Pages Read: 3341, 759 to go. (An evening and two days to finish... I can do it!! xD)
Oh man. I LOVE this book. Absolutely love it. I flew through it -- it moves so much faster than OotP. Some would argue that not much goes on in this book, and that it's too fluffy...but I disagree. I think some fluff was important in this one, and here's why: Jo knew how serious and intense book 7 had to be, so this book was Jo's last chance to give us the witty, fanciful, happy, and hilarious side of the Harry Potter series that we all love. While many parts of this book are more serious, scary, and dark than any previous HP book, there's a large dosage of the more bouncy aspect of HP that got us hooked on the series in the first place.
Knowing that everything will change after this book, and that they'll never come back to Hogwarts as students after this, Jo has to give some closure to everything we knew and loved about life at Hogwarts; she does this magnificently, with many parallels and references to previous books that make us feel sentimental and whatnot. We get our last trip to Diagon Alley, and they're accompanied by none other than Hagrid, who accompanied Harry in his first trip. The trio wears the invisibility cloak as a group for (I think) the last time, and does anyone else get really sad/sentimental when it won't fit on the three of them without ankle showing?? :'( We get our last trip to Hogwarts on the train, during which Trevor the toad "made one of its frequent bids for freedom" as it did on their first trip. On our last day at Hogwarts, Dumbledore's funeral, we catch a glimpse of Hogwarts at it most beautiful -- a sunny day by the lake -- and we see pretty much everyone who Harry has known throughout his journey at Hogwarts, including the centaurs and the mermaids, and the book ends with the trio under the beech tree by the lake. This book is a sort of ending in itself. This book is sort of an ending in itself: an end to life at Hogwarts represented in the death of Dumbledore, and an end to the happier side of the series. j
Before I begin the intense analysis, here's one of my new favorite quotes. When Fleur comes into Harry's room for the first time: "She was tall and willowy with long blonde hair and appeared to emanate a faint, silvery glow. To complete this vision of perfection, she was carrying a heavily laden breakfast tray." A vision of perfection indeed -- a beautiful woman, serving food. Wow, Jo. xD
Some observations/thoughts...
- Chapter two…The big twist, when we all started thinking maybe Dumbledore was wrong about Snape. There are a couple giveaways, though, about Snape’s true colors... When explaining his position to Bellatrix, he says that the info he passed to Voldy has been helpful, but he says: “…and it certainly helped dispose of Sirius Black…” Fishy… It was definitely Kreacher’s information that helped them lure Harry to the Dept. of Mysteries, and Snape alerted the Order to the situation, which he certainly wasn’t obligated to do if he was a Death Eater; he pretty much saved the day for the good guys, but here he tries to tell Bella that he was helping the bad guys. The second giveaway – his hand twitches during the 3rd part of the Unbreakable Vow, where he promises to do the deed if Draco should fail.
- A tangent on Snape and Dumbledore: I am SO glad that Snape turned out to be good, as I had predicted he would. In chapter two, Snape says this: “And you overlook Dumbledore’s greatest weakness: He has to believe the best of people.” If Snape had turned out to be bad, then this statement would have been validated, which would have been SO DUMB. It is not a weakness to trust and believe the best of people, it is a strength – as long as you know where to draw the line, which Dumbledore does. Dumbledore isn’t dumb – he saw through Tom Riddle, so why shouldn’t he have seen through Snape if he had been bad? Of the young Tom Riddle, Dumbledore says: “Let us say that I did not take it for granted that he was trustworthy.” Dumbledore doesn’t take trustworthiness for granted! He needs proof, and he certainly had that for Snape. Also: Snape’s goodness demonstrates one of the main lessons of this series, one of which is that THE WORLD IS NOT BLACK AND WHITE. Sirius says it – the world isn’t just full of good people and Death Eaters. The Ministry is an example of people who are generally good-intentioned, but who obstruct justice and are often selfish; Snape is an example of an unpleasant, grudge-holding person who is also one of the most selfless heroes of the series. There Jo goes again, teaching us realistic life lessons.
- It’s also clear, upon re-reading this, that Dumbledore knew he was going to die. Only days after receiving his fatal injury, Dumbledore tells Harry that they’re going to have private lessons – he has to pass on the torch of knowledge of how to defeat Voldemort. I do think, however, that Dumbledore’s death comes sooner than he anticipated, because he never got around to telling Harry how to destroy Horcruxes or where to go next. I think he realized he was going to die right when he saw the Dark Mark, because he immediately told Harry that he needed to see Snape – he would have told him to do the deed, to get the Death Eaters out of there asap, and make sure Harry is protected, which is what Snape did. He even had a defenseless, wandless Harry at one point – he easily could have brought him to the Dark Lord. The fact that he didn’t was Jo’s biggest giveaway about Snape’s true colors, IMO.
- Another giveaway, and something the movies left out, which I thought was a big mistake -- Snape's anger at being called a coward. "DON'T --" screamed Snape, and his face was suddenly demented, inhuman, as though he was in as much pain as the yelping, howling dog stuck in the burning house behind them -- "CALL ME COWARD!" He then hurts Harry with a whip-like spell; he originally was going to escape without harming Harry, but Harry's comment gets to him. He's upset because he can't really take any credit for the INCREDIBLY brave things he's been doing, particularly killing Dumbledore.
- On Snape hurting Flitwick – before book 7, some people cited this as proof that Snape was bad, and it’s still a bit of a head-scratcher. Here’s my two cents – Flitwick alerted Snape to the Death Eaters being in the building, so Snape probably knew right away that it was time to kill Dumbledore. He wanted to make sure none of the Order could stop him from killing Dumbledore. Also, he didn’t know what the situation looked like upstairs – he probably wanted to be alone when he got up there. He easily could have killed Flitwick, as well as Hermione and Luna, but he didn’t – he did what he had to in order to separate from those who could have stopped him doing what he needed to do, without seriously hurting anyone.
- I love that Jo humanizes Draco in this one. He was always just the mean dude, whom the readers all hated, but we get to see a sadder side of him – he just wants to protect his family. This was a big error in the movie – on the tower in the movie, Draco just said Voldy would kill *him* if he didn’t do it, but in the book he said Voldy would kill him and his *family*. Sure, he’s a git, but he loves his family and can’t resort to killing. Between Draco and Snape, Jo shows that even the most apparently-bad people can still have hearts somewhere underneath it all, and that we shouldn’t be quick to judge people.
- Does anyone else ever feel sorry for Hermione’s parents? Not just because she obliviates them – but because, while they *do* have their memories, Hermione spends almost no time with them. She ditches them over Christmas in book 5 to go to Sirius’s place, and she only spends two weeks with them over the summer before going to the Burrow. And she’s their only child. :(
- The Peverells are mentioned! Marvolo Gaunt says that the ring has the Peverell coat of arms on the stone. Also, Ravenclaw’s diadem is mentioned! Harry puts it on top of the stone bust when hiding the potions book. Very subtle, Jo.
- Dumbledore talks a lot in this book, but he’s such a great character. He’s basically Jo’s means of inserting wisdom into the book. I’m so glad he told Harry that the prophecy doesn’t force him to do anything but rather that he had to do something because his love for his friends and deceased family tells him that it’s the right thing to do. “It was, he thought, the difference between being dragged into the arena to face a battle to the death and walking into the arena with your head held high.” Because of Harry’s love for his friends and family, he does the right thing – walks in with his head held high – and succeeds in defeating Voldemort.
Great book -- probably my favorite next to book 7. Onto the greatest book of them all! :D
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