Reviews

Here's an essay I wrote on Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows:

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J. K. Rowling is the seventh and final instalment in the Harry Potter series. An epic saga of childhood temptation, danger and adventure, the Harry Potter series has been seventeen years in the making. But it's more than just a children's story. Behind the witchcraft and the wizardry lies an intensely moral fable about good and evil, love and hatred, life and death.

The books tell the tale of a young boy, Harry Potter, whose parents are murdered by the evil Lord Voldemort. Lord Voldemort also attempts to kill Harry, but Harry is protected by the one thing Voldemort cannot understand - love. Harry then become The Boy who Lived, being the only person to survive a killing curse. Throughout the series, Harry is not only on a quest to avenge his parents, but to avenge everyone against Voldemort, who believes that he can make himself immortal by killing other people.

In the last book, Harry continues the task that Dumbledore had set him in the preceding book in the series: to destroy all remaining Horcruxes. A Horcrux is an object in which Voldemort has concealed a fragment of his soul, making him indestructible. A person's soul can be split if they commit the act of murder, and only will it become whole again is if the person's who's soul has been split feels remorse. For Voldemort to die, all Horcruxes must be destroyed. In the second book, Harry finds the diary of Tom Riddle (who became Voldemort) and destroys it with the fang of a Basilisk (a large snake that Harry killed with the sword of Godric Gryffindor). In the sixth book, Dumbledore finds a ring that belonged to Voldemort's mother and manages to destroy it, but only after receiving its curse. At the end of this book Severus Snape kills Dumbledore, leading the readers to think that he is evil.

Harry and his best friends, Ron and Hermione, abandon their last year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizard to go and hunt for the Horcruxes.
However, after discovering the tale of the Deathly Hallows, Harry is faced with a choice. Horcruxes or Hallows?

The Deathly Hallows originated from the Tale of the Three Brothers, a children's fairytale that exists in the Wizarding World. The Tale told the story of three brothers who came across a river. They must cross the river and, talented in magic, they conjure a bridge. They reach the end of the bridge when Death* appears before them. He is angry at the three brothers: usually people would drown in the river and Death would take them as his own. But Death tricks the three brothers. He pretends to be impressed and offers them anything they desire. The first brother wishes for an unbeatable wand. So Death finds an Elder tree, and out of it carves such a wand. He gives it to the first brother who goes to the village and boasts of the wand. At night, someone steals the Elder Wand and slits the first brother's throat for good measure. So Death takes the first brother as his own.
The second brother wishes for a stone that can bring back the dead. So Death presents him with the stone and the brother uses it to bring back a girl he loved but who died of an illness. However, she comes back miserable because she does not belong in the living world. He kills her and kills himself to be with her. So Death takes the second brother as his own.

The third brother, the wisest of the three, does not trust Death, so he wishes for something in which he can hide from Death. So Death gives the third brother his own Cloak of Invisibility. Over the years, Death looks for the third brother but cannot find him until one day the third brother, much older now, takes off the Cloak and gives it to his son. The third brother marks Death as an equal and goes with him to the land of the dead.


There are doubts that the story is real, but Harry, already having the Cloak of Invisibility, ponders over the idea of hunting for the Hallows instead of the Horcruxes. Harry feels abandoned by Dumbledore: why had he not prepared Harry for any of this?

They continue their hunt for Horcruxes. Two have already been destroyed in the previous years, which leaves only five. Harry's knows this after exploring a memory of Tom Riddle the previous year and discovering that he wanted to split his soul into seven pieces.

Harry, with the help of his friends, find and destroy the locket of Salazar Slytherin and the cup of Helga Hufflepuff (two of the remaining five Horcruxes) using the sword of Godric Gryffindor. Hermione discovers that the venom from the Basilisk went into the sword when Harry killed it, therefore making it a weapon that can used to destroy Horcruxes.

Throughout the novel, Harry discovers that the Elder Wand from the Tale of the Three Brothers was won by Dumbledore in a duel many years ago. Dumbledore was buried with the wand after Snape killed him. Harry also learns that the ring Horcrux that Dumbledore destroyed was in fact encrusted with the Resurrection Stone, also from the Tale of the Three Brothers. But before Harry can go after the Hallows, Voldemort breaks into Dumbledore's tomb and steals the Elder Wand.

In the middle of the book, Harry and his friends are captured by Snatchers (people hunting for Muggle-borns*) and are taken to the house one of Voldemort's followers, Lucius Malfoy, father of Harry's school enemy, Draco Malfoy. When Harry, Ron and Hermione, escape imprisonment at the Malfoy Manor, Harry takes Draco's wand from him in battle.

Near the end of the book, Harry returns to Hogwarts in search of the three remaining Horcruxes. He finds out that two of the three are Voldemort's snake (Nagini) and the diadem of Rowena Ravenclaw. However, the last Horcrux is unknown to him.

Voldemort orders Nagini to kill Snape because it was Snape that truly won the power of the Elder wand, not through stealing it but by defeating its previous owner (Dumbledore). Once Snape is dead, Voldemort believes that the wand will work to its full extent for him. Harry finds Snape and his dying wish is that Harry takes memories from him and views them.

When Harry returns to Hogwarts, he warns everyone that Voldemort is on his way. The castle prepare for battle and Voldemort arrives with his followers who attack the castle with help from various magical creatures. Voldemort magically amplifies his voice through the castle so that everyone can hear him. He tells Hogwarts that he doesn't wish to kill them as their magical blood is valuable. He makes them an offer: if they hand over Harry Potter then nobody will die. But Hogwarts refuse. So Voldemort, still outside the magical protection of the castle, speaks directly to Harry, inside the castle. He says that if Harry doesn't hand himself over within the hour then he will enter the battle personally and kill “every man, woman and child” responsible for hiding him.
Hogwarts refuse still but Harry realises that he must hand himself over. This shows his great love for his friends. First however, he views Snape's memories using the Pensieve*.

Harry discovers that Snape has been Dumbledore's spy all along and that Dumbledore asked Snape to kill him. The ring that had cursed Dumbledore would give him a slow painful death and if Snape killed him, not only would the death be quick and easy, it would appear to Voldemort that Snape really was on his side.

At the end of the book, there is a clash of two utterly different souls: Voldemort's damaged, broken and evil soul and Harry's, whole, still loving, still fighting soul. And it's what happens when they clash that gives the denouement.

Back at the beginning of the book, Harry, Ron and Hermione are given the objects in which Dumbledore has left in his will. Ron gets the Deluminator (magical object which can turn on and off lights), Hermione gets the Tales of Beadle the Bard, (which contains the Tale of the Three Brothers), and Harry gets the Golden Snitch which he caught in his first ever game of Quidditch.
Later on, words appear on the Golden Snitch: “I open at the close”.

When Harry is turning himself over to Voldemort in the forest, the Snitch opens, revealing the Resurrection Stone. Harry uses it to bring back his parents, and all his previous father figures (excluding Dumbledore) for emotional support.

Harry is killed by Voldemort and wakes up in King's Cross station, the station in which he used every year previous to get to Hogwarts. Harry meets Dumbledore and sees a hideous child-like creature cowering. He wants to help it but Dumbledore replies, “nothing can be done to help it now.”

In this chapter, Dumbledore explains that he deliberately didn't give Harry any clues because Harry needed to work things out for himself. Dumbledore also left the choice of hunting for the Hallows to Harry. This references a quote from the second book: “It is our choices, Harry, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities”. Dumbledore reveals that for years he had all three Hallows, keeping them and treasuring them as they were his childhood obsession. But Dumbledore was not the right person for the Hallows. For years he had sought them, power-hungry, wishing to create a new world for himself. The right person for the Hallows was Harry. He wanted them not for himself, but as a weapon against Voldemort. Against evil.

Dumbledore also explains that Harry may choose to go back to the living world. Harry is confused as to why but learns that Voldemort's killing curse did not kill Harry but killed the part of Voldemort's soul that Voldemort accidentally gave to Harry when he attempted to kill him in the first book. Harry was the seventh Horcrux, unknown by Voldemort and Harry. So Voldemort himself destroyed the seventh Horcrux.

Dumbledore explains that when Voldemort took Harry's blood three years ago, he also took the protection that Harry's mother gave him when she died for him. Voldemort tethered his own soul to Harry's by taking his blood. But now that the soul was split from Harry, Voldemort was open to be killed once Nagini the snake was killed. It is the seventh split fragment of Voldemort's soul that is the hideous creature cowering at the station that cannot be helped.

Before Harry returns for battle, he sympathises with Dumbledore, but Dumbledore replies, “Do not pity the dead, Harry. Pity the living. But most of all, pity those who live without love.” Then Harry asks Dumbledore if the conversation they are having is not real and if it is all in Harry's head. Dumbledore responds, “Of course it's in your head, Harry, but why on earth should that mean that mean that it is not real?”

It should be noted that King's Cross (the King being Jesus and the Cross on which he died on) may have been the chosen station because Harry's death was a metaphor for Christ. Harry died for all of his friends and returned to save them, also giving them the protection that his mother gave him sixteen years ago when she died for him.

When Harry awakes, he realises Voldemort is also just waking up from unconsciousness. This is because he has just killed part of his soul. Harry pretends to be dead and is taken up to the castle where Voldemort makes a trophy of his body. In rage, Neville Longbottom (fellow Gryffindor and friend of Harry's) receives the sword of Gryffindor (which appears to any Gryffindor when they have need of it or have just performed a true act of courage). With it he kills Nagini, containing the last fragment of Voldemort's soul, leaving him completely inhuman and open to be killed. And here is one of the key moments in the book. Harry appears before Voldemort, who does not believe that The Boy Who Lived is still alive and has escaped Death yet again. Harry shows no fear towards Voldemort and explain that he knows more that Voldemort, or as he refers to him in courage, Tom Riddle. When Voldemort accuses Dumbledore of being an “old fool”, Harry counters him with the fact that Dumbledore planned his own death and that he did not die by the hand of Voldemort. He calls Harry a “better wizard”, a “better man”. Voldemort tells Harry that none of that matters and that he has the power of the Elder Wand, and the power to kill Harry once and for all. This references another quote from earlier on in the series, when Voldemort states “there is no good and evil, there is only power and those too weak to seek it”. Voldemort says that they duel on skill alone, but again Harry points out his mistake. He explains that Voldemort was wrong in believing that the power of the Elder Wand was transferred to Snape when he killed Dumbledore. The power of the Elder Wand was in fact passed on to Draco Malfoy when he disarmed Dumbledore of his wand before Snape killed Dumbledore. Therefore, Draco had the power of the Elder Wand in his own wand. However, at the Malfoy Manor, Harry took Malfoy's wand in battle, therefore taking the power of the Elder Wand to himself.

So Harry and Voldemort duel, the Elder Wand in Voldemort's hand recognises its master- Harry. Harry overpowers Voldemort and because he has no remaining Horcruxes or protection, Voldemort is killed.

In the epilogue of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Harry is sending his children off to Hogwarts along with Ron and Hermione's children. The child that J. K. Rowling focuses on is Albus Severus Potter, named after the “two bravest Hogwarts headmasters” Harry has ever met (these headmasters are Dumbledore and Snape). Albus Severus is worried that he is going to be sorted into Slytherin house at Hogwarts. Harry tells him that he could ask the Sorting Hat* to be placed in Gryffindor. When Albus Severus in confused, Harry explains to his son that it worked for him.

Looking back on the epilogue now, I think J. K. Rowling should have included a scene in which Harry passes the Invisibility Cloak down to his son. The Cloak came into Harry's possession after his father passed it down to him, and this was how the Cloak was passed down from the original owner (the third Peverell brother from the Tale of the Three Brothers).

The Harry Potter series has many different themes. The three main ones were mentioned earlier: good and evil, love and hatred, life and death.

Good and evil are a major part of every book in the series. Harry is tempted by evil on numerous occasions, something which happens to us all in life. This proves that though Harry Potter is set in world of fantasy and magic, it deals with the dilemmas of real life. Voldemort qualifies exuberantly for evil. He has killed, not in self-defence or to save another, but cold-bloodedly for himself and sometimes for enjoyment. I think Voldemort is the perfect villain, and the complete opposite of Harry.

Love seeps into every part of the book, beginning with Harry's mothers love for him. When she dies, she gives him protection against evil just as Harry does when he dies for all of his friends. Dumbledore continues to tell Harry that Voldemort does not understand anything - love, friendship, truth, loyalty or courage. This leads Harry to pitying Voldemort and when he confronts him for the last time at the end of Deathly Hallows, he tries to save Voldemort when he tells Voldemort to feel remorse. Remorse is the only other way to make your soul intact again, though it is extremely painful.

It is in Deathly Hallows that life and death are expressed most importantly and obviously. There is a scene near the end where Harry lies on the floor of Dumbledore's old office. He is accepting death, knowing that he must sacrifice himself to save everyone. In Harry Potter, the spell “Avada Kedavra” is the killing curse. This means “from life, nothing”. It is the opposite of the more common “Abra Kedabra” which means “from nothing, life.”

Although J. K. Rowling ends the book with good triumphing over evil, I think it is signalled in the epilogue, when Harry sends his children to fight their own battles at Hogwarts, that the battle against evil never ends. This again, is relative to real life. Even if it's not as obvious as a murderous, immortal creature, we all fight evil, in our everyday lives. We can all be brave like Harry, through generosity, love and the need to make a stand against the dark arts present today: poverty, illiteracy, human rights violations, global warming and genocide. J. K. Rowling once said, “we don't need real magic to change the world, we carry all the power we need inside of ourselves. The power to imagine better.”
I can understand why some people dislike Harry Potter, because in the words of J. K. Rowling,“for some to love, other must loathe”, but, to those that think Harry Potter is “just a children's book”, I would advise you to take a closer look.