The last Harry Potter
book is all that everyone imagined it would be and much more. After seeing the
characters develop and gaining magical powers, now we see them taking their own
path in fighting Voldermort. In the magical world, being 17 allows zoung
witches and wizards to use their power to the best of their abilities.
Achieving this age also means that the magical enchantment which protected Harry
from Voldermort will end. In order to protect Harry, Mad Eye Moody, the
Weasleys, Ron, Hermione, Lupin, Thonks all come to assure that Harry goes into
a secret hiding place. Unfortunately the Death Eaters attack them on the night
when Harry turns 17 and kill Mad Eye Moody and injure George.
Hermione, Ron, and
Harry reach the safe house, which in the first stage is the Weasley residence.
There they attend Fleur and Bill’s wedding, a last opportunity to enjoy a
pleasant company. On the same night with the wedding, the Ministry of Magic is overthrown
and Death Eaters attack the Weasley’s.
Barely managing to
escape alive, Ron, Hermione and Harry flee to London, and hide into 12 Grimauld
Place. There, with the help of Kreacher
find out that the Slytherin Locket is under the possession of Dolores Umbridge.
Using a polijuice potion and concocting a plan to infiltrate the Ministry of
Magic, they manage to retrieve the locket, but are unable to go back into the
house, because one of their attackers saw the location of their hiding. As a
consequence, they chose to go into hiding, never staying in one place too long.
Unable to destroy the locket, they must carry it on them in turns, and under the
dark influence of the locket, Ron starts believing that Harry and Hermione are
laughing about him and in a fit of fury decides to abandon them. Both Harry and
Hermione are devastated, but they continue the quest for the remaining
Horcruxes.
During their quest to
find the Horcruxes, they also discover more about Dumbledore’s personal life.
Along with new findings, Harry is tormented by thoughts of being used by
Dumbledore, but is aware that he must trust Dumbledore’s decision of how and
with whom he shared information. Also with the help of Hermione they uncover
that Voldermort is after the Deathly Hallows- three magical objects that have
the power to make one invincible. The Elder Wand- which was in Dumbledore’s possession,
the Resurection Stone- that has the ability to bring back the memory of the
dead ones and the Invisibility Cloak. Harry realizes that the Hallows must be
real and that he is the happy possessor of the Cloak. He chooses to continue
the quest set by Dumbledore: find and destroy the Horcruxes.
Ron returns to his
friends, just in time to save Harry from drowning. One night, a Patronus, a
silver doe appears and leads Harry to discover the Sword of Griffindor on the
bottom of a frozen lake. As he dives to recover the sword, the ice starts
forming above and he is trapped. Ron appears, saves him, and also destroys the
locket with the Sword. United, the three friends resume their quest. Together the
friends piece together the information that one of the remaining Horcruxes is
the cup of the House of Huffelpuf, the other one must have something to do with
the House of Ravenclaw and one of them is Nagini, Voldermort’s precious snake.
One night, as they
attempt to set up camp they are captured and taken to Malfoy residence. Hermione
manages to put a transforming charm on Harry’s face, making it unrecognizable.
They are imprisoned in the Malfoy’s cellar and Hermione is being tortured.
Among the prisoners Harry and Ron find their friends Luna Lovegood and Dean
Thomas, Olivander - the wand maker, and Griphook - a goblin working at
Gringotts. From Griphook they found out that the cup is held in the Lestranges
Vault at Gringotts. With the help of Dobby- the former Malfoy house elf, now a
free elf, the group manages a close escape to Fleur and Bill’s Cottage.
Unfortunately Bellatrix manages to mortally attack Dobby with a knife. After
they arrive at the cottage the little elf dies. Harry is full of sadness as he
loses one more friend and after providing Dobby with a proper funeral, he
negotiates with Griphook the price to break into Gringotts. Griphook asks for
the Sword of Griphindor, and helps the trio get into the vault. After they
manage to take the cup, Griphook gets the sword, and they manage to escape
using the trapped dragon. Flying on the back of the dragon they exit London and
return into hiding. Realizing that the Ravenclaw Diadem might be one of the
Horcruxes they plan to return to Hogwarts.
Under the new dark
regime, Hogwarts is managed by Snape and is heavily defended by Death Eaters. They
manage to get inside Hogwarts through a passage that connects Leaky Cauldron, a
place in Hogsmead managed by Aberforth Dumbledore, Albus’s brother, to the
secret chamber in Hogwarts. As they enter Hogwarts they find out a couple of
Dumbledor´s Army fellows are there in hiding and more return as they prepare to
destroy Voldermort. Memebers of the Order of the Phoenix also come and a battle
ensues. Trying to find the diadem is hard work, and with the help of the ghost
in the Ravenclaw tower Harry manages to find the diadem. Unfortunately he is
surrounded by Draco, Crabbe and Goyle, and one of them uses a dark spell
sending a consuming fire. The fire destroys the diadem and kills Crabbe. Draco
and Goyle are saved by Harry and Ron and Hermione return after destroying the
cup using the basilik fang located in the Chambers of Secret. Voldermort puts a
siege on Hogwarts, and Harry is called to face him in a face to face duel.
Before he goes into the Forbidden Forrest, Harry tells Neville to kill Nagini,
and he sets of alone, under the cover of his invisibility cloak.
Harry realizes that he
must die in order to defeat Voldermort, and being at peace with this decision
uses the Resurrection Stone to see his family and dead friends one last time. Faced
with Voldermort, Harry refuses to use any killing curse, and although
Voldermort holds the Elder Wand, and casts a killing curse, Harry is not
entirely dead; he only visits a temporary link between the dead and the living.
In this temporary voyage he encounters Dumbledore, who lets Harry know the
secret of the Elder Wand and the fact that Voldermort has simply destroyed the
Horcrux that resided in Harry. Harry returns to the living, and resumes the
fight against Voldermort. He is the true owner of the wand, and although Snape
killed Dumbledore, Draco disarmed him first. Voldermort kills Snape, but Snape
manages to give Harry a last memory that forever changed the way in which he
sees Snape (he was his protector, due to the deep feelings of love felt towards
his mother). Due to the fact that Harry
disarmed Draco he had in turn become the master of the Wand. A consequence of
wand’s alliance to a true master is that any spells cast won’t hurt the
rightful owner, and so the curse sent by Voldermort backfires and kills him.
Neville manages to kill Nagini, and the other members of the Order of the
Phoenix and Dumbledore’s Army defeat the remaining Death Eaters. Unfortunately
in the battle Fred, Nymphadora, Lupin and other students are killed, but the
world returns to a peaceful state.
In the prologue we find
Harry having a happy family with Ginny, together having three children: James
Sirius, Albus Severus and Lily Luna, and setting his middle child to Hogwarts
with words of comfort regarding the allocation of a particular house by the
Sorting Hat. Ron and Hermione also have a lovely family with two chidren: Rose
and Hugo. All friends meet on the platform of 93/4 to see their
children off to Hogwarts. So end the book.
The last book of the
series is a complex book that deals with the issue of trust, love, death, while
managing your emotions. One of my favourite scenes is when Ron rescues Harry.
For me this is the embodiment of friendship and it shows the necessary path Ron
had to take in order to redeem his moment of weakness. After he chooses to
abandon them in a fit of fury, he had to find them again by trying to predict
where they will end up. It was an arduous task, but with the help of Snape’s
Patronus he manages to find them just in time. Also the epilogue is beautiful and leaves you
with a sense that all is good in the world.
I can only advise you
all to read the books for yourself and discover the magic of J.K. Rowling’s
writing and the fascination of reading about the transformation of the main
characters.
