Chat about the new book here -WITH SPOILERS APLENTY!-

teckno

Myself, I really enjoyed the book and to me it was the best book so far, I felt JK tied all the loose ends together perfectly, and I am glad that the final chapters were based in Hogwarts. My only small gripe in the book was the part where Ron and Hermione manage to enter the chamber of secrets and retrieve a Basilik fang. First of all it should have been impossible for Ron to open the chamber and why was a Basilik fang available so easily, chamber of secrets as book 2 after all.
Nevertheless I enjoyed the book and felt everything else about it was perfect!

Crumble Froo

yeah, i was a bit dubious about ron being able to open the chamber alright, though as for the basilisk fang being there... sure nobody's been down to clear up the chamber since book two, so of course its still there!

JC 2K3

There were a lot of inconsitencies all right...

teckno

The locked door behind the department of mystery's did not play any part really or did I miss something??, I thought that would have a major impact. I also expected the chamber of secrets to play a bigger role in this book. I also felt the mirror of Erised would come back into play and it didn't.
Also i also thought that we would learn more about the "Beyond the Veil" but that also did not come into play

JC 2K3

She says she's going to write an "Encyclopedia of Magic", so perhaps all will be explained in there?

highlydebased

Just finished it now.

Not bad....a few parts I was critical of.


Feels odd not having another book to look foward to....:(

athtrasna

I loved it, found it hard to put down - made me late yesterday! Though I must admit to having read the last 2 pages the minute I got the book, couldn't wait 607 pages to find out.

I loved Kreacher, especially at the end when the Hogwarts house elves came out fighting. Snape and Malfoy bits were good too, especially Snape's memories.

Found some bits boring, all the travelling, some of the stuff in the forest before Harry went to meet Voldemort.

But I loved the battle scenes, the cameraderie of Hogwarts fighting for the greater good, and that Harry finally got answers from Dumbledore.

Didn't mind the 19 years later but I would have liked to know more about the others - and who was head at Hogwarts?

monomaniac

Also just finished - it's great to have this thread. My wife is re-reading HBP before starting Deathly Hallows so I've been dying to hear some other opinions.

Really surprised that so many people predicted what was going to happen. The only bits I worked out in advance:
- who R.A.B. would be - plenty of clues in the HBP
- Ron and Hermione getting together finally (even though the whole world saw this one coming did anyone else clap when Hermione laid on one Ron?)

Was convinced Harry was going to die the whole way through the book up until King's Cross. That was a bizzare chapter - might need to read it again. Who/what was the small naked boy that Harry saw but couldn't help?

Hadn't a clue what the hallows were going to be - loved all the back stories and history.

Favurite part of the book was the final confrontation and when Harry called Voldermort "Riddle". He schooled his ass!

Agree with a lot of the opinions about the epilogue - it didn't seem to fit. I would liked to have known what Harry did for a living - was he an Auror etc?

randomchild

Loved it. Really great way to finish off the series, and that finale at Hogwarts was spectacular. God Neville has become my new favorite character! Their some really tragic parts to the book, mainly the Regulus and Snape back stories. Also it was really interesting seeing a darker, less Christ like side of Dumbledore. The only reservation I had was that R.A.B died in the cave. This seemed like a bit of a cop out, although I loved it because it was emotional reading having kreacher tell the tale, I thought the character would be a lot more interesting if he survived, and hunted more horcuxes. The interaction with Harry would have been very interesting.

ec18

just plain stupid

bounty_hunter

ec18 wrote:

just plain stupid

Can you elaborate on that a bit?

Corruptedmorals

JC 2K3 wrote:

-Ravenclaw's Diadem was Harry's first guess at what the Horcrux in Hogwarts was. Far too convenient.

Didn't Dumbledore say something at the end of HBP that as far as he knows, nothing remains of Ravenclaw's? So once Harry heard of the diadem- he'd jump at it?

JC 2K3

Yeah, but that's part of my gripe, we're supposed to accept that Dumbledore's guesses just happen to be 100% right all of the time.

Extreme-LoopZ

Was convinced Harry was going to die the whole way through the book up until King's Cross. That was a bizzare chapter - might need to read it again. Who/what was the small naked boy that Harry saw but couldn't help?

Monomaniac, Is that not Voldemort? I thought it was.....because Harry says something like "I've seen what you become" or something to that effect, right before they fight. Could be wrong, but what/who else could it be? Coz Voldemort hurt himself aswell when he tried to kill Harry in the forest....

dajaffa

monomaniac wrote:

Was convinced Harry was going to die the whole way through the book up until King's Cross. That was a bizzare chapter - might need to read it again. Who/what was the small naked boy that Harry saw but couldn't help?

I would liked to have known what Harry did for a living - was he an Auror etc?

I think the baby was Voldermort, cause Harry's tries to get him to feel remorse as he's seen what he's condemned to otherwise... thou my eyes were pretty sleepy at the time...

And me too, though the lack of information about stuff like that leaves me with a glimmer of hope that there'll be some sort of what happened in those 19 years type book.

bounty_hunter

JC 2K3 wrote:

Yeah, but that's part of my gripe, we're supposed to accept that Dumbledore's guesses just happen to be 100% right all of the time.

Yeah but the fact was that Voldemort seemed to be choosing relics relating to to Hogwarts in some way, so it was only fitting that once he had something of Slytherin's and Hufflepuff's he should have something of Ravenclaw's too. And since the Diadem was know to be Ravenclaw's "famous object", that was the most obvious and likely option. Not too difficult to figure out from what I can see, I would have been surprised if Harry didn't go for that. You have to remember that Voldemort believed nobody else knew his secret, so the idea of it being too obvious doesn't come into play. That was the whole point of it, he slipped up in believing that he was far more clever than anybody else and nobody else could possibly figure it out.

Corruptedmorals

Ah Wikipedia says that the creature is the part of Harry's soul that's been destroyed..

keefg

Great book. Loads of loose ends tied up for me. I am not one of those people who over analize the story to figure it out, I just prefer the story to unravel at the authors pace.

Agree with the 19 years later chapter though......bit of a cop out and I would have liked to known what happened to all the other major characters as well.

Felt a bit that there are no more books to look forward to, unless JK decides to follow up on Harry & Ron's kids ............or JK gives the OK for another author to carry on the torch (maybe fill in the 19 years bit).

Does anyone think this will happen? Let's face it Lucas gave the OK for "expanded universe" Star Wars stories.

Maybe someone will expand on the wizarding world without Harry etc, just use Hogwarts as the backdrop and use some of the DA characters???

There is a LOT of money to be made out of this franchise ..........so we shall have to wait and see.............

monomaniac

Corruptedmorals wrote:

Ah Wikipedia says that the creature is the part of Harry's soul that's been destroyed..

Ahhh - nice one cheers. Makes sense.

Redisle

Just finished reading this, great book, I especially liked the chapter with snapes memories, I was actually like Oh my god, what the hell. It was a very good read
One thing that bothers me though,
The sword of griffondor, In the vault at gringotts the gobiln double crosses them and takes the sword, harry pockets the horcrux, there was no mention of them getting the sword back, even later when ron had to get basilisk fangs to kill the horcrux... they never got the sword back from the goblin.. so how did neville pull it out of the sorting hat? Fair enough Harry had done so previously but that was when it had been stored in Dumbledors office was it not? Yet Neville pulled it from the hat even when it was in the goblins possesion probably locked up in a safe...
Maybe its just one of the qualities of the sword... ahh I don't know, dosent really matter much anyway,
Still, Excellent book,
But now there is no more hp books to look forward to

sionnach

ab_cork wrote:

they never got the sword back from the goblin.. so how did neville pull it out of the sorting hat?

magic

ec18

bounty_hunter wrote:

Can you elaborate on that a bit?

Well for a start for the whole book Harry Ron and Hermione are in great peril, constant danger, threat of attack/death. but none of them are killed or even seriously injured ( I know Hermione gets tortured but she gets over it very quickly).

Harry and the bit at kings cross, I just didn't see the point of it. Since it was already set up for Ron/Hermione/Neville to finish off Voldemort. And even though Harry was the true master of the elder wand, Voldemort already killed him with it once why was it so hard the second time after all he was the most powerful wizard alive. He was afterall beating 3 fully trained, experienced and powerful magical people. So it just seems a bit stupid that Harry can beat him... without doing anything... why did the curse not rebound the first time the wand would still have known Harry was his master

And too many minor characters were killed off. What was the point of killing Lupin, Tonks, Dobby. it was just too many minor deaths without any of the major characters being injured. And why all of a sudden did Mrs. Weasly become a super duelist able to take on LeStrange who took out 2 top aurors?

The Nineteen years later chapter also for books that had so much peril and darkness in them it all ended very well didn't it. Everyone happily married with kids going off to hogwarts. Even the names of the kids made it a serious Cheese-Fest.

Things like that made it a disappointing read for me.

I did enjoy the pensieve scene with Snape though

Villaricos

ec18 wrote:

Harry and the bit at kings cross, I just didn't see the point of it. Since it was already set up for Ron/Hermione/Neville to finish off Voldemort. And even though Harry was the true master of the elder wand, Voldemort already killed him with it once why was it so hard the second time after all he was the most powerful wizard alive. He was afterall beating 3 fully trained, experienced and powerful magical people. So it just seems a bit stupid that Harry can beat him... without doing anything... why did the curse not rebound the first time the wand would still have known Harry was his master

It wasnt anything to do with Harry, it was to do with having Draco Malfoys wand. Because Draco was supposed to have been the owner, the Elder wand wouldnt battle against a person he thought was the owner. Geddit?

And too many minor characters were killed off. What was the point of killing Lupin, Tonks, Dobby. it was just too many minor deaths without any of the major characters being injured.

to show the reality of war I guess... it was a lot of deaths though.

And why all of a sudden did Mrs. Weasly become a super duelist able to take on LeStrange who took out 2 top aurors?

Her kids were in danger? She'd just lost a son? We cant imagine what we'd be like in that situation. Despair drove her.

Do agree the epilogue was pure kack though

bounty_hunter

ec18 wrote:

Well for a start for the whole book Harry Ron and Hermione are in great peril, constant danger, threat of attack/death. but none of them are killed or even seriously injured ( I know Hermione gets tortured but she gets over it very quickly).

Harry and the bit at kings cross, I just didn't see the point of it. Since it was already set up for Ron/Hermione/Neville to finish off Voldemort. And even though Harry was the true master of the elder wand, Voldemort already killed him with it once why was it so hard the second time after all he was the most powerful wizard alive. He was afterall beating 3 fully trained, experienced and powerful magical people. So it just seems a bit stupid that Harry can beat him... without doing anything... why did the curse not rebound the first time the wand would still have known Harry was his master

And too many minor characters were killed off. What was the point of killing Lupin, Tonks, Dobby. it was just too many minor deaths without any of the major characters being injured. And why all of a sudden did Mrs. Weasly become a super duelist able to take on LeStrange who took out 2 top aurors?

The Nineteen years later chapter also for books that had so much peril and darkness in them it all ended very well didn't it. Everyone happily married with kids going off to hogwarts. Even the names of the kids made it a serious Cheese-Fest.

Things like that made it a disappointing read for me.

I did enjoy the pensieve scene with Snape though

Fair enough. I disagree with a lot of that, but of course you are entitled to your opinion.

ponderer

I can't understand why people queued for hours and hours for this book!!! I downloaded it from the internet in electronic format a full week before it was released in the shops!!! Also the day after the 'supposed midnight release' there were plenty of copies in the shops. I feel sorry for all those who had to waste hours queueing!

bounty_hunter

ponderer wrote:

I can't understand why people queued for hours and hours for this book!!! I downloaded it from the internet in electronic format a full week before it was released in the shops!!! Also the day after the 'supposed midnight release' there were plenty of copies in the shops. I feel sorry for all those who had to waste hours queueing!

Queuing excitedly and receiving your copy alongside hundreds and hundreds of other Potter fans, then staying up all night to read, was half the fun of it! Personally the whole experience would have felt a little incomplete for me if I hadn't gone to a midnight launch, I've been to every one since the 3rd book.

JC 2K3

The leak was poor quality and illegible in parts.

And queueing wasn't a waste of time, it was fun. It wasn't just waiting in line, it was eating sweets, doing a Harry Potter crossword and quizzes and generally having a laugh with friends.

No one who queued up did so because they thought they wouldn't be able to get a copy the next morning, they did it for the fun of it all.

robinph

Corruptedmorals wrote:

Ah Wikipedia says that the creature is the part of Harry's soul that's been destroyed..

The Voldemort bit rather than the Harry bit I suspect. Harry is still complete as the wand would not destroy it real owner, so it was just the Voldemort part of Harry that got killed in the forrest.

bounty_hunter

ab_cork wrote:

Fair enough Harry had done so previously but that was when it had been stored in Dumbledors office was it not? Yet Neville pulled it from the hat even when it was in the goblins possesion probably locked up in a safe...

The sword can be summoned to the aid of any true Gryffindor in great need. This is why both Harry and Neville were able to pull it out of the hat when it was in another location.

The Bollox

robinph wrote:

The Voldemort bit rather than the Harry bit I suspect. Harry is still complete as the wand would not destroy it real owner, so it was just the Voldemort part of Harry that got killed in the forrest.

agreed, I assumed that it was just the 7th of Voldy's soul which he destroyed, but for some reason failed, once again, to destroy Harry

I loved the book, it was savage. although it did drag a lot at the whole nod to LOTR bit. the chapter with the pensive was fantastic, I had so much respect for the charater of Snape, he was always one of my favourites, alongside Albus and Sirius. The war bit was great, I got a very vivid picture in my head of all the statues and coats of armour on the battlements, ready to defend the castle.

the swearing came as a slight shock (only slight as I stumbled across a spoiler of "NOT MY DAUGHTER, YOU BITCH!", what a line). luckilly that was the only spoiler for me, I also read that Hermione dies, but it didn't happen. I'm not sure if I'm happy about it or not, I wanted one of the three to die.

this book, although shorter in pages than the previous 2, felt a lot longer to me, more than likely because it wasn't the same old going to class, or tea with Hagrid like in the other books.

this beats GOF as my favourite of the series by a considirable margin (save the end, although I liked the fact Harry pronounced Snape as "the bravest man I have ever met")

10 / 10