Bonus Material (Was Death where is thy sting)

[Kathryn Jones]

No: HPFGUIDX 174770

va32h writes:

On a slightly related note, I do wish that Harry had talked a bit
more about the highly shocking fact that he had, to all appearances
been dead, and was now alive. Voldemort didn't seem sufficiently
surprised at Harry's return.

KJ writes:

   If I was Voldemorte, all things considered, I wouldn't be the least
surprised that Harry wasn't killed.  I would have been more interested
in why I was knocked out again by using the curse on ever-living Harry.


Betsy writes:

   And honestly, this entire book was watching Harry *not* get anything
done. Seriously, he just barely tripped over the right rake and
landed in a pile of win. It's not like he had to be clever (thank
goodness, because again, a very stupid boy we're dealing with here)
or anything. It was luck that got him the Elder Wand, so it's by
luck that he won. (Oh, and Voldemort's incredibly over the top
stupidity. Hm, seems to be a rash of it in this last book.)

KJ writes:

  That bothered me as well.  The entire last book was based completely on
luck and Voldemorte's stupidity rather than the learning of skills and 
life experiences
which would have allowed the characters to grow instead of ending up as two-
dimensional comic book heroes.

Justcarol67 writes:

    Clearly, DD was wrong about Tom's reserving important murders for the
Horcruxes (Bertha Jorkins? An Albanian peasant?). Also, he seems to be
wrong about his intending to make a Horcrux with Harry's murder.

KJ writes:

    I thought that I learn the loud bang of a ball being dropped here as 
well.  In
OotP and HBP, I thought that we were really going somewhere and that the 
story-
line was still on track.  DH wandered into too much territory that was 
not backed up by
anything in the previous books.

Terri writes:

   So when Uncle Vernon was going to throw Harry out because of the 
dementor attack, DD
reminded Petunia about his last letter. So she knew that if Harry left, 
her family was in danger
and she had to keep him.

KJ writes:

  To my way of thinking, Dumbledor's almost threatening mention of the 
"last" letter can not be
adequately explained by the story of Petunia writing to be allowed to 
attend Hogwarts.  This was
another "you will understand if you read the seventh book" response that 
has left me scratching my head.


My feeling is that when you finish a book, a reader should not have an 
empty feeling, nor a "what the heck
was that????? reaction. 

KJ