Done
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I don't know what I feel, quite honestly. Tired because I stayed up until 4. Sad.
I read through many of your reactions. Couldn't respond yet because I'm still mulling things over myself. But I will say that I think I liked the book and series more than most of you. I just didn't like the last line. In fact, I hated the last line so much that I wish my husband had done what he'd teased he'd do ("I'm going to tear out the last page, and then you'll never know!").
All was well.
This is a sentence that comes from the billionaire author who is now happily married with three (just like Harry) kids she loves. The story I loved most came from a woman on a train who didn't know how she was going to make things work in her life. I'm not saying that you need to be despondent to be a good author, but I think I understand a little better now why so many great stories came from the minds of people who were in an uncertain place in life.
I wish she had ended the story with scar. Even, "All was well, Harry thought, brushing his fingers against the lightening shaped scar" would have been better, and that is an atrocious sentence. To end with scar is to remind us of struggle. To end with "All was well" is to give me a pat ending that doesn't really make much sense considering the warfare that has rocked the wizarding world.
Despite all this, I actually enjoyed the book. It was a fun read. That's what the series had always been for me. While I always appreciated the bits of social commentary in the books, I liked them more for the excitement of reading and discussing them. I liked the humor in them. I liked how people weren't particularly nice at times ... even (or especially) the "good" guys.
Yes, there are many holes and loose ends still. But I actually prefer those to the very neat ending she gives Harry and company. Still, I suppose I can understand that, too. She adores those characters; they are her children. And like an affectionate mother, she wants to make the world safe for them. (It's up to fanfiction to make things unsafe again. ;-D)
Though I'm a Snape fan, I'm not terribly disappointed with his death or his treatment in the book. Sure, I would have loved to have seen Snape live. I think a world with a prickly, ugly, slightly deranged but still decent man like Snape is more interesting. But I'm glad to see that Malfoy survived. I suppose he carries on the dislikeable but not dispicable legacy. (A side note: I kept expecting Draco to switch sides in some obvious fashion, but now that I think back on it, I'm glad he didn't. While I would have loved to see a mass Slytherin defection when battle time came, I think, as seaislewitch notes in her journal, it would have meant turning those characters into people they weren't. We did see loyal and even admirable Slytherins. I think Narcissa and Lucius were actually quite interesting to "watch" in this book; they only cared about one thing: Draco.)
I disagree that Snape became one-dimensional because he loved Lily. In the end, Rowling didn't write him as fully as I'd hoped. (I'll keep looking to all of you, f-list, to do that for me!) But he was still a man torn between worlds: wizarding and Muggle, Dark Arts and "Light (?)" Arts, Voldemort and Dumbledore, himself and another. I read his character throughout the series as someone who tried, and usually failed, to find a balance between what he desired and what he actually had.
As for Lily, I think _grainne_ said it best. I can't blame her for making the choice she did regarding Snape. I once loved someone who was manic depressive and suicidal - not quite like Snape, who was more obsessive than anything else, but still someone who was not in a healthy state of mind. Had I been a better person, perhaps, I would have stuck by him no matter what. But it got to the point that I was becoming depressed and unhealthy myself. And I had to make a choice: him or me? I chose me. It's funny how we Snape fans would never blame Snape for choosing himself over another - Dumbledore, for example, when we didn't know for sure why Snape had killed him - but we think Lily is weak for choosing her happiness over another's.
There were several moments in the book when I felt like I was reading a bit of fanfiction. I don't blame Rowling for this ... considering the thousands of us fanatics, it was bound to happen that we came up with what she'd been planning. I do wish, however, that she'd written some of those parts a little better. Not that I think I could do it better, of course ... but I know for a fact that many of you can. This just gives me hope, though, that I'll see your books on the shelves, one day! ;-D
I have many other thoughts, but I can't collect them. Not just because I'm tired and still too close to the book, but also because I'm nervous ... my computer died last night! I'm using my husband's at the moment. Actually, the computer died soon before I finished the book ... hmmm.... !
Oh, completely random thought to end this random nonsense: I hope young James' middle name is Sirius ... because Sirius deserves to live on if Lily, James, Albus, and Severus do!
ETA: Oh, I remember something else I was going to say. All the deaths and how they happened ... as snarkypants said in her journal, that's war. I wasn't bothered by how they happened.
OH, AND THE HOUSE ELVES DIDN"T REVOLT! But you know, I did cry my eyes out when Dobby died. Yes, I'm weird. ;D
ETA2: If you're now looking for a new obsession after HP, may I suggest the show Battlestar Galactica? Characters who are neither wholly good nor wholly bad abound!
ETA3: I'm such a lousy person for missing this ... but the-bitter-word, HAPPY BIRTHDAY!