Dudley Dursley at Platform 9 and 3/4 and etc...

[Katie]

No: HPFGUIDX 172986

So, my mom and I were discussing DH last night, both of us agreeing 
that we generally adored the book and had both already begun reading 
it for the third time since last week...but, that darned epilogue. I 
just can't get over it. I don't hate it, but I wish there had been 
more. And my mom and I were discussing ways the epilogue could have 
been basically the same, but conveyed a bit more information about 
the world's changes since the end of DH.

One of the things we came up with, which I really liked, was the 
idea that Harry and DUDLEY, yes, Dudley, had reconciled after Dudley 
discovered that his own child was a witch/wizard. I thought it would 
have been a beautiful and succinct comment on how people can change, 
and how the WW could change, if out of the steam from the train 
emerged Dudley, his wife, and son. A firm handshake and a "Where 
were you, you were almost late for the train?" from Harry, would 
have shown us that even the most vile of people can be changed. 
Also, that would totally have made me weep, seeing Harry reunited 
with an actual blood relative. It would have been great if Scorpius 
and Dudley's on had been friends, or something to show that the 
whole "pureblood" bull was at an end. Plus, really, wouldn't Draco 
and Dudley have been pals? ; )

I would just have LOVED that, and it would have been basically the 
same epilogue, but conveying a slightly different message. It would 
also have tied up the loose Dursley end...because, what in Merlin's 
beard happened to those people? I know we hate them, but I did want 
to know what happened to them. 

Anyway, aside from my complaints about the epilogue, I will 
reiterate that I thought DH was perfect. Not because it doesn't have 
some plot holes, because it definitely does, but because it is the 
way it had to end. I say again, the whole series had the momentum of 
something inevitable, of history, something that already happened. 
When we look back on WWII, or the coming of William to England, we 
know it had to happen that way, because it already did. That's how I 
feel about Harry. This is just the way it was, and I LOVE the way it 
was. Writing 4200 pages of the same story is downright impossible to 
do without a few mistakes. But in those 4200 pages, she has remained 
true to the characters, she has allowed them to grow and change, she 
has told an incredibly complex story and made (I think) darn few 
mistakes, and hey, we're all here talking about it, so she must have 
done something right. Someone else posted that they are frustrated 
with the fandom at the moment. 'Ear, 'ear!

I think we all might know more about these books than anyone else on 
the planet. We have dissected them until they're shredded...of 
course we've found contradictions and loose ends, and things that 
don't really fit. Few authors in contemporary lit have been as torn 
apart as JKR. We forget that a lot of the stuff we discuss isn't 
stuff that she would discuss, or stuff that she wrote. We have a lot 
of our own ideas, and I think people need to remember that she isn't 
writing to fulfill all of our questions, but writing to finish 
Harry's story as SHE saw it. Just my 2 knuts. 

I just have to go on record saying that I think she's a remarkable 
writer, to have created these books and these characters that are so 
real to all of us, and Harry has been, and will continue to be, a 
real gift in my life. Cheese, but true. Peace, Katie