Initial Reactions
*NOTE:* This is a reeeeeally long journal about my initial thoughts and reactions to Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, the seventh and last book in the series. Obviously, SPOILERS abound. Big ol' juicy SPOILERS! So if you haven't read DA, go no further.For those of you who aren't Harry Potter fans, please, if you even think for a second that you may possibly someday in the distant future want to start reading the series, don't go any further. I didn't try very hard to make this flow well and I jabber on for quite a bit on some place. I mostly wrote this for my own use but I'm posting it because a lot of people I know know that I'm a big fan and have been or probably will be asking me about my thoughts. I won't be offended if you don't reply due to these cautions ^_-.
Some of you still There? Cool.....
SPOILER! SPOILER! SPOILER! SPOILER! SPOILER! SPOILER! SPOILER!
First off: OMG!OMG!OMG!
Alright, now, wow! Deathly Hallows...is extraordinary. And I mean that in the full extent of the word. It's hard to pin down my thoughts, exactly, but I'm going to try! In an incoherent, jumbly kind of way ;).
I was amazed by how much action occurred early in the book! The thing had barely started when Harry first faced Voldemort! The death of Hedwig hit me surprisingly hard. In the years leading up to this final book, I of course expected deaths but I was anticipating...well, I was not anticipating the death of an owl. It seemed so cruel and horrible. Hedwig wasn't fighting. Hedwig wasn't even human! I'd never been a huuuuge fan of hers (I feel that the movies play her a much bigger character than in the canon) but she was there for Harry when no one else was. How many hours were they each other's only company in The Smallest Bedroom, 4 Privet Drive, Little Whinging, Surrey?
Immediately after I read it, though, it seemed perfect: that's just the sort of unfair, pointlessly horrid thing that evil people love to do. Killing the innocent and unarmed...she was in a cage!
And of course the death of Mad Eye was quite sad (I think I might have punched my fist in the air when Harry grabbed his eye from Umbridge's door, event hough I knew it was a foolish move). Dobby hit me pretty hard. Again, it was so unfair....Poor Dobby, who had always helped Harry Potter, who dreamed of freedom and achieved it, who was pure of heart and always willing to help. Lupin and Tonks were quite sad, as well. There have been people who've said that all the Marauders would have to die in the end, and I guess they were right, though I'd hoped it wouldn't be necessary. Oh, I feel for Tonk's poor mother, losing her husband and her daughter within months of each other! But I guess she ends up raising the child, Teddy.
It was Fred's death that really shocked me. I've said many times that I never would expect the twins to die because it would be like the death of humor. It just seems wrong for George to be without his twin. What will happen to him? What about Weasley's Wizard Wheezes? I'm just glad that Percy reunited with them in the end, and that Fred dies laughing. If it had to happen, that seems the appropriate way it should come about. And for poor Mrs. Weasley, she may have lost a son but she kind of got one back, really...
Harry was just amazing! I could really see that he had grown up. It was little things, like standing up to Lupin (who I love but, chyeah, I've been kind of pissed at him since Order of the Phoenix); befriending Kreacher; and hugging Mrs. Weasley when she gave him the watch, and adding more to the hug, explaining to her his appreciation for all that she'd done for him, and sacrificed for his fight. I was particularly impressed when Harry met Aberforth and even though they'd argued, he thanked him profusely for saving his, Ron's, and Hermione's life. The way he spoke sometimes held shades of Dumbledore. At one point during his conversation with Aberforth he says something like, "We will stay here until the morning and then we're going to try to get into to Hogwarts. If you have any way of helping us now would be the time to pipe up." It brought back Dumbledore's, "We will intrude on your aunt and uncle's hospitality just a bit longer" thing from HBP, and also the scene with the livid Macnair and Minister in Prisoner of Azkaban, after they became aware of buckbeak's escape.
I think I'll skip to my feeling about the ending while I still have it fresh in my mind, after reading it for the first time....
When Severus Snape died and, with his last breath, asked Harry to "Look...at...me..." it simultaneously chilled and moved me. I thought I knew what must be going on: he wanted for the last thing he saw to be Harry's green, almond-shaped eyes, so much like Lily's. And I was right, though fans have guessing at Snape's love for Lily for years. So while Snape's memories were quite interesting, I wasn't completely surprised by all the information about Lily. But then Dumbledore explained to Snape that Harry was, essentially, a horcrux, and that he would have to die, and my blood went cold. I just couldn't believe it! Throughout the whole book I was admonishing Harry for allowing Rita Skeeter and Auntie Muriel to skew his feeling for Dumbledore, and then this! I felt almost as if I had been personally betrayed! It was sick and twisted to ask Harry to stand in front of Voldemort and wait to be killed! To think that he would never be able to be with Ginny, again, to talk to Ron and Hermione, to godfather Ted , to experience the magical world without the taint of Lord Voldemort. Harry was just a pawn. He would die at the age of seventeen, having spent one unmemorable year with parents who loved him dearly but were murdered in the effort to protect him from being killed; 10 years miserable, feared, and unloved; then 7 years when he knew bits of happiness, but when he was constantly plagued by disturbing dreams and glimpses into the mind of his would-be murderer, whispers and taunts behind his back, excruciating physical pain on several occasions, and the emotional pain of losing what must now be dozens of people he loved and cared about, and knowing that, in an essence, they were dying because of him.
After that, while I read about Harry making up his mind and walking into the forest, I cried like I haven't cried in a long time. I don't think I've cried so much, in such a desperate way since that day I felt like a failure at school and came home to discover that Dad would be going in for another heart surgery. I felt like I was losing someone I loved very much...maybe a even a bit like I was losing a bit of myself. For a moment, I hated Dumbledore, and I must confess that I was a bit wary of JKR, as well. What if that was the ending: Harry dies, Voldemort dies, let's all forget about them and live in peace? If that's how it was going to be there would be no way I could go back and re-read the books as I have. No way I could continue staring at the Harry Potter merchandise and mementos scattered about my room.
I calmed down a lot when Harry died, though, and I started to understand as soon as Dumbledore showed up. Dumbledore, Harry's parents, Sirius, Lupin, Tonks, Fred, Dobby, Hedwig, Mad-Eye, Bathilda Bagshot, Frank Bryce (I suddenly feel a need to list them all), Gideon and Fabian Prewett, Cedric Diggory, Amelia Bones, the Abbots, Bertha Jorkins, Dorcas Meadows, Colin Creevey, Snape....I'm running out of steam but I know there are so many others - these people were all very much dead and could not return, but Harry could come back because of his blood running through Voldemort's veins, and from now he would be untainted by Voldy's bit of soul.
Dumbledore was lovely in this chapter, but for once I could completely appreciate that Harry was the better wizard of the two. Hermione said it in the first book (though all I can recall at the moment is the movie quote, which I think is a bit different), "Books and Cleverness....there are much more important things, Harry! Bravery and Friendship...!" Harry didn't need to be a genious or a fantastic spell caster: what makes him extroidinary is love, selflessness, and purity of heart. He asked to be in Gryffindor, saw the Sorcerer's stone reflected in the mirror, risked his life for the girl who was only his friend's sister, allowed Pettigrew his life, "saved" a stranger in the lake and went back for Cedric Diggory, escaped Voldemort's possession by thinking of his love for Sirius, and sacrificed his life in the hope of saving other innocent lives.
It's amazing, really. We all thought he got through on a good conscience and a bunch of lucky saves, but in the end it seems he did everything right.
Then there was Harry's return, Neville recieving the sword and killing Nagini, Mrs. Weasley calling Bellatrix a bitch (Hahahhahahahahah)and killing her (I always thought Neville'd do it, though), and Harry circling Voldemort in the final showdown! I'd always imagined it just being the two of them, alone in some dark place, but I was glad there were so many witnesses to hear how...well, amazing harry was. Calling Voldemort "Tom"...ha! And for those who think Harry's dumb, he certainly figured out quite a bit. He knew that he was the Elder Wand's true owner, and that his expelliarmus against Riddle's Avada Kedavra would reverse the spell back onto the Dark Lord.
Again, awesome!!!
You'd think he'd be a little bit happier about it afterwards, though...or, well, I'd think he'd feel more accomplished. I guess he did. He certainly did have enough trouble for a lifetime....
So then there's the epilogue. 19 years later. I wonder why 19? I guess to show that Harry was sending his kids to Hogwarts as well but I would think that 10 years would have been nice, to coincide with the 2007 date. Especially since this book finally revealed the story's timeline after all, by including James' and Lily's birth and death dates on their headstone. I know some fans (especially Marauders fans) have gotten really into the chronological timeline, coming up with dates for Tom Riddle's first opening of the Chamber of Secrets and the Marauders times in school, Harry's birth, his parents, death, etc, all based on the year Jo started writing the story and Harry first journeyed to Hogwarts, in 1991. I've never been a big fan of this, however, because I don't like the idea of dating the books for future generations who will want to feel as if Harry's story is going on around them now, or, I should say, in their own time. It seems odd to me to add dates, now, in the middle of the last book, too, considering that they've only ever been used once before in saying that Dumbledore defeated Grindelwald in 1945. When Tom Riddle's diary was found all we could get out of the text was that the chamber had been opened "some 50 years ago."
But whatevah, I'm happy :). Neville, I should mention, was amazing as well. He really stepped up, re-forming the DA in Harry's absence and enduring all that pain from the death eaters.
Poor McGonagall when Harry "died" :(. I just thought about that.
I still don't quite get why Snape had to be so cruel to Harry over the years. I understand that his resemblance to James, the man who swept away with Lily, would be disturbing...but couldn't looking into Harry's eyes have made him lay off a bit? Maybe it did. Next time I'm rereading I'll keep a look out for signs of it....
Does anyone have an idea who Victoire is? For one wild moment I thought it might be Dudley's daughter (I'm assuming this is a girl), turning out to be muggle born, but then it occured to me that the name could be French and that she's a child of Bill and Fleur's . She'd be about the same age.
After all of this, I am in awe of JKR's brilliance. I mean, I was before book 7 but it's insane how she's had all of this planned out from the beginning! She created this whole world that when I try to explain (or write quick journal entries on my reactions) I seems to go on and on and in circles, trying to explain it. there are hundreds of characters, some who have barely been mentioned, but I bet she knows the life story for pretty much each and everyone one of them. All the little foreshadowings that become huge plot twists. All the characters who aren't quite as they seem. Jo does not condescend to children or belittle their power. Her world, while fantastical, feels real because its similarities with our world. Prejudice, government corruption, tyranny, terror, war, and death are nothing new. Her characters are rounded. Dudley Dursley - who once used Harry as his personal punching bag, and later feared him and thought him a freak - ends up shaking Harry's hand when they say good-bye (for a moment there I was afraid he was going to kiss him 0.0!). I don't think I can even begin to comprehend how brilliant a person must be to come up with all of these people, bring them to life with real emotions and surrounding, create all these articles and customs of another world, and then use them all in a cohesive and engaging, surprising and terrifying, humorous and heartfelt, story that manages to appeal to people of all ages from every walk of life from pretty much every country in the world.
Well, all and all, I think these are the bulk of my thoughts for right now. As I've said before, Harry Potter's been with me throughout my entire adolescence. Come to think of it - and I know this sounds a bit pathetic - I've felt closer to Harry than many real people in my life. We've been through ups and downs together, good times and bad. Harry has reached me when no one else could. I feel a bit sad, now, knowing that from now on there will be no new book (aside from maybe a set of appendices, or perhaps Hogwarts: A History?) to look forward to. Is this era of my life over? I'm not sure. All I know is that the ones we love never really leave us. I'll always have the books to reread and the memories I've connected to them, and that's a fantastic gift.
Some of you still There? Cool.....
SPOILER! SPOILER! SPOILER! SPOILER! SPOILER! SPOILER! SPOILER!
First off: OMG!OMG!OMG!
Alright, now, wow! Deathly Hallows...is extraordinary. And I mean that in the full extent of the word. It's hard to pin down my thoughts, exactly, but I'm going to try! In an incoherent, jumbly kind of way ;).
I was amazed by how much action occurred early in the book! The thing had barely started when Harry first faced Voldemort! The death of Hedwig hit me surprisingly hard. In the years leading up to this final book, I of course expected deaths but I was anticipating...well, I was not anticipating the death of an owl. It seemed so cruel and horrible. Hedwig wasn't fighting. Hedwig wasn't even human! I'd never been a huuuuge fan of hers (I feel that the movies play her a much bigger character than in the canon) but she was there for Harry when no one else was. How many hours were they each other's only company in The Smallest Bedroom, 4 Privet Drive, Little Whinging, Surrey?
Immediately after I read it, though, it seemed perfect: that's just the sort of unfair, pointlessly horrid thing that evil people love to do. Killing the innocent and unarmed...she was in a cage!
And of course the death of Mad Eye was quite sad (I think I might have punched my fist in the air when Harry grabbed his eye from Umbridge's door, event hough I knew it was a foolish move). Dobby hit me pretty hard. Again, it was so unfair....Poor Dobby, who had always helped Harry Potter, who dreamed of freedom and achieved it, who was pure of heart and always willing to help. Lupin and Tonks were quite sad, as well. There have been people who've said that all the Marauders would have to die in the end, and I guess they were right, though I'd hoped it wouldn't be necessary. Oh, I feel for Tonk's poor mother, losing her husband and her daughter within months of each other! But I guess she ends up raising the child, Teddy.
It was Fred's death that really shocked me. I've said many times that I never would expect the twins to die because it would be like the death of humor. It just seems wrong for George to be without his twin. What will happen to him? What about Weasley's Wizard Wheezes? I'm just glad that Percy reunited with them in the end, and that Fred dies laughing. If it had to happen, that seems the appropriate way it should come about. And for poor Mrs. Weasley, she may have lost a son but she kind of got one back, really...
Harry was just amazing! I could really see that he had grown up. It was little things, like standing up to Lupin (who I love but, chyeah, I've been kind of pissed at him since Order of the Phoenix); befriending Kreacher; and hugging Mrs. Weasley when she gave him the watch, and adding more to the hug, explaining to her his appreciation for all that she'd done for him, and sacrificed for his fight. I was particularly impressed when Harry met Aberforth and even though they'd argued, he thanked him profusely for saving his, Ron's, and Hermione's life. The way he spoke sometimes held shades of Dumbledore. At one point during his conversation with Aberforth he says something like, "We will stay here until the morning and then we're going to try to get into to Hogwarts. If you have any way of helping us now would be the time to pipe up." It brought back Dumbledore's, "We will intrude on your aunt and uncle's hospitality just a bit longer" thing from HBP, and also the scene with the livid Macnair and Minister in Prisoner of Azkaban, after they became aware of buckbeak's escape.
I think I'll skip to my feeling about the ending while I still have it fresh in my mind, after reading it for the first time....
When Severus Snape died and, with his last breath, asked Harry to "Look...at...me..." it simultaneously chilled and moved me. I thought I knew what must be going on: he wanted for the last thing he saw to be Harry's green, almond-shaped eyes, so much like Lily's. And I was right, though fans have guessing at Snape's love for Lily for years. So while Snape's memories were quite interesting, I wasn't completely surprised by all the information about Lily. But then Dumbledore explained to Snape that Harry was, essentially, a horcrux, and that he would have to die, and my blood went cold. I just couldn't believe it! Throughout the whole book I was admonishing Harry for allowing Rita Skeeter and Auntie Muriel to skew his feeling for Dumbledore, and then this! I felt almost as if I had been personally betrayed! It was sick and twisted to ask Harry to stand in front of Voldemort and wait to be killed! To think that he would never be able to be with Ginny, again, to talk to Ron and Hermione, to godfather Ted , to experience the magical world without the taint of Lord Voldemort. Harry was just a pawn. He would die at the age of seventeen, having spent one unmemorable year with parents who loved him dearly but were murdered in the effort to protect him from being killed; 10 years miserable, feared, and unloved; then 7 years when he knew bits of happiness, but when he was constantly plagued by disturbing dreams and glimpses into the mind of his would-be murderer, whispers and taunts behind his back, excruciating physical pain on several occasions, and the emotional pain of losing what must now be dozens of people he loved and cared about, and knowing that, in an essence, they were dying because of him.
After that, while I read about Harry making up his mind and walking into the forest, I cried like I haven't cried in a long time. I don't think I've cried so much, in such a desperate way since that day I felt like a failure at school and came home to discover that Dad would be going in for another heart surgery. I felt like I was losing someone I loved very much...maybe a even a bit like I was losing a bit of myself. For a moment, I hated Dumbledore, and I must confess that I was a bit wary of JKR, as well. What if that was the ending: Harry dies, Voldemort dies, let's all forget about them and live in peace? If that's how it was going to be there would be no way I could go back and re-read the books as I have. No way I could continue staring at the Harry Potter merchandise and mementos scattered about my room.
I calmed down a lot when Harry died, though, and I started to understand as soon as Dumbledore showed up. Dumbledore, Harry's parents, Sirius, Lupin, Tonks, Fred, Dobby, Hedwig, Mad-Eye, Bathilda Bagshot, Frank Bryce (I suddenly feel a need to list them all), Gideon and Fabian Prewett, Cedric Diggory, Amelia Bones, the Abbots, Bertha Jorkins, Dorcas Meadows, Colin Creevey, Snape....I'm running out of steam but I know there are so many others - these people were all very much dead and could not return, but Harry could come back because of his blood running through Voldemort's veins, and from now he would be untainted by Voldy's bit of soul.
Dumbledore was lovely in this chapter, but for once I could completely appreciate that Harry was the better wizard of the two. Hermione said it in the first book (though all I can recall at the moment is the movie quote, which I think is a bit different), "Books and Cleverness....there are much more important things, Harry! Bravery and Friendship...!" Harry didn't need to be a genious or a fantastic spell caster: what makes him extroidinary is love, selflessness, and purity of heart. He asked to be in Gryffindor, saw the Sorcerer's stone reflected in the mirror, risked his life for the girl who was only his friend's sister, allowed Pettigrew his life, "saved" a stranger in the lake and went back for Cedric Diggory, escaped Voldemort's possession by thinking of his love for Sirius, and sacrificed his life in the hope of saving other innocent lives.
It's amazing, really. We all thought he got through on a good conscience and a bunch of lucky saves, but in the end it seems he did everything right.
Then there was Harry's return, Neville recieving the sword and killing Nagini, Mrs. Weasley calling Bellatrix a bitch (Hahahhahahahahah)and killing her (I always thought Neville'd do it, though), and Harry circling Voldemort in the final showdown! I'd always imagined it just being the two of them, alone in some dark place, but I was glad there were so many witnesses to hear how...well, amazing harry was. Calling Voldemort "Tom"...ha! And for those who think Harry's dumb, he certainly figured out quite a bit. He knew that he was the Elder Wand's true owner, and that his expelliarmus against Riddle's Avada Kedavra would reverse the spell back onto the Dark Lord.
Again, awesome!!!
You'd think he'd be a little bit happier about it afterwards, though...or, well, I'd think he'd feel more accomplished. I guess he did. He certainly did have enough trouble for a lifetime....
So then there's the epilogue. 19 years later. I wonder why 19? I guess to show that Harry was sending his kids to Hogwarts as well but I would think that 10 years would have been nice, to coincide with the 2007 date. Especially since this book finally revealed the story's timeline after all, by including James' and Lily's birth and death dates on their headstone. I know some fans (especially Marauders fans) have gotten really into the chronological timeline, coming up with dates for Tom Riddle's first opening of the Chamber of Secrets and the Marauders times in school, Harry's birth, his parents, death, etc, all based on the year Jo started writing the story and Harry first journeyed to Hogwarts, in 1991. I've never been a big fan of this, however, because I don't like the idea of dating the books for future generations who will want to feel as if Harry's story is going on around them now, or, I should say, in their own time. It seems odd to me to add dates, now, in the middle of the last book, too, considering that they've only ever been used once before in saying that Dumbledore defeated Grindelwald in 1945. When Tom Riddle's diary was found all we could get out of the text was that the chamber had been opened "some 50 years ago."
But whatevah, I'm happy :). Neville, I should mention, was amazing as well. He really stepped up, re-forming the DA in Harry's absence and enduring all that pain from the death eaters.
Poor McGonagall when Harry "died" :(. I just thought about that.
I still don't quite get why Snape had to be so cruel to Harry over the years. I understand that his resemblance to James, the man who swept away with Lily, would be disturbing...but couldn't looking into Harry's eyes have made him lay off a bit? Maybe it did. Next time I'm rereading I'll keep a look out for signs of it....
Does anyone have an idea who Victoire is? For one wild moment I thought it might be Dudley's daughter (I'm assuming this is a girl), turning out to be muggle born, but then it occured to me that the name could be French and that she's a child of Bill and Fleur's . She'd be about the same age.
After all of this, I am in awe of JKR's brilliance. I mean, I was before book 7 but it's insane how she's had all of this planned out from the beginning! She created this whole world that when I try to explain (or write quick journal entries on my reactions) I seems to go on and on and in circles, trying to explain it. there are hundreds of characters, some who have barely been mentioned, but I bet she knows the life story for pretty much each and everyone one of them. All the little foreshadowings that become huge plot twists. All the characters who aren't quite as they seem. Jo does not condescend to children or belittle their power. Her world, while fantastical, feels real because its similarities with our world. Prejudice, government corruption, tyranny, terror, war, and death are nothing new. Her characters are rounded. Dudley Dursley - who once used Harry as his personal punching bag, and later feared him and thought him a freak - ends up shaking Harry's hand when they say good-bye (for a moment there I was afraid he was going to kiss him 0.0!). I don't think I can even begin to comprehend how brilliant a person must be to come up with all of these people, bring them to life with real emotions and surrounding, create all these articles and customs of another world, and then use them all in a cohesive and engaging, surprising and terrifying, humorous and heartfelt, story that manages to appeal to people of all ages from every walk of life from pretty much every country in the world.
Well, all and all, I think these are the bulk of my thoughts for right now. As I've said before, Harry Potter's been with me throughout my entire adolescence. Come to think of it - and I know this sounds a bit pathetic - I've felt closer to Harry than many real people in my life. We've been through ups and downs together, good times and bad. Harry has reached me when no one else could. I feel a bit sad, now, knowing that from now on there will be no new book (aside from maybe a set of appendices, or perhaps Hogwarts: A History?) to look forward to. Is this era of my life over? I'm not sure. All I know is that the ones we love never really leave us. I'll always have the books to reread and the memories I've connected to them, and that's a fantastic gift.