Well, my views on Harry's fate (live or die) were influenced by outside events. Rowling stated there would only be 7 books, no more. Which lead me to believe she was going to kill him off and let the wizarding world "die on the vine" so to speak. Then she wouldn't be pestered by anyone asking about the next book/story, etc. Then again, should Harry live, she could "license" the rights to some publisher with final say on events/material done by other authors, and rake in even more money (like she doesn't have enough). I really liked the story line and the characters, etc. and really hoped that Harry would survive. But I really expected him to be killed off. When he did die with a couple of chapters left, I was totally confused on how this was all really going to end. I actually had to stop reading at that point because my "break time" at work was over. I had to wait until the next day to finish that last bit left. I was pleasantly surprised to see that Harry survived, and shocked that Fred Weasely, Lupin and Tonks were gone. The epilogue was very good, though "brief" about some of the other characters and stuff. But overall, very enjoyable. Now, this brings me to a question: When Harry was entering the Forbidden Forest and had the Resurrection Stone, his mom & dad, Lupin and Sirius appeared and "escorted" him past the dementors. These were the people he loved in life and "brought back" for his final battle. Why weren't Dumbledore, Mad Eye, Fred Weasely and Cidric Diggory there as well? Harry was constantly wondering why Dumbledore never told as much as Harry wanted, this would have been a great chance to do that (which he got to do a little bit further on in the book: King's Station). Mad Eye & Fred were probably just as important as Lupin in Harry's life, & Cidric's death weighed heavily on Harry ever since (although Harry did get to "talk" to Cidric during his battle with Voldemort at the end of Goblet-of-Fire). Just wondering