Book Review:- Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
Author- J. K. Rowling
Genre- Fantasy
Publishers- Bloomsbury (UK)
Arthur A. Levine (US)
Scholastic (US)
Raincoast (Canada)
I started out by disliking the Harry Potter series thoroughly. My brother used to watch the movies, but I would always say, " Don't get me into this. I am not in the least interested". Then the day came when the first installment of the last movie of the Harry Potter saga, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part I' was released. I was not at all interested but my friends were and they managed to get permission from my parents and we went off to watch the movie. We watched the entire movie and my Harry Potter gaga friends enjoyed themselves wholeheartedly, but I could not understand a thing. But after watching the movie, I realized that a part of me wanted to know more about the Harry Potter phenomenon. I finally told one of my friends that I wanted to read the series and she lent me the first book, Harry Potter and The philosopher's Stone'. Before I knew it, I was swept off my feet. Unwittingly I had joined the Harry Potter fan club. That was the beginning of a journey of a lifetime, one that I will always hold close to my heart.
When Harry was a baby, Lord Voldemort, a powerful evil wizard, murdered Harry's parents but vanished after attempting to kill Harry. Harry immediately became famous, but because he had no magical relatives, he had to be left in the care of his muggle (non-magic) relatives Aunt Petunia, who was his mother's sister, and her husband Uncle Vernon. Harry was first introduced to the world of magic when he turned eleven, and was admitted to Hogwarts School of Magic and Wizardry. Across the seven books Harry evolves from a puny undernourished but world famous wizard to the wizard who rid the world of the most evil wizard of all times, Lord Voldemort.
Personally, I found the seven installment of the saga most engaging. Following Dumbledore's death, Voldemort continues to gain support and power. Meanwhile, Harry convinces his muggle uncle to leave Privet Drive for good for their own safety. When Harry turns seventeen, the protection he has at his uncle's place will be broken. While Harry wanders in the empty house, Ron , Hermione, Mad Eye, Fred , George, Bill, Fleur, Hagrid, Mundungus Fletcher, Lupin, and some other wizards arrive at Privet Drive to take Harry to The Burrow, the Weasleys' home, where they hope he will be safe. False trails had been leaked in the Ministry of Magic about the date and time of Harry's departure. All of them drink the polyjuice potion and disguise themselves as Harry so that the Death Eaters get confused when they attack them on their way to The Burrow. The Death Eaters indeed attack as soon as the wizards start their journey. Mad Eye and Harry's owl Hedwig are killed in the fight, George is wounded but the others arrived safely at The Burrow. Harry and his friends Ron and Hermione (who refuse to hear about leaving Harry to his own fate) know that they cannot return to Hogwarts to complete their seventh year. In any case they have to finish the quest that Dumbledore had set them: hunt and destroy Voldemort's remaining horcruxes, objects in which he has hidden parts of his soul so that he may be immortal.
Bill Weasley and Fleur Delacour get married, but the wedding is disrupted by the news that Voldemort has taken over the Ministry of Magic. The Death Eaters attack the wedding, and trio disapparate in order to escape. They flee to 12 Grimmauld Place in a hurry and thus begins their final adventure. They separate themselves to ensure their friends' and families' safety as well as their own. They have little idea about what the remaining horcruxes are, except the supposition that two may be objects that once belonged to Hogwarts founders Rowena Ravenclaw and Helga Hufflepuff, and a third may be Nagini, Voldemort's snake. The whereabouts of the two founders' objects is unknown, and Nagini is presumed to be with Voldemort all the time. As they search for the horcruxes, the trio learn more about Dumbledore's past which leaves them shocked and shaken.
During their stay in Grimmauld Place, they learn from Kreacher the whereabouts of Salazar Slytherin's locket. They successfully recover this Horcrux by breaking into the Ministry of Magic and stealing it from Dolores Umbridge. While escaping, they are nearly caught by a Death Eater, and give away the location of their protected refuge to the Death Eater by mistake. So they have to leave the place and start living like outlaws in tents, and constantly keep moving to keep their whereabouts hidden. Under the powerful influence of the locket and the stress of being on the run, Ron leaves the others. This breaks Hermione's heart, who is obviously in love with Ron. However, they have to keep moving, and go to Godrics's Hollow- Harry's birthplace. There they encounter Nagini, the snake, who had taken the guise of the famous historian, Bathilda Bagshot, who had died a long time ago. The fight between Harry and the gigantic snake was thrilling, and I remember panting with excitement while reading that part. The two friends escape to the Forest of Dean and there Harry finds a silver doe which leads him to the sword of Godric Griffindor, one of the rare objects that can destroy horcruxes as it has Basilisk venom imbued in it. The sword is placed under a frozen pool, and when Harry tries to retrieve it, the horcrux locket which he wore round his neck tries to choke him to death. Ron shows up in the nick of time and saves Harry's life. That part was so touching that it made me cried with joy and relief. Hermione discovers a sign made on her book that Dumbledore left her in his will, Tales of Beedle the Bard'. To know more about the sign the trio go to meet Xenophilius Lovegood, their friend Luna's father. It is then that Harry comes to know about the Deathly Hallows- the Elder Wand, the Resurrection Stone and the Invisibility Cloak, three things that if owned together, can conquer Death.. Voldemort is in search of the Elder wand to gain more power.
After this meeting comes the near-disastrous part. The trio are caught by Fenrir Greyback, the sadistic werewolf and one of the followers of Voldemort. They are taken to the Malfoy Manor. There, Harry and Ron are held in a cellar and Hermione is tortured by Bellatrix, as she was a muggle born mudblood' witch. Harry finds Luna , Ollivander and Griphook in the Malfoy Manor cellar where they too are held prisoners, and with the help of the faithful Dobby, all of them escape to the Shell Cottage, Bill and Fleur's home. However, Dobby is killed by Bellatrix's knife, casting the friends into deep gloom. Harry buries the elf beside the cottage and carves on the stone "Here lies Dobby, A free elf". I think that J.K. Rowling has been unnecessarily cruel with Dobby. He should not have died. Not Dobby...
Meanwhile, Voldemort steals the Elder Wand from Dumbledore's grave. Hermione disguises herself as Bellatrix and the trio break into Gringotts with the help of Griphook. They enter Bellatrix's vault and steal Helga Hufflepuff's cup- a horcrux, and escape from there on a dragon. Harry guesses that there is a horcrux hidden in Hogwarts. They go to Hogwarts, find the horcrux which is Rowena Ravenclaw's lost diadem and destroy it. Hermione and Ron destroy the Cup. Voldemort kills Snape to become the true master of the Elder Wand. However, it was Draco who had disarmed Dumbledore the night he was killed, not Snape, which means that Draco is the true master of the Elder Wand. However, Harry had disarmed Draco the night they were captured at the Malfoy Manor. Therefore, Harry is now the true master of the wand, and the wand would answer only to Harry. Harry discovers through Snape's memories that he is himself a horcrux, unknowingly created by Voldemort the night he tried to kill Harry in his infancy, and that Harry must die to destroy Voldemort. So he surrenders himself to Voldemort. Voldemort uses the killing curse on Harry, but it is the horcrux inside Harry that dies. In the state between life and death that Harry reaches, he meets Dumbledore, and all the doubts and questions in Harry's mind are cleared through his conversations with the great old wizard. He then returns to life, and with Neville killing Nagini, the last horcrux, Voldemort is killed once and for all by Harry, ending a reign of terror on the wizarding world.
The novel, the last in the series, closes with a brief epilogue set nineteen years later, in which Harry and Ginny Weasley are a married couple with three children: James Sirius, Albus Severus, and Lily Luna. Ron and Hermione are also married and have two children, Rose and Hugo. The families meet at King's Cross station, where a nervous Albus leaves for his first year at Hogwarts along with most of the other children. Harry sees Draco Malfoy and his wife with their son, Scorpius. Neville Longbottom is now the Hogwarts Herbology professor and remains friends with the two families. Harry comforts Albus, who is worried he will be sorted into Slytherin, and tells his son that one of his two namesakes, Severus Snape, was a Slytherin and the bravest man Harry had ever met. He adds that the Sorting Hat takes one's choice into account, as it did for Harry. The book ends with the words: "The scar had not pained Harry for nineteen years. All was well.", These words have left a faint hope in my heart that this is not really the end, the story of the next generation is yet to unfold...
The Harry Potter series has made me laugh, made me cry, and shocked me at times. Sometimes I wished the characters could come alive and be my friends. To me this book was a perfect package because it had a little bit of everything that I could wish for. After reading this book, I really understand what one means when one says " You know you've read a good book when you finish reading it and feel as if you have lost a friend".
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Ummm.. This was it. 😛 I would love to read your comments. 😃
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