Deathly Hallows

The last weekend, it was the release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Being a potter maniac myself, I got the book around mid-day on Saturday and sat down to read it late that night. I somehow did not like the idea that with this book it is all over. So decided to take it slow but after sometime, the fever caught me and in spite of being busy with so many things to get done, I ended up finishing it late on Tuesday. Every time, I had to get up from reading it, I would curse myself and the person who made me get up which would either be my dad or R.

R and dad came up with this mighty idea that they would take care of the cooking on Sunday with R telling me that he was going to make lettuce kootu and dad with okra curry. Of late, R has been spending a lot of his weekend time in the kitchen, doing a lot of different things and everytime he had done that, we have had some great lunch and dinners during weekends. So I am really happy with the idea and I go find a nice cozy place to read with my book, a water jug and some snacks to eat when reading.

But guess, last Sunday was not my day. The lettuce kootu ends up in a fiasco, and for the okra curry I would have gotten up some 4 times. But luckily, that did not need replacement as it came out well. Add to that the times, I got up to get stuff around for the lettuce kootu. The lettuce is abandoned and we got to look for something else to do in its place. Luckily R hadn’t added the paruppu to it yet. So I still had the daal to use. With a lot of cursings and yellings and what not, I rummage the fridge and find out that we had pumpkin.

The cutting session for the pumpkin begins with some more abuses directed towards R’s side. He did not want to get into the kitchen anymore saying that its not a good day for him for he has been goofing up too many things. So me and dad get the pumpkin ready and I put it to cook, getting many other things done around the kitchen in a speed that’s totally new to me and get the kootu eventually ready. I go have my bath and we have the food, and there I go back to the book. And of course I keep getting disturbed thoroughly through out the day, with R threatening me when I leave the book behind that he is going to read the last chapter and spill it out.

It indeed was an awesome experience that I had reading it. Being a bit sick with allergy and sinus, I decided to take the Monday off from work with R saying that I am taking the day off to read Deathly Hallows and my brother seconding him when I called him later that day. Little do I care. I do nothing for the whole day, let my dad make just some rice and end up feeling as weird as I could with the sinus pressure really hitting me hard. But I had to read the book, and so read as much as my eyes and head would allow me to, and eventually finished it late on Tuesday with R again pitching in to do the dinner which ended up pretty good this time.

All good things have to come to an end. No matter how much I hate that sentence, I have to accept the fact that its over. Anyways, I had never expected it to go on and on in the first place. Did want to know what happens to Harry, Ron, Hermione, Vol- eh, You-know-who and the whole bunch. And for that it has to come to a end. Its just that I cannot come to terms that its over. I am going to read the whole thing from book one, guess that might make me be at peace with myself and accept the fact that the Potter series is actually complete.

All in all I loved the book. All my favorite characters are there, may not exactly be the way I like them to be, but they are there and in the end, some of them die. The dead ones come back and since it is a wizard’s world that I am in, I don’t question them when they come back, but then, JKR does say they are not real. The dead that are dead are indeed dead. Even when they come back, they are happy and are not real. All the ends were tied up pretty neatly, except for a few which I guess could be filled up as after thoughts to the series. I remember reading somewhere, guess it was mugglenet, that JKR is coming up sometime later with an encyclopedia on the characters of the Harry Potter series or something like that, where she is going to talk about many other stuff that were left open or not closed, in detail. Just cannot wait to lay my hands on it. I read some lovely reviews and articles on HP in the last few days that I at times did feel too over whelmed with Harry Potter. Some of them, I couldn't read for I hadn't read the book yet. But feasted myself on Wednesday over those articles.

I am going to take some time off, read each one back to back in peace again and see if there are still any loose ends that I cannot connect. Its been a long time since I read the last ones and I do not remember Half-Blood Prince well let alone Chamber of Secrets or Prisoner of Azkaban.

After seeing the movies or what is I am not sure, I can hear the actors speaking for the characters when I was reading Deathly Hallows. Could it be that I had just seen the Order of Phoenix and this was an after effect of that?

**********SPOILERS AHEAD**********

Harry, Ron and Hermione roam all around England and eventually realize that one of the horcruxes could be Regalus Black’s-Sirius’s brother-locket. And somehow gain the confidence of Kreacher and he decides to help Harry with his tale on the locket. The legend of Hallows is good too. I like the way these 3 teen-ers actually go around thinking they can do stuff and how they struggle around, have arguments, fight with each other, how Ron quits and regrets quitting and eventually joins them again. I like the Doe thing.. Like Baradwaj Rangan says that reminded me too of the deer in Ramayana. But didn’t guess that it could be Snape’s patronus though. (One more reason, I need to read all the 7 at one go). Guess I liked that Snape was a good guy (could be the crush that I have for Alan Rickman makes me say that) but he is not all that good either. The shades of dark are still there in him. Making Dumbledore have dark shades also made sense. The way Harry says, ‘…but then he was our age’ was really good. The King’s Cross chapter I guess was JKR’s way of explaining why she let Dumbledore go free.

And above all, the battle scenes in Hogwarts does indeed fulfill the absence of Hogwarts in the initial chapters and it does so immensely. (Would love to see that in big screen. But then, none of the movies gave me the satisfaction that I get from reading the books.) Would have loved to see Umbridge getting kicked more. I really felt too sad when Bellatrix was hurting Hermione that it was so good to see Mrs. Weasely taking over Bellatrix and in what a fashion? Just too good. I could see the actors in my mind doing the duel against each other. (Another after effect of seeing Order of Phoenix). Felt bad that Lupin and Tonks had to go, after their brief time being married, but then with Harry being the godfather of little Teddy Lupin that was sure thing to happen. The kid has someone right. Still a bit sad. The worst was Dobby and Fred. I liked Dobby when I read the Chambers and more after seeing the movie. And I loved Fred and George right from Sorcerer’s Stone. Instead of Percy turning good and coming back, he could have died for Fred, if a Weasely has to die.

I liked the way Harry decides to go after the horcruxes and not hallows. The way he feels that for the first time that he has decided to not do something. That was indeed good. And after all that roaming around the way they were at Bill’s and Fleur’s made it feel like there were free in a house while they were in a sort of prison out in the wild. I liked that metaphor.

I just loved it when Neville drew the sword from the hat. That was one my favorite lines in the book. It was great to see Neville heading it at Hogwarts when Harry goes out to meet You-know-who all alone. I loved the way Neville's grandmom got involved and the way she was proud of her grandson. And one very favorite scene was the one where Ron pulls Harry out of the lake. And the way Harry is so happy to see Ron. A very poignant moment. I loved the way Hermione screams at Ron when he comes back and how Harry conjures a shield between them to protect Ron. Another one was when after Fred's death if I am sure, when Neville, Luna and Seamus (not sure if its Seamus or someone else) conjures up the patronus for them when the dementors come. That was another emotional moment for me.

The way, it an all out war was just too good. It was not some of them were huddled up home or caught somewhere. Everyone were out there trying to help Harry. That was one thing that I just revelled in when reading the book.

I enjoyed the epilogue. Kind of ended the whole thing where it started. Not actually, but sort of in a way. If there is one thing that was eeeks, Albus Serverus.. that was a bit hard to take. But I liked the way Harry tells him, 'You were named after 2 Hogwarts head masters and one of them was the bravest man I ever knew, and he was in Slytherin, so dont worry.' I really liked that. That's the reason we like Harry. Of course, I had to re-read the few lines to know who Hugo, Rose, James, Lily and Albus were. The best is Draco’s son Scorpius. What a name? Laughed a bit at reading that. And the animosity is still there where Hermione has to scream at Ron. I liked it where he says to Rose, ‘grandfather Weasely may not like it if you get married to a pureblood.’ Hilarious.

But in the end, there are so many questions that go unanswered. The Epilogue was indeed a long one, and anyways the book was close to 750 pages, a few more wouldn't have hurt. Some that are nagging me are:

1. How come Ron or Ginny missed giving Fred’s name to any of their kids?
2. George may have done that. And what is George doing?
3. Whatever happened to the Weasley’s Wizarding Wheezes?
4. What happened to the map?
5. What are the death-eaters doing now?
6. What is Lucius and Narcissa doing now?
7. What is Draco doing for a living?
8. Who is in the Ministry?

There are still many more that I would like to ask. But then, Fred and George are my favorites. There were real darlings who gave such laughter when reading the book. I loved the way they give the map to Harry, the way they create those toffees and was not happy by the way they were cut off in the Goblet of Fire movie. (One more reason why the movies were not as satisfying as the books).

All said, I just loved reading it and am sure to do a reading of the whole series very soon. Thank you Rowling for an awesome read!

ps. I think, this has been my longest post ever to date :-)