I was wrong (contains spoilers, lots and lots of them)

[eggplant107]

No: HPFGUIDX 172238


I once said you couldn't have a good Snape and a good book 7, it turns
out I was wrong. I also said if JKR can figure out a way to do it then
she's an even better writer than I thought she was, it turns out I was
right, she really is a better writer than I thought she was.

But in my own defense let me ask even the most loyal members of the I
love Snape club something, wasn't there a time when reading the book
you thought I must be wrong, Snape really is evil?

If JKR had been writing in Shakespeare's day we'd still be reading it,
and if Shakespeare were writing in our day he'd be a billionaire too.

I was also wrong about Harry dying, he didn't die. I said I thought
his death would make a better story, I might have been right about
that, but probably I was not. Right after Harry saw Snape's last
memories I felt absolutely positively 100% certain Harry would die
(Harry certainly felt so), but now I was no longer certain I wanted it
to happen. I can tell you the exact instant I felt that way, page 687
near the bottom of the page I read "From the tip of his [Snape's] wand
burst the silver doe". I wasn't expecting that, and I couldn't even
finish reading the rest of the sentence, I had to put the book down
stand up and walk away for a while. She's going to do it I thought,
she's really going to do it, JKR is going to murder Harry Potter! For
years I'd been saying that's exactly what she should do, but now when
I actually saw JKR with a gun pointed at Harry's head just a moment
before she's going to pull the trigger,  well  , all I can say is it 
took me some time to work up the courage to continue reading. 

I'm curious, what would I would have done if the book ended at the
bottom of page 704 and the very last sentence in the book was "He saw
the mouth move and a flash of green light, and everything was gone".

If JKR wanted to be really diabolical she could have included 60 blank
pages after that so I'd feel the thickness of those pages when I hold
the book and they would give me a false sense of security; I'd figure
there must be more to it than that, but when I turn the page all I see is:

 "THE END".  

 I wonder if she was tempted. 

One thing about the book does puzzle me, why did JKR invent Percy? It
seems to me an evil Weasley would be more interesting, we already have
enough good Weasleys. When Percy apologized I expected to see a grand
betrayal, but no, it turns out his apology was sincere. If Percy is
going to do that then what is the point of the man? But that's a minor
criticism, it's a magnificent book!  

There may be debate if this is the best book in the series (I happen
to think it is) but there can be no debate that it's the best written.
>From day 1 JKR has been a master of plot, but in some of the early
books you'd see inelegant sentences (he said furiously), but not in
this book. I recall an interview where JKR said she thought she was a
better writer now than when she wrote the early books, so when she
finished the last book she may rewrite them, not change the plot just
improve the language. She may have been kidding, but I rather hope she
was not.

Eggplant