Book 47, 48, 49 - Crescendo and Grande Finale - Part 3

Title: Harry Potter and the 5) Order of the Phoenix, 6) Half-Blood Prince, and 7) Deathly Hallows

Author: J.K. Rowling

Genre: children's/YA fantasy

Part 3: The Fate of the World Rests in Teenage Hands

Order of the Phoenix, Half-Blood Prince, and Deathly Hallows complete the HP series. There are some unforeseen deaths, icky torture, and great big laughs. I love Part 3. The series is for young adults now, and the characters we've come to love are growing up right beside us.

Book 47 - HP and the Order of the Phoenix

When I first started writing the post for this book, it began with, "And now we've arrived at my least favourite book"; however, over the course of reading through this novel again, I realized that that statement is not actually true. Sure, Harry is a hormonal mess and prone to snappish outbursts that make the reader cringe, but this book is so much more than that.

1. Rowling pulls her characters into a more adult sphere. When Harry snaps at his friends, Hermione asks him to kindly not jump down their throats because, if he hasn't noticed, they're on his side. Ginny is beginning to show just how awesome she is - I mean, she grew up with 6 older brothers, how can she not be a total badass? And then we have Umbridge, a portrayal of the type of evil that isn't even magical, and readily found in the reader's world. She's classist, racist, gets off on pain, and is generally one of the most profoundly wicked and wonderfully rendered characters in the entire series. She gets my blood boiling even more so than the big V, because she's a slippery, cunning sort of evil. 

2. We also have the DA, see more of Neville, and have the honour of meeting Luna. Every scene with Luna Lovegood is pure, pure gold. PURE. GOLD. I love her. I love her so much. And Neville; we finally get some insight into his heartbreaking backstory. The Christmas scene at Mungos...good lord I'm tearing up just thinking about it. It's SO GOOD and so, so sad. That's when Voldemort's impact is at its most terrifying. He's not scary when he's standing in front of us without a nose, bullying a teenage boy in front of his cackling cronies - no, he's most potent when he's in the shadows, ripping apart the lives of characters we love or at least have grown to take for granted (Florean Fortescue? Hannah Abbott's mom? But I'm getting ahead of myself...)

My biggest takeaway from this, number X of a million read-throughs, is that this book isn't as terrible as I remember. Sure, Harry really fucks up Occlumency, but to his credit the whole Snape and Sirius rivalry got in the way a long, long time before Harry came along. 

Book 48 - HP and the Half-Blood Prince

The very best part about the Half-Blood Prince is the psychology of Voldemort - finally, we get a look at Dumbledore's theoretical musings and exploration of Voldemort's inner thoughts and motivations. It's like a wizarding version of Making a Murderer - I think. I never saw the show, tbh, but based on my other exposure to procedural crime dramas, delving into flashbacks of Voldy's childhood is familiar in a way. A young boy abandoned by his parents; he thinks - no, he knows - he's special; he keeps trophies; he uses what little power he has to hurt others...

Big wonder he turned into a baddie.

The most prevalent sense I am always left with after this book is that the stakes are very, very real now. Ding dong, Dumbly is dead, and now the kids have to puzzle together all the pieces and pull out a win for the world.

NO PRESSURE.

Book 48 - HP and the Deathly Hallows

As someone very easily stirred to tears, below is a comprehensive list of all the things that made me sob like a little baby in the final installment ("But what about the Cursed Ch-- " I SAID FINAL INSTALLMENT):

1. One of the most tragic deaths of the series in its magnitude and brevity - HEDWIG. I've heard of kill your babies in writing, but damn that hurts!

2. When the Weasleys give Harry a watch for his 17th birthday, and he hugs Mrs. Weasley wordlessly. 

3. When Dobby dies. I hate Dobby for most of the series, but goddammit if his death doesn't bring on the waterworks. RIP you obnoxious elf.

4. "Come on, Luna," Dean called as he passed, holding out his free hand; she took it and followed him back up up the stairs." UGH I SHIP THIS SO HARD. I like to think that Dean and Luna's time spent together made Dean realize how incredible Luna is, and then they fell in love, and lived happily ever after.

5. The death of Fred Weasley. There's a Youtube video, or maybe it's an article, about the Phelps' brothers shooting this scene - Oliver Phelps falls to his knees beside his brother and cries real real tears, so heart stricken that James sits up and hugs him and consoles him. Apparently he could only do a certain number of takes because it was so emotionally draining. Excuse me, I'll just be ugly-sobbing into my own t-shirt over there.

6. Colin Creevey - tiny in death :(

7. Harry using the stone to surround himself in the comfort of the Marauders and his mother on his way to meet Death.

8. Kreacher leading the house elves against Voldy, Regulus' locket bouncing on his chest

9. When, at long last, Harry returns to the Headmaster's office after it all, and is greeted by thunderous applause from all the past headmasters/mistresses.

10. And finally, tears were shed over the epilogue - NOT because it's sad or nostalgic or painfully wonderful, but because it's just that: PAINFUL. Every time I read this last book I tell myself to read that last sentence before the epilogue and to stop. But, I can't. I always think, hey, it can't be that bad.

It is. It is that bad.

Sure, let's wrap up every - god - damn loose end in the most tactless way possible. Rowling reverted to the language from the first book and while I can see how that might be an attractive way to finish everything off (coming full circle, grabbing that nostalgia and shoving it in the readers' faces), it was as heavy-handed as that slap Joff gets to the face.

THE END