Oh lots of good stuff on this thread.
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I don't buy Harry being a horcrux either - I think Voldemort has definitely been trying to kill him (not half heartedly misleading people), plus if Harry was a horcrux then how would that tie in with one has to die for the other to survive? Harry would have to be destroyed if he was a horcrux, which would be the only way to destroy Voldemort - so they would both be dead. Can't believe JKR would have quite as bleak and ending as that. Actually (rethinking this as I type) - the horcruxes (horcruxii?!) have to be destroyed and then Voldemort himself has to be killed - Harry can't do that if he's dead himself can he? Voldemort can still survive (albeit in a weakened state) even if all his horcruxes are gone.
Also can't quite believe Dumbledore could be so wrong about Snape: there's more to that than meets the eye. I thought the "well Snape was sorry that he blabbed and got James and Lily killed" was intentionally weak and implausible. Definitely some tie in there with the binding promise spell Snape did with Draco. Maybe he'd already made one with Dumbledore which was that he wouldn't let Draco be the one to kill Dumbledore - Dumbledore was so convinced at the end that Draco was not evil and wouldn't kill him - but maybe he knew all that was going to happen and had made Snape promise to kill him rather than let Draco do it. When Harry hears Dumbledore pleading and assumes he is pleading for his life (doesn't Dumbledore say "Severus..."?) maybe he is actually pleading with Snape to finish it - to keep a promise not to let Draco be turned permanently to evil by killing Dumbledore (like Luke Skywalker having to resist the lure of the Dark Side). Hell, maybe Draco's the Chosen One!
Dumbledore had to die. All Harry's fathers/father figures have died - James, Sirius , Dumbledore. Fot the Buffy fans - it's like when Giles realises he has to leave Buffy: because by being there he's stopping her being as strong as she can be, he's (in the words of the song) "standing in her way."
Plus, don't know if JKR is at all influenced by the films but for me, Richard Harris was Dumbledore and it's not been the same with Michael Gambon!
I think if anyone is going to come back it will be Sirius - he doesn't 'feel' dead to me, more like trapped in another dimension.
I liked the tough new Harry emerging at the end - he really is coming of age for the last book. I found him a bit teenage and whiney in Book 5, he's grown up immensely in this one. Liked him and Ginny - it felt "right" whereas I always felt he and Cho Chan were a bit cringeworthy. Loved the striding across the common-room snog: very Willow and Tara, very..well practically any romantic film in living memory! Agree with the actress who plays Ginny in the films being a bit drippy and pasty: don't think the film-makers saw that romance coming or they would have had a more feisty and sexy red head instead.
Am hoping Hogwarts will feature in the last book - even though Harry has said he is not going back. I love Hogwarts - I love the whole idea of it.
One more thing. How on earth are they going to make this book into a film suitable for children? The scene where Dumbledore and Harry retrieve the horcrux - the description of the Inferi coming up out of the water? Sounds like 18 certificate territory to me (I thought the Dementors were scary!) Also so much snogging - and surely someone has to have sex in the last book ? In the Muggle World they would all have been at it like rabbits since the second year.
Gosh, that's a long post.