I'm not going to say much about the book, save that it wasn't as bad as I expected, and nothing ever became Snivellus in his life like the manner of his leaving it, grovelling before his master like the coward he was -- oh, and letting the Malfoys not only live but
reproduce was a travesty of justice far worse than the fate of anyone killed off in the book-long bloodbath.
Now that I've freaked out most people here,
what I would like to do is to nail once and for all a pernicious untruth that has been going around for too long. Annette wrote:
And in response to an earlier poster... Us Pumpkin Shippers (H/Hr) knew this was coming. After all it was us that JKR called delusional after book 6 if we thought she'd ever pair Harry and Hermione. <G>
That is not so! Jo never called H/Hr shippers delusional; in fact, she specifically refused to do so. It was the interviewers (Emerson from Mugglenet.com and Melissa from
The Leaky Cauldron) that used the word, and kept coming back to it at various points during the interview -- particularly the former. JKR did not. Check the transcripts of the interview and you'll see. In fact, here's a quote from the first time the subject comes up:
ES: Harry/Hermione shippers: delusional!
JKR: Well, no, I'm not going to-- Emerson, I am not going to say they're delusional! They are still valued members of my readership! I am not going to use the word delusional.
And slightly later:
JKR: I want to make it clear that delusional is your word and not mine!
MA: You're making our lives a lot easier by laying it on the table
JKR: Well I think anyone who is still shipping Harry/Hermione after this book--
ES: [whispered] Delusional!
JKR: Uh, no! But they need to go back and re-read, I think.
So, no "delusional" despite some prompting from the interviewers, especially Emerson, and I'm sure that you won't find
Jo using the word anywhere else in that interview. She has to agree with the interviewers that the H/Hr shippers are
wrong in their interpretation of her writing, because they were, but she does not use That Word, nor, IMO, does she want to insult them. So I hope that any Pumpkin Pie fans will feel a little better about that, and those leaning towards the Harmonian end of the spectrum can hare off after the true culprit(s) rather than continue to traduce JKR.
Phil
