So, that’s it. I did it, albeit a day later than I planned.
This was actually the first time that I’ve read all seven books back to back. It just goes to show how great this series really is. I’ve read each book at least 5 times, and I still enjoyed every one. I still cried at certain points, and even though I knew what was going to happen, it was still a page turner.
I went and saw Deathly Hallows again last night, and it really was just as good the second time. I actually think I cried more than I did on Thursday night. (Also, if you have a chance to see it in IMAX 3D, do it! It was awesome!)
And I’m sure you’ve all heard that Deathly Hallows has broken pretty much every single box office record: Midnight total, Opening Day/Single Day total, US Opening Weekend, Worldwide Opening Weekend. I think it’s safe to say that the Harry Potter series went out on top.
So, thank you to everyone who followed and maybe even read along. I hope you guys enjoyed the last seven weeks as much as I did.
So Harry has to die. That’s what must happen. Imagine being just 17 years old and knowing that you’re going to die. What have you done in 17 years? Your life hasn’t even started yet. You’ve spent most of it in school. If you’re lucky, you have some good friends, maybe you’ve been in love. But, no, 17 years isn’t long enough. No one should die at 17.
Harry knows what he has to do. He doesn’t want goodbyes, so he puts his Invisibility Cloak on and walks through the castle. He sees the bodies of the people who have died, who have died for him. Colin Creevey, who was too young to fight, but snuck back in anyway. Tonk and Lupin, whose son has now become an orphan due to Voldemort, just like Harry.
He goes to the forest to find Voldemort and realizes what the Snitch means. “I Open At The Close.” He holds the Snitch to his mouth and says “I am about to die” and out comes the Resurrection Stone. He spins it three times. His parents, Sirius, and Lupin appear and I start crying. I can’t even with this scene. When I was reading this for the first time, I actually had to put the book down and walk away for a minute. And I was just a complete mess in the movies.
He finds Voldemort and doesn’t even try to defend himself when Voldemort casts Avada Kedavra.
And that’s it. Harry dies. THE END.
………………..
Ok, not really. He arrives in King’s Cross station, or something like it. It’s very bright and clean. Dumbledore’s there, too, as is this creepy, skinless fetus thing. So, is this supposed to be Heaven? I love how Jo deals with this whole idea. Harry Potter has never once been religious. There’s no mention of God or Heaven/Hell. Even this is up to interpretation. Yeah, I know some of the crazy religious people hate on the books because the “promote witchcraft.” (Ugh, get over yourself.) But, I think one of the reasons that Harry Potter is so popular amongst so many people is because of that fact. Harry Potter doesn’t preach anything. Yeah, you can look at it from a religious point of view and kind of dissect it in that way, but you can do that with anything. As an atheist, I’ve never seen any kind of theology in the series, something that can’t be said for the Narnia books, for example.
Dumbledore explains what happened to Harry. When the killing curse backfired 16 years ago, a piece of Voldemort’s soul attached itself to the closest living thing, Harry. And when he took Harry’s blood to rebuild himself three years ago, he took Lily’s blood. He took Lily’s protection. Her protections lives as long as Voldemort does. So, when he cast Avada Kedavra, he destroyed the Horcrux inside of Harry, but as long as Voldemort is still alive, Harry cannot die. Harry goes back, and pretends to be dead.
Voldemort sends Narcissa Malfoy to check if he’s dead. She can feel his heart, she knows he’s alive, but she, very quietly so only Harry can hear, asks if Draco is still alive. When he tells her yes, she lies and says that Harry’s dead. And just like that, the Malfoy’s redeem themselves, in my eyes at least. I was very satisfied with the way that Malfoy’s story ended in the movie, even though it’s a bit different than the books. I’ve always like the Malfoys, well Narcissa and Draco anyway. I always knew they weren’t completely bad. They just kind of got sucked into the lifestyle and couldn’t figure out how to get out.
Voldemort forces Hagrid to carries Harry’s body to the castle, to show everyone that the Great Harry Potter is dead. Voldemort asks who will finally give in a join him. Neville steps forward. (omg this scene in the movie. Matt Lewis is amazing. Neville is amazing. It was amazing.) He tells Voldemort that he’ll join him when Hell freezes over, pulls the sword of Gryffindor out of the Sorting Hat and cuts off Nagini’s head, destroying the final Horcrux. Harry pulls the Invisibility Cloak over himself as everyone starts fighting again. Ginny and Hermione are fighting Bellatrix and Ginny is almost killed. In one of the greatest moments I’ve ever read, Mrs. Weasley comes out of nowhere and says “NOT MY DAUGHTER, YOU BITCH!” and kills Bellatrix. Mrs. Weasley, sweet old Molly Weasely killed one of the craziest, most sadistic Death Eaters, Bellatrix fucking Lestrange. Anyone who is worried about this moment in the movie, it’s in it, and it’s awesome. And of course, the entire theater broke out in applause.
Harry reveals himself and finally has the final showdown with Voldemort. He tells Voldemort everything that Dumbledore told him, explaining why he’s still alive. Voldemort casts Avada Kedavra and Harry casts Expelliarmus. Since Harry has the real Elder Wand, that he took from Draco, he destroys Voldemort once and for all. That’s it. It’s over. Voldemort’s dead and they’ve won.
Harry can relax for literally the first time in his life. People take care of the injured and try to clean up after all the chaos. Harry gets Ron and Hermione and the three of them go up to the Headmaster’s Office, where all the portraits cheer for Harry. He fixes his own wand and tells Dumbledore’s portrait that he’s going to get rid of the Elder Wand, hide it in the woods along with the stone. The Elder Wand will only bring him trouble and he’s had enough trouble for a lifetime.
Nineteen Years Later.
Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Ginny, all in their mid-thirties, are at King’s Cross on September 1st, seeing their own children off to Hogwarts. Harry and Ginny have three kids, James Sirius the oldest, who I guess is about 13 or 14 since this isn’t his first year at Hogwarts, Albus Severus (seriously? that name?) who is 11 and going to Hogwarts for the first time, and Lily Luna, who is too young for Hogwarts yet. James has been teasing Albus about the fact that he might be in Slytherin. Albus is terrified that he might be sorted into Slytherin, so Harry takes him aside and tells him that he’s named after two Hogwarts headmaster, one of which was a Slytherin and was the bravest man Harry ever knew. They meet up with Ron and Hermione, who are seeing their own daughter, Rose, off to her first year at Hogwarts. They have another kid, Hugo, who is the same age as Lily. The train takes off and we find out that Harry’s scar hadn’t pained him in 19 years and all was well.
I know a lot of people don’t love the Epilogue and I’m one of them. I wish we found out more. I wish we found out what they’ve been doing for the past nineteen years, what jobs they have, when they got married. Important stuff. Yeah, I know Jo told us all that eventually, but still. However, I understand why she wrote it and ended the series this way.
Harry’s an orphan. He’s never had a real family. His only blood relatives were the Dursely’s and he sure as hell didn’t consider them family. Yes, the Weasley’s and Hermione and Sirius were his family, but that’s not the same as having a real blood relation to someone. All he’s wanted his whole life was a family, that’s what he saw when he looked in the Mirror of Erised. After all the fighting, after losing so many people that he loved, Jo just wanted Harry to be happy. She didn’t want him to go on adventures for the rest of his life, because Harry didn’t want to go on adventures for the rest of his life. He never wanted to be this hero. He just wanted a family. He just wanted peace and quiet and for his friends to be safe and happy. And after all the suffering he went through and after defeating the most evil wizard of all time and saving the wizarding world, why shouldn’t Harry finally get what he’s always wanted?
So, Chapter 31 is the Battle of Hogwarts. While Harry, Ron, and Hermione are doing their thing, there’s just complete chaos going on in the castle.
Harry’s looking for the Ravenclaw Diadem, so he goes to the Ravenclaw house ghost, the Grey Lady. He finds out that she’s Rowena Ravenclaw’s daughter and she stole her mother’s diadem. She was killed by the Bloody Baron, Slytherin’s house ghost, because he was in love with her and she didn’t feel the same. And then, he killed himself. The diadem remained hidden in Albania until another student asked the Grey Lady about it. Tom Riddle. Harry realizes that he must have brought the diadem back to the castle, to a room that he thought no one else knew about, the Room of Requirement.
On his way to the room, he runs into Ron and Hermione, who have been missing for a while. They were in the Chamber of Secrets. Ron remembered that there was a whole basilisk skeleton down there, and figured they could use those to destroy the Horcruxes. Hermione destroys the Cup while they were down there.
As they’re about to go back out and fight, Ron remembers the house elves. He doesn’t want them to fight, he wants them to get out of the castle. We can’t have anymore innocent deaths, like Dobby. At this, Hermione throws the fangs out of her hands and kisses Ron. And they make out for a bit until Harry interrupts them.
I’m gonna try to get across how satisfying this kiss was. I don’t think I’ve ever shipped something for so long. As amazing as it was to read, I can’t even being to explain my feelings seeing it last night. Ron and Hermione are probably my first OTP. I shipped them before I knew what shipping was. I’ve wanted them together ever since I read Prisoner of Azkaban, so since I was like 8 years old. I shipped these two for almost 12 years and I finally got to see them kiss and get together and grow old and see their kids off to school.
I would go on about the kiss in the movie and maybe put in a gif, but I know not everybody has seen it yet, and I really don’t want to spoil it.
They go into the Room of Requirement and find the diadem, but Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle arrive and try to kill them. (Or, well, Malfoy, Goyle, and Blaise, since Crabbe got arrested) Crabbe casts Fiendfyre, a very powerful spell that he has no control over. The fire destroys the room, including the Horcrux since it was so powerful, and kills Crabbe. Harry, Ron, and Hermione barely escape and they save Draco and Goyle.
They’re another Horcrux down and only have the snake to go. Everything is going great. …Until Fred dies.
Harry sees a vision of Voldemort calling for Snape. They go to the Shrieking Shack and see Voldemort talking to Snape about the Elder Wand. Voldemort thought that Dumbledore had the Elder Wand, but has now realized his mistake. Snape killed Dumbledore, so now Snape has the Elder Wand. Voldemort, of course, doesn’t think twice about killing someone who has been by his side for years and sends Nagini on him. Harry rushes to Snape’s side after Voldemort leaves. Snape tells Harry to look him in the eyes and then gives Harry some of his memories.
Harry goes to Dumbledore’s office and puts Snape’s memories in the Pensive. Harry is transported to Snape’s childhood. Snape knew Harry’s mother, Lily. He saw her doing magic and told her about wizards and Hogwarts when Petunia called her a freak. He sees them on the Hogwarts Express for the first time. They shared a compartment with James and Sirius, who immediately made fun of Snape. He sees them getting sorted, Snape’s disappointment that Lily goes to Gryffindor instead of Slytherin. They remain very close friends through the years, even though she doesn’t approve of some of his Death Eater friends and he hates James, Sirius, and Lupin. Their friendship effectively ends when Snape calls Lily a mudblood. The scene then goes forward 5 or 6 years. Snape has told Voldemort about the prophecy and he’s afraid that he’s going to kill Lily. He begged Voldemort not to, but he knows that Voldemort has no mercy. He goes to Dumbledore and begs Dumbledore to protect them. In return, he works for the Order and becomes a double agent. When Lily died, Snape promises Dumbledore that he will protect Harry, as long as Harry never knows. Harry then sees that Snape has looked out for him for the past 7 years, completely unbeknownst to anyone else. Snape knew about Dumbledore’s cursed hand and they made an agreement that Snape would kill Dumbledore, since he was on the verge of death anyway, before Malfoy had the chance, to spare Draco from having to kill anyone. Dumbledore asks him why he’s still protecting Harry and Snape shows Dumbledore his patronus, a doe, the same as Lily’s. It was Snape who sent the doe to lead Harry to the sword. After all these years, Snape was still in love with Lily.
Ok, I can respect the fact that Snape wasn’t evil. But that doesn’t make him a good guy. He was still an asshole. He was still a horrible teacher. He still pretty much abused his students. To be honest, I’ve always found this scene really creepy. Lily obviously didn’t feel the same way. And yet he still creepily pined for her, even after she fell in love with someone else and had a family. And it’s always creeped me out that whenever he looks at Harry, he sees Lily’s eyes. IDK, I still don’t like Snape. More so than finding out that Snape wasn’t evil, we find out that Dumbledore wasn’t great. He’s known all along that Harry is the last Horcrux. He sent Harry on this quest to destroy all the Horcruxes so that he could die at the right time, after he’s done Dumbledore’s job.
I don’t know how many of you haven’t seen the movie yet, but just a warning: You will lose your shit during this scene. Alan Rickman’s performance is PHENOMENAL. This scene is just done so well. I really can’t gush enough. I don’t even like Snape and I was in tears for the entire scene. And I really didn’t stop crying until the end of the movie.
I thought it was perfect. It was just a perfect ending to the series. They really did the books justice and it was just done so well. I mean, I might have missed some stuff on account of the fact that I had tears streaming down my face for the last hour.
I’m going again to see it tomorrow night.
To everyone seeing it tonight, enjoy it!
I might post some of my initial reactions when I get home, but don’t worry, I won’t post anything too spoilery!
I’ve finished Deathly Hallows, but I won’t have any time to write the rest today.
I’m so disappointed, but I will write it all before Saturday at the latest.
Sorry, guys.
The second they arrive in Hogsmeade, Death Eaters are on them. They manage to hide and are helped by the bar man of the Hog’s Head. Harry looks at the man in the eye and realizes that he’s the eye he’s been seeing in the mirror. He’s Dumbledore’s brother, Aberforth. Aberforth sees Dumbledore for what he truly was. Dumbledore wasn’t a saint, no matter how much Harry might think so. He lied to Harry, sent him on this incredibly dangerous and near impossible task without telling him the whole truth. Aberforth tells Harry, Ron, and Hermione what really happened with their sister.
Ariana was six years old when a group of Muggle teenage boys saw her doing magic. She couldn’t help doing the magic, she couldn’t control it. The boys try to make Ariana do the magic again and when she doesn’t, they do stuff. It’s never said, but I’ve always just assumed that raped her, something that horrible. It traumatized her. She never used magic after that and it started turning inward on her. Their father attacked the Muggles and was sent to Azkaban. Dumbledore never gave my thought to his sister, according to Aberforth, he was always more worried about his schooling. Aberforth was the one who took care of Ariana. One day, Ariana’s magic went out of control and she killed their mother. Dumbledore came back, but spent all of his time with Grindelwald. Aberforth confronted his brother and was attacked by Grindelwald. In all the chaos, Ariana was killed and they have no idea who it was.
Aberforth shows them a secret passage into Hogwarts and out comes NEVILLE LONGBOTTOM! He’s all beat up and he tells Harry, Ron, and Hermione about how awful the school is now. The Cruciatus curse is used for punishment and Neville has been heading the resistance.
He brings them to the school and they end up in the Room of Requirement, where all the Dumbledore’s Army people are. Neville sends a message using the fake Galleons and Ginny, Fred, George, Lee Jordan, Cho Chang, Luna, and Dean also arrive by the secret passage. Harry goes with Luna to the Ravenclaw Common Room to see what Ravenclaw’s Diadem looks like. There, they are caught by one of the Carrows, who calls Voldemort.
Harry hides under the cloak as the other Carrow comes in with McGonagall, who is just being such a BAMF. God, I REALLY hope they keep this scene in. Harry tells McGonagall that he has a task to do, and the Hogwarts professors band together and fight off Snape, who flees. Harry then feels Voldemort’s presence again. He’s getting closer.
Hermione thinks fast and hits Harry with a Stinging Jinx, causing his face to swell up and become unrecognizable. They step out of the tent and give the snatchers fake names. They almost buy it, until one of them sees Hermione’s picture in the Daily Prophet, with the caption that she’s traveling with Harry Potter. They recognize Hermione and figure out that the boy with the swollen face must be Harry Potter. To the snatchers, this means a big payday. So, they bring them to Malfoy Manor, where the Death Eaters have set up headquarters.
When they get to Malfoy Manor, Draco is called in to identify Harry, Ron, and Hermione. I don’t know if it’s because he’s been through so much and is so terrified of Voldemort, or if he really wants to help the trio, but Draco doesn’t really say that it’s them for sure. I get that he might not have been 100% about Harry, but of course he would recognize Ron and Hermione, they don’t look any different.
Bellatrix arrives and freaks out when she sees the sword. She demands to know where they got it, since she thinks that Snape sent it to her vault in Gringotts. She sends Harry and Ron into the cellar and keeps Hermione with her for questioning. She tortures Hermione with the Crucio curse until she tells them where they got the sword. Much props to Emma in this scene. Her screams were perfectly disturbing and heartbreaking without being too over the top. Hermione tells Bellatrix that the sword is a fake, and Bellatrix sends for Griphook, who is also in the cellar. Harry begs him to lie and tell Bellatrix that it’s a fake, which he does.
Harry finds the mirror in his bag and sees the blue eye again. He calls for help and Dobby appears! Elf magic is different than wizard magic, so he is able to disapparate. He takes Luna, Ollivander, and Dean Thomas to Shell Cottage, Bill and Fleur’s home. Harry and Ron escape by overtaking Wormtail, whose hand turns against him when he shows mercy to Harry, and run upstairs to save Hermione. However, as they are completely outnumbered, they almost lose. Until Dobby reappears and drops a chandelier, allow them to get away. Harry takes all the wands out of Draco’s hands, grabs Ron, Hermione, and Dobby, and disapparates to Shell Cottage. When they land, Harry thinks everyone’s alright, until he sees Dobby. Bellatrix had thrown her knife at the last minute and it’s currently sticking out of Dobby’s chest. It’s too late and Dobby dies in Harry’s arms. Cue every single person in the world crying. Actually, when I saw it in the theater, there was this group of girls sitting behind me that were crying so hard and so dramatically that it was actually funny. Like, me and my friends and some of the people around us starting laughing. So there was this awkward moment of Dobby dying in Harry’s arms, while pretty much everyone is sobbing and then us, cracking up.
At Shell Cottage, Harry talks to Griphook about breaking into Bellatrix’s vault. He thinks there’s another Horcrux there. Bellatrix freaked out when she thought someone had broken in there. And Voldemort trusts her and her husband more than anyone. (Where is Bellatrix’s husband? Is he dead?) Griphook agrees to help them if they give him the sword. Harry makes the deal, but just decides to trick Griphook and give him the sword…eventually. Then, he goes and talks to Ollivander. Ollivander confirms that there is in fact such thing as the Elder Wand, but he’s never heard of the Deathly Hallows. Harry figures out that Dumbledore had the Elder Wand, and he has a vision of Voldemort breaking into Dumbledore’s tomb and stealing it. NYAHH! (Voldemort scream) End of Part One.
For weeks, Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Griphook plans out how they’re going to break into Gringotts. They have some of Bellatrix’s hair from Hermione’s sweater, so Hermione is going to use Polyjuice and turn into Bellatrix. WOW, how convenient was that! Ron is going to turn into just a random guy and Harry and Griphook will be under the cloak. I am so excited for this scene. It’s Helena Bonham Carter, playing Hermione, pretending to be Bellatrix. HBC is a phenomenal actress, and I’ve seen some clips from it, it looks awesome.
So, after a little trouble, they break into the vault. Harry sees it, the cup that belonged to Hufflepuff. The only problem is that there a curse on everything in the vault that if you touch it, it multiplies and burns. Eventually, they get the cup and escape on a blind dragon. Griphook manages to take the sword, so they don’t have anything to destroy the Horcruxes with.
When they get off the dragon, Harry gets a Voldemort vision. Voldemort knows that they know about his Horcruxes. He thinks that Harry has only found the cup. He doesn’t think that he could’ve even known about the locket or the ring. He reveals that Nagini is a Horcrux and the rest are in Hogwarts. Thanks, Voldemort! Now we know where to go!
Are you going to the Harry Potter premiere?
Asketh - Anonymous
You mean the midnight showing? Yeah, I’m going tomorrow night at midnight. I’m excited. I’m sure it’ll be all real fans, so I’m expecting cheering at all the appropriate parts. (The Ron/Hermione kiss and “Not my daughter, you bitch” for example)
Is everyone going at midnight, or Friday?
