I find the ending slightly dissatisfying. JK had prepared us pretty well, I feel, for a major character death. Yes, there are deaths. Very upsetting ones. But many people I know felt that Harry simply had to go. There will be those who argue that it's essentially is a school hero epic, and so had to have a happy ending... but has JK betrayed the logic of the narrative? Or...

...Did Harry actually die, and go to his version of heaven? Meeting Dumbledore in his idealised "King's Cross" (is this a biblical reference?), and having a by-now classic Dumbledore "Deus Ex Machina" moment, where all is explained - this surely would have been one of Harry's ideas of heaven or at least heaven's waiting room?

Chapter 36 - The first words Harry hears are "My Lord... My Lord...". Is this a strange overlap? Going back for a final, triumphant battle, where Voldemort is thoroughly humiliated and defeated... surely paradise for Harry, along with another final reunion with his "father figure" Dumbledore.

And then onto the final chapter. Growing up... Marrying Ginny - his childhood sweetheart, also teenage Harry's idea of heaven. Is it a coincidence that the other pairing (Ron and Hermione) is that of teenage timewarp childhood sweethearts - a pairing as Harry knew them at the time of his "death"? Teddy Lupin has grown up and apparently found love in the arms of "Victoire" - surely another of Harry's deepest wishes, for the Lupin baby to grow up safely and find love. Neville has his ultimate vindication as Hogwarts professor... Draco is there, safe but distant...

You may challenge this with the absence of Lily, James, Sirius etc. But Harry met them just before his "death" and said his goodbyes. He has been convinced by the whole story of the Stone that bringing back "shades" is not right or desirable. He wouldn't want them in heaven as shades. Lily and James are there, in the even better form of new life. As are Dumbledore and Snape.

And for more hints that Harry is in heaven, how about this lexical evidence of "spirituality" from the final chapter... "golden..." "sparkled..." "vanished..." "believe..." "white steam..." "indistinct figures swarming through the mist..." "hazy forms..." "vapour..." "mist..." "faces came into focus..." "faith..." "steam..." "shifting mist..." "billowing clouds..." "wonder..." "blurred outlines..." "ablaze..." "bereavement..." "glide..." "steam evaporated..." "farewell..."

What about the final line? "The scar had not pained Harry for nineteen years. All was well." A strangely simple tone for the end of a seven-book epic. No pain? Is Harry "resting in peace?"...

ok first [no offense tho] i think its a little ungrateful to say that the end wasnt what YOU expected. harry is in this -what YOU call- heaven because hes gone through enough, he's gone through more pain in 7 years than any other wizard, he deserves to live a painless life. second, probably about most wizards marry their school sweetharts like james/lily or molly/arthur.
at the end, when harry 'wakes up' and he hears 'My lord..' voldemort is not 'throughly deafeated and humiliated' he probably just fell to the floor from the hit.
plus remember this is a children's book AS WELL. YOU cant traumatize children by killing their hero BECAUSE thats just mean.

Please spell out all your words!!

Didn't mean to upset you! Just a theory, among many others I'm sure. You are correct, and I think I already said the books are a school hero story, a genre for children. That's why JK has been so clever in creating an ending that can be interpreted in so many ways... and all readers have the right to interpret without being SHOUTED at! On another point, I'm pretty sure Voldemort is both defeated and humiliated in Ch.36. "Tom Riddle hit the floor with a mundane finality, his body feeble and shrunken, the white hands empty, the snake-like face vacant and unknowing... killed by his own rebounding curse." And after such boasting earlier in the chapter...! Tsk.

I think we *all* need to step back when addressing someone's theories so we are not offending anyone. This has been a very long journey for all of us, and some of our theories have been correct and some haven't, some of our thoughts are correct and some aren't, but until JK answers them it's still all anyone's guess.

BTW, JK is going to put another book out. It is going to be a Harry Potter Encyclopedia. :~) HURRAY!!! So hopefully all our questions will be answered. Oh she didn't say when it was going to be done. lol

Thanks Baty4Potter. My guess is that the great JK would be very pleased that everyone has different ideas about the books...

When did she say she was definitely doing another book - the encylopedia? I only saw her say she MIGHT do it.

She apparently told the Today Show in her interview that she 'will probably' do an encyclopedia.

See our article here.

Another couple of ideas along these lines: Is it a coincidence that "Lily" and "Rose" both appear in the final chapter? White lilies were said to have be found growing in the Garden of Gethsemane after Christ's crucifixion from where drops of Christ's sweat fell to the ground from the cross. Meanwhile about the rose, early Christians identified the five petals of the rose with the five wounds of Christ... another person who sacrificed himself. However, their leaders were hesitant to adopt it because of its association with Roman excesses and pagan ritual... paganism = witchcraft for some people doesn't it? The red rose was eventually adopted as a symbol of the blood of the Christian martyrs. Could it be a symbol of the Hogwarts martyrs too?

In Victorian symbolism, the rose came to mean love, beauty, hope, unfailing love, and the Virgin Mary, the "rose without thorns." Whether the rose is a bud, flower or somewhere in between indicates how old the person was at the time of death. A rose in full bloom normally indicates that the deceased died in the prime of life. Is it significant that the "rose" we meet in the final chapter is a young girl... a blooming bud? Indicating that death came to Harry as a young man? For the Victorians, the lily meant majesty, innocence, purity, and resurrection. Again it was often associated with the Virgin Mary and resurrection. The use of lilies at funerals symbolizes the restored innocence of the soul at death... Harry's soul?

I was quite satisfied with the ending, except that it was a bit abrupt.

She has had the end in her head since before she started book 1. I am just glad she stuck to her guns and didnt kill Harry just to satisfy some people and try to keep others from writing about her characters.

You knew there was a special connection between Harry and Voldemort through the scar, and the magic had to be released one way or another. When Voldemort used Harry's blood there was a gleam in Dumbledore's eyes, and some people started to think Dumbledore was actually on Voldemort's sdie after that. She had the story outlined very well in her mind and the ending between Harry and Tom Riddle when he takes Dumbledore's place to put "Tom" in his by using his given name was just Beautiful... as Hagrid would say.

The series started out written for children and there are still many children who followed the books as they came out or picked up on them as they grew old enough to understand them. I felt killing Harry, Ron, or Hermione would have been quite a shock to them, on par with losing a close friend. For me, Dobby was the death that worst. I am in a way glad I did not witness the deaths of some of the other people in the book.

It is a mark of a GREAT writer who can pull forth strong emotions with the deaths of Sirius, Dumbledore, Dobby, Fred, Cedric, Moody, Tonks, Lupin. I laughed out loud, and my cat jumped off my lap, when Kreature charged out with the knife shouting for the house elves to rise up...

Most of the arguements about Harry dying seemed to be centered around how little he knew of magic compared to Dumbledore and Tom Riddle. In a flat out duel he would never stand a chance, but she ingeniously tipped the scales to Harry's side without Riddle ever knowing that it truly happened.

I hate to do this, but in other books and movies how often is the hero truly outmatched, almost EVERY single time. Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, Belgariad, Wizards First Rule, Eragon, Feists books... If the hero was not against a greater force then they are and require heroics, they would not be a hero. Dudley could never be a hero, he only went after those weaker than himself.

Quick blurb from article.

She may have said "probably will" but if she wasn't going to do it she would have kept her mouth shut!!!

New prediction..... I bet JK puts out another book! ROFL



I was quite happy that Jo didn't make Harry become this super hero almost overnight, by developing the powers to fight Voldemort straight out with powerful magic.

Harry is a powerful wizard, but he is young, and has yet to hone them, and for him to have it all come together in one year would have been a bit of a hat trick.

YES, PLEASE... I am going to wait in line right now

ROFL!!! I'd give it a couple of weeks hun! ;~)

I was very moved by dobby's death "...the elf became quite still, and his eyes were nothing more than great, glassy orbs sprinkled with light from the stars they could not see." What magnificent writing.

True, Harry has to be outmatched throughout, the underdog, as befits the genre. I'm thinking of Lord of the Rings though, for example, and what happens to Frodo at the end, in spite of his so-called "victory"... and the Dark Materials trilogy, which also has a tragic, heartbreaking plot twist at the end. Harry's is such a great tale, and I suppose I am looking for that truly great, tragic ending... one which has a sense of catharsis - of pity and terror - and also of inspiration and ascendancy.

first off i will say that the Harry Potter series has been one amazing ride.. the end was very satisfying for me. i would have aprrecitated a little more detail. but then again if the series could go on forever i would promptly buy every book and read over and over until the next book came out. so i do understand that jk rowling must end the book sometime. i loved that harry didnt die...i don't know if i could have handled it at all if he did. it was sad but definetly definitive to finish the last book. but mostly sad. i think it will be even harder once i have seen the 7th movie. if i could have it my way rowling would have included an epilogue individually for all major characters stating jobs..marriage...children etc. but they are her books and i must say no one could ever write it better. who's with me?

I guess this is why she's talking about possibly making an encyclopedia. I hope she doesn't wait too long though.

Much as I adore Harry, not sure I'd buy an Encylopoedia. Seems a bit like "merchandising" or "milking it"...?

and as much as i agree with this i can't be sure that i could hold back on just a little bit more of beloved harry potter material.

i absolutely loved the ending!!!!
many things that were not clear, now are. i do still question a few things, but ill bet that they become clearer the 2nd or maybe even 3rd time that i re-read deathly hallows. i dont think that harry really did die. i think that he actaully was saved by the blood he ''gave'' voldemort. neither could live while the other survives! and it was because of that.

I thought the ending was good.. but i wish they could've added more to the epilogue though.. at least say where harry and his friends are working. and what happened to the rest of the order and the DA..

i agree..but i also think it would have been a bit to formal to openly just write what happened to the characters..in DH rowling slyly added in bits of information still keeping it as story telling in present time.

I liked the fact that she did the Ending in a story form instead of hears a list of people and this is what happen. However I wish in that story form she would have told us about more people. Also the few people who she did talk about I also wish she had given even more detail. But I guess you can't always get what you want.

I wanted to hear what happened to the Dursley family. In the end, though, I suppose it doesn't really matter. They weren't that important to Harry.

Wow! I'm excited that she's going to do an encylopaedia!

I know what you mean Debod, I felt similar about Fantastic Beasts and Quidditch Through the Ages.. but my feeling wasn't so much that she was milking it but rather that I'd be milking it by buying them when there was no need - I had other books to look forward to in the future if I could only wait! However give it a few months and I'll be completely Pottersick and itching to get my hands on any reading material related to the Potter world!

As for the ending, like someone else commented earlier, it was a little abrupt and when I read, at the bottom of my page, I turned it fully expecting a little more!

I like that she didn't give us everything and tell us exactly what everyone's doing now, it's good to leave some things to the imagination!

Yep. Exactly my reaction. The simplicity of that final phrase means you turn the page, and then inevitably go back and read the last few lines again, just to check if you've missed something. It just seems to have more behind it than meets the eye at first...

I really don't think it's like that. I think JK knew she wouldn't be able to wrap everything up, and therefore decided to put a book out to answer questions that a lot are begging for. She definitely doesn't need the money so, at least in my minds eye, it's not greed, merchandising or milking it. It's for the fans who want to know.

Hi guys, long time no post.

My immediate reaction to the ending was that I didn't like it. I thought it was too short, too predictable and too 'happily ever after'. But then when I thought about it, the main inner turmoil of Harry in the whole series has been his search to belong, to be part of a family. And it is nice to know that he eventaully found it. So I am happy for him, and i can see why JK wrote the epilogue, but still I think that she could ahve gone further. I wanted to hear if he'd become and auror, and what happened to Hagrid and the rest of the Weasleys and everyone. But anyway, it is her story and I think she showed in this ending what she thought the story was about...the importance of family. And good on her.

Could anyone remind me of the last sentence. I'm not sure, but I think I heard that the last sentence was written before like anything else wasn't it?

"The scar had not pained Harry for 19 years. All was well."

Have you read the book?

It's more likely to be the publishers / agents who are trying to "milk it" through this sort of merchandise, trying to convince JK that the fans are crying out for it...

I'm crying out for it!!!

I have to say that I believe JK has a mind of her own, and wouldn't do *anything* that she didn't want to do. I feel she is really devoted to her fans, and wants to please them.

I could be all wet, but I think she is doing this for the fans not because her publishers want her to.

I bet loads of people are. But I feel at some point you have to have some sort of artistic integrity? Rather than just keep churning out "products"... The story has its own direction and the characters their own role to play within a framework. I think that part of the joy is re-reading and interpreting for ourselves, rather than having a kind of exegesis imposed on us from the author or the publishers.

Think of it this way. The only thing her publishers ever forced her to do was change the name to "Sorcerers Stone," instead of "Philosophers Stone."

She says she still regrets it today, but it was the only way they'd publish it in America.

I dont see how this woudl relaly help any merchandising to be honest. It was purely there I think so that JK can let her fans know that her characteres lived on to be happy, and that was obvoiusly important to her. So good on her

Well, the reality is that alchemists aren't philosophers. They were the first "chemists" and, as such, were seen as sorcerers.

But I think she wrote the epilogue long before she wrote book seven to be honest.

I do wonder though whether the ending may have been a slight cave to the public desire to see harry/ginny and ron/hermione together...probably not, but there was alot of pressure from fans for that to happen

I wouldn't be surprised if she reveals that it was nothing of the sort - that she wrote the epilogue before far before (maybe a year or two) before the last book. She told us she had the last sentence of the book for a long time.

Yeah, you're probably right, I was jsut speculating. I hope you're right, Maybe it's jsut me venting my frustration that there wasnt more detail in that epilogue, if a jobs worth doing...lol

I feel the Epilogue couldn't go further without getting a life of his own and unbalancing the novel.

I prefer by large waiting for a book in the form of an Encyclopaedia of the wizarding world (or Hogwarts, a history by Hermione Granger, what a delightful idea, greetings to whoever wrote it first) in which every little question can be properly answered.

And I have no doubt it will be written. Maybe not by Rowling, but hopefully under her stern direction.

I do see what you mean about the life of it's own. But I dont know maybe jsut a mention of a few more characteres to see where they turned up and what they're up to. Maybe mentioning George and the shop, Percy witht e family, how Luna is doing...i dont know. There is so much I wanted to know.

Antoehr companoin book like that woudl be good i guess, but it woudl ahve been easier just to do it in that chapter

Actually it has been stated by several sources though interviews with JK that if/when she does another Book about Harry Potters World. IE the encyclopedia that is would be for Charity. "Fantastic Beast and where To find them" along with "Quidditch though the Ages" were written for Charity. All proceeds from those books went to Comic Relief.

She said that she has had the ending planned for some time. You could tell from very early on that Ron and Hermione would be together. Harry and Ginny seemed destined from book 2. Even though I would have loved to see Harry and Luna <DUCKS>. I think it could have been a great ending, with 19 years later Harry asking Ron if it would have been better if he stayed dead, because even though he loves Luna, that she can drive him nuts at times.

I do not necessarily believe that an "encyclopedia" is the best way to wrap things up. Encyclopedias are "dated" documents, and even in a fictional world, must be written from a certain point in time (relative to the story). I can create problems if JK (or anyone else) writes more stories years from now.

As far as the Dursleys go, I agree that what happened to them is really less important to the story of Harry Potter. Harry became who he was, not because of them, but inspite of them. Curiosity aside (as I am curious about them) what happens to them is essentially irrevelent.

Does anyone else find it interesting that because Voldemort so underestimated Harry's trust in others that he caused his own downfall. Once Voldemort thought that Harry was dead he stopped protecting his last Horcrux, Nagani. Becuase Voldemort himself had never told anyone about his horcruxes he assumed that Harry would not have shared with anyone else that he was seeking them. By ceasing to protect Nagani he allowed Neville the room to destroy the last bit of soul not living in him.

That's cool. Didn't know that. Perhaps I actually should pick one up from the shelf next time, instead of sniffing at it in distaste!

He's a bit like Macbeth in that respect. He thinks he's killed the only one who can kill him - totally misinterpreting the prophecy and so becoming complacent, just like Macbeth when the witches tell him that only someone not borne of a woman can kill him, and that he won't be killed til Burnham Wood starts moving... a seemingly impossible event.

Let it be the Quidditch one, it has really brilliant moments. I seriously believe this one was written by Rowling; not so sure about the other one.

Oh if it's done right it'll work. To me it seems that it will be a list of characters and give their background and what happened after the battle. If that is it, I'll be happy.

I really don't see a problem, because a story line can be picked up from any point in time. She could even take one of the characters and pick it up right from where she left off after the battle or anytime she'd like, and as far as anyone else writing about her characters I can't ever see her giving permission to do that. So I can't see a problem with it, and I am so interested in what happened to the characters, I really don't care what format she does it in.