You know that thing where I said if you didn't want to be spoiled for Deathly Hallows, you shouldn't come to the blog for 4 or 5 days? Turns out it's going to be a lot longer than that. By my reckoning the statute of limitations on spoilers runs out on Monday anyway so you can deal with it as you see fit; last night Amelia and I got shushed at a restaurant because we were talking too loudly about what happens to Neville. (Good natured shushing, mind you, and happily accepted.) And I'm pretty sure Jeff was ready to take a swing at Stacey and me at soccer last week because we just couldn't stop talking about it. You ever seen a pissed off Szpirglas? It's a wonder to behold.

Today we're going to be talking about two of my very favourite aspects of the final book: the redemption(s) of Kreacher and Severus Snape. These are both interesting because I basically thought they were impossible. I mean, I knew she'd make some token effort to redeem Snape in Book Seven and I thought I'd be all like, "OK, whatever" about it, but there is no denying that when she gets done with ol' Sev, she has actually succeeded in completely reversing every single thing you thought you knew about the character. Ditto for Kreacher, a redemption I didn't even see coming... I seem to discount House Elves from the character dynamics scale for some reason (it never even occured to me that she could kill Dobby) which is just faulty reasoning on my part. End of Book Five, I pretty much hated that guy as much as I've ever hated any character in the saga (short of Umbridge). Now, I'm all about Kreacher. I want a Kreacher of my very own. I derive enormous satisfaction from the fact that in the years following Hallows, Kreacher got to live out his remaining time on this earth taking care of Harry Potter and his family. That is a beautiful thing.

Snape's turn, too, is a beautiful thing. More of a tragic thing than Kreacher's, obviously, because every single bad thing that happens to Snape, he brought upon himself. In both his and Kreacher's case, the turn for the readers seems to rely on showing the pitiable state in which the characters find themselves - in Kreacher's case, we literally watch him getting tug-of-warred by the various requirements of the House Elf's enslavement; in Snape's, we see how he slowly and meticulously drove his one true love out of his life, and then had to not only suffer the ignominy of watching her marry and procreate with the living emblem of everything Snape hated/wished he could be, but die for it (at least partially through Snape's actions). There's no magical curse on Snape, but he's as fucked as they come. He's a dead man walking from the moment he turns to Dumbledore before the attack in Godric's Hollow, and yet every single nasty, horrible thing he had to do over the next 16 years is coloured completely differently when you realize he was doing it all for Lily. Good googly moogly, how god fuck awful it is to finally be empathizing with Severus Snape.

These turnarounds lead to two of the most affecting images in the book and possibly the entire saga - Kreacher slaving over a steak and kidney pie that Harry will never return home to eat; and Snape wanting to die looking into Harry's/Lily's eyes. Once you put the pieces together on that, tell me you haven't completely come around on every single thing you ever thought about both of those despicable wretches. It's all so masterfully done.