Book 7 Mania - SPOILERS AHEAD

Those of you weirdos who haven't finished the book, be warned! Here be spoilers. Welcome to the post-Book 7 post! This might all be a little random and disjointed, but here are some of my thoughts.

Working backwards here, but I really liked the epilogue. I know we all wanted every single little detail, but that seems unrealistic and silly. The epilogue did a great job - I thought - at giving us just enough of a glimpse into the characters' lives to see that they end up happy. And I think the sort of normalcy of it underscored the significance of Harry's choice: he chose to have the relatively normal, loving family that he'd always wanted, rather than taking off with the Elder wand. It brings it back to what Dumbledore tells him after the "dies," about how so few people have looked into the Mirror or Erised and seen something so pure as what Harry saw. So it's kind of funny that some people have complained that the epilogue is boring - isn't that what Harry wanted?

The entire book was great, but a couple of quotations that I especially loved. Among them:
1. "NOT MY DAUGHTER YOU BITCH!" (Mrs. Weasley)
2. "Really gives a feeling for the scope and tragedy of the thing, doesn't it?" (Ron)
3. "So why in the name of Merlin's saggy left --" (Ron). (I assume that the omitted word is "testicle." Am I wrong? Is there a more appropriate, but less funny, noun that also fits? Because I think that "Merlin's saggy left testicle" might be my new swear phrase.)
4. "'Death's got an Invisibility Cloak?' Harry interrupted again.
'So he can sneak up on people,' said Ron. 'Sometimes he gets bored of running at them, flapping his arms and shrieking . . . '"
5. Also - this isn't a quotation in the same way - but I loved "Here lies Dobby, a free elf."

I loved the way that the situation with Snape played out. One thing that's so great about the books is that, from the very beginning, all of the characters have been flawed, including the adults. Everyone loves a good anti-hero, and I think that's why we all love Snape, even with all his imperfections. Which brings me to another point, how I liked really seeing, at the end, what Dumbledore meant about how love is more powerful than any magic. And how Voldemort was blind to that fact, how he never realized that abusing Draco would cause the Malfoys to betray him.

Also . . . Alia and I bounced this around a little, so I'll go ahead and put evidence of our nerdiness on the web. People, do we think it's possible that Harry and Ginny's little excursions at the end of Book 6 might have gone a little farther than we'd previously suspected? Just take a look, for example, at pages 89-90.

In non-Harry Potter news, I just wanted to say a special hello to Jessa!! Congrats honey!