Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
I was right about (I like being right):
Ron and Hermione (though that was a given)
Snape being loyal to Dumbledore and dying (also easy to assume)
The Gray Lady helping Harry find the Ravenclaw Horcrux (though I guessed she might be Roweena Ravenclaw; I say close enough!)
Harry surviving
Snape and Lily (though I missed some of the details)
Fred dying
When we heard that Mundungus had come up with the decoy plan, I correctly guessed that it had really come from Snape.
ETA: Oh, and I correctly predicted that Kreacher was the one who helped Regulus get the locket, and the one who helped Harry recover it.
I loved:
Dudley's gratitude
The Harry decoy plot
Hermione's purse
Ron's ghoul
Harry, Ron, and Hermione successfully breaking into the Ministry, Gringotts, and Hogwarts.
Aberforth
The way you get into the Ravenclaw common room
Everything that had anything to do with Luna, her house, the friendships she apparently developed with Dean and Ollivander, everything.
Badass Scruffy Leader Neville
Percy's return, and the fact that Percy wanted to return a long time ago
McGonagall in the fight
Harry saving Malfoy's life
The Malfoys' quiet defection
The glimpse of Snape's backstory
Molly defeating Bellatrix in a fierce duel
That Harry didn't destroy any of the Horcruxes in this book himself (except, in a way, himself, through his willingness to face death). Harry destroyed the diary in the Chamber of Secrets. But the rest were destroyed by Dumbledore, Ron, Hermione, Crabbe, and Neville.
Seeing Dumbledore's flaws and complexities
There were some lines of dialogue here and there that made me crack up laughing. Of course I don't remember what they were now.
Dumbledore suspecting they Sort too soon.
ETA: I was also pleased with the witch Hermione impersonated at the Ministry. Just because I could never read her signature in the letters she sent to Harry in the past, and it bothered me that I couldn't tell what her name was. Now I know (though I don't remember). Now I'm able to know.
Hurt, but in the very best way:
Hedwig's death
Hermione's protection of her parents
Muggle-borns on the run
Harry's burial of and mourning for Dobby
Fred's death
Harry walking determinedly to his own death, all "Prophecy Girl," but with his dead loved ones surrounding him as he went. I didn't believe for a second that he was really going to die, but it was still so powerful because he believed it.
Quibbles:
Much of the beginning part of the book dragged for me. A lot of the Trio (sometimes Duo) sitting around not knowing what to do, punctuated by anxiety-ridden action scenes.
Wandlore. Interesting in small doses, but there was just. so. much. I know way more about wandlore than I care to, thanks.
I couldn't get invested in the whole Deathly Hallows plot. I got more interested once we actually heard about them from Aberforth and Albus, and understanding that the point was for Harry to be the better man who can resist their temptation. But up until then? Didn't care. Thought they were a pointless distraction from the things that really mattered in the fight against Voldemort. Which they were, when you get right down to it. They only matter as insight into Dumbledore's flaws.
I wanted to see more of Snape, sooner in the book. I was so impatient for his backstory and vindication, I didn't want to have to wait as long as I did.
Why were the Unforgivable curses apparently not so unforgivable when Harry and other members of the Order used them? I would have liked to at least see more shock, remorse, trepidation, or something. But maybe it was there and I was just reading too fast, since these things did occur during major action scenes.
I still don't understand why Voldemort didn't make another Horcrux after he learned the diary had been destroyed, and yet more Horcruxes after he found out about the ring, locket, and cup. Wasn't the whole point to have his soul in seven parts? Not to have his soul neatly measured into parts of approximately 0.1429 times (one seventh) the size of a normal human soul? Why wasn't that explained away?
Also, what was the object Voldemort brought with him to the Potters' house, intending to make into a Horcrux with Harry's death as a baby? Dumbledore said that his failure to make a Horcrux then was the reason he made Nagini one when restored to his body. But Dumbledore knew that Voldemort *had* inadvertently made Harry into a Horcrux with that curse, so Dumbledore would have believed that Nagini was the sixth one only because the Diary was destroyed (because up until Harry's foray into the Chamber of Secrets, there were already six, Harry being one), but Voldemort wouldn't. I'm still really hung up on this seven-part or one-seventh question.
Overall Impression:
It was a satisfying ending to the series. A much more stressful read than I expected. I liked it a lot. I laughed, I cried, I was occasionally bored out of my mind.
The epilogue was cheesy as hell, but I didn't really mind it. I'll just skip over it on future rereads, I suspect. I was happier with the ending before I turned the page and found out that there was an epilogue. The one thing that saves it for me, though, was Harry saying that Snape was the bravest man he ever knew. Oh, man.
Ron and Hermione (though that was a given)
Snape being loyal to Dumbledore and dying (also easy to assume)
The Gray Lady helping Harry find the Ravenclaw Horcrux (though I guessed she might be Roweena Ravenclaw; I say close enough!)
Harry surviving
Snape and Lily (though I missed some of the details)
Fred dying
When we heard that Mundungus had come up with the decoy plan, I correctly guessed that it had really come from Snape.
ETA: Oh, and I correctly predicted that Kreacher was the one who helped Regulus get the locket, and the one who helped Harry recover it.
I loved:
Dudley's gratitude
The Harry decoy plot
Hermione's purse
Ron's ghoul
Harry, Ron, and Hermione successfully breaking into the Ministry, Gringotts, and Hogwarts.
Aberforth
The way you get into the Ravenclaw common room
Everything that had anything to do with Luna, her house, the friendships she apparently developed with Dean and Ollivander, everything.
Badass Scruffy Leader Neville
Percy's return, and the fact that Percy wanted to return a long time ago
McGonagall in the fight
Harry saving Malfoy's life
The Malfoys' quiet defection
The glimpse of Snape's backstory
Molly defeating Bellatrix in a fierce duel
That Harry didn't destroy any of the Horcruxes in this book himself (except, in a way, himself, through his willingness to face death). Harry destroyed the diary in the Chamber of Secrets. But the rest were destroyed by Dumbledore, Ron, Hermione, Crabbe, and Neville.
Seeing Dumbledore's flaws and complexities
There were some lines of dialogue here and there that made me crack up laughing. Of course I don't remember what they were now.
Dumbledore suspecting they Sort too soon.
ETA: I was also pleased with the witch Hermione impersonated at the Ministry. Just because I could never read her signature in the letters she sent to Harry in the past, and it bothered me that I couldn't tell what her name was. Now I know (though I don't remember). Now I'm able to know.
Hurt, but in the very best way:
Hedwig's death
Hermione's protection of her parents
Muggle-borns on the run
Harry's burial of and mourning for Dobby
Fred's death
Harry walking determinedly to his own death, all "Prophecy Girl," but with his dead loved ones surrounding him as he went. I didn't believe for a second that he was really going to die, but it was still so powerful because he believed it.
Quibbles:
Much of the beginning part of the book dragged for me. A lot of the Trio (sometimes Duo) sitting around not knowing what to do, punctuated by anxiety-ridden action scenes.
Wandlore. Interesting in small doses, but there was just. so. much. I know way more about wandlore than I care to, thanks.
I couldn't get invested in the whole Deathly Hallows plot. I got more interested once we actually heard about them from Aberforth and Albus, and understanding that the point was for Harry to be the better man who can resist their temptation. But up until then? Didn't care. Thought they were a pointless distraction from the things that really mattered in the fight against Voldemort. Which they were, when you get right down to it. They only matter as insight into Dumbledore's flaws.
I wanted to see more of Snape, sooner in the book. I was so impatient for his backstory and vindication, I didn't want to have to wait as long as I did.
Why were the Unforgivable curses apparently not so unforgivable when Harry and other members of the Order used them? I would have liked to at least see more shock, remorse, trepidation, or something. But maybe it was there and I was just reading too fast, since these things did occur during major action scenes.
I still don't understand why Voldemort didn't make another Horcrux after he learned the diary had been destroyed, and yet more Horcruxes after he found out about the ring, locket, and cup. Wasn't the whole point to have his soul in seven parts? Not to have his soul neatly measured into parts of approximately 0.1429 times (one seventh) the size of a normal human soul? Why wasn't that explained away?
Also, what was the object Voldemort brought with him to the Potters' house, intending to make into a Horcrux with Harry's death as a baby? Dumbledore said that his failure to make a Horcrux then was the reason he made Nagini one when restored to his body. But Dumbledore knew that Voldemort *had* inadvertently made Harry into a Horcrux with that curse, so Dumbledore would have believed that Nagini was the sixth one only because the Diary was destroyed (because up until Harry's foray into the Chamber of Secrets, there were already six, Harry being one), but Voldemort wouldn't. I'm still really hung up on this seven-part or one-seventh question.
Overall Impression:
It was a satisfying ending to the series. A much more stressful read than I expected. I liked it a lot. I laughed, I cried, I was occasionally bored out of my mind.
The epilogue was cheesy as hell, but I didn't really mind it. I'll just skip over it on future rereads, I suspect. I was happier with the ending before I turned the page and found out that there was an epilogue. The one thing that saves it for me, though, was Harry saying that Snape was the bravest man he ever knew. Oh, man.