Harry always felt he was just an ordinary person thrown into extraordinary circumstances. From the moment he discovers he is a wizard (But I’m just Harry, just Harry)to the comment to Ron in this book about how he has tried to convey that heroism isn’t that exciting, to the end when he, in his kids’ eyes is “just Harry”. Notice that his son Albus wondered why kids were staring at his dad (and even though Ron took credit, they all knew it was Harry who was famous), and that Albus Jr. had never heard the story of the Sorting Hat, I believed it meant that Harry and Ginny downplayed the whole event and tried to carry on as an ordinary family. I think it spoke to the value of common things in life, even in the shadow of extraordinary challenges that pop up from time to time.
I wasn’t bothered by the baby image at King’s Cross. I took it to be either LV’s soul as a whole or at least the portion now destroyed. Either way, it put me in mind of the scene in The Great Divorce where the narrator wonders why the woman isn’t sad that her husband has rejected the offer of heaven and is piteously moaning his condition and loneliness. The wife, explains the narrator’s guide, is no longer subject to the kind of pity that lets evil hold good hostage to its demands. Heaven would not be heaven if its happiness could be dampened by the wailing of those who made different choices in their lives.
Family seems to animate all the characters. Lack of it, surfeit of it, desire for it, comtempt of it. In the end it either saves or destroys every character. If this series can in any way keep families from breaking up, I would consider it a triumph of the highest nature, regardless of what some think of its literary merit.
There are a lot of unexplained things in the book, which is a reward to those who don’t care to have things laid out like a banquet. Perhaps some of it is oversight by Rowling but perhaps some if a nod to the intelligence of her fan case.
I have nothing but respect for anyone who can invent a plausible, coherent “other world” and live in it herself long enough to produce seven bestselling books. I haven’t followed the fan writings or interviews or such and I probably won’t but I enjoyed spending a few hours without having to fuss about mortgages, garbage days, running out of toilet paper or the latest gasoline hike. May she live long and prosper.