MAJOR BOOK 7 SPOILIERS

Before we start, I just want all possible readers to know that I am a rabid Harry/Hermione shipper.

And with that out of the way, I can say this: CANNON CAN SOD THE HELL OFF!!!

Deathly Hallows was a good book, much better than the sixth, but not the best in the series. I still think that book four and five were the best.

The final chapter in our favorite wizard’s life was intense to say the least, the whole way through. Harry does some major growing up, Hermione and Ron seem to have started some sort of relationship, but nothing it explicitly said; for that I am thankful.

Of course, the trio go looking for the remaining horcruxes, finding the locket, hidden by Regulus A. Black, a Cup owned by Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw’s diadem (something like a tiara, only it make you smarter), Voldemort’s snake Nagini, and one that no one was expecting.

But before I reveal the final horcrux, we must first ask, what are the “Deathly Hallows?”

The Hallows are, in fact, three magical objects of the most extreme power. A wand of elder wood that make the wand’s master unbeatable, a stone to bring the dead back, and an Invisibility cloak that the wearer truly invisible even so that even the Grim Reaper (Death) could not find you.

These items are… Harry’s invisibility cloak, the Gaunt Ring, and Dumbledore’s wand.

Harry already has the ring and the cloak, but Tom has the wand, but he is not the master. You see, the wand always chooses the wizard, but the elder wand is different, the person who defeats its previous master becomes its new master. You can work out who the real master is, can’t you?

But, as with most books, there is a twist, and I’m going to give you five.

First, Severus Snape was in love with Lily, and even though he never revealed it, he loved and protected Harry, if only in memory of Lily.

Second, if you remember Sorcerer’s Stone/Philosopher’s Stone, you might remember that Dumbledore is famous for defeating the Dark Lord Grindlewald. But what you don’t know is that both Albus and Grindlewald were best friends.

Third, Severus and Lily knew each other before Hogwarts; Snape even lived in Lily’s neighborhood.

Fourth: Dumbledore planned everything that happened in the sixth book. The destruction of the ring horocrux was going to kill him by the end of the year, so he had Snape kill him and become the master of the Elder wand.

Fifth and finally, Harry is the seventh, final, and unexpected horocrux.

Yes, ladies and gents, Harry is a horcrux. When Riddle visited the Potter’s that Halloween, and he filed to kill Harry, a part of his soul was ripped from him and merged with Harry.

And if you haven’t guessed, the all the horcruxes have to be destroyed before Riddle can die.

Yes.

Harry has to die.

Harry goes to face Voldemort and sees Tom use Nagini to kill Snape, and in the professor’s final moments, he gives Harry several memories of him and Lily when they were young, and memories of Dumbledore’s plans.

In fact, Tom does kill him, or at least casts the killing curse at him.

And in death, Harry meets Dumbledore at a dream version of the King’s Cross Station, and the two of them talk about the everything that has happened, the hallows, the horcruxes, and death.

And as it turns out, Harry is dead, and yet, he is not. The killing curse that Tom used on Harry did two things, one, it destroyed the part of Voldemort’s soul within Harry, and two it freed Harry from their connection, leaving Harry’s soul purely his. Harry has a choice he can either go with Dumbledore into death or return to life.

What do you think Harry does?

I won’t tell you the ending, you’ll just have to read it or find it on the internet, but I recommend, for the first time since the sixth book, that you take the time to sit down and read Deathly Hallows.

If not or fun, read for what it symbolizes, then end of an era.

For the last ten years, since June 30, 1997 when Philosopher’s Stone was first published, Harry Potter has been our constant companion through thick and thin. Inspiring us to be better than who we are, opening a world to us, a world of paper and words between covers. Inspiring us, broadening our imaginations.

And so I propose a toast.

To Harry Potter. To Hermione Granger. To Ron Weasley. To Dan Radcliff. To Emma Watson. To Rupert Grint. And to J.K. Rowling herself.

To our heroes, our heroines, our first fantasy crushes.

Without you, our lives would’ve been cold and boring.

Goodbye, Farewell and Amen.

Aengus no Kitsune