Definitely fitting, they had to show up somewhere. Let me take this opportunity to complain again about how not a single Slytherin student stayed to fight on the right side, though. And if you're talking about cinematic (ultra-cliché) moments, the description of how all the Gryffindors rise as one man to stand with Harry, followed in a few heartbeats by the Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws respectively, is rather hard to beat. That's just poor writing, to be honest - it'd be tacky even in a Hollywood movie, but in books you're kind of supposed to have more nuance than in Hollywood movies. Or at least that's how I see it.

Your point about how Crabbe and Goyle have embraced the Death Eater way made me think of the Catiline conspiracy thing again - the Death Eaters really are a sorry lot, aren't they? So few of them are even halfway competent.

It's really becoming about time at that point - she has to make clear that it really is going to be for real this time, and that there's a reason why McGonagall says "we duel to kill". It is definitely well done, very different from the casual way Lupin's and Tonks' death is described later, and Colin Creevey's. Which is good - not all deaths have the same impact or are taken in the same way.

Voldemort never did pretend to have friends, either. He's just taunting Harry, if you ask me.

Call me harsh, but I would say over-vindicated. It's particularly the flash-back to the chase scene early in the book that bugs me. Snape's curse that takes off George's ear was really intended for a Death Eater? Seriously? He's going to blow his cover and the whole plan just like that? She should have let it stand as an intentional act, aiming to wound instead of aiming to kill. Those flash-backs should serve as explanation, not as apologia - fortunately most of the others are, and don't attempt to justify every ugly little thing Snape's ever done.

That line about how being muggle-born does not make any difference is far and away my favourite bit of this book, and among my favourite of the whole series. It's a somewhat silly lie, as she'll find out the truth soon enough, but so endearing.

His dislike of Muggles might simply be linked to his dislike of his father, maybe also his father's friends or family.

Yes, a much-needed touch of nuance to the Sorting thing. Though it still doesn't explain what Wormtail was doing in Gryffindor.

I believe she does, yes. And here we get that clue that some of her earlier denigrating comments may not have been about James after all, but about Snape.

That she does.

I'm kind of mystified by how he simply shows up in the expectation to receive a message from Voldemort. What sort of message does he imagine that would be?