OK, wow, thank you! It's always interesting to write from Harry's perspective. I think it helps give me insight into what I'm trying to convey because I actually (in spite of an rigid commitment to SS/HP=OTP!) often don't like Harry very much, so seeing a story through his eyes uh, helps me get to some depth I might not otherwise get to. Does that make sense? Harry at the end of book 7 was somewhat different than he had been by the end of each of the other books, but all that's gone before in his life, all his behaviors, wouldn't have just gone away in some instant maturity. Fucked up lives create fucked up people; not necessarily bad people, certainly, but Harry was so often ultimately encouraged for bad or self-centered behavior that I think it couldn't help but shape the adult he became. I know that not everyone agrees with my Harry characterization, and I'm beyond thrilled that you seem to see in him exactly what I was hoping to get across.
I agree with you about the ending and I thank you for saying what you did. I was more than a little ambivalent about writing it at all, because for me it wasn't really a happy-ever-after kind of fic, but my first games story ended on a harsh, awful note, and my second ended ambiguously, so for this one, I thought I'd try for at least a little bit of happiness lest I get tarred and feathered. Two of my three betas encouraged me to not end it with 'get out!" which is where I was headed. I had time concerns, absolutely, already having received two extensions from the lovely mods, but I think it was my own ambivalence, rather than the time constraints, that made the "epilogue" abrupt, and as you so rightly point out, clunky. It seems you don't think it ruined the story, which is a huge relief!
Thanks so much for reading and for your very thoughtful comments. I love and appreciate it beyond words when people take the time to actually give concrit. Thank you.