Yeah, I wanted a bit more. Maybe Harry dies? That'd make the patronus spirit walk more powerful.

But the happy ending in the kids book isn't bad, and the story is great, but I did want more.

Think of Lord of the Rings.

Frodo fails. Utterly. He goes all Dark Lord in the end and if it wasn't for Gollum (who Bilbo spared in an entirely different story), the baddies win. Frodo ends up with incurable PTSD, is haunted by the whole ordeal and can't rest until he leaves with Gandalf.

The hero is Samwise, who actually develops the most as a character and isn't even portrayed as a primary protagonist. It works, and nobody complains about it, because it's well written. The biggest gripe against Tolkien is the eagles which he uses to basically save us 200 pages of walking.

In short, I like HP, but I thought JK went conservative and ran out the clock. I enjoy aggressive play calling.