My reaction to Deathly Hallows, now that I'm done

I'm still trying to define my feelings. I don't know if it's because I'm sad it's over, or because I didn't find the book contained the HUGE surprise I was hoping for, but I'm feeling just a bit disappointed.

Don't get me wrong. I loved the book. I thought most of the plot was great, and several parts were brilliant. But I expected that, after all was said and done, this would be my favorite out of the series. And I'm left feeling that PoA is still number 1 in my heart. Maybe that will change, I don't know. I expected a surprise on the order of what we learned about Peter Pettigrew and Sirius at the end of PoA, or at least the true identity of the person we thought was Mad-Eye Moody all through GoF. Now I'm wondering, did it have to be a true-identity surprise to satisfy me? She'd done that twice already, maybe it's wrong to think it would happen again. And I guess the switching-loyalties surprise is the best I could hope for, but I spent so much time theorizing that I expected it when it came so I wasn't surprised.

I would have liked it better if wasn't an undying love for Lily that was Snape's motivation, I think. And I would have liked to have a bit more Petunia.

I wanted to get to read the letter Dumbledore left with Harry. And instead we learn of more correspondence we'll never get to read. Suddenly Dumbledore's "We have corresponded" comment to Petunia at the beginning of HBP takes on a whole new meaning. Did she not give us the text of these letters just to supply the fan fiction authors with something to do?

I wanted to know more ab0ut Lily and James' past, both their families and situations before Hogwarts and also their life together before they died. Not nearly enough of that in there.

I guess those are my big disappointments. Aside from the deaths of Hedwig, Fred, and Lupin. :::::sob:::::

So what did I like?

I liked the wedding (though I still want to know more about the tufty-haired man who officiated). I liked seeing the Patronus-messengers. I liked them living at Number 12 Grimmauld Place, I wish we would have had a bit more of that.

I liked the Deathly Hallows. I liked Xenophilius Lovegood, except I wish he would have realized trusting Harry to rescue Luna would be better than turing Harry over to the Death Eaters. I liked getting to see Luna's house.

I liked the whole Dumbledore backstory and the Snape memories and the death and resurrection of Harry. I liked the inclusion of Aberforth, though I wish it would have been a regular tunnel rather than this magical portrait thing that I still don't understand. Don't they realize that there's a tunnel that leads to the Hogsmeade Public Library from the Restricted Section of the Hogwarts Library, and that the tunnel behind the 4th Floor Mirror leads to the Hog's Head. Oh, that's right, that tunnel's blocked. I forgot. I was hoping we'd really learn where all of them were, so I'd know if my fan fiction predictions were even close.

I liked the Ravenclaw Common Room and the backstory about the Bloody Baron. And the romance with Ron and Hermione was perfect. And I'm so glad Harry, Hermione, Ron and Ginny all lived!

I have lots of other thoughts, I'll probably be digesting this for quite a while. I've got lots of other things to do so I can't write about Harry full time.