Yuku free message boards

In addition to the funeral, I guess they also removed the battle itself (the Death Eaters still invade the school, obviously, but the bulk of it probably won't be shown onscreen).

in addition to setting up the trio for the next book, it could leave audiences who never read the book really confused when everyone goes off in search of the deathly hallows.

You don't need the funeral to give them dialogue setting up the next year. They could have that conversation in any setting. The way I'd always envisioned the ending is that Harry packs, and walks out of the school and across the grounds, flanked by Ron and Hermione, perhaps saying something wistful, with no music playing. The camera eventually stops tracking them and just pans on them as they walk by it, and stops panning when they pass by Dumbledore's grave in the background. The kids then walk out of frame while it lingers on the grave, and then slowly fades out, again with no music. But I came up with that before DH when I was absolutely convinced Dumblydore was still alive and was constructing this whole conspiracy based on clues throughout the books. That was probably the biggest red herring (red phoenix?) in the history of literature.