Harry is the best hope we have. Trust him.

I actually finished the book on Sunday night, but have spent the last three days contemplating it.  Not that it wasn't straight forward or anything- I really just didn't want to accept that Harry Potter was over.  Now that I've come to terms with it (for the time being anyway as I have Comic-con to distract me for a few days) I can finally write this:

(This book is pretty much impossible to talk about without spoilers, so expect many ahead)

First of all, I have to say that I'm incredibly surprised, and pleased, with J.K. Rowling.  She did a splendid job of wrapping the series up and in no way left me with the impression that, should she ever liquidate her BILLIONS AND BILLIONS, she'll pick the series up and create Voldemort's evil(er?) twin or something.  So, well done there.  I was also very surprised with her choices for who lives and dies.  For one, I was fairly certain that Ron, Hermione, or Hagrid would not live through this book so I was very happy when she left them well enough alone.  Also, although I always remained confident that Harry would live through it, there was always the nagging suspicion in the back of my head that she'd kill him just to be morbid (which is what I think she did with Sirius).  As for the major two people that died- it was easily enough predicted, but I figured she might not count Voldemort as a "major" character, since his appearances before now can probably be counted on one hand.  But I guess he is the major evil and all, so he counts.  As for the "minor" characters she killed off- I was probably more upset about Hedwig than anything else, especially because it came so suddenly!  And in the same chapter- Harry lost his Firebolt and it was never even mentioned!  Asides from it being a ridiculously expensive broomstick that has won Harry many a Quidditch match, it was basically his only remaining gift from Sirius.  I was sentimentally attached to that broomstick, so I can't imagine how upset Harry would be, though he never mentions it.  Pity.  I was also very distraught about Dobby- I would have never have even considered him as a character that might not make it.  As for the others, well, I sort of knew.  I've been predicting since Book Five that one of the Weasley twins would get offed, and I suspected that she would make it a clean swoop with the Marauders before the series ended as well.  And of course, since Book Six, I knew that if Lupin would go then Tonks had to go too.  Their having the baby and making Harry godfather seemed to seal their fates.  Predicting them certainly didn't make it any easier though- I had to stop at the point where Harry saw Tonks and Lupin's bodies because I was crying so hard (though that was also because less than a page before, Snape had suffered his own fate).

I really, truly loved this last installment.  It moved so much better than HBP, I think, and it was seriously suspenseful.  The first night I had the book I planned on reading just three chapters, but felt compelled to move onto the fourth.  It was there that I was hooked for the rest of the night- the ambush in the fourth chapter happens so fast and comes seemingly out of nowhere that I was in absolute shock.  I couldn't put the book down for another few chapters, until I felt that all was a little quieter anyway, and I stared at my ceiling all night thinking about Hedwig and Mad-Eye.  There are so many incredible events that occur in this book- obviously it's nearly all one big epic journey, but when I stopped to consider it all it was almost like the tasks of the Tri-Wizard tournament that each deserve their own chapter, only on a much larger scale: Ministry of Magic, Godric's Hollow, Xeno Lovegood's house, Malfoy Manor, Gringotts, Hogwarts, etc.  I really can't wait to see how this book gets adapted for the screen because there are so many BIG things happening that it'll have to be a 3 hour movie no matter what.  Plus the pages do no justice in comparison to what the screen could do for the "Battle at Hogwarts."

I loved that I was right about Snape, not just because I can say I was right, but also because I loved his role in this.  He really was the tragic hero, and I was ecstatic to see that what I, and many others, had seen coming from Snape and Lily was dead-on accurate.  Snape had the most beautiful story of every character and if I wasn't sobbing enough when he died (and then more when I read about Tonks and Lupin on the next page), I flat out weeped when I was reading his memories of Lily, and Dumbledore in later years, and put together the meaning of his last request to Harry, "Look at me."  In turn, I really liked the theme of eyes in this book, not only dwelling on Snape's, Lily's, Harry's, and Voldemort's, but also the symbol of the Deathly Hallows and Aberforth's eye in the mirror.  I always knew that Harry having his mother's eyes would be important in some way, but this was so good even I didn't see it coming.

All in all, while I'm finding it really hard to let go to this series (I'll miss Luna!), but I'm really glad that it ended the way it did.  I'm sure I'll come back to this book in a year or two and remember nothing, much like I did with HBP, and then I can say goodbye to the series all over again.  It's still a good three years before the last two movies will be behind us as well and maybe in between now and then Rowling will decide to write something else in the universe that I can become obsessed with.