Beginning at the End (Deathly Hallows Spoilers)

I too feel a strange need to begin at the end. Although I'm just now re-reading the entire book through for the second time (aloud to Dana at night) I've allowed myself to go back to certain favorite scenes, out of order, to re-read them in light of the whole. I've now read the Epilogue three times, and each time I read it I come away more impressed by it.

I suspect some may find it disappointing: it's not a list of "who's who" in Harry's world, with CV-like details of what they became in the years following the final battle. I think we'll have to wait for Rowling's now-promised Encyclopedia for further details of that kind! (And won't that be fun?!)

The Epilogue is something better. It's a snapshot, or a very brief home video if you will, of one scene in the future. In its brevity, it gives us so many tantalizing hints about what that world has become for Harry and for some of his loved ones.

That world has become:

-- Blessedly ordinary. Life goes on. Through everything, including the deaths of those we love most and (at times in our lives) think we cannot go on without. Life goes on, and other loves come and deepen us. Here we see that friendships have lasted, have become (in the case of Harry and Ginny, and Ron and Hermione) more than friendships.

--Beautifully familiar, yet changed. Hogwarts has lasted. It's still the same wonderful, magical place it was when Harry first entered it at eleven. We're given to understand that some things never change. Peeves still torments students. Hagrid still takes first years across on the lake. Older brothers still wind little brothers up about going. Little sisters left behind still long to go (shades of Ginny at the age of 10 -- and isn't it wonderful how we see her waving off the train here just as we saw her doing it then?) Slytherins and Gryffindors (and potential Slytherins and Gryffindors) still look sideways at each other, but there's a newfound respect there too, and a willingness on the part of the parents to not prejudice the kids too much before they get there. In Harry's case, in that beautifully heart-breaking moment where he says "Albus Severus" and talks to his son about one of his namesakes being a Slytherin and the bravest man he ever knew, we see that the prejudice has been rooted out nigh unto completely.

-- Safer. One of the moments that grabbed my heart completely was when Albus, clearly frightened by his brother's teasing and already homesick, cries out that he thought the thestrals were supposed to be invisible. I love how Harry comforts him, but more than that, my heart just expanded with joy at the thought that Harry's children cannot yet see thestrals. They haven't been touched by death at such a young age.

And then there were all the wonderful names, as Erin has pointed out. Lily and James, of course, and that wonderful Albus Severus. Rose and Hugo, Hermione and Ron's children, I am also less sure about. With Rose, I thought of the fact that Hermione had conjured a wreath of roses at Godric's Hollow on the night she was there with Harry. (I also, oddly, thought almost immediately of Tolkien -- Same went back to his Rosie after his adventures, and they married and named their little daughter after a beautiful flower.)

I am assuming that "cousin Victoire" is the daughter of Bill and Fleur. It's a French name; and if she's named "Victoire" it could be after Viktor (Fleur's friend and fellow competitor in the Tri-Wizard Tournament) and also a nod to the victory Harry won. I am guessing she is about 17, and this is her last year at Hogwarts (Head Girl? Former Tri-Wizard champion like her Mum?). The fact that she and Teddy Lupin are "snogging" (and isn't that another wonderful tip-off to the glorious sameness and life and love goes-on theme!?) is not just sweet but poignant. If I'm right about her being Bill and Fleur's daughter, then she grew up with a father scarred and disfigured by a werewolf. Teddy, of course, is the orphan child of Tonks and Lupin, who was himself a werewolf. We're led to believe, at least from the little bit we know, that Teddy took after his shape-shifting Mom and not his furry Dad -- still, it gives these two characters in the next generation something in common.

If I had to guess who Teddy Lupin has grown up with, my guess would be George Weasley. I am hoping George adopted him and that Ted has helped him out in the joke shop all these years.

We get a nod to Fred and George when Harry says he won't let Albus and James share a room until he's ready for the room to be demolished.

Oh and I'm so thankful to know that Neville's ended up teaching Herbology. Such a good, quiet, kind and encouraging professor he would be. Can't you just see him happily wearing Professor Sprout's old pink earmuffs on the day the second years learn to pot mandrakes?