"Harry Potter, the Boy Who Lived ... come to die."
Hello everyone!
Well, here we are.
After a great number of pauses, full stops and definite breaks while I was doing something else entirely, we've finally made it to the end of the Harry Potter franchise.
I consider Deathly Hallows to be the end, despite the whole Cursed Child debacle, because I haven't had the chance to see the show and I'm not particularly inclined to, given what I've read in the printed version of the script, anyway.
So this is where Harry's journey ends for me, and probably for a lot of others.
It's been a long and bumpy ride, and there's been some chaos along the way, but we're finally ready for the very last showdown.
After all, Voldemort is waiting. He's got what he's been looking for, and now all he desires lies within his grasp.
Why don't we stop keeping him in suspense? The Deathly Hallows, Part 2, is here.
But I digress.
In Part 1, Harry, Ron and Hermione spent most of their time evading capture, trying to figure out how to destroy the Horcruxes, and attempting not to strangle one another under the influence of said Horcruxes. Ron even took a bit of a time-out before returning, and Harry got to visit his parents' grave.
Now though, it's time to kick some serious butt.
Voldemort has the Elder Wand, so events are picking up speed; after burying Dobby, Harry speaks to both Ollivander, the wand maker, and Griphook the Goblin, firstly about the potential of the Elder Wand even existing (to which Ollivander says PSYCH, nah, though I'm still not sure if he did it to dissuade Harry or because he really didn't know), and then about breaking into Gringotts.
If you remember waaay back when, when we were first introduced to the wizarding bank, we were also warned never to try and break into it. It simply wasn't done, and you'd be more liable to just die in there rather than get out again.
It's why they need Griphook - he can get them in and out, in theory.
All he needs at the end is the Sword of Gryffindor.
Harry agrees, desperate beyond measure even though he then has no way of destroying the Horcruxes anymore, and they transform Hermione into Bellatrix Lestrange (probably one of the more hilarious sequences because poor Hermione is simply too NICE for old Bella's face) and actually manage to head into Gringotts. Once there, however, a spell breaks all their enchantments, and even though they DO in fact get into the Lestrange vault, it's not only protected by a multiplying spell, but Griphook decides then and there that he wants the sword.
Harry gives it to him, after grabbing the Hufflepuff Cup, another Horcrux, but of course Griphook then leaves them right there to deal with the alarm and the guards, and the dragon.
Oh yeah, there's a dragon. Didn't I mention that?
The poor creature's had a pretty miserable life by the time our trio hitch a ride on it and escape out of the bank into the great wide world again.
Unfortunately, the clock begins an even faster countdown now because Harry, through his connection with Voldemort, sees the Dark Lord in a complete panic and slaying people at the bank because of the missing Horcrux. He then heads off to check on all the others, finally catching on to what's happening.
This means that they're on a time crunch - but also that Harry has some valuable clues, aka that the last Horcrux is at Hogwarts.
Let's review them so far: there was the Gaunt ring, Riddle's diary, the locket, the cup, then there's a diadem that's supposed to be hidden at Hogwarts, and Harry also divines that Nagini is a Horcrux.
So they have two more to go. Easy.
Or, as Harry says - they plan, they go in, and all hell breaks loose, as usual. Someone's finally caught on that plans just don't really work half the time.
They don't now either because an alarm goes off in Hogsmeade as soon as they arrive, and they're only just rescued by Abeforth Dumbledore, who has a grudge against his brother since Albus wasn't exactly the saint Harry remembers him as, but Harry's adamant he needs to get into Hogwarts, so a portrait of Ariana Dumbledore reveals a battered Neville, and a tunnel behind it.
Our students find themselves in the Room of Requirement, which has become a refuge for those desperate to escape the regime at Hogwarts under Snape, and there's a lot of familiar faces on display if you take a good look at who's applauding Harry, including Luna Lovegood, who we last left at the cottage before they headed off to Gringotts.
The cheering doesn't last long, however, because not only do the students have no idea what Harry might be looking for or where it could be, Ginny arrives to warn them Snape knows Harry's been sighted.
In the vein of if it's a fight he wants, it's a fight he'll get, Harry disguises himself in a Gryffindor robe and challenges the Headmaster right then and there. Not only that, but he's backed up by the Order of the Phoenix, arrived to liberate the school and make it the place of their last stand.
McGonagall reveals herself to be the real MVP as she steps between Snape and Harry, taking back the reins of her beloved school, but Voldemort is right on their heels, arriving with his army of Death Eaters (when did he manage to amass so many?!) and demanding they give him Harry Potter. Much to the dismay of the Slytherins, the school says HELL NAW and prepares for battle, trying to buy Harry as much time as he could possibly need to find what he's looking for.
It would be impossible to go into all the details of the battle because it's just THAT awesome, but once it begins and Voldemort unleashes his attack, the protective dome around Hogwarts collapses, Seamus and Neville blow a bridge at the back of the castle, the Order fights anyone that comes whizzing in as a Death Eater, and you see individual character beats throughout the entire battle.
My favourite remains McGonagall bringing the statues around Hogwarts to life and feeling all giddy about it, like a schoolgirl.
Meanwhile, Luna takes Harry to speak to the Grey Lady, the ghost of Ravenclaw, who turns out to be the daughter of one of the founders, and who Riddle charmed into giving him her mother's diadem. She also explains where it's hidden - right here at school, in the Room of Requirement, where Harry himself has hidden a thing or two.
You'd think it would be a straight shot, there and back again, so to speak, but Draco Malfoy appears at Hogwarts and follows Harry into the Room of Requirement with a couple of his goons. It doesn't really matter that Ron and Hermione had gone down to the Chamber of Secrets (Ron can imitate Harry fairly well), grabbed a basilisk fang, and destroyed the cup, because one of the Slytherins sets the entire Room on fire, causing them all to run.
Well, almost.
Draco might have died in there if Harry hadn't gone back for him, but the diadem DOES get destroyed, so now it's only the snake left.
And while Voldemort calls for a timeout, and we as audiences mourn the death of so many of the Order (including but not limited to Tonks, Lupin AND Fred Weasley), Harry knows he's going to have to face Voldemort, sooner rather than later.
Especially now that the Dark Lord has killed Snape.
Yes, in a macabre turn of events, Voldemort kills Snape to gain mastery of the Elder Wand, saying Snape was the one who disarmed Dumbledore, but no simple disarming works for the bad guys, oh no; luckila, Harry manages to gather Snape's memories before the Headmaster passes. Shocked and saddened, that shock deepens when he actually takes a dive into the Pensieve, because he sees not only that Snape loved his mother Lily all his life, but that he protected Harry all HIS life, as well, in her memory.
He was also a masterful double agent, playing Voldemort like a fiddle.
Harry tells Ron and Hermione to kill the snake and heads off into the Forbidden Forest, where Voldemort is keeping Hagrid hostage, and finally understands what 'I open at the close' on his Snitch means. As he's ready to die, the Resurrection Stone, taken from the Gaunt Ring, is revealed, and he sees the ghosts of everyone he ever loved standing around him for support.
It's his final journey, after all.
Or so you'd think.
After Voldemort Avada Kedavra's him - and Harry doesn't defend himself, choosing to die willingly as he's realized HE was the last Horcrux, not Nagini, the Horcrux Voldemort never wanted to make but made when he tried to kill Harry the first time anyway - after the Avada Kedavra, Harry wakes up in what seems to be a train station, with what's left of Voldemort's pitiful soul AND Dumbledore, who's extremely proud. He tells Harry he has a choice: he can choose to move on, or return to the land of the living.
Harry returns, and with the help of Narcissa Malfoy, who's only concern is her son, fools Voldemort into believing he's dead.
He fools everyone else at Hogwarts, too, to their dismay, although it doesn't last long.
Neville pulls the Sword of Gryffindor from the Sorting Hat during the "peace talks" and kills Nagini even as Harry rolls over to reveal he's alive, and he and Voldemort go at it, in a duel seventeen years in the making.
Voldemort thinks he can beat Harry - after all, he has the Elder Wand! - but even as Molly Weasley kills Bellatrix, Harry enlightens his foe: it wasn't Snape who disarmed Dumbledore in Half-Blood Prince.
It was Draco.
And Harry disarmed Draco back at Malfoy Manor.
This means that the Elder Wand answers to HARRY, not anyone who Voldemort thought it answered to, and as Harry disarms his life-long foe, Voldemort finally dissolves into nothing.
The war is then over; Filch will have nightmares trying to clean up the castle and get it back into shape for the new school year, but Harry, Ron and Hermione are finally free. Harry breaks the Elder Wand in half, because it's too dangerous to have around, and since he dropped the Resurrection Stone in the Forest, the only Hallow he still has is the Invisibility Cloak, the most benign of them all.
With romance springing up all around - Ron and Hermione have FINALLY gotten together, as have Neville and Luna - we fastforward nineteen years into the future.
Harry, now married to Ginny, is helping his two sons onto the train that'll take them to Hogwarts, and he tells his youngest, Albus Severus, that it doesn't matter which House he gets sorted into. Every House in Hogwarts is worthy. They made them so, after all, through their many sacrifices.
And with that, the train pulls away with the next generation of young witches and wizards, and our trio stand proudly at the platform watching it disappear into the distance - taking with it all their memories, of the good, and the bad.
As it does with ours.
As it does with ours.
After all this time?
Always.
xx
*poster images and video not mine, screencaps by me
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