Reflections on Deathly Hallows *SPOILER*

I've been done with the book for about 36 hours now and although I'm still sort of processing, it's about time I posted some reflections. I came to the conclusion a review would just be an insult to Harry Potter fans everywhere this soon after the release. Deathly Hallows was exactly what JKR wanted it to be. Right now we're all just marveling in the book's perfection.


*SPOILER ALERT*





I KNOW IT'S TEMPTING,





BUT IF YOU HAVEN'T FINISHED BOOK 7





OR IF YOU'RE ONLY HALF WAY THROUGH BOOK 5





(I'm talking to you mom)





YOU SHOULD STRAY AWAY FROM THIS POST IMMEDIATELY.





YOU'VE BEEN WARNED.




Okie Dokie. Where do I start? Some favorite points in the story (in no particular order) were...

• Sirius Black's magic mirror. I must admit I was slightly disgruntled in Half Blood Prince when there was no mention whatsoever of the walkie talkie mirrors. I was even more pleased that it turned out to be a fairly major plot point--Aberforth's reflection.

• Dudley's thanks. How poignant?

• Dobby's Death. I sobbed pretty hard, which surprised me. I couldn't imagine a better way of him going. He dominates the death eaters, gets back at the Malfoys, and tells Bellatrix off ("Dobby has no master!") without feeling the need to punish himself for bad behavior. I loved that Harry dug the grave by hand. The "Here lies Dobby, a free elf," about killed me. He's always been one of my favorite characters

• Leadership. We saw a glimpse of Harry's leadership ability in book five, but he completely took over in Deathly Hallows, which was a blast to read about. I knew he had it in him. I also enjoyed reading the subplots about Neville, Luna, and Ginny making an impact at Hogwarts. Especially Neville, but I'll get to that later.

• Lily. Learning about Lily was so much fun. The letter and the scenes in the pensieve were such treats. I have to admit, I've never been a Lily/Snape shipper so I was sort of shocked to find out the Snape loved Lily theory turned out to be accurate. I thought it fit the series perfectly and I was really excited that such a large percentage of the fandom guessed right. The Petunia/Lily relationship has also been long awaited and their story, though heartbreaking, filled up that gap of information more than I ever expected. I sort of thought that aspect of the books might remain a mystery forever and was relieved to find closure.

• Godric's Hallow. I've been waiting to see the village ever since it was first mentioned in book one. The statue of the Potters and the graffitied sign were beautiful.

• Dumbledore's imperfection. I thought I really liked Dumbledore before I read this book, but now I love him. I knew he had to of had some skeletons in his closet and learning about his past was extremely sad, but, in a weird way, thrilling.

• Godfather Harry. I thought it was really nice to see history repeat itself. The marauders are such a great subplot. It sucks that Lupin and Tonks are gone, but the Teddy/Harry relationship resembled the Harry/Sirius relationship too much not to smile at the thought and wish you could read more about it.

• The end of Bellatrix. Molly Weasley finishes off Bellatrix with quite a bang. That scene was hilarious and that line is probably going to be one of the most remembered from entire series. I've always gotten the impression Molly spends most of the time worrying about the boys and often forgets about Ginny. Seeing Mrs. Weasley stick up for her daughter was better than seeing her save any of her other children. I was rooting for Neville to be the one to kill Bellatrix, but the hilarity of that scene makes up for it.

• Ron. I've never been a big Ron fan. I mean, I guess I've always liked him okay, but it wasn't until this book I really appreciated his character. His return was so ideal. I mean, he gets to save Harry Potter. Not bad for a sidekick.

• Luna and Hagrid live. I thought they were going to die for sure, but luckily I was wrong.

• Fred. I saw that one coming since book three. One of the Weasley twins had to go. I'm glad Percy was there. Much better than George, which is what I thought was coming.

• Gringotts and the Dragon. Gringotts is one of my favorite places JKR created and we haven't been there since book one. The dragon guarding the vault was just icing on the cake. It amazes me how JKR mentioned dragons in Gringotts in the very beginning of her series because she somehow knew that it'd play a part in the far off future.

• Neville. Can we get a whoot for my favorite character (after Harry of coarse)? He shined in this book like no other character. I mean, he continued the DA, inspired other students no matter how much pain it caused him, figured out the room of requirement, risked his life to save Harry, killed Nagini--thus a part of Voldy himself, finally made his grandmother proud, and avenged his parent by fighting the Death Eaters. I love him. I love him. I love him. His success might be my favorite part of this book.

• Suits of Armor. Hogwarts fighting back is something I wanted to read so bad. I almost cried with joy when McGonagall got the armor to march down to the battlefield. It makes me get all warm and fuzzy just thinking about it. Having the battle at Hogwarts was also a plus. I couldn't imagine the finale of the series happening anywhere else (except maybe beyond the veil) especially with so much of the book occurring elsewhere.

• Harry wins with EXPELLIARMUS! In other words, love. It's one of the few harmless spells used for defense. I don't know what I would have done if Harry died (permanently), or worse, lost his powers. I'd've probably cried for weeks. The fact Expelliarmus is the saving spell was awesome because Harry's continually used it and more than once defended that spell as not being useless because he used it in book four and it saved his life. I thought it fit well with the theme of wands that ran throughout the book.

• King's Cross. To all the psycho extremist Christians who never read the books and claimed that Harry Potter was satanic, you could learn a lot from reading Deathly Hallows. KING'S CROSS for crying out loud! How can you actually believe these books are so evil with all the Christian values. Ugh. Ignorance kills me. The scene at King's Cross was incredible. I can't get over how beautiful it was--Dumbledore's wisdom combined with Harry's acceptance of death and Voldemort's undesirable fate was so perfect. I was really going to miss the Dumbledore explains it all chapter we get in every other book. I didn't think we'd be getting one due to a particular event in Half Blood Prince, but I was wrong. Thank goodness.

• Epilogue. The final chapter was not at all what I expected. When I realized I wouldn't be finding out about everything that happened from "I've had enough rouble for a lifetime" to Harry's death I was a little disappointed. JKR only gave us about a five minute peek into Harry's future. The truth is, that's really all we needed for closure and that's why the Epilogue was so ideal. At first I was slightly put off by all the opportunities for fanfiction, but that I realized that people were going to write fanfic whether or not she gave us all the details and maybe that's not such a bad thing.

All in all, Deathly Hallows was amazing and I can't imagine a better way of ending what's been my favorite story for the past eight years.

I'm thinking this is going to be my last Harry Potter post for a while. It's funny, seven of my twelve posts this month were related to Deathly Hallows. Somehow I'm not surprised. This is the only book that's come out since my life as a blogger began. I won't say I've overdone it, but it's probably time to move onto other literature: summer reading.

Feel free to post your own thoughts about Deathly Hallows in the comments. I'd love to hear what you all think.