Do you like the epilogue?

I read through all the posts and one thing that wasn't mentioned yet was about George. I had a terrible time with losing Fred and I really wanted to know how George was going to go on with the joke shop without his twin. Early in the book, JK mentions how Fred and George will be the wealthiest of the Weasleys because of their shop. I really wanted ot know how George was going to cope and go on. I think I'm still trying to cope, to think about George without Fred.

I am so with you! I would rather have lost Percy or Charlie from the Weasley's vs Fred, because I just couldn't imagine how George would stay intact without his twin - kinda odd, but I can imagine Fred staying on as a ghost - one like Headless Nick, with an opinion and a voice that was heard - odd I know...

Yeah, that's a cool idea. Only instead of a ghost at hogwarts, Fred could be the ghost of the joke shop. And so George and Fred could still pull off their jokes.

Also, I wondered if Hermione ever went back to Australia to get her parents. And, what ever happened to the Dursley's? If Harry can forgive Snape and name his child after him, I could also fathom him having some forgiveness towards the Dursley's. After all, JK did redeem Dudley somewhat early in DH. Something else to think about.

I think JK did say that Hermione did go under and get her parents - as to the Dursley's - I don't think their pensive would be a bit like Snapes! They were what they were, maybe Dudley developed a bit - but he had quite a bit of development to go IMHO

Losing Fred was a blow, but I think that I didn't really expect all the Weasleys to survive. Still, I found it really horrible to seperate the twins, and cruel to do so right after having Percy back and the family whole again.

Harry says something along the lines of how he, Snape, and Voldemort were the lost boys who found their home at Hogwarts. In my mind, Voldemort was the horror, Harry was the happiness and Severus, between these two in time and in personality, was the tragedy, which just adds to his heartbreak, having struggled past the evil and yet not reached the peace.

Dudley may well develop beyond his parents. Sometimes it only takes a single life changing event -- certainly his encounter with the dementors would count for that. While in the short run, we saw that Dudley needed to change, he may well have changed greatly in those 19 years. Perhaps he and Harry even became good friends. It would be nice to think they could laugh and shudder together over Harry's treatment during all those pitiful summers.

It would have been so easy to have killed off Percy don't you think? I could have done it in a heartbeat. I think if JKR ever does any subsequent writing that Percy could provide some of the comic relief that F&G did in previous books.

Yes, I think this is an important point.
I think Voldemort, Snape and Harry also show three ways how it can goes.
OK, I have to excuse me now for my bad english, I try to explain what I mean, I hope you can understand it.
I think there are a lot of similar situations the three where in, but they made different decisions.
It is not life, or anything else that forced Voldemort to be evil, or Snape to become a death-eater. It was theire decision.
And in many situations, Harry could have made an other decision, but he did not. He decided not to kill the death eater who attacked him on the motorcycle on the way to the burrows, but he did not. Remember it was "Expelliarmus".
And so did Snape, very late, but he made the decision to go to Dumbledore to warn him.

Long ago they made a movie called Back to the Future - the kid saw how his parents would have been if an event in there past had never occurred - I can just see a Snape raised in Ravenclaw and with Lily - what a difference! JK did say that it was possible that Lily would have ended up with Snape had things been different.