Here’s what I had to say… after the jump because I don’t want any of my local friends trying to beat me dead over spoilers.
This is going to be a multi-part dissection of DH… I only got to Snape and Harry in this post.
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First and foremost, what the fuck was that epilogue? Did she rip off someone’s fan fiction and paste it into the end of the book? And those names? Did Harry learn nothing about the harassment those kids would get for having been named after infamous wizards? *headdesk* and Draco of all people living? He deserved to die in my not so humble opinion. The cowardly lot of the Malfoy’s surviving when Remus, Tonks, little Colin Creevey don’t? WTF man?
SEVERUS SNAPE: I am most gratified that he turned out to be Dumbledore’s man through and through, however I felt that his death was senseless. His death by Nagini’s fangs capped a wholesale slaughter of any character we’d come to love (or hate) in Book 7. I’m somewhat bothered by the fact that now Snape secretly longing for Lily was the impetus of his protection of Harry. It doesn’t seem like the man I’ve come to know from the books was someone who would allow his heart to be consumed for years on end pining for a woman he couldn’t have, ever.
That being said…since it is now canon… his loathing of Harry makes sense in a whole different light. Instead of merely seeing the spawn of his enemy, he could have been seeing Harry as the child he could have had with Lily if she hadn’t chosen Potter over him. Never mind the fact that he severed that tie when he called her a filthy Mudblood after the Shrieking shack incident.
I felt really bad for Severus in that he died with no recognition of his sacrifices, his losses or what it cost him to protect Harry all that time regardless of whether or not he did it out of love for Lily or not. There was no mention of a funeral or hell, if anyone even went back for his body from the Shrieking Shack. Yes, I know that this does leave a lot open ended for fan ficcers and for anyone who was not happy with how Severus died, or that he died period.
The Snarry ship will sail on, if only in fan fiction. I do like several of the essays that have already been written on the idiocy and plain wrongness of how Severus dies, not to mention the fact that Arthur Weasley survived being bitten by Nagini 3 times in OoTP, but one bite to the neck did Severus in? It was a throw away death and a rather mean one for a character that had become so well loved and adored by the fans of HP.
Regardless, I do hope that Snape lives on if only in memory of the fans.
HARRY POTTER: Well, what can I say? He’s the boy who Lived in the End. I’m glad she didn’t kill of Harry because it would have meant either, Voldemort would have won, and that all was lost for Wizarding Britain or the war ends but a young man is lost forever. I wasnt happy with how Harry was becoming this total emo whackjob in books 5 & 6, but he did at least pull his head out of his arse for the last year’s adventure.
While I’m not particularly happy with the fact that he never apologizes or does anything for Snape once he learns the truth behind Snape’s motivations, at least he does learn the truth and doesn’t kill Snape on sight for all of his sins. Voldemort beats him to that, and does it for no reason. I do like that he owns up to every bit of help he’s had over the years especially from Snape.
The “not really dead, but in limbo/purgatory” chapter was useless I think… but I’ve never been a fan of such transitions in any story thats told. Either he’s dead or not… a resolving past sins with prior mentor Dumbledore was needed but not as a dream or he’s kinda sorta dead state. There could have been a pensieve scene or something that could have given closure but that scened didn’t do it, at least for me.
I’m glad he survived but what the hell is up with that epilogue? He at the least could have given his child the first name of Severus, not Albus Severus which was a cheap token of too little, too late acknowledgment of what Severus had done for them all.
More on Albus, the Dursley’s, Remus, Lupin, Tonks, Ron & Hermione in upcoming posts.
