Protected: Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows

After stolen moments of reading in between working (sshhhh don’t tell my boss!) and sneaking in the middle of the night to read in the kitchen (hush, hush, don’t tell my other boss!), I am finally done with Harry Potter. I mean done with the book, that is.

Time for some review. Spoilers ahead so this post is protected. Proceed with caution and don’t tell me I did not warn you.

I felt like I was a part of the story, even dreaming about it some nights in a row. Moving on…

My sweet and short review of the book: Harry Potter survived exactly as I hoped!

THE DEATHS

• SEVERUS SNAPE - the emotionally repressed, unloved and unloving (except for Lily) Snape was killed by Lord Voldemort! After reading A Prince’s Tale chapter, I thought, how hurtful can it be? To have the love of your life marry someone you loathe? His last words pierced my heart “Look…at…me…” addressing to Harry, begging Harry to give him one last look. The green eyes met the black - - he was looking into Lily’s eyes as he died- -  that line is like a dagger. JK Rowling has reiterated on every book how Harry had Lily’s eyes. Everything just fell into place.

• DOBBY - OMG Dobby!! I cried for a long time for that one, which is weird because I never knew how much I loved him until he died! How am I going to explain to my young daughter when the movie is out a couple of years from now? Pristine adores Dobby in the Chamber of Secrets. The phrase Harry wrote on Dobby’s grave: “Here lies Dobby, a free elf” stuck on me even pages after that episode.

• FRED - The Weasley twins Fred and George was an image of fun and lightness amidst darkness. Fred’s death was just too much!! How will George and his family ever cope? I’d be happier if it had been Percy.

• REMUS LUPIN & TONKS - how devastating after they just had a baby. Lupin has to join his bunch of friends at the other side of the veil but Tonks?

LOVED QUOTES

• Harry’s line as he walked to his death, “Will it hurt?” was so pure and so sad. It hurt me.

• Molly Weasley to Bellatrix Lestrange: “Not my daughter, you BITCH!”

• Viktor Krum: “Vot is the point of being an international Quidditch player if all the good-looking girls are taken?”

• Another favorite line from Albus Dumbledore: “Do not pity the dead, Harry. Pity the living, and above all, pity those who live without love.”

• “It is our choices, far more than our abilities, that show who we truly are.”

MOMENT I ENJOYED

• Molly Weasley called Bellatrix a BITCH and killed her. Mrs. Weasley finally put down her cooking pots and knitting needles to kick some major butt. That was so satisfying!

• It broke my heart to see Ron leaving his two dear friends and overjoyed when he came back.

• Loved the whole chapter about Snape and how I found out that he was not the bad one.

• Lots of motherly love displayed: Narcissa Malfoy saving Harry just to see Draco again and that one hell magic performance Mrs. Molly Weasley made to take down the wicked Bellatrix Lestrange. Yay, Molly! I love the way she shouted “Not my daughter, you BITCH!”

• According to my imagination interpretation, Ginny’s birthday kiss to Harry overshadowed Harry’s first kiss with ex-girlfriend Cho Chang.

• Luna’s painting of his Hogwarts friends in her room gave me the chills. Happy chills.

• How heart wrenching was Harry’s death march when passing by all the friends he wouldn’t be saying goodbye to!

• Ron and Hermione’s kiss! Hermione and Ron only kiss after he has expressed his sincere concern over the house elves, thus demonstrating the completion of his moral education, proving his worthiness of Hermione’s love.

• Now I also know that Harry only loved Hermione as a sister and she’d end up with red-haired kiddos.

• Neville finally had his major moment by killing Nagini, Voldemort’s snake in the battle.

• Real, core audience of the Harry Potter series are no longer limited to children. The people who read the first book ten years ago have grown with Harry thus the last book as more case in point and more cursing.

Surely there are still so many lovely moments, please fill free to fill me in!

THE EPILOGUE

Some readers are pleased while others are bothered. I’d say JKR wrote it fairly. The epilogue was a bit cheesy but I guess the fans would just be equally pissed if JKR did not write that.

It’s a clean break right after all the nerve-wracking excitement that it might feel too tranquil, so simple with a child-like touch.

I did not finish reading the 6th HP book so I have no idea that there is something special going on between Harry and his bestfriend’s sister, Ginny. I am glad Harry finally got what he wished for all throughout his orphan life: a normal and peaceful life filled with love and contentment, what he craved for all along. Harry’s worked so hard, he deserves all the things he always wanted: family, love and a bit of normalcy.

The epilogue is resolutely domestic, with squabbling kids and dads talking about parking. It is a short tale straight out of a typical family life, plus wands.

Harry and Ginny have three kids named after people who played very important part in their lives. The first born, James, was named after of course, Harry’s father, next is Albus Severus, named after the greatest wizard in the history of Hogwarts Albus Dumbledore and Severus Snape, who sacrificed himself for the woman he loved, even beyond the grave. The last kid is a girl named Lily, who was named after Harry’s mom.

Ron and Hermione have two kids, albeit with flaming red hair: Hugo and Rose.

However, the readers are left on their own to use their imagination to question how George survived Fred’s death, or who Draco married or the careers Harry, Ron and Hermione took after that last battle with You-Know-Who. But I guess it just makes us crave for more HP frenzy in the years to come!

JKR is the only fantastic author Britain produced after Tolkien. I would so follow another book series as she has so much imagination.