Let us admit from the outset that this section is structurally terrible. BATTLE AND WHIZ-BOOM AND bzzzzzzzzp, Snape's memories. Which are germane to the plot and the bit that I find most emotionally compelling, but also a total momentum-killer. And then MORE BATTLE WHOOO HARRY IS OFF TO SACRIFICE HIMSELF byyyyyyyyyrp we are in a ghostly King's Cross Station and Dumbles is about to exposition on our asses. Final section, I love you for your dramatics and your backstory and your closure, but they are Poorly Arranged.
Neville's all, Blah blah we're being tortured blah and 'Harry didn't know what was worse, the things that Neville was saying or the matter-of-fact tone in which he said them.' Serious big ups to JK for developing side characters so thoroughly, you don't usually see such growth in a secondary character.
From this
To this
(You always had it in you, Neville.)
McGonagall on the 'many ineptitudes' of the Carrows - 'I shall not permit it' - is begging me to use this gif.
You just keep forbidding stuff, Maggie Smith.
ALSO, 'if any of you attempt to sabotage our resistance, or take up arms against us within this castle, then, Horace, we duel to kill.' HOLY ESSS, McGonagall is so badass.
Fred and Percy making up...I can't even.
Future considerations on those feels.
'He [Snape] has, to use the common phrase, "done a bunk."' Oh Professor McG, you are the only Old Person Using Slang in whom I DELIGHT.
Harry supposes The Grey Lady is beautiful, 'with her waist-length hair and floor-length cloak.' Someone should tell him he'd be swimming in honeys at any local renaissance fair.
Awwwww, shit. 'Fred's eyes stared without seeing, the ghost of his last laugh still etched upon his face.' Thanks for having him make up with Percy, JK. THANKS FOR AT LEAST GIVING US THAT.
Ugh, it's nothing but Important Deaths from here out. (I feel like we say that every time anyone dies. But this time, fr rl.)
Ok, I know it's way more fun, plot-wise, to read about Hermine glisseo-ing the stairs so they slide down and don't get zapped, but because I'm the type of girl who uses Chun-Li's high kick to great and relentless effect, I would just be stupifying people all over the place.
Seriously, it's my only move, but it is so, so deadly.
'Malfoy looked around, beaming, for his saviour, and Ron punched him from under the cloak.' This may be my favorite moment in the entire series, because that caught me off guard too, Draco.
Prior to this readalong, I'd never understood the powerful force Luna is for keeping Harry grounded and bolstering him. In my head she was just a tertiary character but she is all like, 'We're all still here...we're still fighting. Come on, now' - without which, Harry would have arguably not been able to Patronus his way out of the Dementors. Also, my emotions, Luna. 'We're all still here.'
SPEAKING OF FEELS. Here we are, at my Apex of Sadness. Snape is dying and 'The green eyes found the black' and Snape is totally pretending Harry is Lily at this point, with them eyes. *I* would. Anywert, my feels about Snape are like this: he loves Lily so much he is willing to make unimaginable sacrifices to keep her son alive, WHOM HE HATES, just because he's her son. I mean. It's one thing to help someone because you love them, but to help them because they are important to someone important to you, SOMEONE WHO IS NOW DEAD AND WON'T EVEN SEE YOU HELPING THEM, that gets me right in my romantical heart-parts.
Also, 'After all this time?' 'Always.'
Laughter keeps the tears at bay.
AHHHHHHH 'Remus and Tonks, pale and still and peaceful-looking.' This whole dead-bodies-laid-out-surrounded-by-quiet-mourners thing is emotionally wringing. Like, all the death, we can't even anymore. We'll just stand around and be sad, shall we?
I'm more of a Troy Barnes, myself.
MORE SADS. Colin Creevey dies, and that's tragic, but 'He was tiny in death' and that just rubs the salt.
I don't know why Harry plays dead for so long, while bad things keep threatening to happen. WHAT DOES HE THINK HE'S ACCOMPLISHING, that it's so important he not give the game away?
The 'NOT MY DAUGHTER, YOU BITCH!' line is the only part of this book where I shed real, human tears. I don't know. I have a daughter. Molly Weasley makes me all proud and emotional and shit.
When I first read these books, I thought bringing Harry back from the dead was a cop-out, especially after JK made so many brave and bloodthirsty choices with the other characters, but now I'm like, Ehhhh, we can't all be George R R Martin. The epilogue is worse in the movie than the book, but still. Have some balls to leave your story hanging a little bit, JK. Let's not end this post on the same lousy feelings.
'"I'll join you when hell freezes over," said Neville. "Dumbledore's Army!"' Oh Neville. I'd read your biography. (I meant that both literally and as a super-vague euphemism.)
Just me, Neville. Just me.


































