So Harry really was related to Riddle. Just not a descendant of Slytherin, apparently. Peverells must have been a different part of Gaunt's geneology.

I appreciate that Jo always intended Snape to be protecting Harry. However, my original prediction that Snape was acting on Voldemort's orders was based on literary considerations. I reasoned that for Snape to be acting on Dumbledore's orders, Jo would have to engage in some awkward exposition. Thus, The Prince's Tale.

I found all the exposition in two of the final four chapters to be a bit awkward. Just MHO.

Other than that small criticism, I really enjoyed how this turned out. We shouldn't be surprised that a bit of Voldemort's soul went into Harry, as Dumbledore had always hinted that this was so. He told Harry that he could speak parseltongue because V had given that power to him. I'd have to go back for more, but I think he even so much as said that V transferred a bit of himself to Harry, which clearly means "soul." Jo was playing a subtle linguistic game when she denied Harry was a horcrux. He had a bit of soul, but I guess he wasn't a horcrux per se, because V didn't do it intentionally. Hermione talked about a spell which must be performed to transfer a bit of soul to a horcrux, and clearly V didn't get to do that in Harry's case, because he was destroyed.

I thought it appropriate that V met his downfall yet again because he didn't think things through. In the end, even Harry out thought him. Nice application of "pride goeth before a fall." I was immensely proud of Harry in that final confrontation in the Great Hall.