Ow.

::stricken::

My family finished reading the Deathly Hallows last night. Elder Kid had already read all seven books, as had I, but Younger Kid and Dad hadn't, so this was brand new stuff for them. And they both loved the ending - yes, including the Crapilogue, which I love too ::ducking:: as long as I have my mom-hat on. YK was thrilled at the whole mausoleum nomenclature of the offspring, and totally beaming at Albus Severus.

Great reading experience, overall. I had been a bit worried about the character deaths; I remember Elder Kid summed up DH with "I think that was my favourite of all the Harry Potter books - except for Rowling's excessive bloodlust." And I'd also had an eep moment back then, when EK came into the study, near the end of the book, eyes a little reddish, and said "I think Fred dying is going to be my least favourite part of this book. ::pause:: Unless Lupin dies." But overall he liked it and didn't seem overly traumatized or anything. I figured YK would probably have an easier time; he doesn't tend to take things to heart as much as EK.

So YK finishes it yesterday, and seems just fine. He didn't react all that much for any of the deaths, except for Fred's, where he said something like, "Oh well, at least he was only the clone."

"What?"

"George invented him, didn't he?"

"What? Oh, are you talking about that fic I read you?"

"Yeah."

"No, actually, in that fic he invented George."

"Oh." Small pause. "That's too bad. Keep reading!"

He had a lot of fun this morning, too, finally seeing a whole bunch of pictures and icons & stuff that he'd been previously barred from seeing. Spoileriffic stuff I downloaded for EK when DH came out. You know, all the RIP icons, the one that says "Neville is MADE of AWESOME!" the one that says "Narcissa Malfoy totally pwned Voldemort - bet you didn't see that one coming!" the ones that say "OI! There's a WAR going on here!" And there were a few fanvids that we'd also downloaded, mostly "For the fallen" tribute-type things, a few funny ones, a couple for Remus, a couple for Fred. EK told YK a bunch of the JKR interview tidbits - the Weasley family tree, Neville married Hannah Abbott, Ginny played for the Holyhead Harpies, etc. All great fun.

Tonight I'm in the study, waiting for them to finish getting ready for bed, and I've still got my Windows player on the playlist with the fanvids. YK wanders into the room, sees what I've got playing, and sits down to watch a Fred vid he hadn't seen before. I'm not paying much attention, as I'm studying for my *&%$ing bar exam. I glance up at my screen, notice the clip that's playing, and say, "Oh, remember Angelina Johnson, the Gryffindor Captain, went out with Fred, and Rowling said she later married George? That's her. That's where Fred asked her to the Yule Ball."

Look over at YK, and suddenly notice he's very quiet and his eyes are reddish.

Oh crap.

"Are you OK?"

Lower lip starts to go, I sit him down on my lap, and before I know it, he's totally sobbing. Tears running down, and not even able to talk. Spent the next fifteen minutes or so just cuddling. The only thing he was able to get out was, "I just got so attached to them, for the seven books... especially Hedwig! And they're all dead!"


...damn.

So, yeah, um, I have no experience dealing with this. He was totally heartbroken. And I feel like a terrible mom. There's probably no reason for that - hey, I'm not the one who killed them all off - but it feels like I should've done something? Dunno what. I offered to give him a list of characters who died before starting the last book, but he didn't want me to.

::sigh::


BTW, if anybody knows who made that Fredvid, I'd love to know. I downloaded it from somebody who didn't know the creator either. I'd love to thank them for it - it's a great video, setting aside the fact that it made my kid cry :(