Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - My Review

SPOILER WARNING: If you haven’t read Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows and do NOT want to know what happens, stop reading this blog. I will also talk about several of the other Harry Potter books, so the same rule applies.

Well, now that the madness surrounding the seventh book has subsided a bit, I feel it’s safe to write about it without having a hit put out on me. For the first time that I can recall, serious leaks sprung in the days before the release of the seventh and final Harry Potter book. This, of course, means that the culprits responsible for giving away details of the story... are dead.

Clinically.

Like, “No longer amongst the living” type of dead.

It’s practically a felony at this point to finagle one’s way into releasing details of the book to the public before the publisher’s release date. I’ll admit that I spoiled it for myself by reading one such leak, which gave a detailed account of the “Deathly Hallows” deaths, as well as the end of the book.

One more warning before I proceed: I’m gonna talk about some of those deaths as well as what happens at the end of the book, so if you really don’t want to know, stop reading this.

I'll talk about the deaths first.

A few years back, I read about this group of outraged parents who were up in arms shortly after the release of the fourth book (Goblet of Fire). The concerned parents were mad because their children were reading about extreme violence and death before they felt they were ready to deal with such dark themes.

The fifth book (Order of the Phoenix) brought about the death of Sirius Black which saddened readers because of what Sirius meant to Harry.

The sixth book (Half-Blood Prince) revealed the death of Albus Dumbledore, which saddened readers because they loved and idolized him.

For a year or so after the sixth book’s release, people even began theorizing how Dumbledore could still conceivably be alive, much the same way that people kept seeing Elvis in grocery stores and shopping malls after he died. I don't know, it seems like many folks have a hard time letting go of people they idolize and love.

Well, without a doubt, “Deathly Hallows” has the most character deaths of any other Harry Potter book and, at certain points, it feels as if they’re dropping like flies. Hedwig (Harry’s owl) and Mad-Eye Moody meet their ends in the “Seven Potters” ambush, but that happens relatively early in the book to give readers an idea as to what they can expect from the remainder of the story.

Scrimgeour’s next to meet his end, followed by Wormtail and Dobby the elf. The real tragedies, however, start hittin’ near the end of the book, beginning with Fred Weasley’s death during the Battle at Hogwarts. I can imagine that anyone who reads and loves the Harry Potter books must have felt horrible for the beloved Weasley family. It may sound stupid (...and in a way, it kinda is), but people really, really get into these books and they treat these characters as if they actually exist.

For years now, Rowling (the author) has received many pleas for clemency to be granted to certain characters. Concerned fans have actually begged her not to kill Dumbledore… or Harry… or Hagrid… or Ron Weasley, etc. It’s crazy! You'd think they were asking her not to shoot their mothers or something.

One event that I kind of expected and was surprisingly apathetic towards was the death of Severus Snape. Obviously, he’s been a hated character since the very first book (Sorcerer’s Stone), but every so often, you kinda got the feeling that, deep down, he was fighting for the good guys... and by Book 7, you realize that he was. However, I felt the author did a good job at finding ways to make you hate him all over again, just when your heart started to soften a tiny bit.

By the end of the sixth book, people loathed Snape more than ever because of the fact that he killed Dumbledore, yet I still had respect for his character’s formidable skills as a wizard as well as Occlumency master. Amazingly enough, it only took one chapter to completely vindicate Snape (Chapter 33). Voldemort, thinking that Snape’s death will make his wand invincible, orders Nagini to make the kill. Right before succumbing to Nagini’s deadly bite, Snape removes the truth from his memory (via wand extraction) and gives it to Harry. Harry, having spent loads of time in the Pensieve, knows exactly where he needs to go and what he needs to do.

He downloads the info into the Pensieve and with that, we learn more of Snape’s love for Lily Potter (and how he wanted Voldemort to spare her life on that fateful night that Harry got his scar). More importantly, we learn of Snape’s true allegiance to Dumbledore. We learn that Dumbledore’s blackened hand from the Horcrux wasn’t just an unfixable injury, but also an incurable curse (not unlike a cancer).

Dumbledore’s days were numbered and, before long, he came up with the plan to have Severus Snape kill him. Best of all, when Dumbledore reveals to Snape that Harry Potter must die in the end, Snape actually seems hurt by the idea. By the end of the sixth book, I was fairly certain that Snape’s vindication would come, but it’s always nice to read it for yourself.

If there was one part of the seventh book that I felt was lacking, it was the romance aspect. Not because I’m a sap or I somehow feel the need to see everybody hooking up, but because of the frustrating ten year build up.

Yes, the seventh book reveals that Ron and Hermione wind up together, as do Harry and Ginny, but it was such a non-event that I’m sure the die-hard romantics were left a little disappointed. Typically, any romantic scenarios that occurred in the Harry Potter books were always stunted in some fashion. Every possible confession of love that could have occurred in these books was always interrupted, but it was clear that they would eventually HAVE to be addressed.

Without a doubt, Ron wears his love for Hermione on his sleeve in “Deathly Hallows.” He’s extremely protective of her and he damn near lays an egg when the Cruciatus Curse hits Hermione at Malfoy Manor. There’s even a scene where a Horcrux, in a last-ditch effort to stop Ron from destroying it, audibly voices all of Ron’s inner feelings, trepidations and fears regarding how Hermione feels about him.

Ron hears Hermione’s voice (faked, of course) telling him how she could never love him when Harry is around and Ron even winds up seeing an image of Harry and Hermione in a passionate embrace. It is there that Harry, having seen all of this, quells all doubts about his feelings for Hermione (...she’s like a sister to him), thus letting Ron know that the field’s clear if he wants her.

Obviously, Hermione cares very much for Ron as well, evident by the fact that he’s got the power to hurt her more deeply than anybody else ever could (...evidence of this started appearing with the Yule Ball in Goblet of Fire). So, after six books of amorous tension between Ron and Hermione, readers pretty much said that they NEED to hook up. So, do Ron and Hermione end up together? Yes. But here’s how it went down.

It’s Chapter 31 (The Battle of Hogwarts) and, if you’re reading from the American hardcover version, it’s on Page 625. It reads like this:

There was a clatter as the basilisk fangs cascaded out of Hermione’s arms. Running at Ron, she flung them around his neck and kissed him full on the mouth. Ron threw away the fangs and broomstick he was holding and responded with such enthusiasm that he lifted Hermione off her feet.

“Is this the moment?” Harry asked weakly, and when nothing happened except that Ron and Hermione gripped each other still more firmly and swayed on the spot, he raised his voice. “OI! There’s a war going on here!”

Ron and Hermione broke apart, their arms still around each other.

“I know, mate,” said Ron, who looked as though he had recently been hit on the back of the head with a Bludger, “so it’s now or never, isn’t it?”

That’s pretty much it.

Harry snaps them out of their mutual reverie and the battle continues.

The next mention of Ron and Hermione together (as a couple) doesn’t happen until the Epilogue which is set nineteen years following the downfall of Voldemort. So, for all of the hopeless romantics out there, yes they do get together, wind up getting married and have two kids (Rose and Hugo). However, it’s mentioned so matter-of-factly that it’s extraordinarily anti-climactic. There’s no lover’s dialogue, no confessions of undying love, etc.

After seven books and, like, a DECADE of building up the tension between Ron and Hermione, the only sensible ending would have involved much more dialogue between the two as a payoff for readers who'd been waiting so long for the tension to break.

As for Harry’s love interest (Ginny), they wind up together as well and also are mentioned as being married in the epilogue, again in an anti-climactic fashion. Plus, they have three kids with the most unoriginal names EVER:

Lily, James and Albus Severus.

You also learn from the Epilogue that Neville Longbottom is now “Professor” Longbottom at Hogwarts and, not surprisingly, he’s the Herbology professor. Draco (who has a son named Scorpius) is on good terms with Harry, Ron and Hermione and, as the last line of the book indicates, all is well.

One of the things I really liked about the seventh book was how the Malfoy family came around. The long and the short of it is that, in the end, Narcissa and Lucius cared more about the well-being of their son than of their allegiance to Voldemort. Given Voldemort’s crappy treatment of the Malfoys in “Half-Blood Prince” and “Deathly Hallows,” it should come as no surprise that they’d desert Voldemort in the end.

At a point after he hit Harry with a killing curse, Voldemort asked someone to check and make sure that Harry Potter was really dead. Narcissa felt that Harry still had a pulse, but instead of screaming that he was still alive, she whispered to Harry and asked if Draco was still alive, to which Harry whispered back, “Yes.” Then, Narcissa announced that Harry was dead (...presumably as a thank you for that little nugget of info on her son).

I also thought it was a nice touch (albeit surprising) that the Malfoys were in Hogwarts, sitting with Draco when all was said and done. I honestly thought that Narcissa and Lucius would have been killed in the seventh book.

And now, onto Horcruxes. I’m proud to say that I was actually right for once in two of my Horcrux guesses, stemming from the sixth book. The big mystery by the end of “Half-Blood Prince” was, “What and where are the other Horcruxes?”

A Horcrux, as Harry Potter fans will know, is a receptacle in which a dark wizard can hide a part of his soul for the purpose of gaining immortality. Voldemort found a way to cleave his soul into seven pieces and stash them in various relics scattered throughout the country (...one of them even made it to Albania).

Dumbledore had suffered a serious injury to his hand in “Half-Blood Prince” after finding and destroying the Horcrux which was Marvolo Gaunt’s ring. The injury, as we find out in Book Seven, would have eventually killed Dumbledore had he not already arranged to have Snape snuff him out.

Between Harry’s ability to speak Parseltongue, his constant visions of Voldemort’s thoughts and even Nagini’s actions, I figured that both Nagini and Harry were Horcruxes. This turned out to be correct.

The downside to this final book was that Harry, Ron and Hermione spent way too much book time hiding as they tried to come up with ideas as to where the other Horcruxes were hidden. Aside from that, it was interesting to learn that Gaunt’s Ring was also one of the three Deathly Hallows; the others being the Elder Wand and Harry’s very own invisibility cloak.

Speaking of the Hallows, the other thing I found interesting was that Draco Malfoy unwittingly became master of the Elder Wand after disarming Dumbledore in the sixth book. Harry then goes on to become the Elder Wand’s new master after taking it from Draco, which is how he is able to defeat Voldemort once and for all. The book had given a decent explanation of how the wand wouldn’t really work for Voldemort the way he wanted because he never “won” the wand. Voldemort actually raids Dumbledore’s tomb to steal it.

The only thing that wound up confusing the hell out of me was the Epilogue and that was only because I had that one and only chapter to retrain my brain to put new identities on names I’d gotten to know throughout the seven books. Hugo and Rose I was fine with, but all of Harry’s kids had names that I had forever associated with other people.

Albus Severus was the worst, of course, being a mix of Dumbledore’s first name and Snape’s first name respectively. Then, of course, there were Lily and James, which were also the names of his parents. If memory serves me correctly, James is also Harry Potter’s middle name. I was surprised that the boy’s name wasn’t James Sirius Potter and the girl’s name wasn’t Lily Luna Potter or something f**ked up like that.

But all of that aside, it’s nice to know that the Harry Potter frenzy is pretty much over. Next on J.K. Rowling’s list of things to do will be to compile a Harry Potter Encyclopedia, but according to her, that won’t happen for quite a number of years to come. Sounds like she could really use a vacation.