no, he didn’t. When he said ‘always’ after dumbledore asked ‘after all this time?’ Snape was refering to Lily. Snapes love for Lily is the only reason Snape was protecting Harry. Lily’s patronus was a doe. So, Snapes partonus was a doe because of his love for Lily and his guilt over her death.
Oh, I guess I was thinking of it differently. That makes sense to me though. Thanks.
Thanks for clearing that up. It does make her death a little easier to handle.
I think JKR didn’t end up putting Harry and Hermione together because they both had a lot of Muggle in them (Hermione - pure and Harry - mixed), and one of the points of the book was tolerance of others. It sort of represents a future of more Muggle/Pureblood pairings and more mixed families, where there is less emphasis placed on being a pureblood.
I’m now re-reading my way through the series, and can fit all those loose peices together that didn’t quite fit when I read them the first time. :think:Then I can re-read deathly hallows with much more background knowledge. it’s much more pleasurable for me to do that than to read the book so fast as I did the first time:woot:and rin the risk of missing an important bit.
[FONT=Comic Sans MS][SIZE=3][COLOR=darkorchid]My youngest son and I are listening to them again. We finished Sorcer’s Stone last week and will start Chamber of Secrets today.[/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT]
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[FONT=Comic Sans MS][SIZE=3][COLOR=#9932cc]It’s amazing how many little bits of information we passed over as really unimportant now are important. Like the fact that Quirrel makes a point of telling Harry that Snape is the one that was protecting him. Although we “knew” this, we didn’t give it nearly the weight it deserved in view of what facts we now have.[/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT]
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[FONT=Comic Sans MS][SIZE=3][COLOR=#9932cc]I’m really looking forward to what else we will discover we knew but didn’t realize was important!:teehee:[/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT]
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[FONT=Comic Sans MS][SIZE=3][COLOR=#9932cc]J.K. Rowling is an amazing story teller! 
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I started re-reading the series again last night. I thought it was really cute that in book 1, Harry wished he had a watch (when Harry was in his cupboard after the zoo trip), and in book 7, Mrs Weasley gives him a watch for his birthday. I LOVE little things like that.
After watching 5th movie I decided that I finally had to read the books. I bought book one and was casually reading it… when I realized that I didn’t want to run into spoilers for the final book which meant I’d have to buy it the night it came out.
Sadly, the realization didn’t hit me until two nights before Year 7’s huge book opening. I ended up buying 2-6 hoping to finish them in a day. o_O
Definitely didn’t happen. I finished the series last night. I actually read book 7 in one day (I stayed up until 4:30 am). I loved all the books but I feel so empty now.
I totally went through all the same emotions as everyone else… except for Hedwig. For some reason I couldn’t believe that he died. I just kept thinking they made a mistake… =( It wasn’t until I finished that I realized he actually was gone. Almost similar with Tonks and Lupin… the book described them as sort of peacefully sleeping… and I forced myself to believe that they were, in fact, taking a nap… or stunned.
One of the biggest mix of emotions for me was when Harry was walking into the forest at the end and he whispered to the Snitch, “I am about to die.” There was this strange serenity to the whole scene… but also this impending sense of fear and death in addition to the fact that I was still shaking from all the excitement in the battle sequences.
There were aspects of the final book that I didn’t like, however. People were complaining about the whole hiding and waiting in the forest thing and how nothing was happening. I wholeheartedly agree.
My other problem was how quickly some of the loose ends were tied. There were SO MANY great characters and really in-depth character and plot development through the series and in this last book we just get lengthy monologue after lengthy monologue, and long book passages and newspaper articles and flashbacks, etc to fill in all these plot holes and tie off loose ends. I would’ve loved to see some of these things possibly revealed earlier in the series or really let JKR take her time explaining what was happening… instead of just having a character give a straight 10 paragraph lecture on what was going on (I wouldn’t mind a longer book) ^_^.
Someone asked about why R&H’s children were named Rose and Hugo. I don’t know about Rose, but, if you check the back of the book ‘About the Author’ you will she that JKR won the ‘Hugo Award’. Maybe that’s where she got that name.
Speaking of names, don’t you think that it’s a bit selfish that Harry and Ginny’s children’s names were LILLY, JAMES and ALBUS? All the people in Harry’s life? What about Ginny. Why couldn’t the little girl be Molly?
I had only one question about the book when I was finished. How did the sword end up in the sorting hat?
Of course there are a lot of questions about what happens now. Like who is the new Headmaster or Headmistress? Call me crazy, but, I think there may be more books coming.
Back in the Chamber of Secrets Harry pulled the sword out of the sorting hat too. I believe Dumbledore told him something to the effect of only the true Griffindor that really needs the sword will be able to produce it from the sorting hat. Nevile needed it to kill the snake, so I believe it appeared in the hat.
It took an extra week for Amazon to send out my book, but I finished it and feel a little, well, empty. The Harry Potter world is now over!
I’ve enjoyed reading all of your comments, and I have just two:
- Dobby’s death hurt the worst, probably cuz I’m a sucker for the innocent. I cried horribly.
- Why didn’t Harry name any of his kids after Sirius? I’m surprised he would choose Severus over Sirius as a middle name. But what the heck do I know?
My daughter is a precocious reader and at 8 years old she has read (and re-reads) the first 6 HP books. However,
when I read Book 7’s scene in the Malfoy’s house in which the Muggle Studies teacher was suspended above the dining room table and then killed and fed to the snake, I just thought that was way too much for an 8 year old, I don’t care how blinking smart she is! I think torture is a very deeply evil thing, I don’t want her to “get used” to it in any way!
She was livid with rage when I took the book away. She screamed at me that she would never forgive me.
Should I relent? Maybe I could read parts of it to her myself, but ordinarily she doesn’t have much patience with being read to. She is a phenomenal reader herself.
I think it is ultimately your decision, and while that scene is a horrible one, I think a good option would be to read the scene out-loud together and then discuss it and say how torture is a horrible thing. However, you have to be comfortable with that. 8 might be a little young. It could be a great learning experience. I found a lot in this book that was reminiscent/analogous of the Holocaust because of the idealogy and it might be a good chance for her to learn about why such hate is wrong.
I didn’t think the teacher was physically tortured before being killed by Voldemort, but I could be wrong, I read the book very quickly. I did not think it was worse than when Cedric was killed, except that he did not have the chance to plead.