I love the moment when Neville sees Harry arriving at Hogwarts. It's surprising that Harry doesn't realize that his fellow Dumbledore's Army members will want to help him, and that he doesn't anticipate that they will assume he's come back to help them fight. This is where I start to get frustrated with him because he insists on doing everything alone and in secret, which never seemed to be Dumbledore's intention.
Though battle is raging and Harry is on the hunt for a horcrux, there is also a lot of other action going on in these chapters, including Ron and Hermione finally sharing a kiss, Percy returning to reconcile with his family just before his brother Fred is killed, and Harry having a confrontation with Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle. Rowling does a nice job with the pacing, helping the reader to feel the urgency of each moment as it passes, but also making sure we get all the details of how subplots are resolving.
These chapters end, sadly, with the death of Snape, but I left myself hanging before we finally get to hear the truth of what he has really been up to all this time. I'm actually kind of glad to have left off there because I've been anticipating it for so long, and I think having had to wait another week to read it will make it much more satisfying.
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