Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows-J.K.Rowling

How I found this book: After getting hysterical about it for two years, it was finally announced that it was coming out…WHILE I WAS IN ROME! So I got to be in Rome, Italy for the big, coming out party as it were, and got to enjoy the fun with French and Italian fans of the series.

Setting: In the ’97-’98 school year, though for the first time not at Hogwarts, (save at the very end of the book.) Most of it is spread out as Harry, Ron, and Hermione move all over the country, from Grimmauld Place to Bill and Fleur’s house, Godric’s Hollow, and lots of forests in between.

Main Characters:

Harry Potter: Just turning seventeen, Harry is preparing himself for his hardest challenge yet, quitting school permanently to find the Horcruxes, the items that contain the fractured bits of Voldemort soul. Sent on the run after Bill and Fleur’s wedding and the fall of the Ministry, Harry must criss cross the country, seeking the answers to the mystery of the Horcruxes, as well as the mythical Deathly Hallows, and figure out how all these factors tie into defeating Voldemort. It forces Harry to make hard choices…ones that might force Harry to chose to sacrifice himself for those that he loves.

Ron Weasley: One of Harry’s best friends, Ron sticks by Harry’s side, going into hiding and danger with him. But the weight of the Horocruxes is a heavy one, especially for Ron who has so many insecurities and is unable to deal with them. He makes the choice to leave his friends for a while, but realizes soon enough that not only does he miss them horribly, he needs them, and he needs to face his own insecurities and issues, and come out as the strong, decisive person he is in his own right, outside of his brother’s and famous best friend.

Hermione Granger: The other of Harry’s best friends, Hermione uses her brains to help Harry unravel the mystery behind the Horcruxes, and stands by his side even when she doubts he knows what is going on, sticking by him when Ron leaves. It breaks her heart to see Ron go, and she is the one left to help Harry in some of his most trying and terrifying moments. A lot is asked of Hermione, including having to face the terrifying Bellatrix Lestrange, but in the end her wits help Harry and Ron persevere.

Ginny Weasley: Ron’s younger sister, and Harry’s ex-girlfriend, she is forced to stay behind and return to Hogwarts while her brother, best friend, and boyfriend run off to face Voldemort. That’s not to say that Ginny is idyll in their absence, and she, along with Neville Longbottom and Luna Lovegood start an insurrection at Hogwarts to throw off the oppressive administration of Severus Snape and his Deatheater cronies.

Luna Lovegood: One of Harry’s friends from Dumbledore’s Army, she, along with Ginny, helps to fight against the Death Eaters who have taken over the school. But she is captured from the Hogwarts Express on her way back to school from the holidays, and causes her father to try and capture the fugitive Harry for her release. When she is rescued by her dear friends, she too joins the efforts outside to help fight Lord Voldemort.

Neville Longbottom: One of Harry’s Gryffindor dorm mates, and another of the rabble rousers in Hogwarts while Harry is gone, he rallies Dumbledore’s Army while Harry is out searching for Horcruxes, hoping for Harry to return so they can begin to finally fight back and take on Voldemort.

Professor Dumbledore: Killed at the end of the last book, Dumbledore left only the slightest clues for Harry to figure out how to defeat Voldemort. His guidance is limited, but his hope was that Harry and his friends would have the brains and courage to figure them out and help defeat Tom Riddle before it was too late. Still, much of Dumbledore’s past is a mystery to Harry, one that is coming out to him now, after his mentor’s death, in fits and starts. It turns out that Dumbledore’s history is deeply entwined with that of Tom Riddle, and that he can learn from the mistakes both men made in their past.

Severus Snape: The new headmaster of Hogwarts, he takes over when the Ministry falls. While he allows the Death Eaters to run rampant in the school, he also tries to assist Harry in secret ways all throughout the book. Snape’s allegiances are complex and deep, and it is only at the tragic end that Harry finds out the true reason for Snape’s dislike of James Potter, and by extension Harry, but also the true love he had for Harry’s own mother, and the promise he made to himself on behalf of the girl he had once befriended and cared for.

Draco Malfoy: Spared the punishment that could have been his had Dumbledore not been killed, he is returned to his parents, but they are all in disgrace. Draco tries to do what he must to keep them all alive, but in the end, his desire to protect his own life and that of his family overwhelms any desire he truly has to serve the Dark Lord.

Lucius Malfoy: Now disgraced, he is forced to allow Lord Voldemort the use of his home as a headquarters. He and Bellatrix, his sister-in-law, are always on the lookout for ways to improve their standing with the Dark Lord.

Bellatrix Lestrange: The sister of Narcissa Malfoy and Andromeda Tonks, and disgraced favorite of Lord Voldemort she is consumed by her desire to serve her master, and to get into his good graces. Lord Voldemort is all that she loves in this world, and she will do anything to please him, even killing her own family members.

Narcissa Malfoy: The wife of Lucius and mother of Draco, sister to Bellatrix Lestrange and Andromeda Tonks, she perhaps is the only one of all the Malfoys that knows the true danger they are in and the true cost to her family. She plays her cards close, and when the opportunity to extract them all presents itself, Narcissa takes it, aiding Harry Potter in his most desperate moment.

Remus Lupin: Harry’s former Defense teacher, and best friend of James and Sirius, he has married Nymphadora Tonks, and is expecting his first child with her. Despite this blessing, he worries about the war, his own werewolf-ism, and whether he is fit to be a husband and father, and tries to run off with Harry instead. Harry sets him down, angering him at first, but he returns to his wife and child, and begins to take up as a voice on the underground Wizarding Wireless.

Nymphadora Tonks Lupin: Wife of Remus Lupin, daughter of Ted and Andromeda Tonks, niece of Bellatrix Lestrange and Narcissa Malfoy, and mother of Teddy Lupin, Nymphadora is an Auror and metamorphmagus. She spends much of the book pregnant with young Teddy, but stands by her husband’s side when war finally comes to Hogwarts.

Fred and George Weasley: Ron’s older twin brothers, George looses an ear when rescuing Harry from Death Eaters in an effort to get Harry out from the Dursley’s house. Both boys are active in the Order.

Bill Weasley: Ron’s oldest brother, he works for Gringott’s Bank as a curse breaker. He and Fleur marry at the beginning of the book, their wedding reception crashed by the news that the Ministry had fallen to Death Eaters. He and Fleur move into a small house, which serves as a resting point for Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Luna after a narrow escape from Malfoy Manor.

Fleur Weasley: Wife of Bill Weasley, she helps take care of Harry, Ron, Hermione, Luna, and Mr. Ollivander when they arrive at her house after narrowly escaping from Malfoy Manor.

Lord Voldemort: Now having defeated Dumbledore, Voldemort begins his reign of terror on the wizarding world, unleashing persecutions against Muggle-borns and Half-bloods alike, all the while hunting down the one person he suspects can bring down his reign…Harry Potter.

Plot: Harry is now left alone as he turns seventeen, the age of majority in the wizarding world. His mentor, Professor Dumbledore has died, and there is no one else left now to protect him from Lord Voldemort…or to face the Dark Wizard either. It is now up to Harry alone to bring down the darkest wizard in generations, but before he even has a chance to formulate a plan, the Dark Lord strikes, taking over the Ministry, and causing chaos in the world of magic. Harry, Ron, and Hermione become fugitives as they hide out, trying to find the clues of where the remaining horcruxes lay, based on the scant clues Harry knows, and the strange items left behind by Dumledore. In fact, it is in his old headmaster’s own mysterious and suspect past that Harry finds not only the clues to defeat Lord Voldemort, but learns the most important lessons about life…and death. As Harry becomes something of an underground hero for the beleagured witches and wizards of England, he prepares to face perhaps the greatest challenge of his young life, but will he come out of it alive?

Themes:
Even great heroes are flawed: We all know Harry is flawed, as we’ve seen through his development in the series, but we’ve yet to see all the chinks in the armor of Albus Dumbledore. Dumbledore never denied he had weaknesses, and even tried to encourage people to keep that in mind, but we are now learning all the aspects of Dumbledore’s own history that explain much of what he became, and also sets the stage for Harry to ultimately discover how to defeat Tom Riddle. Dumbledore has made mistakes, some very great ones that marked his life. Harry, ever Dumbledore’s pupil, learns from those mistakes, and perhaps in learning from them surpasses his old teacher as well.

Give me something to believe in: For the first time, in a large sense, we see Harry becoming a figure for people to believe in. Now it isn’t just his housemates or schoolmates, but it is the entire wizarding world of Great Britain who is looking to Harry to help stop the menace of Voldemort. He comes off in the wizarding world as some strange, Robin Hood like figure, a fugitive who frees the half-bloods and Muggle-borns and is leading an underground movement, (which he isn’t, but he becomes their symbol). Whether Harry likes it or not, he is the symbol for the free witches and wizards everywhere, something they can latch on to during these dark times.

Fairytales do come true: In this case, perhaps it’s more accurate that a fairytale can stem from a true story. The Deathly Hallows is a child’s tale, or so everyone thinks, a legend of magical objects, much like the Holy Grail in our world. But in reality they did exist, (perhaps not quite in the form the legend has them in), and their existence, and the effort to discover them is tied intimately to Dumbledore’s past, as well as to Harry’s ability to defeat the Dark Lord. Ironically, Tom Riddle, for all his knowledge and bravado, knows or understands little about the Deathly Hallows outside of the Death Stick, and it’s this ignorance that Harry is able to manipulate.

War is hell: Gah…so many characters you’ve grown to love during this series are killed! It’s so not fair. And yet, it happens. It is war, that is how it happens, that is what happens. It’s not something that is pleasant, but Rowling doesn’t flinch from these deaths, and instead lets us feel every wound to help emphasis the fact that this is a world that is indeed at war.

Genocide: Part of Lord Voldemort’s plan is to rid the wizarding world of people who are ironically very much like him, Muggle borns and Halfbloods. Many Muggle borns, such as Hermione, Ted Tonks, and Dean Thomas, are sent into hiding, so as to protect themselves and their loved ones from harm, risking hiding in the countryside and potentially running into gangs of thugs and thieves. Others are herded up by the Ministry, in nearly Nazi-like trials to determine who they ‘stole’ their magic from. The amount of racism reaches epic, disgusting proportions, and it does make your stomach turn to read some of it.

SIT DOWN, THERE’S AN EPILOGUE- (This line in reference to my dear friend Dawna, who had to remind a movie theatre full of people there was an epilogue to Romeo and Juliet.) There is an Epilogue when it is all said and done, one that closes up what happens to Harry, Ron, Hermione, and some others after it is all said and done…I won’t tell you how it goes, but it was certainly well worth the wait.

Every book sucks somewhere: I can think of very few areas this book sucked in. It has nearly equal rating in my head with my favorite Harry Potter book, Goblet of Fire. However, I must say the endless wandering through the woods as Harry, Hermione, and Ron try to evade everyone on the search for Horcruxes was a bit tedious and repetitive, and you sort of wanted to say “get on with it already.”

In addition, I have to say…some of the deaths really hurt. A lot. I won’t say who, but..yeah…mmm….I cried and cried while reading this book, and of course I felt like an idiot when my roomie in my hotel in Rome came in and saw me huddled up on my small little twin bed, crying my eyes out over a Harry Potter book! At least I was sober this time around.

What did I like: I LOVED all of it, but best of all, I loved the mystery of the Deathly Hallows, and learning some of the deep, dark secrets of Dumbeldore’s own past. I loved the fact that Ron and Hermione FINALLY cotton on they are meant to be together. And the final scene between Harry and Tom Riddle couldn’t be scripted any better than if it were an epic film. All I have to say is I hope the film makers get it right when they finally get around to doing it, because it just gives you chills reading it.

How would I rate this wormy book: NOM, NOM, NOM, NOM, MONSTER, NOM, NOM, NOM……I wouldn’t suggest reading this book without reading the others in the series, but believe me, getting to this book really makes it all worth while.