A most excellent weekend

[nineveh_uk]

In which despite transport disruption, I got to London and enjoyed 8 hours of play at Lord’s yesterday in beautiful weather, a glorious picnic, and the amusingly competitive conversation of the women in the seats behind us. Oh, and a book was published.


First, to address the act in the book that is least excusable, most inspired by desire for personal gain at the expense of the feelings and rights of others, but if my younger sister had been in my room, reading my personal letters, I’d have thought death-by-Voldemort too good for her.

I rather enjoyed it, though less I think than I enjoyed Half-Blood Prince. I would have liked less charging around the countryside (though I did like the depiction of the Quest as tedious, time-consuming, and not all that effective as a strategy), and a lot more conversation and confrontation with the Bad People earlier in the book. Flying Voldemort was effectively creepy, and I was entertained in a Schadenfreude sort of way by the use the Death Eaters made of the “I’m so brave, I say his name” attitude of the heroes. I never expected a full explanation of the Werewolf Incident, so I wasn’t disappointed not to get one. I did expected Snape to be Good, though I wish he had lived, and a last year spent as Hogwarts Headmaster was probably not his life’s ambition. The business with the wands irritated me much of the way through, and though I liked Harry working out that he could defeat Voldemort with Draco’s, I didn’t find that worth the rest of it. On the Black front, Molly fighting Bellatrix was both unexpected and effective, and if Voldemort doesn't want her mooning over him, he should have thought about that earlier, Narcissa betraying Voldemort for Draco’s sake lets me say “I was right”, and Andromeda was not a cuddly werewolf-loving mother-in-law (I now need to write a fic in which she is massively annoyed that she is expected to give up everything to look after her orphaned grandchild). Neville’s Gran dashing off to join the fight requires fic. I see from a_t_rain that I am not the only one to assume that Hermione did not ask her parents’ permission before brainwashing them, and whilst I’m sure she’ll be keen on action against the Muggleborn Registration Committee, I’m not convinced that the WW’s attitude to Muggles will become any more enlightened in the near future. I anticipate much Grindelwald/Dumbledore slash (and I was glad to see that Grindelwald had been imprisoned rather than killed). As I first entered fandom the year before Goblet of Fire courtesy of loads of internet-surfing time towards the end of a summer job, google, and the Yahoo! “Harry Potter for Grown-Ups” list (which I never read much, but enjoyed the theories), I was massively entertained that Tew Eww turned out to be true, and it’s a rare children’s book that features goat fiddling.

(ETA: Much as I sniggered childishly at all the wand jokes, I felt this could have been better phrased:
"Hagrid was struggling, and Bellatrix was panting, and Harry thought inexplicably of Ginny, and her blazing look, and feel of her lips on his --")

I loathed the Epilogue, more I think for the shift in style than for the actual content. I’d much rather have had a brief paragraph on each of the major characters than Happy Families, though I was amused by Malfoy’s receding hairline, which struck me as authorial smirk on a line with the revelation that Philip Boyes was bad in bed, without the narrative justification, and am resigned at seeing Harry and Ginny carrying on the old Evans and Weasley family traditions of failing to act against sibling victimisation, thus setting up the next cycle of disaster.

And well done, Dudley.

Lastly, it has all left enormous possibilities for fic.

I’ll start with a very small one.

He had split his soul once, long ago, and later Dumbledore had trusted him because the old man had seen that Snape’s remorse was genuine, had seen the torn soul heal. Now he was asked to split it again, and he knew that however Dumbledore dressed it up as mercy for an old friend, that could not be why Snape would kill him, that he did hate the man, and that for Lily’s sake his soul would, again, be lost.

Comments

[alliekiwi.livejournal.com]

Lucky you for the cricket. I'm stuck down here with rugby, rugby and MORE rugby. Plus a little ... rugby... for light relief.

At least there is a smidgen of netball to take my mind off men who enjoy cuddling too much and are overly fond of oval balls.

I think the entire purpose of the Epilogue was more to put a stop to any rumours of a sequel than to actually really tell a bit of story. It was clichéd in the extreme. The only thing I liked aobut it was Draco's hairline. However, hello, how many fanfic authors came up with those names for Harry and Ginny's offspring and we all groaned at the time?

As I read about the Muggleborn Registration Committee I did wonder if JKR had been a fan of all those Marriage Law fics where Hermione has to marry Snape (or Draco or some other Pureblood that isn't a Weasley).

The plot inconsistencies - not to mention the punctuation errors - peeved me no end. How much are the editors paid to not do their jobs properly?

[greenwoodside.livejournal.com]

I read the leaked epilogue before the rest, and spent a lot of my time last week telling anyone who would listen that it was too crap to be the genuine article. Much embarassment followed.

The goat jokes ruled. Best part of the book. And the dubious lines about wands.

[alliekiwi.livejournal.com]

JKR said that one character got a reprieve from dying, and two characters who weren't supposed to die, did.

Any thoughts about who she was referring to?

[dolorous-ett.livejournal.com]

though I wish he had lived, and a last year spent as Hogwarts Headmaster was probably not his life’s ambition.

You can't help feeling for Snape, can you? To spend the last year of your life plotting to sacrifice it for someone you can't stand - and, as a child-hater, to be entirely surrounded by children...

As to the Epilogue, I though it was all a bit pointless and sappy, but there you go. As for the disastrous cycles thing, I wouldn't read too much into kids teasing each other. I mean, what are younger siblings for, if not that? ;)

[dolabellae.livejournal.com]

She's not really interested in the Bad People, is she? Can't be bothered to keep Death Eaters' names and generations clear & straight, chucks in new names in the last couple of books and totally ignores those she introduced earlier in the series (what, me? personal grievance? no....) I was surprised that we got as much Malfoy & Bella stuff as we did, to be honest.

[dbassassin.livejournal.com]

My impression is that she wrote the epilogue first of the entire series, and the books were all written to end up there. The ghastly style is not all that different from that of the first book (just without the humour, interesting plot, etc).

There were lots of wonderful little things in the book (you go, Augusta!!!), but for me none of them can compensate for the putrescence of the Snape/Lily; though I expected it was coming, I didn't expect it to be as awful as this.

[aerama.livejournal.com]

Now that the 'little less conversation, a little more action' song is in my HEAD

And of course now that your ETA about the wand joke is ALSO in my head, with images no less -

what the hell was I going to say? Oh yes.
Still riding high on the Dudley moment. That was so cool.

And you're right, it was a shift in style for the Epilogue. Huh. I bet it was a relief to her to write like that for a change.

Count me in on the shock with the unexpectedly-rapier-like Andromeda. Guess she is a Black after all. Apples not falling too far from the tree and all that. Remus would have had to watch out else Tonks would turn into her mother...still a damn shame about Remus and Tonks. Even if I didn't like the rush-rush-rush/Remus raging aspects, it's like everything got snatched away, all promise gone. Yeah so there's a multicolored werewolf (maybe) cub. Eh.

Very very very nice fic possibility you've got there. VERY nice.


*bookmarks link*

[richenda.livejournal.com]

Are Who and Potter becoming inseparable?

We got Who using Expelliarmus, and now Voldemort has learned to Elevate.