well, i'm back

i cried. i cried and cried this morning as i read the last 100 pages. i knew dumbledore wasn't going to make it, i knew harry needed to go on alone, but, as jdk once said about star wars episode III, knowing what is going to happen doesn't make it any less devastating.

snape.

un-frickin'-believable.

my weirdest thought as he killed dumbledore as harry watched was "omg, what about all the harry/snape fic?" my stomach turned thinking about how much i love telanu's tea series. i'm not sure i can read it again, now. at least not soon. snape. my god.

seriously. i know i should have seen it coming, but JKR totally blind-sided me. i love her for it.

owie my heart.

snape!

wah.

overwhelmed reactions aside, this was my favorite book since prisoner of azkaban. the writing is tight, the details engaging, the plot well-paced. i was thrilled to be reading JKR again; she gave me everything i could have asked for. random favorite bits: harry kissing ginny for the first time after she looks at him with fierce joy. slughorn referring to ron as 'rupert'. dumbledore convincing harry that his last best weapon is love. tonks and lupin. the mad genius of the weasley twins. malfoy crying. the delicious shock of harry nearly killing malfoy and then appearing to be genuinely shocked, horrified, and sorry. dumbledore almost, almost winning draco back. harry turning out to be right about everything, but also that that didn't turn out to make any difference, and that it didn't cause any more discomfort than it would have anyway; there were no 'i told you so's at the end, dumbledore was gone and there was nothing for it. ron and hermione determined to fight with harry in book 7. the three of them, my trio, together, always. love. love. love.

there is more, of course, always more, but for now i shall settle in with the delightful melancholy that i am currently steeped in. i love and hate finishing books; this is no exception.

love.