Harry Potter: and The Avid Reader (WARNING: Pieces of the plot and contents of the final book are dicussed in this blog)

The seventh and final chapter. The end of something that, for me personally, meant a good deal.
On a (very) delayed train from Manchester to London sat a woman, and out of nowhere popped into her head the image of a boy, and as the hours past, the image became clearer and the picture inside her head was given a backdrop, a surrounding, it was given a story. Once the train reached London, the story of this scruffy haired, bespecled young boy of around 11 had formed in her head, the entirety of the plot was laid out in her head, she knew how he began, and how he ended, she had been given something great and powerful.
Seventeen years later, Joanne Rowling has been able to regail to us, the entirety of the story that had simply seemed to pop into her head on that train.

For me, I grew up with Harry, he was roughly my age when I read the first book, and it has remained this way as I have read through the series.
If you had had the pleasure of reading books one through six, I am sure you will join with me in thinking that the series had so far been something truly inspiring.
Of the entire series the third book was (and remains to this day) my favourite of the series. (To be discussed another time if you ask)
And I think that it is safe to say that the last book left so many doors open, so many unanswered questions and missing details, that the seventh and final book had a big job to do.

Although this was shorter than the sixth, I felt it managed to cram in so much detail, so many answers that it seemed as though it would have needed a spot of magic to have been able to fit it all in.
PERSONALLY I think the addition of Albus Dumbledore’s life story seemed to bring a whole new meaning to the story, opening up perhaps why Dubledore was the way he was, why he acted in the ways he did. It also complimented the backstory of the Horcrux’.
Between me and a friend Charlie, we had decided certain thing had to happen int his last book, for the closure of the story, the tying of ends and the ends of the story, these were as follows:
1. Harry Must Die
2. Harry must be revealed to be a horcrux.
3. Voldermort must be destroyed.
4. There has to (on demand) be some form of epic battle.
5. R.A.B had to stand for Regulus Black.
6. Kreecher had a hand in the obtaining of the original locket, and had a bigger part to play.
7. Such means must have ends as, Dobby, Dumbledore’s past, Tom Riddles past.
8. Hogwarts must be revisited, as it is a corner stone for Harry (and a large account of other valuable characters)

9. We would like to know how thier lives turn out after. (Later life)
9. Harry must see his parents again.

What threw me off was the early death of Mad-Eye, this was something I felt was done just for the abrupt nature and the blunt effect it would have on the reader. Something that we also felt should not have happened was the relationship between Harry and Ginny, for starters in the earlier books, Harry and Hermione were always meant to be the ones that got together, don’t argue.

The deaths that really caught me in the chest were that of Tonks and Lupin. As Lupin was the one last real connection he had to his father. Page 531, the most important page in the book for many reasons.
The Most Important of which is the death of Lupin, with this comes the death of the last of Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs, and the death of the last connection Harry had with his mother and father. And with the death of Lupin and Tonks it becomes apparent that Harry must survive…he was now Teddy Lupins godfather, and to repeat the pattern he went though he must survive to look out for him (even though he had his grandmother). This is also where Harry is seperated from Hermione and Ron, for what in his mind, was the last time. This is the turning point for Harry, everything he knew was about to be shattered, he left behind his friends in the hall and walked on to find out about Snape and his mother’s past, Dumbledore’s plans and of his own death.

It’s worth mentioning at the point that to make us empathise Snape, just shows how well though out Rowling’s story is, and how well she writes.

Death. Harry dies. It had to happen. ‘He saw the mouth move and a flash of green light, and everything was gone’. The genius that followed was……genius. The book could easily have ended there, it would hav ebeen a fitting ending, we knew what would happen, wht it would mean and could estimate what would happen. But Rowling had not finished, there were things that had occured to her seventeen years ago on that train that were yet to pass our minds.
This end had been finished somewhere around the time of the third book, the ending had been finished and was a clear point for her to aim for. Death, how best to describe the afterlife, vague, meaningless.

I have nothing to say about the final duel between Harry and Voldermort. Good triumphs over evil as always it should.

19 Years later. My wish was granted and we get to see how thier lives turn out. Trying up these loose ends as we see that the family tree goes on. Harry and Ginny’s three children, two of which are going to Hogwarts, showing that, as the last line says, ‘All is well’.
I would like to have ended with Albus (Harry’s son) opening a chocolate frog to a card with Harry on, reference to the first book where Harry opens one to find a card of Albus Dmbledore. However my cheeeeeeesy endings may be to cliche for you, it’s just an opinion, I am sure you if indeed you have read the book will have your own reservations as to the end of this epic series.