This is where I should be reading what she said instead of jumping ahead to supposition. Did she say personal faith or religious belief? Maybe she had some catharsis at some point, something which changed who she was fundamentally. Excuse the psychobabble but I feel like I'm on to something here. Could HP losing his power be a metaphor for rebirth, resurrection? I don't know if it's really keeping with her writing style, though. Seems more like a route that Tolkien or Lewis would have taken.
The plot thread I am most interested in seeing play out, even more than LV vs HP, is what becomes of Snape. I have my theories all worked out, but I'd love to know your take on him...pure evil or just misunderstood? Whaddya think?
When she read it to me (as I drove), I was appalled. Snape in the books had been so much darker, nastier, "badder" than he's been in the movies. Seemed unredeemable. I sort of gasped when he took the unbreakable vow at the start, wondered where that would go. But Dumbledore had such absolute confidence in him... but he'd been wrong before, too.
So when this came, I hoped he'd change, or show up as good. Instead, Rowling describes this look of hatred and revulsion, and he simply does the evil deed. I gasped. He'd clearly turned, gone evil.
But then Valerie raised doubts after we finished, and I began wondering. We went back over events.
I came to the conclusion (at least) that it is a startlingly well-written narrative. It really could go either way! As that professor guy, Granger or what's-his-name, says, the books are written as if we were observing from just over Harry's shoulder. We see things almost always just as Harry sees them. And so we see this as Harry sees it, and Harry's view of Snape is very definite.
But it could mean a whole different thing!
So I've gone from sure that Snape was evil (first read) to thinking that he really is doing as he and Dumbledore had planned. The details -- no idea.
Anyway, that's my thought in a nutshell. Yours?
Dan