I type these words with a heavy heart: The Harry Potter saga has finally
come to a close. Yes, I waited eight and a half years for the last
installment of J. K. Rowling's seven-part epic to arrive, but now the
final page has been turned, and I'm left with an aching sense of
finality, in anticipation of which I delayed my reading of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
as long as I possibly could. Obviously that wasn't very long; I
couldn't risk having key plot elements leaked to me upon my return from
our annual family reunion camping trip, during which I had steadfastly
refused anything but a taste of a few tantalizing chapters, so I
sequestered myself and, with little interruption aside from a night of
fitful sleep, read straight through to the end. And now it's over.
Rowling has given us a world to which we can return again and again, and
no doubt I will. But I'll miss the thrill of not knowing just where the
journey will lead.
In six months of re-reading the first six volumes in the series, questions bubbled up, the answers hovering just out of reach. Deathly Hallows
resolves many inquiries while leaving others shrouded, ripe for
speculation and imaginative wanderings. It is unique among the books,
with Harry far too preoccupied with the daunting task he has been set to
return to Hogwarts for his final year. And indeed, he couldn't if he
wanted to, as Voldemort has infiltrated the school as surely as he has
the Ministry of Magic, and Harry Potter is Undesirable Number One - the
most wanted wizard in the world.
Ron and Hermione, his
steadfast friends through so many adventures, remain with him at this
critical time, despite his objections. Gone are the days of worrying
about Quidditch practice, essays and love potions. Voldemort is seizing
power, and Harry, Ron and Hermione can only hope to defeat him by living
on the run and attempting to work out the cryptic clues left by their
dearly departed headmaster. Though he no longer is among the living,
scarcely a chapter goes by in which Dumbledore does not figure
prominently. It is a book rich in revelations about the venerable
professor, about whom we knew considerably less than we thought.
With flashbacks, second-hand memories and excerpts from books and
articles, we are deluged with exposition providing long-withheld
insight. In Rowling's world, one can never take for granted that a
character is just who he or she seems to be. Allies turn up in
unexpected places; long-familiar names are finally attached to freshly
revealed faces; both bravery and betrayal seep out in critical
character-revealing moments. The usual twists and turns are intensified.
I expected some of the developments but was blindsided by others. This
is edge-of-your-seat, can't-stop-once-you-start reading.
There
are deep mysteries to solve, thrilling action sequences, new characters
to meet and old ones to greet warmly as old friends, never knowing,
particularly as the pages toward the front of the book begin to
outnumber those to the back, when some beloved character will speak for
the last time. Rowling has drawn them all so richly that significance
hangs heavily upon each death, and I don't think I'm giving too much
away in revealing that her hint of two major deaths struck me as grossly
misleading. I suppose I can guess at which two were singled out as
"major," but each one is a crippling blow. We've reached all-out war by
the seventh book, and Rowling doesn't flinch in showing us all its ugly
details.
That isn't to say, however, that all is death and
despair as the intrepid trio travel, clinging to one another and
accepting help from a variety of sources as they grapple with the
enormity of their mission. There is light and laughter, love and life
pulsing through the book as powerfully as ever before, even intensified
at times by the very knowledge of the doom threatening to consume
everything. Though we may not escape the sense of foreboding entirely,
there are pockets of profound joy, of bonds of affection strengthened by
adversity, of sheer, unbridled delight at life's simple pleasures.
Even more importantly, there is a powerful thread of goodness
at the core of this novel. We see each of our heroes mature: Ron
becomes more empathetic, Hermione more open-minded, and Harry... Well,
he has a lifetime of learning to squeeze into one short year, and while
some of his lessons are far more painful than the sadistic detentions
with which Dolores Umbridge had hoped to subdue him in Order of the Phoenix, they steel him for his final battle, which above all else is a test of his will, of his spirit, of his soul.
Many aspects of the book took me by surprise, from the titular
reference to the identity of the Hogwarts headmaster in this final year.
The dark history involving the Hitlerian wizard Grindelwald caused my
insides to churn; conversely, I experienced a thrill of ecstasy when
Harry stumbled upon one of the last missives written by his mother.
While I was pleased to see nearly every significant character from books
past turn up at some point, I must confess I was startled by how little
we saw of some of them.
After being singled out over the last
two years as the character upon whom the events of the final book might
well hinge, Severus Snape is curiously absent from the vast majority of
the book, and his interaction with Harry is so minimal as to be nearly
negligible, though just when I'd almost given up on him playing a
crucial role in Harry's last battle, Rowling delivered. I just wish
there had been a bit more dialogue between Harry and Snape. Then again, I
also would have liked quite a bit more one-on-one time with Draco
Malfoy, Peter Pettigrew and Petunia Dursley.
The trouble with
the format of this book is that Harry, Ron and Hermione spend so much
time in isolation, completely separated from the rest of the Wizarding
world. As such, there aren't all that many opportunities for him to come
into close contact with all these secondary characters, and since the
bulk of what we see is from his perspective, there's little chance to
explore them on their own. Because Harry is not at Hogwarts, we feel
extremely cut off from what is happening there, and several characters
who are omnipresent in other books show up so late in the game I was
starting to wonder if we were going to see them at all. These latecomers
make a powerful impact, however, particularly the formidable Minerva
McGonagall and brave Neville Longbottom.
Still, there are
stories that seem to drop. While we get a glimpse into the future with
an epilogue, this post script spans only a few short pages and is
insufficient to answer questions about what happened to all but a very
few select survivors, and even among these we only learn the profession
of one. And what of the magical world at large? How has it changed in
the nearly twenty years since what should have been Harry's last year at
Hogwarts? There's also the matter of the fallen, and those who bow out
in the heat of the climactic confrontation seem neglected, with no time
to linger on their deaths properly. I was especially disappointed in how
little we saw of the aftermath of one particular character's demise, as
it would have had an especially deep impact on certain survivors. We
never really got to mourn this person properly or were given any
evidence of a lasting memorial, which would have been all too easy to
slip in.
On the whole, however, the ending is satisfying, as
satisfying as any conclusion to such a treasured series can be.
Beautifully written, with copious amounts of love and perspiration
compressed into every word, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
is more than a brilliantly detailed, expertly plotted adventure. It's
sustenance for the spirit, and I have consumed it hungrily. Now I gaze
at the eerie form of Voldemort's skeletal hands protruding from his
cloak on the back cover, and a part of me wishes I could Obliviate
myself and meet Harry anew, absorbing his seven-year quest for the first
time. Countless others will take that journey, and they will find
within the books' pages a layered tale that may just adjust the way they
perceive the world. Some magic is real. Thank you, Ms Rowling, for
helping to open our eyes.
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