Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

*****Spoiler Alert!*****

     Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is the 7th and final book in the Harry Potter series by J. K. Rowling. After 6 years of preparation as a wizard, it finally comes the time that he should face his final battle with Voldemort. And it seems as if the whole world is depending on him too- -he’s the only one who is capable of defeating him, as told in the prophecy: “Either must die at the hand of the other, For neither can live while the other survives”.
     Dumbledore left Harry with some very valuable information and advice about Voldemort, his past, and how to defeat him in the end, right before his tragic death concluding Harry’s 6th year. Ron and Hermione are still right by his side though, and have made a very loyal decision to accompany him on his mission in hopes to defeat Voldemort’s horcruxes, and ultimately Voldemort himself.
     Harry’s coming of age (17) in July is a very good thing for him, considering he will finally be allowed to use magic outside of school legally. But, in Harry’s particular case, this also yields some problems. His mother has a very special protection charm on Harry because of her love for him, which only expires on 2 conditions: he comes of age, or he no longer calls the Dursleys’ house “home”. But as soon as it does, he is vulnerable. Therefore, he must be taken to a safe haven temporarily, but it is risky, not only on his behalf, but also everyone else nobly devoted to making sure that Harry is safe.
     Harry ends up making it to the Burrow safely, but there were others who were not as fortunate as him in that aspect. His beloved owl Hedwig was killed to the absolute devastation of Harry, Mad-Eye Moody was killed because of the stupidity of Mundungs, and George got his right ear blown off, courtesy of Severus Snape.
     At Harry’s coming-of-age celebration, they are paid an unexpected visit from the Minister of Magic Rufus Scrimgeour to discuss the will of Albus Dumbledore with Harry, Ron, and Hermione. They are completely astonished to find that all 3 of them have been left very valuable objects from him. Ron gets the deluminator, a special device invented and solely owned by Dumbledore used for capturing and releasing light sources potentially. Hermione gets a fairy tale book written in runes, The Tales of Beedle the Bard. Harry gets the golden snitch he caught in his very first Quidditch match. Although it initially seems that these objects are strange and useless, they still value and treasure them in hopes that they will eventually be of some use. According to Rufus Scrimgeour, it seems possible that Dumbledore could be concealing a small but important object inside the snitch, especially after it temporarilly displays the words “I open at the close”. One problem: Harry has no clue how to open the snitch, or what the words mean.
     Harry is facing immense pressure and a lot of things to deliberate, considering how to defeat Voldemort, trying to figure out what the items from Dumbledore’s will mean, and wondering how much Dumbledore really cared about him after all. One morning in Grimauld Place, Harry wanders off into Sirius’s room, where he finds some interesting artifacts displaying information on Sirius, his father, and most notably his mother. He finds an old letter his mother wrote to Sirius when Harry was one, discussing Bathilda Bagshot (an elderly resident in Godric’s Hollow), and Dumbledore [still] having the invisibility cloak. But the last part has been cut off, which completes another sentence on Dumbledore, and judging by that and various other ruins around the house, Harry thinks someone has broken in and been searching for something since their last visit.
     Harry so far knows that there are 6 horcruxes of Voldemort’s. Marvolo Gaunt’s ring and the diary have already been destroyed. Dumbledore was positive that Salazar Slytherin’s locket and Helga Hufflepuff’s goblet are horcruxes of Voldemort’s. He also thought that Voldemort’s snake Nagini was very possible.
     After some recollection, help from Kreacher, and some disturbing information from Mundungs, Harry, Ron and Hermione set out on a long and complex adventure involving yet another episode with polyjuice potion to retrieve Slytherin’s locket from Delores Umbridge, in which they are successful, but narrowly escape from a death eater. They are forced to apparate into the Quidditch World cup forest because Grimauld place in no longer safe, because the death eater discovered its location.
     After a while of apparating to a different place every morning, they find themselves in Wales where for the first time in a long time they hear voices that are not their own. After listening to the conversation for a few minutes, they discover that they are not enemies, but rather 2 goblins named Griphook and Gornuk, Ted Tonks, Dean Thomas, and a man named Dirk. They discuss events occurring in the war with Voldemort, their ideas about Harry, and things taking place at Hogwarts. From this and help from Phineas Nigelus’s portrait they learn Ginny Weasley, Neville Longbottom, and Luna Lovegood, all faithful members of Dumbledore’s Army, attempted to steal the Gryffindor Sword from the Headmaster’s office (who is currently Severus Snape). The conversation is concluded by adding that the sword is a fake duplicate. Now Harry wonders where the real sword is, because he also learns that the real sword can be used to destroy horcruxes. But, Harry is enormously relieved that especially Ginny was not injured or punished for her actions. Ron’s reaction is rather bitter on the other hand. He is angry because of the addition to the list-of-things-unsolved, and seems disappointed that Harry has not yet been able to figure out everything. This leads to a harsh argument between the 3 of them, eventually leading to Ron deserting them, and a very sad Hermione.
     Despite Ron’s absence, Harry and Hermione plan a long delayed visit to Godric’s Hollow in hopes of obtaining some information from Bathilda Bagshot, and visiting Harry’s parents’ graves. They arrive in the snowy village disguised as mid-aged muggles, and soon discover that is Christmas Eve.  They visit the graves, and Harry takes a few moments to silently pay respect.  But this soon proves to be too unendurable, so they decide to leave.  Bathilda Bagshot unexpectedly shows up just around the corner, and gestures them into her house, where the elderly woman appears lost of thought and words, and before she says anything, Voldemort’s snake Nagini appears from what seems to be out of nowhere, and the near-presence of Voldemort causes Harry to have a horrible flashback-vision of the night his parents were murdered. Hermione and Harry are eventually able to escape safely, but Harry’s wand gets broken in this process. After Harry is conscious again he explains to Hermione how the snake was more-or-less actually inside Bathilda the whole time.
     Harry goes outside of their tent to keep watch one night, when he unexpectedly sees a bright source of light moving, in the shape of a doe. Despite his lack of knowledge about this, he decides to follow it. He eventually reaches a small frozen pond, where, in the bottom of it he sees the Gryffindor sword. Almost immediately he realizes what it is he has to do in order to retrieve it. His heart pounding with excitement, he dives to the bottom of the pool to get it, when he suddenly is being strangled by the locket horcrux around his neck. Miraculously, another person appears to save him, and also get the sword. It was Ron.
     Harry decides to let Ron be the one to destroy the horcrux with the sword, since it was he who got it out of the pond in the first place. But before Ron was able to stab it, the fraction of the demonic soul inside gave Ron a hard time, but Ron is eventually successful in defeating it, although afterwards he is clearly struggling and aghast.  Nevertheless, Harry is able to give condolences and convince Ron that everything is alright.  They arrive back at the tent to find Hermione very, very mad at Ron for abandoning them in the first place.
     Ron gives an explanation as to how he found his way back, through the deluminator, which lead the way for him, and afterwards it is not hard to deduce its purpose for him in the will. Ron also earned an extra wand while gone, which Harry obviously found use for.
     Because of an insignia in Hermione’s copy of The Tales of Beedle the Bard, Ron, Harry, and Hermione take a trip to the Lovegood’s house, where they find interesting information about 3 magical objects known as the Deathly Hallows. These were first given to 3 brothers by Death as a reward for cleverness. They are the resurrection Stone, which can bring someone back to life in a non-human way, The Invisibility Cloak, which can give pure and absolute invisibility to the user, and The Elder Wand, which will win against any other wand in a duel. Since then, they have been passed down along generations or won over. All together and united, the 3 are said to be the Deathly Hallows, meaning that, should 1 person possess all of them at the same time, they can become Master of Death. And now the purpose of Hermione’s item left to her in the will is clear.
     After asking Mr. Olivander about the Elder Wand, Harry obtains the knowledge that the last possessor of the Elder Wand was Dumbledore.  After trying to put together all the small peices, Harry starts to see certain connections, and he thinks he now knows what the purpose of the last item in the will is: Dumbledore has left Harry the Resurrection Stone in his snitch. 
     Alot of things are starting to fall into place now, but there are still alot of questions unanswered, and so much left to figure out and accomplish, and Harry is now working even more diligently towards his goals.  They have now found out that the Hufflepuff goblet (a horcrux) is in the vault of Bellatrix Lestrange. With a lot of help from a goblin Harry saved, they are able to break into Gringotts and retrieve it. But, during this process, the goblin also took Gryffindor’s sword because he believes that he is the true owner of it. Because of Harry’s visual connections with Voldemort’s mind, he learns that the goblins soon after betrayed Harry and told Voldemort about this, which is when he starts to get paranoid about his horcruxes and protect all of them he could before Harry could reach them. Voldemort’s immediate though is to get to Hogwarts. He also learns that Voldemort has already got the Elder Wand, but, without knowing the complete story about it, or all of its properties.
     Harry, Ron, and Hermione quickly reach Hogwarts, because Harry knows that it meant there was a horcrux hidden there. Upon the not-so-unnoticed arrival there, all of the members of Dumbledore’s army await him faithfully, and also arriving were Order of the Phoenix members. Harry inquires about any special artifact of Ravenclaw’s, and Luna comes up with The Lost Diadem. The only problem…it’s been lost for centuries. Nevertheless, Harry still looks for it, because he figures it’s the best chance at it he’s got. Meanwhile, the professors get anyone underage, or unwilling to fight out of the castle and into safety. Voldemort is aware that it is possible that Harry might be arriving at Hogwarts in search of it, so he must act quickly. After talking with the Grey Lady, Ravenclaw’s ghost, Harry gets the brilliant idea surge that the diadem is in the Room of Requirement, so he runs to find it, and narrowly escapes magical fire.
     Ron and Hermione have made themselves useful and gotten basilisk fangs from the Chamber of Secrets (which Ron, phenomenally was able to forge open using parslemouth),which also destroy horcruxes. The goblet, and the diadem are now destroyed. 1 horcrux left: Nagini. Harry uses his visual connection to find where Voldemort is, which is the Shrieking Shack. They immediately go there in hopes of killing Nagini, the last horcrux left. But, Voldemort is conversing with Snape, and they are intent to hear. To conclude the conversation, Voldemort instructs Nagini to kill Snape, in hopes of becoming the true owner of the elder wand. As Voldemort leaves, Harry enters the room to find Snape mumbling “take it…take it” as a silvery-blue cloudy substance emerges from Snape’s face. As Harry knew what it was, he collected it and ran up to the headmaster’s office, seeking the pensive, and along the way encountering all of the dead bodies scattered on the ground: among the fallen: Lupin, Tonks, Colin Creevy, and Fred Weasley. He takes the thoughts Snape left him and escaped into the pensive to see what they are.
     It was all about Snape. Long kept secrets emerging from his past like an open book to Harry. Snape had been in love with his mother, and they remained friends for a long time. He was constantly tortured by Harry's father and his crowd, a.k.a. the Marauders. He was previously a death eater, although very reformed and loyal to Dumbledore, as he realized the mistake he made. In fact, he was so loyal, he played as a double agent, pretending to still be on Voldemort’s side, risking his life. Ever since Lily had been murdered, his devoted mission was to protect Harry, because all along he knew that it was he who was capable of defeating Voldemort in the end. He murdered Dumbledore intentionally, because Dumbledore asked him to, as not to die of the demonic soul inside the stone infecting him instead, as so hopefully to inherit the Elder Wand. It was Snape that had rambled through all of the possessions at Grimauld Place, and torn the second half of the letter, holding Lily’s signature and love. He did not intentionally blow off George’s ear, but missed the death eater he was aiming for. And it was Snape’s doe patronus that lead Harry to the sword that night in the forest, and he put it there.
     The purpose of the thoughts was to inform Harry on what Snape was not able to tell Harry in person. When Voldemort’s killing curse backfired on him when he was a baby, a 7th fragment of Voldemort’s soul attached itself to Harry, like a parasite. And Voldemort never knew about this. This is how he can get mental connections with Voldemort. So now it seems clear to Harry: Voldemort cannot die unless he does too. Neither of them were supposed to survive.
     So, now in complete understanding, Harry walks slowly and calmly out to the Forbidden Forest, where Voldemort awaits. He does not stop to say goodbye to anyone, only to pass the message to Neville that Nagini must be killed, should Ron and Hermione fail to do so. So he walks, evermore loyal to the world, completing the apparent duty placed upon him since childhood. And then it hit him: the snitch. The Resurrection Stone. I open at the close. This was it, the close, the end. And now was the very moment the snitch would open for him, displaying the resurrection stone, and Harry used it. His mother, father, Sirius, and Lupin appeared from it. Giving their admiration at how much he has done, like saying last goodbyes and first hellos all at once. And Harry walked straight into the open arms of death, without complaint, or a duel, just a flash of green light.
     Or did he? Upon being shot with the curse, Harry finds himself in an unexpected place, yet still obviously embodied at least. And soon after he also finds Dumbledore there. Who better or wiser to talk to at such a time of inquiry. So, Harry starts to question him on his present state.
     Voldemort’s soul lived in Harry. But, what Voldemort did not know, is that when he killed Harry, he more-or-less killed the fraction of his own soul instead. Harry was like the 7th horcrux. So, Harry is not dead after all, or rather he has the choice whether or not to remain dead. But, there is an even bigger mistake Voldemort made. When Voldemort re-gained his body, Harry’s blood was the vital ingredient. Harry’s blood runs in Voldemort’s veins. Therefore, as long as Voldemort lives, Harry cannot die. As it was a huge mistake and misunderstanding, Harry left to go back to the real world once more.
     At the point when Harry gets back, everyone thinks he is dead, including Voldemort. The members of Hogwarts are already mourning, and Voldemort is already celebrating. But, Neville has already succeeded in killing Nagini for Harry. As people see him again, cheers and screams erupt throughout the Great Hall. But no one was more shocked than Voldemort.
     As Voldemort and Harry center in the hall, all of the other battles cease. Harry is calm now, he knows what to do, and how to do it. Voldemort thinks that since he now has the elder wand, it will defeat anyone, and Harry is his only request. Before Voldemort tries to kill him again, Harry forces him to go for some remorse, and rethink everything. There was yet another huge flaw in his mastermind plan. When Dumbledore was killed, his wand had already been disarmed by Draco Malfoy. So, technically, Draco was the proper owner of it. But, Harry won Draco’s wand from him. This now makes Harry the true owner of the Elder Wand.
     Voldemort sends the killing curse again, and Harry sends a disarming spell. And this time, Voldemort’s own killing curse backfired on him, with no protection, no horcruxes left, and this time, leaving him with no life. Since Harry was the true owner of the wand, it recognized its owner and would not work against him. Voldemort was dead, once and for all, and Harry is alive. Cheers erupted across the universe, Voldemort is finally dead, and Harry was responsible for it.
     Harry wants to visit Dumbledore, and tell him the good news. So he goes to the Headmaster’s office and finds Dumbledore’s portrait, who could not be more proud of him. Harry also explains that he left the Resurrection Stone on the ground in the forest, and he does not plan to go looking for it. And the Elder Wand is officially his, but he likes his own better. So he uses the Elder wand to repair his own. Harry had the chance to become master of Death, but he does not want to.
     After all of his years of preparation, he completed the task he has always been meant to do. The entire world was joyous over Voldemort’s death. Had it not been for Harry’s bravery, loyalty, and determination, he could have never done it. His journey has been priceless, and he could be considered the greatest wizard alive. He always just wanted to be normal, and he finally achieved that with a family of his own. 19 years after the heroic defeat, he and Ginny got married and had 3 children of their own, who are off to Hogwarts following in their parents’ footprints. “The scar had not pained Harry for 19 years. All was well.”