A Venti Harry with an Extra Shot of Espresso

It seems appropriate that since I discovered the magic of the Harry Potter series on a plane, that I should again be traveling on the day when the final book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, was released. Since I had ordered my copy from the U.K., however, I wasn’t able to read the book on the plane along with another 200 of Harry’s closest fans.

Not that I wasn’t tempted. Harry was everywhere throughout the Atlanta airport—almost. While standing in line waiting to order a venti non-fat mocha in Atlanta airport’s Terminal E, I was able to look through a glassed wall into the bookstore next door. Above the shelves of neatly ordered books read ‘Childrens’ and ‘Young Adults,’ and yet, not one Harry Potter book was to be seen. Missing the opportunity to market to a caffeine-crazed, almost-captive audience, the bookstore had pyramided their entire inventory of the boy wizard at the front of the store, out of sight of the addicted fiends who could read the book in one sitting.

Later, somewhere over New Orleans, I saw a man standing in the aisle waiting to use the facilities. Noticing his index finger pinched between the pages of the book, I asked him how much he had read so far. “Almost halfway,” he said, showing me the gap in the pages. “I can’t leave [the book] at my seat or my kids will start reading it and I’ll never get to finish.”

 ‘Father Reads Deathly Hallows Before His Children—Brave Man or Child Abuser?’ I thought. I realized later that it was the voice of Rita Skeeter inside my head at 35,000 feet.

The Trouble with Harry

Alarmingly, Harry wasn’t waiting in my mailbox when I arrived home just after midnight, but, then, none of my mail had been delivered. When the postman neglected to bring me anything on Monday, I raced down to the post office to pick up Harry (and the bills that keep me working), but Harry wasn’t there either.

‘MissingPostman Found Buried under Stacks of Undelivered Harry Potter Books,’ whispered Rita.

At work, my colleagues greeted me, not with ‘welcome back!’ or ‘wow, how was your trip?’, but with ‘what page are you on?’ With no more context than that, I understood them. And along with me, they beat their breasts, gnashed their teeth, tore out their hair, and wailed in horror as I explained that Harry had not yet arrived.

Oddly, one coworker, who, like me, had ordered from Amazon.co.uk, received his book on Thursday, two days before the release date. When I had greeted him with ‘what page are you on?’, he laughed and answered that he read it from cover to cover in one sitting. And he, too, beat his breasts, gnashed his…well, you know. That’s what friends are for.

Harry didn’t arrive until Wednesday, a full four days after the book was released. I was beside myself (and a more unpleasant couple you’ve never seen!). Barely more than three days later, I had finished it (work, guests, and Comic Con can really get in the way of a good book).

A Good Book Spoiled

Spoilers are coming, but you still have a paragraph or two to go first.

Still in the early stages of the book, I thought, ‘this is going to be an expensive movie.’ O-meon’s Chuck Oberleitner astutely observed, “Rowling’s been writing Deathly Hallows since book one.” With all of the loose ends Rowling had to tie up, the book is brilliantly entertaining. Alternating between pathos and adventure, Rowling imbued her final book with a sense of energy and urgency from the first page, and that propelled me from page to page. It’s a satisfying read that will encourage many to pick up book one and start the adventure all over again.

If you have not finished reading Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, now is the time to STOP READING.

Much has been made of who might die in the final book. It shouldn’t be surprising really; the story began with the death of Harry’s parents. In 2000, in an interview with Evan Solomon of CBC Newsworld’s Hot Type, Rowling said the story was about ‘dealing with death…and facing up to death.’

Rowling had hinted that at least two dear characters would die that she hadn’t originally planned on killing. Many had speculated whether Harry would die; Ron, Hermione, Hagrid—every character’s life was on the line.

For me, the hardest death came first: Hedwig! Rowling herself might just as well have stretched her hand through the book and thrust a Death Eater’s wand straight into my heart. Try as I might, my head wouldn’t let me deny what I was reading. Hedwig was dead!

With tears in my eyes, I looked over at my African Grey parrot, Ruby, a few feet from my easy chair, sleeping contentedly on the perch outside her cage. I’ve especially relied on her companionship for the last few of her 16 years. She’s been a dear and constant companion, in that she has fulfilled, for me, a role not too unlike Hedwig’s role in Harry’s life.

Associate Editor Kenneth Larsen's beloved African Gray parrot Ruby at her favorite pub sharpening her wand (made of potato and vegetable oil) in case she ever meets J. K. Rowling.
Image copyright© Kenneth Larsen.

When asked about Hedwig’s death, Rowling said, “The loss of Hedwig represented a loss of innocence and security….Voldemort killing her marked the end of childhood.”

Keeping my childhood unapologetically intact, suffice it to say I had nothing left in me to grieve for Mad-Eye Moody, who was killed in the same attack.

Still, Hedwig’s death did serve another purpose. As I read, I knew that each character could be dead a page later. And yet, I wasn’t prepared—again—for Dobby’s demise. Dobby, whom we came to know in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets and whom Harry helped escape a life of horrid servitude to the Malfoys, is killed by Bellatrix Lestrange while selflessly helping Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Griphook escape from their torture at Malfoy Manor.

Ever devoted, Dobby’s last words are to and for the person who helped set him free in the first place: “Harry Potter.” In a heartrending scene, Harry works through his grief by burying Dobby without the aid of magic. When he’s done, Harry uses his wand to inscribe the epitaph: “Here Lies Dobby, A Free Elf.”

Perhaps now the members of SPEW can convince the producers of the last two Harry Potter movies to return Dobby to his rightful stature and no longer give away his story lines to Neville Longbottom.

Finally, if the deaths of Hedwig and Dobby weren’t enough, Rowling couldn’t leave the Weasleys out of the horror. Too soon after Percy sees the error of his ways and rejoins the rest of the Weasley clan in uniting against Voldemort, Fred Weasley, George’s twin, is killed. George had taken a hit earlier in the book, but survived with one less ear. The bond between these brothers has been evident throughout the series—one was never without the other.

Rowling has mastered the technique of pushing her readers back in their chairs by dropping bombs when they least expect it (the collapsing of the Ministry of Magic and the impending approach of the Death Eaters), and then later pulling them to the edge of their seat (Mrs. Weasley taking on Bellatrix Lestrange).

Perhaps one of my most satisfying moments is truly the most human—Dudley’s painful awareness of what Harry was facing finally unties him from Petunia’s apron strings and brings him to respectfully attempt to make amends for all that Harry has had to endure in the Dursley household. It’s at this moment, early in the book, that Rowling reminds us how much has changed, how much the characters have changed, and from that point forward, that little will be the same.

Unless otherwise noted, all images coypright© Warner Brothers Pictures.

Life after Harry

Somewhere around Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, I began to wonder what Harry’s life was going to be like after Hogwarts. At that time, I was still certain Harry would live. By the time I finished Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, I thought I was going to know what Harry would be like out in the world. But, of course, J. K. Rowling and Lord Voldemort weren’t quite done with him yet.

With all the brouhaha surrounding who will die in Deathly Hallows, I was almost convinced Harry should die to protect the story and the characters we’ve come to know. That was the adult in me. The child inside knew Harry had to live. Good had to win out over evil—and it couldn’t be a Pyrrhic victory.

Rowling had said that there would not be another Harry Potter book. And then she said ‘never say never.’ Seeking a path between those two ‘decisions,’ Rowling chose to give us a glimpse of life some 19 years after the battle for Hogwarts.

Ron and Hermione are married, as are Harry and Ginny. All are seeing their children off to Hogwarts. George, who, we learn, with Ron’s help continues with Weasley’s Wizarding Wheezes, has named his son after his fallen twin.

It’s all so rosy. Was Harry really able to settle down to a conventional wizard’s life after all he’d been through? Don’t witches and wizards get post traumatic stress disorder? Don’t they need therapy?  Couldn’t we have had some sense of schadenfreude about Draco Malfoy? Would that have been so bad?

What about it Jo? One more Harry Potter story?