More Thoughts on DH (SPOILERS!)

[Phyllis]

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I thought Harry being protected by Lily's sacrifice because it lives 
on in Voldemort's blood would mean that, when Harry finally killed 
the Horcrux-less Voldemort, Harry would die as well. Dumbledore tells 
Harry (in "King's Cross"): "He tethered you to life while he lives," 
so shouldn't that mean that Harry dies when Voldemort dies?  Perhaps 
I was just overly prepared for Harry to die :)
 
I've never been a big "Harry as a Horcrux" fan - I've always thought 
that Harry couldn't be as pure as he is if he had a bit of Voldemort 
inside him.  Doesn't Dumbledore tell him in Book 6 that Voldemort 
underestimates the power of a soul that is complete and pure?  And 
how could Harry look into the Mirror of Erised and see nothing but 
himself getting the Stone to protect it from Voldemort if a piece of 
Voldemort was inside him?  We've seen how powerful these pieces of 
Voldemort can be, but perhaps it's different if the Horcrux isn't 
made intentionally?  Despite this, I thought the self-sacrifice that 
was required of Harry, and the way he dealt with it, was wonderful.  

On the "rightful owner" of the wand concept – It seems as if it would 
have worked better if Draco had actually taken possession of 
Dumbledore's wand and fled with it the night Dumbledore died, and 
then when Voldemort needed a different wand, Draco could have given 
him the elder wand.  But I suppose then we would have lost the whole 
thread about Voldemort searching for the wand, and Harry choosing 
Horcruxes over Hallows, and the excuse for Voldemort to kill Snape 
(the latter was an excellent way of showing how truly merciless 
Voldemort was).
 
Grindlewald went to Durmstrang - as accurately predicted by 
Susan/Constance Vigilance at Phoenix Rising!

I fully expected to be vindicated in my conviction that Snape has 
always been evil, particularly given how he did nothing to spare the 
Muggle studies teacher from death, told Voldemort about Harry's 
correct departure date, took part in the chase to kill Harry after he 
left Privet Drive and Sectumsempra-d George's ear off.  The Pensieve 
scene at the end explained most, but the Pensieve memories didn't, 
however, explain why Snape fled Hogwarts when the final battle 
began.  Did Snape think it would be too hard to keep his cover if he 
remained?
 
I, too, felt it was odd that Harry didn't spend any time musing about 
his misguided mistrust of Snape after the viewing the Pensieve scene, 
but I suppose his more immediate concern was about the fact that he 
was going to have to let Voldy kill him.  Can we blame him?  I felt 
the rest of the Pensieve scene was really meant for us, the readers.  

I thought the unknown Gryffindor or Ravenclaw Horcrux would be from 
Gryffindor, and that they would find it in Godric's Hollow.  But I 
suppose having the unknown Horcrux be one of Ravenclaw's makes sense, 
since Gryffindor's sword needed to be used to destroy them, and 
therefore they needed one item from all four founders to completely 
destroy Voldemort's protection.  As soon as they discovered the 
Horcrux was a diadem, I felt sure it was the one Harry had used to 
mark where he had hidden the HBP's Potions book.  And the diadem does 
actually have a distingushing mark ("Wit beyond measure is man's 
greatest treasure" - one of Luna's first pronouncements when Harry 
meets her).
 
So Harry and Voldemort were actually related after all!  The book 
doesn't explicitly state this, but it must be, if both the Potters 
and the Gaunts are descendants of the Peverells.  That surprised me, 
given how much emphasis was placed on Harry being a true Gryffindor 
and not being Slytherin's heir in Book 2.  But I suppose Rowling 
would chalk that up to all of the pure-blood families being related 
at some point in their family trees.
 
I loved how Neville killed Nagini with Gryffindor's sword, although I 
had thought Harry was going to need to use Parseltongue to finish off 
the snake.  If the only Horcrux Harry wound up destroying was the 
diary, why couldn't he have had more help in tracking down and 
destroying them?  Was that because DD didn't know who could be 
trusted?
 
Like everyone else, I thought RAB was Sirius' brother, and that 
Kreacher had spared the locket from the bin, but while most thought 
the locket was still at Grimmauld Place, I had guessed that the 
locket had been stolen from Grimmauld Place by Mundungus, so I was 
glad to have been right on that small point (especially when I was so 
wrong on so many other guesses!). Having Kreacher be the one to have 
drunk the potion and have been left on the island to die was 
completely unexpected.  
 
I didn't think it worked to have Ron open the Chamber of Secrets to 
obtain the basilik fangs - either you know Parseltongue or you don't -
how could he fake it?  If that were the case, presumably Dumbledore 
could have made his way into the Chamber in Book 2.

In all, I loved it - I loved how fast-moving it was, how Rowling 
didn't waste time (and create boredom) by explaining the previous 6 
books - you really had to have read the rest of the series for Book 7 
to make sense.  I also loved having one-seventh of the dedication 
devoted to the fans :)  I think it's my favourite of the series, and 
I never thought I'd like another HP book more than PoA.

~Phyllis