My Review of Book 7 (SPOILERS!!)

After digesting and re-reading certain parts of the book, I am ready to write what I thought of it. To read, simply highlight the hidden text below.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows was not a disappointment at all. I can’t say that it was my favorite book of the series, but J.K. Rowling did an excellent job putting all the pieces of the puzzle together and giving us a fast-paced, riveting story. What I am most pleased with is that there is still so much left to discuss. We now know that all is right in the Wizarding world and Harry defeated Voldemort, but Rowling left it so that there are still items for us fans to ponder.

Dumbledore turned out to be a much more complex character than originally expected. In the first six books he appeared to be an all-knowing, infallible hero, but there were times during Hallows when I began to dislike him. Specifically when we reading about Snape’s memories and Dumbledore so casually mentioned that Harry was going to have to die in order to defeat Voldemort. He was redeemed in the next chapter, however, and I could then understand his intentions. While Dumbledore was a good person overall, he was susceptible to making errors and was tempted by power, glory and immortality, just as most people are. He makes us realize that there is a little bit of good and bad in everyone, and what makes a person truly good is their ability to overcome the bad.

And this is just what we learn about Harry. Here is a character that started off as a young, timid boy in the first book and grew into a true hero and leader by the end of the seventh. He was also tempted by evil – the Deathly Hallows were a strong temptation for him – but what made him good was that he was eventually able to focus on his original intentions and defeat Voldemort. What I found most interesting about Harry was that throughout the first six books, was that while Harry was courageous, he never did anything all that extraordinary. He either had help from his mother, his friends, or Dumbledore. In Book 7, he was revealed to be a true hero. He accepted his fate willingly and was going to die in order to save his friends. By doing this, he gave them extra protection from Voldemort in the final moments of the battle at Hogwarts. Another true heroic feat was that Harry did not have to use the Avada Kedavra curse on Voldemort to defeat him. He maintained his innocence and offered Voldemort another chance to survive by only using the defensive Expelliarmus spell, which collided with the killing curse that then brought about Voldemort’s own demise. Harry did not actually kill Voldemort, Voldemort did it to himself.

Harry won the Elder wand earlier in this scene by disarming Draco (the true owner of the Elder wand), which gave him what many others, Dumbledore included, sought, the three Deathly Hallows, but Harry realized that what he truly wanted was what he saw in the Mirror of Erised all those years ago, not the power, glory and immortality that the Deathly Hallows bring. While Harry became obsessed with the idea of the Deathly Hallows for a while, he was able to snap out of it in time to realize that his more important mission was finding and destroying the Horcruxes, the only way to defeat Voldemort.

Rowling was able to make love a central and important theme in the books, without it becoming sappy or overbearing. Harry saw a loving family when he looked in the Mirror of Erised in Book 1. What he truly wanted was to love and to be loved. Even the Malfoys showed their good side in this book by stressing the importance of family and love, the only thing that helped keep all of them alive. Harry’s desire for a loving family came true after he realized that the Deathly Hallows would not give him happiness, for that is not what power and immortality bring. Harry’s story mirrored Dumbledore’s, because both had a chance at having all three Deathly Hallows but willingly gave them up for love. Dumbledore lost his own family but still surrounded himself with loving people, those members of the Order of the Phoenix. This is a subtle but valid point. Every member of the Order of the Phoenix had the ability to love and to love strongly – from Lupin to the Longbottoms to the Potters to Snape. Voldemort lacked this ability, as, it seemed, did Bellatrix and that brought about their downfalls.

Overall, the book was well-done. I could nitpick, but the only negative I am going to include is that a lot of information was crammed into a small amount of space. Rowling would have been better off tacking on an extra 100 pages and giving us more detailed explanations. I found this especially true in the King’s Cross chapter with Dumbledore. But she certainly gave us an excellent story, that was both original and clever and that is sure to become a classic.

 

The Importance of Bellatrix

J.K. Rowling has just given us another clue to Book 7.  In a recent interview with Helena Bonham Carter, she let on that Rowling revealed to her that Bellatrix will be very important in the last book.

Bellatrix Lestrange had been mentioned in a couple of the middle books of the series, but she became important in Order of the Phoenix, when she broke out of Azkaban and participated in the Battle at the Ministry in the Department of Mysteries.  We know that Neville especially has it out for her, since she was one of the Death Eaters who tortured his parents into madness.  Will the two of them be part of the climactic battle in Book 7?

Bellatrix also considers herself one of Voldemort’s most loyal followers and might have had a lot of inside information  into the Death Eaters and Voldemort’s use of horcruxes.  Being a cousin of Sirius and Regulus Black’s, did she know anything about the locket?

And, what I consider to be most important, why did she torture the Longbottoms after Voldemort had already disappear?  What did she believe she had to gain?

 

The Importance of Kreacher

Last week we learned from multiple sources that J.K. Rowling insisted to Order of the Phoenix director that Kreacher not be cut from the movie, because he is a vital character in the upcoming Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.  I had written a few weeks ago about a theory I had heard involving Kreacher.  Was it possible he was on the boat with R.A.B. (if R.A.B. is in fact Regulus Black) and forced to drink the potent potion that weakened Dumbledore?  What other possible roles could he play?  Will he be a help or hindrance to Harry in the final book?

 

Neville

Here is a curious character. He has been fairly prominent in all of the books, but his role becomes more important with each book. He has gone from being just a socially-awkward classmate of Harry’s at Hogwarts to a star student in Herbology to a friend who more or less lost his parents to by followers of Voldemort to the other child to whom the Prophecy could have been referring.

Neville will most likely be a key character in Book 7. I think he might even accompany Harry on his quest to find the rest of the Horcruxes, because as we learned in Order of the Phoenix, the fight against Voldemort and his followers means just as much to Neville as it does to Harry.

We still have a lot to learn about the Longbottoms. Why were they tortured? I believe they must have had important information regarding Voldemort, and possibly even knew about the Horcruxes at that time. We also know that they had thrice defied Voldemort, and I am curious as to what it is they did.

Does Neville know how close he was to being the Chosen One? Will he find out and how will that affect him?

 

Harry = Horcrux ???

I have to say that I never bought into this theory – that Voldemort made Harry into a Horcrux, accidentally or not. Initially, I did not believe that a horcrux could be made accidentally. I know that we really don’t know how horcruxes are created, but it sounds like it would have to be a deliberate curse, so how could that be accidental? As for Voldemort doing it on purpose, he has tried too many times throughout the first 6 books to kill Harry. I have read theories that say Harry’s corpse would then be the horcrux, but bodies decompose. I definitely don’t believe that this was done purposefully.

However, even though I do not completely buy into the Harry Potter is a horcrux theory, I do now see that the Harry was made into a horcrux accidentally is a plausible theory. What happened in Godric’s Hollow that evening many years ago is a complete mystery and no one before Harry had ever survived the killing curse. What if on that night, Voldemort tried to kill Harry, but, for some reason that we’ll find out in Book 7, the curse bounced off Harry, hit Voldemort, and Voldemort’s soul went into Harry’s body. Maybe then in Goblet of Fire Voldemort was taking back his soul from Harry. Harry would not be a horcrux anymore.

If this is the case, then Dumbledore might have figured this out already, which would explain the”gleam of triump” seen in his eyes at the end of Book 4. He also would not have told Harry because why put him through that when he is not a horcrux anymore.

I have no idea if any of this theory is true or not. I’m not even sure that I buy into it completely, but it’s fun to try to connect the dots in this puzzle and see what theories fit.

 

“Will Voldemort be Defeated?” – Scholastic’s Sixth Question

Scholastic has posted the sixth of their seven questions about Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.  Will Voldemort be defeated?  Visit the Shrieking Shack to vote with your answer.

I don’t see how the books can end with Voldemort still at large.  I also don’t think that he can be defeated without dying, so my personal opinion is that he will be defeated and die.  Another big question is whether or not Harry Potter will live or die.  If he does happen to die, I believe it will be during a final battle with Voldemort and that it would happen only after Voldemort is defeated.  I am curious to see where this final battle will take place and who will be there to witness the defeat.  Snape and Wormtail are two possibilities and I believe that either one or both will help Harry in the end.  A good place for this final showdown could be Hogwarts – maybe it is where the final horcrux will be found and destroyed?

What do you think?  Can the series end with Voldemort still in power?

 

Horcruxes

There are only two horcruxes that we know about for sure – Tom Riddle’s diary and Marvolo Gaunt’s ring.  Both have been destroyed, but there are still possibly four other horcruxes.  Dumbledore believed these to be Slytherin’s locket, Helga Hufflepuff’s cup, an unknown relic belonging to either Godric Gryffindor or Rowena Ravenclaw, and Voldemort’s snake Nagini.

It has been theorized by avid readers that Harry himself is a horcrux, but I believe this is unlikely.  Actually, it was Dumbledore’s thought that the final horcrux Voldemort made was to be by Harry’s murder, but since that plan backfired, he thought that the murder of Frank Bryce in Goblet of Fire was used to produce the last horcrux in Nagini.

J.K. Rowling herself has said in an interview that through a careful reading of the books, a reader should be able to identify some of the final horcruxes.  I’ve read and reread, but I’m not so sure I could be confident in any of my theories.  Although I do wonder if Godric Gryffindor’s sword is one of them.  Does anyone else have ideas?  I hope to learn of some interesting theories, because I think finding out the answer will be one of the most exciting parts of the final book.

 

Where Are the Horcruxes? – Scholastic Question #5

Visit Scholastic’s site to answer their latest question – where are the remainder of the horcruxes?

I’ll be addressing this particular question in more detail later, but send me your thoughts and ideas to include in a later posting!  I think this particular question deserves a lot of attention, and will most likely be the focal point of Book 7.  I’m curious to hear your opinions.

 

Aberforth

Aberforth Dumbledore, brother to Albus Dumbledore, is mentioned briefly throughout the first six books, but very little is known about him. We know that he was once prosecuted for practicing inappropriate charms on a goat, was an member of the original Order of the Phoenix, and, as revealed in an interview with J.K. Rowling, is the bartender at the Hog’s Head in Hogsmeade.

There is a lot of speculation about what his role may be in the final book. Will we see and learn more about Aberforth? Is he a member of the new Order, and, if so, what does he do for them?

One theory that I have heard is that he could be in possession of Slytherin’s locket, due to his dealings with Mundungus Fletcher in Book 6. Interesting possibility…

 

What exactly was in the Cauldron?

In Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Voldemort comes back to life using a potion concocted by Wormtail.  We see three ingredients being put in the cauldron – a bone from Voldemort’s father, flesh of a foe (Wormtail’s own arm), and blood from Harry, an enemy.  However, we do not know if any ingredients were added beforehand.  The liquid in the cauldron did not seem to be just water, because Harry sees it sparking, almost looking like it was “encrusted with diamonds.”  Was there another important ingredient that went into that cauldron?

This might be a crazy idea, but is it possible that a Horcrux was used at that point in the series?  We do not know how a Horcrux is used exactly.  Maybe it must be put in a potion, like the one Wormtail made in order to bring Voldemort back to life.

Since this is my own theory, I’d love to hear what you think of it.  Does anyone else believe this is a possibility?