The Grand Finale

After years of waiting, speculating, and analyzing, I finally had the 7^th book in my hands... and I felt overwhelmingly nervous. I was so excited to see how the series wrapped up, but it was something I had been waiting for for so long, I was terrified that it wouldn’t live up to my expectations! In my heart I felt like Harry would live, but I wasn't totally sure, and I was convinced that one of the members of the trio would die. For some reason, I was also really certain that Hagrid was going to die, or Mrs. Weasley, and I didn’t think I could handle it. Finally, I dove in, and flew through most of the book in a 12-hour period. I cried and laughed and gasped throughout, as I had expected to. And then, when I got to the Battle of Hogwarts… I put the book down. For over a week and a half. I refused to read the ending because I refused for it to be over. My sister, who was dying to be able to talk about the book with me, finally forced me to sit down and read it under the threat that she’d tell me every single spoiler if I didn’t. When I got to the part where Snape reveals everything and Harry is facing his death, I bawled. I was inconsolable. My sister, totally confused, looked at me and said “Um… You should probably finish the book.” I kept reading, realized that Harry was going to live, flew through the ending, and then promptly started bawling again.  At that point, I wasn’t even totally sure how I felt about the ending, I just hated that it had ended!

My long, nostalgic rant has a point, I promise. My experience reading the series, and especially the last book, is extremely relevant to how I felt about it. The end of the Harry Potter series was potentially the most bittersweet experience of my life. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone was my first “big book” at age 4, and the last movie came out the same summer that I graduated from high school, so I truly grew up with this series. When I was a little kid, you could find me yelling “UP!” at my family’s broom for hours because I was convinced my Hogwarts letter would eventually arrive, and I needed to practice for when I would be a star player on the Gryffindor Quidditch team. Over the years, my love for these books/movies is one of the few things that has remained a constant for me—90% of my other interests at age 4 are not still things I’m interested in, but these books/movies remain as close to my heart as ever. They have seen me through so much, and I owe them a lot. They jump-started my love of reading, which led me to my love of writing and assisted in my academic success. That might sound a little dramatic to some people, who think they’re “just books.” I’d like to think those people are just a little more muggle-y than I am because they don’t understand the magic of reading, and how it can change your life.

I began the journey with these books at an age when I was so young, and I hadn’t learned a lot of life’s important lessons yet. As I grew, the books grew with me. The end of the seventh book symbolized that growth to me, and so personally, I loved it. I think that growing up with the books and learning about history and literature at the same time I was reading these books helped me make a lot of real-world connections that helped me to enjoy the books even more. Questions of what is truly important in life and what is acceptable in the name of the "Greater Good" are explored extensively in these books, and I think Rowling makes a lot of insightful statements about the world in the form of "childrens' books." The echoes of muggle social/cultural issues, such as genocide and racism, give this magical story so much more value than just an entertaining work of fiction. 

As far as the actual book, originally I was a bit upset that J.K. Rowling hadn’t addressed some things, but she answered all my questions in later interviews (what did everyone end up pursuing as a career, what happened to some minor characters, etc). However, I thought the major events all made sense, and supported so many of the lessons/themes that were important throughout the series. I loved that the trio had branched out on their own by the end of the series, but their friendship still remained in tact, despite the inevitable bumps along the way (cough RON cough). It made perfect sense for Hogwarts to be the location of the “final battle” and for so many places that had been important previously (Chamber of Secrets, Room of Requirement, Forbidden Forest, etc) to be instrumental in the series finale. It wouldn’t have felt right if Hogwarts wasn’t revisited at some point in the book, though it was vastly different than the Hogwarts we once knew. Snape’s true motives (though I had believed Snape was a good guy all along) were shocking to me, but then that quickly became one of my favorite threads in this elaborately woven story. I also absolutely loved Harry's conversation with Dumbledore. When I first started reading the series, I saw Dumbledore as the infallible adult superhero that would always save the day; by the end of the series, I loved that he was fallible, but still an admirable and amazing person. This character development was a sign of Harry's growth and maturity, and that I was okay with it made me aware how much I had grown with the series. I was also so glad that Harry survived! Though I could see where it would have made sense for Harry to die, and agree with the theme that “there are worse things than death,” it just wouldn’t have felt right to me if Harry (and the trio, for that matter) hadn’t made it through. I loved that the epilogue was a snapshot of the next generation, bringing the future into a story that had been so dependent upon the relationship between present and past. I loved that Harry named his children after the characters that, in my opinion, had the most interesting developments in the series. I loved it all! Though the whole concept of how Harry survived was a bit confusing the first time around (and maybe still is), overall I felt like all the pieces of the puzzle I had been looking at for over 10 years were finally in place when I put the book down. I wasn’t ready for it to be over, but I loved the finale, and because of that this book is my favorite.

The ending ties together and drives home all the themes that J.K. Rowling has emphasized throughout the series.