Draco evolving... Extra credit

Draco Malfoy throughout the series was a rude, conniving, backstabbing, and horrible person. Although, you could always tell he was a bit hesitant on the horrible things he was doing. The only time that you knew for sure that he was second guessing all the promises he made to Voldemort, when he was faced to Dumbledore in the tower and the time when they were in the Room of Requirements and it comes to flames. Draco evolved to be just like his father, just less guts. His father is practically a slave to Voldemort yet entirely scared of him even though he admires him. Draco, I believe, at the end of the last book is second guessing his decisions he once made, and deciding to come back to the other side. He sees the true side of Voldemort, which all of his followers were oblivious to do to their need and want for fame and power, that he doesn't care about anyone but himself and where HE gets. There are a lot of kept and unkept secrets through out the books and Draco knew some of them but he did not know all of them. I believe that Draco is nothing more than a scared boy at the end of the book who looks back on his decisions and is possibly, but not wanting anyone to know, wishing he wouldn't have gone through with the "killing" of Dumbledore. Although he does find out that Snape was told to kill Dumbledore from Dumbledore himself.

Make-up blog for last exam

The Elder Wand plays a significant part in the story due to Voldemort believing that is all he needs to get to the top and to finish Harry off, especially after what happened in the last encounter when their wands connected. Its hard to explain who has it in the end because for the longest time Dumbledore had it but once he died Voldemort had Snape removed it from his grave. Although, he did not know that Snape did not kill Dumbledore for Voldemort, he killed him due to the verbal contract Dumbledore and Snape had. Realistically the new wand owner was not Snape, it was Draco. Draco is the one who disarmed Dumbledore before Snape killed him. Harry is the one who became Draco’s wand owner when he was at the Malfoy house when captured. So, all in all, the wand owner was Harry but Voldemort did not know any of this. In the end Harry decided to put the wand back into Dumbledore’s casket and he told Dumbledore this towards the end of the story when he was talking to him in Kings Crossing. He feels that the wand should be with Dumbledore due to many different emotions toward Dumbledore. All the things he has done for him throughout the years, protecting him. He feels the wand belongs with Dumbledore and not in use by anyone.... 

Draconian Developments

“Draco, Draco, you are not a killer.” Dumbledore calmly says to the boy standing across from him whom he knows was ordered to do that very act.  The boy has been built up as one of the main antagonist of the series, and yet at this point the reader can feel nothing but sympathy for the would-be-assassin.

The boy has done exactly as he was commanded to do, and has cornered the best wizard of the age unarmed on top of a tower, yet his smug and boastful visage is starting to crumble under Dumbledore’s calm demeanor.  “I haven’t got any options!. . .I’ve got to do it! He’ll kill me!  He’ll kill my whole family!” the now distraught Draco confesses.  This sense of internal struggle is a new concept to the reader in the otherwise static Draco; and with it Rowling shows us that even those put in the worst imaginable situations still have room for redemption.  Draco is born into this family, these expectations, and now it is shown what effect this has had on his psyche.  The rich boy with a false sense of entitlement, the antithesis of our Harry, is shown for the first time as not merely the foil which highlights the protagonists own qualities, but as a human being.  

The fact that Rowling can create these feelings of sympathy is a testament not only to her writing, but to our own willingness to see the good in everyone.  Dumbledore is the embodiment of forgiveness and it is through him that Draco is able to confess his sins and show his remorse.

Extra Credit: The (other) Boy Who Lived

Neville Longbottom has come a long way since first introduced as the blubbering fool that loses everything and can never quite get anything right.  Even his attempts to help in the first books are always at the most inopportune times and end up hurting the group more than helping.  Fast forward seven years and we meet an entirely new man; a battered warrior who has been leading an against-all-odds rebellion against Snape and the Death Eaters who have penetrated Hogwarts.  

The first time we hear about Neville in the Deathly Hallows is when Harry hears about an attempt to break into the office of Snape to steal back the sword of Gryffindor that Harry pulled out of the Sorting Hat in book two.  He not only openly defied the new rule, but reformed Dumbledore’s Army and takes on a very Harry-Potter-esque role and shows his true colors as a Gryffindor.

Neville’s similarities to Harry started with his birth and the choice that presented itself in the prophecy made about Voldemort, but during book seven Neville makes ground in becoming what the very prophecy warned about; the end of Voldemort.  Neville is told by Harry that he needs to kill Nagina, and even after Harry is believed to be dead Neville takes the task to heart and beheads the snake; the last horcrux.  From the boy who loses his Remembrall and appeared to be nothing more than comic relief Neville is transformed into a lion with enough courage to summon the Sword of Gryffindor.

Extra Credit: Elder Wand

“Are you intending to let him kill you,” Snape asks of Dumbledore in the Pensieve scene of the Deathly Hallows.  

“Certainly not. You must kill me,” Dumbledore replied calmly; sealing his fate.  At the time of this exchange Dumbledore simply tells Snape he is dying anyways and would like it to be quick, but by the time the scene is uncovered to Harry it has an entirely different meaning; The Elder Wand.  Dumbledore did not want Draco’s soul to suffer through killing someone, but that was not his sole reason for ordering Snape to be the one to kill him.  Harry learnt from Ollivander about the concept of wands being “mastered” and how a wand must recognize it’s owner.  This introduces a new sense of nobility into the HP lore, that these vessels of magic that we have taken for granted for so many years are not mere replaceable sticks, but have their own sort of soul.  

Wishing to tame this unbeatable wand Voldemort must kill whom he believes to be his greatest disciple, Snape.  Believing he is in control of the world’s most powerful wand he then confronted Harry, and quickly learned that there was more to the story than previously believed.  Draco, not Snape, was the one who disarmed Dumbledore and therefore the power of the wand transferred to him.  Harry had defeated Draco since then, and therefore the wand would only recognize him as it’s master.  

“I don’t want it,” Harry confesses after the battle.  “That wand’s more trouble than it’s worth. . .I’ve had enough trouble for a lifetime.”  

Make-up Blog: The Elder Wand

            In the final demise of Voldemort, the Elder Wand plays a significant role. As with the horcruxes and his earlier pursuit to posses the Sorcerer’s Stone, to Voldemort the Elder Wand represents a way for him to gain immortality. He did everything he could to wield its true power by taking it from Dumbledore’s grave and killing Snape, but he still was not the true master. As Harry points out in the final duel in the Great Hall, the true master upon Dumbledore’s death was Draco Malfoy who had in fact disarmed Dumbledore, not Snape who actually performed the act of killing him. When the trio was caught and taken into Malfoy’s basement, in the process of their escape and saving Hermione from Bellatrix, Harry takes the wand from Draco making him the true master.

            Once Harry has defeated Voldemort by using his favorite disarming spell to rebound Voldemort’s killing curse back onto himself, he goes to the headmaster’s study to talk with the portrait of Dumbledore with Ron and Hermione. Here we find out what Harry intends to do with the Elder Wand. He says that he was happier with his old wand and, though Ollivander had deemed his wand irreparable, uses the power of the Elder Wand to fix his own. With his old wand fixed he declares his intentions of putting the wand back where it came from, despite Ron’s protests, and letting its’ power die as he dies of natural causes later in life. He feels that way because he’s “had enough trouble for a lifetime” which is completely understandable considering what he done and his adult life has only just begun.

Extra Credit: Coming of Age - Neville Longbottom

In my mind, I see a true coming of age story one that has the character mature from that awkward childhood stage still trying to figure out where you belong, into a confident and strong person that has went through some tough experiences and has come out better because of it.  Neville Longbottom does just that throughout the series, finally becoming the man he was always meant to become by the end.  We see Neville in the beginning as this boy, barely capable of doing magic, a disappointment to his family, and an outcast.  He is afraid of Professor Snape and is also so down on himself, that I think results in him failing at potions and their other classes, except to Herbology.  This lack of confidence spans the majority of the series, until Dumbledore’s Army is formed and Neville wants to join.  We finally see Neville emerge from the cowardly boy, into someone who can succeed at magic beside from Herbology, which is a huge turning point in his coming of age.  

From that moment when he joins Dumbledore’s Army and goes to the Ministry with Harry and the others to fight, I knew that Neville’s’ story was far from over.  When we get to the final book Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Neville reveals his true character that he has been building all these years.  We don’t see him until later in the novel, when Harry, Ron, and Hermione need to return to Hogwarts to find Ravenclaw’s Lost Diadem.  Neville was the one to let them back into the castle and he is one of few who stood up to the Carrows and Snape.  Through his Gran’s eyes he was always a disappoint until now, Neville is telling Harry, Ron and Hermione that “she sent me a letter, telling me she was proud of me, that I’m my parents’ son, and to keep it up” (576).  This is a drastic change from the little boy we see in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone.  The final moment when Neville’s coming of age is complete, in my opinion, is when he has the sorting hat and “he drew from its depths something silver, with a glittering, rubied handle” and “sliced off the great snake’s head” (733).  With this, the scared boy that was Neville Longbottom is gone.  Every coming of age story needs an ending where the outcast becomes the hero and good does triumph over evil.  Neville Longbottom is one of the most dynamic characters of the entire series and has developed into a brave man.