Harry Potter – The End
21 July 2007
Getting the Book
Left home around seven, took one of the new N trains downtown to Rector Street. Crossed the West Side Highway on a sky bridge, much like the Tribeca Bridge up at Stuyvesant, cut through the ‘front lawn’ of the apartment complex and walked into Two-hundred Rector Place. Two-hundred Rector Place was a pretty big place. Over forty something floors, it was a labyrinthine of carpeted floors, emergency stairwells, confusing directional signs that were too small to read and little kids, there were always little kids. I’ve come here enough times, more than enough, to know my way around. Curtis, catching a glimpse from the sign propped up on the front desk, rang 19E to announce my arrival. He nodded as he placed the phone back into the cradle, I thanked him and bounced off to the elevator.
I went down to Battery Park to buy the new, and last, Harry Potter book with Andrew and Ruozhou. Up at Scholastic (the store, somewhere in Soho, Prince and Spring?) there’s a major Harry Potter party of sorts, there’s supposed to be one at the Barnes & Noble in Union Square as well and probably in every other book store. After concluding that, a) none of us cared enough about Harry Potter to dress up and attend said ‘parties’, b) we all really just wanted the book, and c) we just didn’t really care, we stayed at Andrew’s and played Zelda till his parents made us go to Borders so we’d have a good spot in line.
We spent two and a half hours wandering through a bookstore. Participated, and failed, in a Harry Potter spelling bee (I don’t know how to spell ‘threstals’! What the heck as threstrals? Wingless horses? Ugh). Left once to go to a deli to get a drink, I downed an entire bottle of Pelligrino, don’t ask why. Browsed through their manga section, flipped through Tsubasa, some Bleach, a Hagaren artbook I wanted to buy, Death Note and the like. Tried explaining to Andrew about anime and manga with Rouzhou, failed at that. Went back to play some Harry Potter bingo, Andrew’s dad won a ten dollar gift card. That was pretty hilarious.
Midnight came and went, Borders held a raffle for the first spots in line, no one won. I must admit, Borders was pretty smart in their handling of the distribution of the books. They had everyone numbered and categorized by color. Orange, for those who pre-ordered; silver, for those who reserved; pink for those who got their early (that’d be us); and purple, for not being there early and not reserving?
Waited for our numbers to be called, pink 60-80, or 80-100. Got on line, paid for a copy of the book and a rather cute pen I picked up while wondering. Meet Andrew and Ruozhou outside. Zhou decided to be an idiot and read the last two pages. Thanked his dad and parted ways on the corner of Greenwich and Rector with Andrew. The 1, 2, and 3 station didn’t sell Metrocards (pissed me off), so I couldn’t take the train with Zhou. Deferred to the N and W train, because it was easier for me to get home, but I would’ve enjoyed the company of a friend at one in the morning. Caught another one of the new N’s and started reading. I swear, on that one train, almost everyone had a Harry Potter book, that orange book jacket kept cropping up everywhere. Some random person tried to high five me for just having it.
The Book
So, at the end of this ‘epic’ journey, at the end of all this, what have I to say? Eh, it was alright.
Finished it about five hours ago, and even with all my hatred and contempt towards Harry Potter and his million dollar franchise, I felt pretty nostalgic. I remember buying the book when I couldn’t even speak English, I was absolutely petrified of that thick, maroon colored, hard-covered book. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets sat on my shelf for two years before I took it down and read it. I admit, my ten year old self loved it, couldn’t stop reading till there were no more pages to be turned. And then, I went out and bought number one and number three. I deemed number three my favorite.
A lot of people, and creatures, died. I think it safe to assume that everyone saw that coming. A lot of people died. I saw a lot of what happened coming, I didn’t see some of the things coming. A rather annoying YouTube video semi-ruined the end. But, then again, I wasn’t all that excited about the end anyways.
Spoiler alert! I’ll try not to spoil the story too much, but you’ve been warned. Read on at your own risk!
I walked away from it rolling my eyes at Ginny and Harry, elated with Hermione and Ron and most of all, walked away feeling a strange, very awkward love for Severus Snape. I’ve never trusted Severus Snape and after he killed Dumbledore, I was just annoyed with his character. Severus Snape was a controversial man (notice, I’m addressing him in past tense). Everyone was speculating whether he was a traitor or a friend. I’ve always thought of him as the guy in between, playing both sides to benefit himself. It is revealed that he, indeed, had ulterior motives for playing the game, but not for the ones I could have ever, ever, ever, ever imagined. After finally knowing everything about dear Professor Snape, I felt immensely sorry for him, poor guy.
He was just in love with Lily! The guy did everything because he loved Lily. Rowling devoted an entire chapter to the poor man and I thought he deserved it. Voldemort kills Snape, the reasons are complicated and it’ll be an even bigger spoiler than this to talk about it, and Harry takes Snape’s memories to that…thing…in Dumbledore’s office. Harry takes a peak at the guy’s memories. Apparently, Severus has been in love with Lily Evans before they even left for Hogwarts. He met her when he was little and back then, when she asked if it mattered that she was only a half-blood, he said no. There were indecently good friends. On their first train ride to Hogwarts, Lily sided with Severus when he was bothered by James. Obviously, much to Severus’ dismay, Lily is sorted into Gryffindor, not Slytherin. Severus starts hanging around with creepy, death-eater guys, Lily get scared. Lily starts hanging around the Marauders and Severus just gets pissed. Then one day he calls her a mudblood and that was the end of that. Later on in life, Snape joins the Dark Lord. The Dark Lord’s off to kill the Potters, he begs him not to, he fails. The love of his life about to be killed, he turns to Dumbledore and sides with him. That didn’t really help, Lily died anyways. Despite being a complete jerk to Harry, he actually spent his entire life protecting him, because he loved Lily. Apparently, Dumbledore planned for Severus to kill him, long story, so we can forgive Snape because he was really one of the good guys.
I thought that whole thing with Lily was the cutest thing ever. I read Harry Potter for plot because all of Rowling’s characters (Harry, Voldemort) were uninteresting and the good ones (Sirius, Dumbledore, and now Snape) are killed off. Severus Snape and his little story there, made the seventh book just a little bit better. It was the only interesting thing I walked away with after 790 something pages.
One more thing, Neville Longbottom, I’ve always liked Neville, ever since that frog incident in the first book. He was such a sheepish, clumsy guy. After the fifth book, Dumbledore’s Army and all, I sensed that by the end, he’d get a pretty big role. He destroyed the last Horcrux. I’m pretty satisfied with Longbottom, always thought he’d make something of himself.
And Dobby died! Ugh, miserable people! I loved Dobby, poor house elf.
And now, the end. You really want to know? You really want to know how it happened? There’s a major battle at Hogwarts. Percy comes back. Notable people who died: Fred (I loved Fred!), Remus and Tonks (they just had children!). Voldemort kills Harry, Harry comes back and kills Voldemort. End! Yeup, that’s about it. I didn’t care much about the ending, to tell you the truth. It was expected and it wasn’t even dramatic. It was a whole lot of talk, and then Voldemort dies. Nothing dramatic at all. And of course, everyone’s happy, oh my dear god.
Epilogue – They all have kids.
Well, that was that. The end of the end. It’s actually kind of nice knowing that when you have children, you can gloat and tell them that you were there the night they released the very last Harry Potter. Makes you feel like you were part of something, no matter how brilliantly dumb the whole affair was. Oh, and I have a poster to prove it too. Ha.
Thanks for the spoilers! I don’t intend to read the book until the hype dies down, so… your spoilers gave me something to tide me over.
See, Snape is good after all. I can’t say I didn’t expect that, but it’s good to have them confirmed.
@Briar – O_o…you liked my spoilers? I was expecting to be mobbed and killed…YAY!! =D!