NO SPOILERS HERE

I, like the millions of others, waited with bated breath for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. (Actually it was more like trying to bust my butt to finish the book I was reading and dreading going back to work 40 hours after I got my hands on the new book!). I talked to my friends and wondered what would happen. I speculated (as we all did that Hermione & Ron HAD to hook up, that Harry would die in the end, that Snape just had to be good, and Draco might be good too, and that Dumbeldore could not be dead) what would happen in that final book. My friends and I bantered back and forth about it.

I got the book around 2pm Saturday itching to begin reading, and I actually started it as we drove away from the mall. Donna asked if I was going to begin reading immediately, and I just gave her a look like… ummm we’ve waited for YEARS for this exact moment, and then I broke the spine. She wanted to clothes shop for her new job so we spent 2 hours in ROSS and I was 100 pages through with the book by the time we left there. It stormed when we got home and Donna suggested I sit on the dark porch and read with raining rolling off the roof above me; I loved the idea! I read another 250 pages before I was falling asleep reading. It was good and there was some cool things going on.

Sunday morning I had to go to work until noon. I took the book with me. What if I had to use the toilet? I could read what I walked (or sat) there. Claire napped when I got home and I shut myself in the bedroom. Later she woke up and we had dinner. I couldn’t read while I ate, but I sure did read standing up in the kitchen while I cooked. I was 2/3 done now! I was on a roll. My brother-in-law called around 6pm. I told him what I reading and I made a wild goal outloud. I told him I would not go to bed until I was done with it. Totally done. My wife raised one wary eyebrow and didn’t comment.

Claire went to bed. I began to read again. As the night wore on and my shoulders ached from laying across the bed propped up, my eyes got heavy. I knew it had to be getting late. Donna had let me alone (Thank you!) and I read, I read about the final battle, who died and who lived, what speculations I made were true and which were false, and I finished the book. Read the whole damn thing in 10 hours.

Most of the book wasn’t better or worse than I wanted. There were only two real parts were I cheered and my heart lept. One was at the very end. You’ll know when you get there. Great book. Nice capstone. Wonderful. Wasn’t my favorite HP book. That would be Order of the Phoenix (no, I’ve not see the movie yet), followed by Prisoner of Azkaban.

I will have one spoiler here. Just one. But I’ve warned you. I LOVED when Molly Weasley called another character a BITCH before attacking her and beating the warted toads out of her!!! Go Mrs W!