Deathly Hallows Observations- Part 2

When I got too tired to keep writing last night I scribbled down a list of points I was going to hit in this second post. Just took a brief look at the responses to my first post (yay, discussion! :)) and see many of you mention these same points, so I'm sure to duplicate some of your ideas before going back and reading those comments in full, but here we go:

- I see demoneyes mentions this already, but if there is one thing that really disappoints me about the resolution to the series its the lack of movement on the issue of Hogwarts house unity. I was so sure that Rowling was going to address this issue, that it would be a major theme of the book- what does it mean to be sorted into a Hogwarts house and does being sorted into Slytherin condemn an eleven-year-old child to being dark or "evil", ostracized from the other three houses?

It seemed to me that to approach this issue that at least two characters were going to have to take a leap of faith beyond the prejudices that they had grown up with to work together or to defy the expectations- one of them would have to be Slytherin and one of them likely Gryffindor. Certainly Harry seemed the most likely Gryffindor character to have to face and deal with his prejudice of Slytherin and, of course, even in the smallest way, he is the character who makes that break-through once he sees Snape's memories. I thought Remus Lupin might have been able to make that leap of faith, as he knows a lot about being misjudged, skirting the edges of the "dark side", but heck, he's dead even before the wizarding world discovers that Snape has been redeemed and is far too self-focused in this book (for worthy reasons) to be the character who can begin to tear down the walls of Hogwarts prejudice.

All we needed was -one- Slytherin willing to act of their own accord, not according to some pre-set judgement. I thought it might prove to be Draco, maybe we'd get some nice dramatic scene between him and Harry, where the two of them would be able or even forced to look beyond their animosity, but, no, it never really happens, despite Harry saving Draco's life, it really doesn't impact on either character much and certainly doesn't seem to cause much searching of the soul.

To me the most appalling moment in the book is when the -entire- of Slytherin House is channeled out of Hogwarts before the final battle and not -one- of them stands up and says, "This is my school, too. I'm going to stay and fight. I believe in this cause." or even, "I'm shrewd and ambitious enough to sense this side is gonna win- I'm sticking around.", giving all kinds of opportunity for characters to re-examine how they feel about the class system in Hogwarts as they fight side by side. I wanted my leap of faith, man, and Rowling just never gives it to me.

And, yes, in the epilogue Harry pays lip service to finally understanding that, despite it all and despite being Slytherin, Snape was brave and true, but being that it's in the context of his son being terrified that he might sorted into awful evil Slytherin (and where did he pick up -those- notions?) Harry naming his kid after Snape or saying, hey, this one Slytherin was brave, just seems hugely trite.

"Maybe we sort students too soon." Ack, this line drove me nuts, too, because again Dumbledore seems to indicate that he is complimenting Snape, indicating he was brave and constant enough that he shouldn't have been in Slytherin after all, as if no child in Slytherin could naturally have those traits. I so wanted him proved wrong, I kept waiting for the scene, the revelation, but it just never came.

Enough on that. Though it is ironic that the -only- character who suggests house unity in the entire book is Voltemort- though, of course, he wants to make everyone Slytherin :).

- Though I really did like Narcissa turning on Voltemort at the end out of love for her son.

- I really liked all the background stuff on Dumbledore, fascinating and added intriguing shades of grey to his character. If Rowling wasn't willing to show us a Slytherin of moral fibre (with the possible exception of Snape), she did do an interesting job of showing us heroes from the series who don't or can't always live up to their standards in the book. We have both Ron and Lupin giving in to the worst of their insecurities, trying to run out on their responsibilities, though they ultimately go back. We have a young ambitious Dumbledore showing traits that should have made him -much- more sympathetic to his Slytherin charges. We have a Harry who starts shooting out Unforgivable Curses as his cause gets more and more desperate. And I know all these scenes have caused fans to yell for these characters' blood already, but they simply give me pause, they give the book complexity, they make the characters movingly human, I still need time to incorporate these actions into the reality of the characters.

- One of my favorite exchanges in the book is when Ron tells Harry shamefully that he now knows Dumbledore gave him the gift he did because he knew that Ron would run out on Harry and Harry replies Dumbledore gave him the gift he did because he knew that Ron would want to come back.

- And another favorite exchange of mine is when Ron does return, he and Hermione look at each other, the music swells... and she beats the hell out of him :). Go, Hermione :). I loved Hermione in this book- clever, resourceful and utterly loyal to the end. That was the one other thing I wanted in the epilogue, though. Did Hermione ever return to Hogwarts to finish her education? And nineteen years later, besides popping out a bunch of kids, where did Hermione, Ron, Harry and Ginny end up career-wise?

Um, I can't think of anything else to say right now and John's just arrived home with Tim Horton's coffee. Maybe I'll write more later or maybe I'll just put more remarks in the comments of these two posts.