How did you feel when she died exactly like Sirius. What was your reaction when Mrs Weasley screamed that B word? Did you wish that it were Harry or Neville who had killed her instead?
I loved that she died like Sirius cause that just proves what goes around comes around... Take that B!@$ch!

Mrs. Weasley is my hero. Laughed out loud when she said that.

As for Neville, I knew he'd do something huge and I think cutting off Nagini's head like that was pretty awesome as it was. Even Neville would probably be happier with that contribution than killing Bellatrix once he found out the significance of what he'd done.

My one disappointment there is that Bella didn't suffer and pain first. She died gracefully like Sirius. She wasn't worthy but I guess that's the difference between good and evil. Good people don't sink that low.

mrs weasley owned at that part!
hahah bella was such a crazy bitch. i couldnt help but love all her scenes because she was such a nut. although i dont like that she killed sirius *butnotreallybecauseimstillindenial* but she got what she had coming.

I was speaking to a friend about Bellatrix's death the other day and he said to me "how do you know she is dead? she just 'fell'? I was sure that she had died but when I went back and re-read that part it is a little ambigous, just like Sirius' death. We are not told excatly what curse is used to kill her.

"Bellatrix laughed, the same exhilarated laugh her cousin Sirius had given as he toppled backwards through the veil, and suddenly Harry knew what was going to happen before it did.
Molly's curse soared beneath Bellatrix's outstretched arm and hit her squarley in the chest."..

"..Voldermort's fury at the fall of his last, best lieutenant..."

I'm still convinced she is dead, for one thing, I think it would have been mentioned later if she was still alive. Secondly we are told that "both women were fighting to kill", so we know that Molly was prepared to use the killing curse at this time.

I just find it quite strange that JKR choose to write her death in this way, so very similar to the veil scence that has got us all wondering for years excatly what killed Sirius - the curse or the veil. I guess like Padfootforever said, she wrote it like this to show that what goes around comes around. Bella has the classic Black familly arrogance and hasn't learnt from the mistake she saw Sirius make - overconfidance. She totally undersitmated Molly to her cost.

I was actually a little disappointed that it was Molly who finally finished Bellatrix. I think that's just because she's never really been one of my favourite characters and although it was brilliant to see her come into her own I would have liked to have seen Hermione, Ginny or Luna finish it themselves without the help of an 'adult'. Bella was fighting them 3 on 1 and I was thinking 'come on girls, you are all a match for her now', but I guess none of the three of them was quite ready to use that kind of magic - the killing curse. It just would have been good to see Hermione, in particular, prove to be a match for Bella, especially after what she did to her at Malfoy manor.

Yes I agree, Lupinsangel it would have been nice to see her suffer a bit more first, but at least she hadn't been having the best time of it throughout the book. In some ways it would have been very intresting if she had survived to know that voldermort had finally been killed. How would she have dealt with that? Could she have slipped even further into the realms of insanity? She showed that she was as evil as Voldermort, as obsessed with power and cruelty but she was at least able to feel some emotion. I do think that she genuinely was in love with Voldermort (well as much as someone like her can love). She was obsessed by him and worshipped him like a God. I don't think she would have shared his greatest fear of 'death'. I think the greatest punishment for her would have been the knowledge of his death and his failure.

I agree that she didn't share his fear of death - I think she was prepared to die for him. Didn't she say something like that when she was on trial in tghe Pensieve in OotP?

Oooh, I actually forgot what Bella did to Hermione. She has now been added to my list of people that needed to use Crutio on her all at once.

I'm not sure Bella is capable of believing that Voldemort is dead. She was one of precious few that believed he would come back last time and he proved that he is capable of returning from the "dead" (most assumed he was dead and they didn't know of horcruxes as far as we know).

On that note, do you think Bella knew that what she was guarding in her vault was a horcrux and that's why she knew he would rise again? He didn't tell Lucius... but she was much more confident about his return. Then again, that could just have been the insanity that she showed in everything else she did.

I really love the fact that Mrs. Weasley killed Bellatrix. Mrs. Weasley is for me the opposite of Mrs. Lestrange, she is compassionate, loving, caring and an amazing family person and mother. Bellatrix on the other hand was in for a life filled with hatred, torture and murder.

I think that Mrs. Weasley never wanted more than a peaceful, normal and happy life with her family - and the death of her son showed her that this wasn't possible at that point and that she had to fight and it's just fitting that at a point where she was afraid of losing another child she proved to be much more powerful than ever before.

Bellatrix underestimated the power of a mother, the love of a mother - the same way she underestimated her sister's love for Draco. And that this cruel and haughty woman was killed by a loving mother, by a very normal (in a good way) woman - that's justice, good justice and a great message.

The only reason I am not suspending your account for starting a spoilery topic with a spoilery title is because I only saw this now, on Friday, pretty much at the point when our spoiler ban will be lifted.

That, and I am in a pretty good mood. BUT, next time, read and make sure to follow the rules. Your account could have been suspended for two weeks padfootforever.

I am really really sorry... Won't happen ever again...

Personally, I think that there would have been a sort of symmetry, a bit of poetic justice if it had been Neville who'd killed Bella. Revenge for his parents, not to mention uber-snaps from his gran. The book review in our local paper called it Molly's Ripley moment and although I laughed when I initially read the passage, it doesn't seem terribly original now. I think Ginny herself would have been powerful enough on her own to do away with Bella but for whatever reason both Harry and the Weasleys seemed hell-bent on protecting her and keeping her out of the battle.

I don't know, I'm drawn between the two. I agree that it would have been awesome for Neville to have "finished off" Bellatrix, purely because of what she did to his parents, but equally, I also agree with the point about Mrs Weasley being a worthy person for the role, since she encompassed goodness and loving, and was pretty much everything Bella wasn't.

Would any of the "youngsters" been able to kill death eaters though? Dumbledore said that Draco should not kill anyone, because he was too innocent and his soul was too pure. Whether he meant this to mean that Draco was not able to, or shouldn't be permitted to (because it would destroy his innocence) I am not sure, but his inability to bring himself to murder was demonstrated when he froze on the tower with Dumbledore, and had not killed him even after a considerable amount of time, despite being in a perfect position to, and against someone who was wandless, injured and defenceless. And this was a person who had a death eater parent!
Surely the innocence of characters such as Neville, Luna and Ginny would have been even greater, and so in a way I think it would have been a shame for one of the younger characters to have used a killing curse (though I'm pretty sure Neville, at least, could have really meant it!), because it would have made them killers at such a young age, even if it was for "the greater good". Even Fred, George and Percy, who were older, were only hitting Death Eaters with stunning/transfiguration spells, not killing curses. Mrs Weasley was, at least, a responsible adult who had seen it all happen before, and who was mature enough to deal with the afterthoughts and consequences of her actions.

It would also have been pretty exciting if Neville's grandmother had been the one to do it though...

Another thing - JK has seemingly awarded such roles to those characters who have directly suffered loss at the hands of the Death Eaters, or Voldemort. For example, Harry got to (effectively) finish off LV, because his parents were killed by him. Neville got to kill Nagini, because the Death Eaters tortured his parents. Mrs Weasley got to kill Bellatrix, because she lost her son to them. Members of the Order killed off some of the others, but we know that many of the Order were also killed over the years by the Death Eaters, and so the remaining members had suffered the loss of some of their oldest and best friends at the hands of the group. If this justice/revenge theory was something that JK had in mind, then there was little chance that a character such as Hermione would have ever killed one of the Death Eaters, as she had not suffered direct loss, and similarly for Luna (her father was only accosted by D.Es, and her mother's death, as far as we know, was nothing to do with them). Ron and Ginny may have been suitable candidates, but then Mrs Weasley effectively sought revenge/justice for the whole Weasley family.

Just a thought...

I guess I missed the part in the book where her son was killed by Bella. Perhaps I was too emcompassed to notice who, just knew that he was killed...

In that case, Molly was a good choice. Though wouldn't it have been funny if Cissy or Draco did it? Think...Bella and Cissy are almost opposites of each other. While Bella is dark, Cissy is light. Cissy is rather sane and capable of love and compassion (shown through her concern for Draco in "Spinner's End" (HBP), and throughout DH), whereas Bella is clearly insane and capable of nothing but murder, torture, and an insane worship of LV. While Bella tried her hardest to hurt (though not kill) Harry, Cissy saved his life. And though Bella is her sister, she didn't care about Draco and said that she should be proud her son was a DE and had been asked to do this task, even though he may not succeed. She would be happy to give her sons, if she had any, to the service of LV, even if they had a chance of dying, because it would be an honorable death. She makes me sick.

Cissy would have been a good possiblility.

Oops! Sorry I didn't mean to make it sound as if it was Bella who killed Fred. (Nor that Nagini was the one to torture Neville's parents!). I was just suggesting killing by the D.E/LV collective in general.
I don't think the blame for Fred's death was explicitly placed on anyone, although I had a feeling it could have been Rookwood, because when Percy sees him shortly afterwards he shouts after him, and it's written in capitals as if there was more extreme anger in it than just the fact that Percy was surprised to see him fighting on the bad side.

Yes I never thought of that before, but I agree Narcissa would have been a nice twist, especially with her shift from the evil to good when she covered up for Harry (although admittedly she wasn't too bad for an "evil" person, all along).
I'm just glad SOMEONE got rid of Bella, I only wish it had been pre- "Beyond The Veil"

One thing to add on that matter:

It was a great thing that Mrs. Weasley was the one to finish Bellatrix. In OotP she and Sirius were always arguing and disagreeing with each other, specially over what Harry should or souldn't do...

And during and after those arguments I felt they both suffered a lot!
Sirius was trapped inside #12 and was beeing kept from beeing a present godfather. And poor Molly always worrying about Harry wellfare like a mother does to her children...

I believe that her finishing of Bella was rightful and great. She, somehow, "made it up" for beeing cold to Sirius at #12 in OotP by finishing Bella while trying to protect her daughter.

I thought it was very fitting!

While I agree that there is some satisfaction to be had by Neville being the one to kill Bellatrix, I would have been devastated that he had killed someone. I would have had that momentary "YES!", followed by a kind of depression that the books ended on a note that had teenagers killing people.

I said this before in another thread, but personally I really liked the choice of Molly being the one to finish off Bellatrix. For one thing, she had the immediate neccessity, as her daughter was threatened that very moment. Also, I think a woman needed to be the one to do it, because frankly I don't think boys should hit girls. But to expand on BaraRose's insight of Bella's opposite being her downfall, Molly again is the perfect choice.

Molly creates. Children, sweaters, casseroles...the woman is a creator. Bellatrix destroys. Molly nurtures, Bella tortures. Molly has no prejudice of people from Muggle, half-blood, or pure-blood descent. Bellatrix exists to rid the world of anything less than pure-bloods and their allies.

Cindy, you make a great point too, about Molly making ammends for the argument with Sirius at 12 Grimmauld in OotP. The two of them are essentially Harry's parents, and they both wanted what was best, just approaching it very differently. Since the father figure wasn't there to defend the brood in the final battle, then the mother figure had to act.

I just find it poetic justice that a person who had no love in her heart was offed by a woman who is all heart.