Don't know what to make of this. I'll process it and get back to you.

Later…Big discussion at Sword of Gryffindor. I'm still digesting.

Sunday, October 21: I'll be honest with you: I don't care about this. There's so much going on in my life right now, I can't summon the energy to say more than this: The fact that Rowling says character Dumbledore was attracted to men doesn't change how I feel about the Harry Potter series. I'm fond of the books, especially Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, and I will always highly recommend the series to anyone who asks. I can say this for JKR: she's got her finger on the pulse of the publicity machine.

…I'll resume posting at FFC. Been busy doing politics-related TV and radio stuff for the other blog, and working on bill-paying projects. I shall, as they say, return. Thanks for reading FFC.

SPOILERS BELOW!

Chapter 31-Epilogue

In Chapter 31, Voldemort makes an announcement to the school, loud-speaker style: “Give me Harry Potter, and none shall be harmed. Give me Harry Potter, and I shall leave the school untouched. Give me Harry Potter, and you will be rewarded.”

Slytherin Pansy Parkinson makes to seize Harry, now in the Great Hall, and the students point their wands at her. Still looking for Ron and Hermione, Harry sees Muggle-born Colin Creevey, who snuck into the school to fight. Harry sets out to look for the diadem Horcrux. Since Flitwick told him no one as seen it “in living memory,” Harry realizes a ghost might know what happened to it. He asks Nearly Headless Nick about the diadem, who tells him to ask the Grey Lady, Ravenclaw’s ghost.

The Grey Lady was Rowena Ravenclaw’s kid, and she’d stolen the diadem. Dying, Rowena sent the (Bloody) Baron to find her daughter, whom he loved. She refused to return with him, so he killed her, then himself. That’s how he became the Bloody Baron, Slytherin’s ghost. The Grey Lady hid the diadem inside a hollow of a tree in a forest in Albania. This answers a fandom question, “In Book 1, why was Voldemort hiding out in Albania?” The Grey Lady told a young Tom Riddle about the diadem. He found it and hid it in Hogwarts. After he tried to kill Harry, his half-self went back to the secluded forest to hide.

But where was the diadem now? In the hiding place version of the Room of Requirement. In Book 6, Harry hid his potions book in a room filled with dangerous and banned objects. He marked the spot by putting a wig and the diadem on a nearby bust.

Ron Speaks Parseltongue?

Deathly Hallows, like all of JKR’s books, is rich in detail. Asking and answering questions, making observations, and commenting on everything that made me stop and go, “Hmmm,” would fill up enough books to make a seven-part series of my own. Consequently, I’ve skipped over a lot of things I wanted to explore more fully, but I have to pause for this Ron-speaking-Parseltongue thing.

Starting with Book 2, it’s been drilled into our heads how rare this talking-to-snakes “gift” is. Harry can do it because some of Voldemort’s powers were transferred into Harry when he tried to kill him. We learn in Chapter 31 that Ron spoke Parseltongue to get into the Chamber to get the fangs. How? Did he fake it? If so, how was did his fakery fool the Chamber?

Three More Dead and Panic Attacks

Moving on…Ron tells Harry that Hermione destroyed the Hufflepuff Horcrux with one of the fangs. The trio enters the Room of Requirement (now the Room of Hidden Things) to find the diadem, and Harry’s ambushed by Draco, Crabbe, and Goyle. Spells start flying, and so does the diadem. Crabbe tries to kill Hermione and Ron with the Avada Kedavra curse, misses, and conjures a cursed fire that chases the trio.

Harry, Ron, and Hermione grab brooms to escape and double back to try to save Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle. All escape the flames except Crabbe, who’s killed. The fire destroys the diadem Horcrux. In the corridor, the Death Eaters attack. Fred is killed.

The diadem is destroyed, now it’s time to kill Nagini, the snake that contains part of Voldemort’s soul. Harry sees Voldemort and Lucius in the Shrieking Shake. He sends Lucius to fetch Snape. The trio head to the Shack.

I have to pause here to highlight a nice parallel JKR set up. In Book 1, Hermione panics when Harry and Ron are about to be suffocated by the Devil’s Snare on the way to the Sorcerer's Stone. She remembers that it doesn’t like fire. Ron tells her to make the fire, and she yells, “But there’s no wood!” In irritation, Ron says something like, “There’s no wood? Are you a witch, or not?”

In Deathly Hallows, they’re about to enter the Shrieking Shack but must get past the Whomping Willow. Ron says, “How’re we going to get in? I can—see the place—if we just had—Crookshanks again—”

In Book 3, Crookshanks the cat pressed a knob at the base of the tree to stop the branches from moving. Now it’s Hermione’s turn. “Crookshanks? Are you a wizard, or what?” Cool.

So the trio goes through the tunnel to the Shack and sees Voldemort and Snape, who keeps insisting that he must find Harry Potter for him. Voldemort believes Snape is the true owner of the Elder Wand, since he killed Dumbledore, the last holder. In a most inglorious and un-heroic scene, Voldemort sics Nagini on Snape, killing him with a bite to the neck.

And that’s it. The most intriguing character in the series, the double agent who risked his life spying for Dumbledore, who loved Harry’s mother, and who promised Dumbledore he’d protect Lily’s child, is snuffed out. I was hoping Snape would get his moment of glory, reveal his treachery, and stand physically between Voldemort and Harry in a duel, fighting alongside him. Can you picture it? Snake face, Snape, and Harry, dueling at Hogwarts. Alas, it was not to be. Snape drops like a sack of potatoes on the dirty Shack floor.

Continue reading Deathly Hallows: Final Third Cont'd

SPOILERS BELOW!

I’ve jotted down a few notes from Chapter 26 to the epilogue, which I’ll refer to as I prepare subsequent posts. "First Third" and "Second Third" are complete. Posts on Christian themes will follow. Read my first impressions of the book.

This last section is about 200 hundred pages but feels too short for me. I suspect JKR realized she still had to answer a lot of questions and wrap things up. Compared to the first part of the book, this one moves quickly.

Would you believe that the events in Chapter 26 through the next to last chapter happen in only one day? In a single day, the trio breaks into a highly secure bank, flies on the back of a blind dragon, faces Death Eaters and soul-sucking Dementors, and sneaks into Hogwarts for the epic battle with Voldemort? And I can't get through lunch without wanting a nap.

Chapters 26-30: Horcrux Hunt Heats Up

Second Third ended with Harry and Griphook working out a deal. He'll help the trio break into Bellatrix's bank vault, and Harry will give him the Sword of Gryffindor in exchange.

Harry and Griphook both have more than enough reasons not to trust each other. Harry promised Griphook the sword but he won’t (can’t, really) give it to him until the Horcrux-destroying is done, and who knows how long that will take? And goblins are shifty little creatures. Will Griphook renege at the last minute?

As the trio prepares to make a daring break into the vault, Hermione polyjuices herself into Bellatrix and Ron disguises himself as Death Eater. Harry and Griphook hide under the cloak. On the way to the bank, they run into a Death Eater, Travers, who knows that Harry escaped Malfoy Mansion, that Bellatrix’s wand had been taken, and that Voldemort had confined her and the others to the house.

At the bank, Harry ends up confounding the suspicious Travers and a couple of goblins, who suspect something is amiss. Harry casts another Unforgivable Curse, imperiusing Travers and a goblin. They get past the blind dragon into the vault and discover that the objects inside have been cursed to prevent theft. Touching Hufflepuff’s cup, Hermione’s hand burns, and the cup multiplies. In the tumult, Harry loses the sword, and Griphook grabs it, runs into the crowd of goblins coming to seize the trio, and shouts, “Thieves, Thieves!”

Harry, Ron, and Hermione escape Gringott’s on the blind dragon. Harry senses Voldemort’s rage over the stolen cup and realizes he's hidden a Horcrux at Hogwarts.

In Chapter 28, the trio Apparate into Hogsmeade and are immediately swarmed by Death Eaters and dementors. They’re rescued by Aberforth, Dumbledore’s brother, who lies to the Death Eaters and says it was his stag goat Patronus — and not Harry's stag — they saw. We learn that Aberforth bought Sirius's two-way mirror from Mundungus. He’d used it to keep track of Harry, sending Dobby to the Malfoy’s basement to rescue everyone. He tries to talk the trio out of going to Hogwarts and expresses bitterness over his brother. Aberforth fills in more blanks about Dumbledore’s life and how their sister died.

Aberforth sees that Harry is determined, so he decides to help. His sister’s portrait, sitting on the fireplace mantle, actually is an entrance into a tunnel leading to Hogwarts. Ariana leaves the portrait and returns with a battered, bruised, and smiling Neville Longbottom.

Continue reading Deathly Hallows: Final Third

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I was already a Harry Potter fan when I discovered John Granger a couple of years ago. I can't remember how I found his (old) site, but I remember devouring his work. I was still a closeted Potter fan at the time, so it was refreshing to see a fellow Christian so open about his appreciation for the books.

I quoted Granger in my weekly Townhall.com column (with SPOILERS), where I reviewed Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows and briefly discussed Christian themes and symbolism. I'll elaborate on these and other themes in future posts.

Also see "Christian themes abound in Potter," by religion reporter Jeffrey Weiss. He begins:

J.K. Rowling gets the last laugh on the dwindling number of conservative Christians who have attacked her "Harry Potter" saga over the past decade: The most important plot point of the seventh and final book is unambiguously Christian.

Ms. Rowling cleverly scattered so many red herrings amongst the loaves and fishes in the previous books that she made it difficult to see the trail clearly except in retrospect. The Potter story is not a linear Christian allegory, no modern day Pilgrim's Progress. And Harry's World is insistently devoid of explicit religion, right through the final chapter.

It definitely helps to know what "unambiguously Christian" means. As Weiss writes, concepts like loyalty, love, friendship, etc., are common among the world's various religions, but what makes something "Christian"?

Continue reading Deathly Hallows 'unambiguously Christian'

SPOILERS BELOW!

I’ve jotted down a few notes from chapters 14-25, which I’ll refer to as I prepare subsequent posts. "First Third" was posted last week, and "Last Third" and posts on Christian themes will follow. Read my first impressions of the book.

The first part of this series, "First Third," ended with a shout-out to Nazi Germany. Harry, Ron, and Hermione learned that the Ministry of Magic was persecuting Muggle-borns and accusing them of stealing magic from “legitimate” witches and wizards. In Chapter Thirteen, the trio went into the Ministry undercover and retrieved Slytherin’s locket, one of Voldemort’s Horcruxes, from power hungry "Nazi" Dolores Umbridge.

Chapters 14-19: On the Run

The second third part of the book begins at Chapter Fourteen with the enigmatic title, “The Thief.”

This chapter marks the beginning of the trio’s on-the-run forest camp-out in a magic tent (same one used at the World Quidditch Cup in Goblet of Fire), aided by Hermione’s enchanted beaded handbag, which holds the tent, clothing, supplies, and various objects of importance. The small handbag, which is small enough for Hermione to stuff in her sock, is a clever and convenient invention. Bravo, JKR.

For reasons that can only be explained as a plot device to set up the drawn-out bickering between Harry, Ron, and Hermione, they decide to take turns wearing the Horcrux locket around their necks, presumably to keep in safe. Why doesn’t Harry just carry it in his magical pouch ( seen around Harry's neck on the US cover), which no one but the owner can get into? That’s rhetorical.

Harry dreams that Voldemort has found Gregorovitch, a Bulgarian wandmaker. Harry enters Voldemort’s thoughts as he performs Legillimancy on Gregorivitch and sees a laughing blond man stealing something from the wandmaker. Later in the book, the stolen object and the thief are revealed.

Tension mounts between the trio over the next two chapters, culminating in a falling out between Harry and Ron, with Hermione caught in the middle. The irritable moods, caused by too little food and no plan to find the Horcruxes, are exacerbated by the locket's dark residue, so to speak. At one point, they overhear voices outside the tent. Two goblins, schoolmate Dean Thomas, Ted Tonks, and another wizard are on the run from Death Eaters. They set up camp near the trio’s tent (with food!), which they can’t see because it’s protected by Hermione's spells.

A fake Sword of Gryffindor, they overhear, is locked away at Gringott’s bank in Bellatrix's vault, but the Death Eaters don't know it's fake. Snape (who knew it was fake) sent it to Gringott's for safekeeping after Hogwart's Ginny Weasley and others tried to steal it for Harry after Scrimgeour refuses to give it to him, although Dumbledore left it to Harry.

Back in Chapter Twelve, Hermione took Phineas Nigellus's portrait from Grimmauld Place so he couldn't go to his portait in Snape's office and rat out the trio. After overhearing the bit about the attempted theft, Hermione removes the portrait from her pouch to find out if Phineas witnessed the attempted theft. He did.

Continue reading Deathly Hallows: Second Third

SPOILERS BELOW!

I’ve jotted down a few notes from chapters 1-13, which I’ll refer to when I review Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows for my next column and prepare subsequent posts. “Second Third," “Last Third,” and posts on Christian themes will follow. Read my first impressions of the book.

The first third of the book, which encompasses Chapters One through Thirteen, was the best. I thought the book opened beautifully. It set the tone for the rest of the story and answered burning questions from Book 6.

Chapters 1-6: Let the Games Begin

In the first chapter, we found out where Severus Snape and Draco Malfoy were hiding: At Malfoy Manor with Voldemort and the rest of the Death Eaters. At that point, we still didn't know Snape’s true loyalties. (Hint: He's good!) Nervous Death Eaters are sitting around a table, scared out of their wits that Voldemort will kill them Darth Vader-style, while Voldemort plots to take down the Ministry of Magic and capture/kill Harry Potter en route to his safe house.

Unfortunately, Snape’s lines are minimal. After he tells the Dark Lord when Harry will be moved and Yaxley shares “new” plans about Harry’s movements, Snape smiles. This scene is ambiguous; we’re not sure what’s going on. Both sides of the Great Snape Debate have equally plausible arguments to support their theories.

In Chapter Two, we learn more about Albus Dumbledore’s life through an untrustworthy source: bloodsucking Daily Prophet reporter Rita Skeeter. There may be some truth in her accusations against Dumbledore, but we know what a talented yellow journalist she is. One thing we know for certain at this point: Dumbledore was a fallen human being. What a revelation!

Continue reading Deathly Hallows: First Third