To eliminate some of the clutter on my profile, I moved my reasons for creating a new, twopart series in place of The Half-Blood

Prince and The Deathly Hallows. I have published the story on fanfiction.net at http://www.fanfiction.net/s/8171859/1/Beyond_the_Veil. Here, I will attempt to explain my desire to create my first fanfiction, which I have already explained will be a Harry Potter series. If you will excuse me, this is a bit of a rant on the last two books of the Harry Potter series. If you absolutely loved the last book of the series, I in no way wish to offend you. I thought parts of it were wonderful and my initial reaction after completing it (apart from the infamous epilogue) was very positive. But in retrospect, the final book was in some ways, the most disappointing. I do remember when reading it and I was about three-quarters of the way through I thought to myself, "Wow, nothing's happened, there's no way they can destroy all of the Horcruxes!" I was expecting this big reveal, but alas, it did not come. I was anticipating the seventh book to be more about the mystery of tracking down the Horcruxes and more of Voldemort's past. Instead, Ron miraculously speaks Parseltongue, Crabbe becomes a genius and conveniently kills only himself while also inadvertently destroying one of the said Horcruxes all of which seem to be fortuitously located at Hogwarts. I guess Harry didn't have to leave after all? But then of course, we wouldn't have spent all of that wonderful time reading about Harry and Co. Apparating from forest to forest. Pop! A forest. Pop! Yay, another forest! Pop! Wait a second. I must say, the sequences of our three heroes camping out in tents along with the labored descriptions of them having to scrap off cold soup and what not were quite exhilarating. Okay, that's enough sarcasm for now but you get my point, yes? Everything seems so crammed at the end. Everything is too easy. And what should kill Voldemort but some complex twist in the Elder Wand ownership, all because Harry disarmed Draco Malfoy? Are we really supposed to buy that? I understand the principle, Dumbledore wanted Snape to kill him, blah, blah, blah... But I get confused because Harry disarms Draco, but not the Elder Wand! Why should that count? A very intricate explanation that once again, seems too convenient for my liking. And even then, did Harry really figure all of that out? It sounds like he took a big gamble to me. I like the explanation that you have to kill the previous owner much better. It seems more realistic in that it seems the more suitable explanation in the archaic Wizarding world of Harry Potter. It is also much simpler. It's almost comical. I get this parodied vision of Harry describing this entire process to Voldemort in a professorial tone as if he's is explaining basic algebra whilst Voldemort is seemingly content to put his intentions to kill Harry on hold because he is mildly interested. I also have a hard time believing that Dumbledore wouldn't have found the Horcuxes if they were indeed mostly located at Hogwarts and that he wouldn't have just killed Voldemort himself, he even owned the Elder Wand at the time. This brings me to Harry being a Horcrux. I was disappointed, it made sense, but I thought it was far too predictable. Harry has to die in order for Voldemort to also die, which he does. But it only kills the Horcrux and not Harry because Voldemort has Harry's blood. And then Harry proceeds to kill Voldemort through the use a defensive spell, which only works because somehow, he has luckily become the master of the Elder Wand. It's not a terrible idea with the blood magic, but it seemed like she had to stretch it quite a bit in order to make it work when you throw in the whole wand affair. It all seems a bit gimmicky to me. The infiltration of the Ministry may be some of the only engaging schemes in the first half of the book. The tale of the Hallows was, in my opinion, a completely unnecessary device. Rowling is a terrific children's author, but her mastery in grasping high-concepts seems to be lacking. When compared to other accomplished authors, of course. Why even introduce the Veil of Mystery if it's only purpose is to kill Sirius? What about the whispering? I thought it would be a key later on, but to my perplexity, it was completely irrelevant and nothing

became of it. And the side-story about Dumbledore was not as interesting as it ought to have been. I believe this is because the persona she had so painstakingly created in the first six books. I never believed that any of the reading audience ever seriously doubted or mistrusted Dumbledore. Yes, I know some delight in making him very manipulative, which he certainly is to some extent, but it didn't create any emotional response from me. His position in our minds had been established long before any of this. And speaking of emotions, how about the almost afterthought given to Remus' and Tonks' deaths? Maybe she was trying to make a point, but instead, I felt betrayed that she just killed off one of my favorite characters, when it seemed like her only reason for doing so was to kill people off to ensure her book wouldn't be criticized for making the ending 'too happy' (which she did anyways by adding that sickeningly cloying epilogue). The deaths of Dobby and even Hedwig were more moving and were handled with more care. And something else I noticed which I perceived in the sixth book as well was the way the story is written. At times, she sounds like a completely different writer. While the first five books were fairly consistent in tone, the other two are not. It's almost as if four different authors wrote a part of the story and then mashed it together, resulting in a lack continuity and uniformity that manifested itself in the earlier books. Yes, the fifth book was a bit too angsty, but at least he matured and developed. At the end, he demonstrated he grew when he realized that being embarrassed previously with Neville's and Luna's presence is childish and petty. And, yes, the whole Ministry fiasco was completely avoidable, but it shows that Harry isn't perfect and is very flawed when it comes to thinking first and not merely reacting. The sixth book wanders on to teenaged hormone craze and, in my opinion, spends far too much time detailing the relationship status of the students. And I was a teenager when I read this. There was potential to expand on characters like Draco and Snape, but she didn't. On that note, I was completely expecting a direct confrontation between Snape and Harry preferably while one of them wasn't dying. I think a scene involving Harry's hatred of Snape and Snape having to explain to Harry the reason behind everything he did in person would be make for a much more riveting read. Of course, I had figured out that Snape had loved Harry's mother by about the third book, so the revelation was anything but a surprise to me. Which isn't a problem, except for that fact that I thought it was cheap to let Harry come by this information by looking through a dead man's memories. I also happen to think that Snape is one of the best characters in Harry Potter, in that he is complex and not black and white. Also, really? Dudley? What's up with that? Harry saved him two years ago and only now he has an epiphany that he suddenly is fond of Harry? And in the end, it means nothing. We find out nothing more about the Dursleys fate. There was absolutely no closure in this regard. Harry never even gets to give the Dursleys a good scolding, as he deserves to. While in the fifth book, it seems that Petunia did appreciate the horror that her sister's murderer was back and out for Harry. Obviously, while still jealous of her sister, she still cared for her and regretted their estrangement. That would be the only reason she would agree to keep Harry safe. Though, she will never admit this to herself of course. But then, all of a sudden she's exactly the same as she was before, crying tears of joy because of her Diddykins politeness. Strange. And she begins to say something to Harry and then doesn't? That's her last appearance? That's almost comparable to an unresolved cliff-hanger in my opinion. Phew, I won't go on, I'm sure there are other things I have neglected to mention. I realize that this is all very negative and critical, but I really do wish to impress upon you that I did enjoy the series very much. One thing I really did love was the way Harry asserted his authority over Voldemort at the end, appearing both strong and confident. The good unquestionably outweighed the bad, perhaps even in the seventh book (maybe). And I

certainly don't wish to peeve off any fans who disagree with me, but hey, we're all entitled to our own opinions, are we not? I apologize for the rant, but it's just something I feel I need to get off my chest to other fans.