Oh, I love all your delighted, excited, pro-character thoughts! Hermione is AWESOME, made of it from her little toe to the top of her smart head, and Ron really had his own journey of growth that seemed to make it necessary for him to leave, I think (though I was heartbroken when he did!).

Harry was...perfect. Struggling and questioning, flawed and striving, so poignant, a hero to the end and beyond. Oh, Harry! <3 <3 <3

The Severus & Lily, childhood friends narrative touched me so much. Days later, I'm still thinking about the emotional pull she had for him, how she, more than anyone or anything else, so changed the course of his life. It made me sorry for him, proud of him, and so much more absorbed by Lily as a character than I have been in any of the other books. Oh, Snape!

The Malfoys moved so nicely into the grey area. I like that they weren't totally redeemed fighting for the Order at the end, but that they had moved along the spectrum, and needed to redefine themselves and their relationship to the wizarding community. I'm so fascinated by the mention of Draco's wife and son, and wondering about what happened to him in the interim of those nineteen years. I will be on the lookout for the various fanfic depictions of that, that's for sure!

the only pacing I found hard was what seemed to me the interminable aimless moving from one camp to another. But...it seemed necessary, to depict how the characters were working blind, how they were struggling to find any specific direction, and I can understand how it was necessary for other reasons (to show the strained dynamics of the trio, to give us a sense that Harry doesn't automatically come by any of the answers to the questions that Dumbledore seemingly laid out neatly for him at the end of book 6, which by the start of book 7 have become no clear guide at all). I'm still on the fence over whether that long-pacing feeling was deliberate. And it may be that when I re-read, it won't feel long at all.

Loved reading your thoughts on the book!