No spoiler wanrings from me, those wandering here have been warned enough!
Well, things I did like to start with, and then a lengthy rant...

Things I did like:

• The redemtion theme, and how it was applied to expected and unexpected characters – Draco, Snape, Dumbledore, his brother, Scrimgeour, even Grindelwald…
• The ministry scenes, where the muggleborns are being registered, even if the historical parallels are a little to obvios, almost… (Nazi Germany, South Africa…)
• The background story about poor Tuney and her letter, and how rejected she felt.
• Side characters, where they were allowed to actually unfold a little (Dumbledores old friend, Dudley, Aunt Muriel, the Delacroix...). Well, all except Daddy Lovegood, but that’s personal taste.
• How Wormtail was killed. Not for reasons of satisfaction, it was just one of those “should have seen it coming but didn't”- bits I missed… And similar scenes.
• See Nr. Eight from my didn't like list.
• That there wasn’t dwelling on things that were already told. No lenghty stuff about the Chamber, not much looking back etc, not much more about the house elfs and the giants, because we already read how what came, came to be. I just would have liked it if the things that looked like they still had to be told or were plain missing hadn't been neglected like that. There seems to be no difference having been made between them.
• The end was thrilling, the last few chapters I mean. It wouldn't have kept me awake that long if it hadn't been.
  

And now, the stuff I didn't like. Sorry if it's geeky, sorry if it's long.

• For a book where so much happened, it was still astonishing how it took 100 pages to take off at all – I think that is when the wedding was interrupted – and spend another good deal of pages sulking around in the forest, that is a lot… Well, more room for the neglected side stories with formerly-important-and-beloved-characters-now-being-canonfodder would have been nice, a few sentences would, in some cases, have made all the difference…

• Logical flaw: It has been pointed out in OotP that Trelawney made two prophecies (the second one to Harry in PoA), and never remembered that she made them or what happened around her during that time. Now, Both Dumbledore in OotP and Snape in DH state the intruder, or eavesdropper, Snape, has only heard the first half of the prophecy (“I told him all, all I had heard!”) If he had told Voldemort the entire prophecy, OotP would never have happened… How can Trelawney remember she was interrupted, and remember who it was, if it happened in the middle of her see-ing induced trance?

• They are droppping like the flies. Well, it is a battle, so that is not astonishing. It is a work of fiction, though, so it would have been in the author’s power to get that across not so much like a shopping list of doom…

• Ron faked parseltongue to get into chamber of secrets. Given how mysterious and unique the gift of speaking Parseltongue was portrayed until that stood in the way of rushing the action, that seems like one of the 1001 deus ex machina effects in the book. There were a few too many of them already.

• Mrs Weasley finishes off Bellatrix Lestrange, while the rest of the crowd merely watches due to respect off dramatic purposes. These wizrding folks firmly believe into the narrative laws, right? Other than that, well, Rowling has a thing for motherly love and its power. Mrs Weasley can here be seen in top form. A hint in one of the earlier six volumes or this one that she is such a powerful fighter would have boosted this scenes credibility, though.

• The side story of Lupin and Tonks, and wether their baby was borned cursed or not (is that even mentioned?), was totally… was there a check list of “things that have to have happened by the end of the series”? This was one of the side stories where just two really good sentences would have helped so much. You end up feeling they only reproduced before being killed off screen so a Lupin could appear in the epilogue and be matched with a Weasley.

• The epilogue… Harry Pooter TNG, anyone? And… those names! Scorpius! *cringes * I also find one thing, well, interesting in a geeky way: Here’s the offspring of our heroes. The cast for future fanfics. And they are all… pureblood… with two wizarding parents…

• “One of the bravest men I ever knew…” Well, Harry always was a forgiving person. I can see him chainging his mind about a person that much. Over the course of nineteen years, and that person being dead, that is. Because Snape would never have become little Albus' second namesake if he had still been alive… And poor Snape deserves to be remembered, even when book 7 portraits him as far too pitiful and fixated for my taste, too soap-ish in his motivations. I am not for romantics, not to that(!) degree at least, but the chapter were Harry sees his memories contains a few heart wrenching pieces where I was reminded of what I liked about the earlier books, how Rowling could get across a lot of backstory in one short description, with a few words. Still, a bit less one dimensional as to motivations, values, etc, of one of the characters many readers had the most questions about, would have been nice. Love of his life. So. But that alone, would that steer anybodys decisions like that even seventeen years after her death? And nothing else? That was it?

• Was she afraid the story would run away with Snape if she gave him too many scenes? He didn’t play too much of a role, if you consider she named the whole sixth book after him.

• Which leads me to the following questions: Was it worth giving the rest of his life after surrendering to Dumbledore, and getting killed in the end? What exactly did he contribute to Voldemorts downfall, except for not being as bad a headmaster for the DE as another DE would have been? I thought he must have, but I can’t really answer that question to my satisfaction. Bringing Harry the sword. Maybe saving Remus, cutting off George’s ear in the process. And then? Brave to what end? Would a man with those abilities not have been more helpful openly fighting for the right side, instead of watching passively when people were tortured and killed? Was that worth it? Poor man, ended as a plot device. He killed Dumbledore, which made him a great spy – to which no one of the good guys would ever talk again, because Dumbledore had a pathological aversion against passing on helpful information. That, Dumbledore, is a cruel way of getting an assisted suicide, even taken into account it spares another teenager from becomin a murderer: “And my soul?” Good question. Poor Sev.

• Dumbledore: Actually the background story added to his character, I thought. Made him grey-er. And fitted the theme of redemption (Snape, Draco, Dumbledore, in a way, his brother, redeeming himself from resignation). Still, I’d feel better if I was sure that all his non-telling decisions would have made sense. And… being tempted enough to doom himself to death by using the Resurrection Ring when even a seventeen year old wouldn’t be as greedy? After all these years of experience?

• Nitpicking point: The three heroes are apparating all the time in this book, but from the back of the dragon, they have to jump dramatically.

• Voldemort still sticking to the famous book of “Villains for Dummies” – that stroking Nagini, the superflous –for him, anyway- ultimatum…

• Horkruxes for everybody! Loved the thing with the cup… Ron: “Look, even my girl got to destroy her own horkrux…” (beams)

• So in 2017, people still say snogging. Or again?

• Slytherins. Rowling said, in an interview, she wouldn’t want to have them all portrayed as stereotypical evil. But they are - the students at least! (The stuff, in hindsight, not sio much.) Not a single one of the students did not fit the stereotype. Although seeing this school has treated them for the last thirty years, I would have left, too. How can a house be kept when being sorted into it is such a major stigma, by the way?

• So, the humiliation scene from the pensieve… Now we may have learnt it was Snape’s worst memeory not only because it was so humiliating, but also because it cost him Lily’s friendship. Obviously, though, it happened after the dirty trick Sirius played on Snape, and actually on Remus, too. Pity it wasn’t explained how Dumbeldore made Snape promise never to tell anybody, why Snape kept his promise even under some sort of pressure (Lily thinks he should be grateful! And that James is the hero!) And why really, James and clique are portrayed as such assholes… There’s not much left of James' aura by the end of the series. (And he's acting a little stupid too: Snape knows Remus is a werewolf, now. Annyoing the hell out of him might not be such a good idea. A branch of peace might be. But it seems those guys didn’t consider Remus’ well being too much in the end…)

• Everybody was throwing around Forbidden Curses? A cruciatus for spitting at McGonnagall, when Harry couldn’t muster the scrouple-less-ness to put it on Bellatrix Lestarnge for killing (!) Sirius?

• What was up with Percy? So he came back. But… I always hought you needed verrrry good reasons to treat your family like that, especially if it is an intact one and you are meeting your father in the escalator every other day.

• The sheer plot being finding and destroying a number of magical items, increades by three, and the sudden concept of wands having a mind of their own, choosing their rightful and betraying their unrightful carriers. Talking swords anyone? That is a lot of D&D for someone who insists they don’t read other fantasy, don’t like it, and is solely inspired by the ancient epics, Mrs Rowling!

• The handy connection to the Dark Lord, back again, this time from Harry’s side to Voldemort alone, and unnoticed by the latter. How convenient. Another deus ex machina.