I’ve read it. I bought it at 11am Saturday and finished it at 3.13am Sunday – I did have a few breaks for food and the like but I purposefully read at a slow speed – my normal speed can devour books that length in a few hours leaving only a fleeting impression of the plot in my brain (had to get a certain Eldamri to give my a synopsis of book 6 on Friday as I had no memory of the contents).
To protect you from spoilers, I’ve written this in white. Highlight to read IF YOU HAVE READ BOOK 7. If you’re getting this through an RSS feed I don’t know if it will honour my spoiler block, but this line and indeed the title of this post should be sufficient warning. I’ll also add a spoiler space my sister taught me many years ago though I can’t remember why she used them… Buffy maybe?
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…you have been warned…
So – I’ve had a bit of an emotional day. I cried with grief six times, and with joy twice, punched the air once, hid my face twice, became outwardly distressed and stressed on several occasions and laughed twice. I was horrified at one point that a sacrifice might go unknown, but was reassured eventually.**
I’ve been known in the past to be emotionally affected by TV programs and films, but only HP has affected me on so many levels; my hatred of Umbridge after book 5 (I loathe her, she’s a fictional character! and I’m a villian lover! I don’t even hate Voldemort), what I thought was an unshakeable trust that Severus Snape was good, and then my fear when even I believed he was killed seemingly without redeeming/revealing himself, and my relief when he did manage to tell Harry before he died, and that he did remain true, plus possibly a little bit of guilt that I had that doubt, and sadness that his death was unnecessary, even for the Dark Lord’s plans. I do have a soft spot for the anti-hero. Even Lucius and Narcissa manage to be human rather than evil, though I think Draco could have been a bit more obviously helpful. And Albus turns out to be human rather than pure goodness – it’s almost as if the books have matured with the characters, or indeed with the people reading them. Two instances of bastard and one of bitch probably wouldn’t have been accepted in book 1 for example, and I realised when reading book 7 that I was reading the account of a war, and at times the sadness and loss made me want to stop reading. At times it’s almost painful, like reading a newspaper account about people you know (not that that’s happened to me but you know what I mean) – wanting to read it to find out if they survived but not wanting to read that they didn’t.
It’s a dark book – no question. The series starts off as an obviously good vs evil story, with 2 dimensional characters that are either good or bad, or in one case good potentially pretending to be bad, which is about as complicated as they get. By book 4 and 5 the characters start to become more human – i.e. not good or bad, but shades of grey, and one bad action doesn’t make someone “bad”, and “good” people sometimes do the wrong thing for the right reason, or the right thing for the wrong reason. Severus is an example of the latter – fighting Voldemort because he loved Lily, not because he disagreed with Voldemort. Though I’m probably not in a position to judge whether that is the wrong reason or not – or whether it matters if it isn’t. One thing I do wish is that Slytherin (the house), had made it to the end of the series in a more obviously better situation – obviously book 7 does point out that one of the most influential players on the good side was a Slytherin, and the Malfoy’s lost their bottle, and Draco didn’t have the stomach for evil, but I think it could have been a touch more obvious (from the point of view of a self-confessed Slytherin I second Phineas Nigellus’s departing phrase about Slytherin’s helping). Though perhaps that’s real life. A war happens, one side wins, both sides don’t escape smelling of roses, and the old rivalrys slot neatly into place. Reassuring.
When I used to watch Star Trek I took a small amount of smug satisfaction when a survey indicated that Trekkies were “better people” for watching Star Trek, as it influenced their morals and behaviour in a positive way. I think if HP teaches of honour and loyalty and goodness then that’s only the tip of what it can teach, and if people learn more from it – not to take behaviour at face value, sacrifice and it’s guises, then all is well.
**For my own record, cried at death of Hedwig, Moody (a little), Lupin and Tonks, Dobby, Fred (twice technically), Snape, cried with Joy when Harry and Albus were talking and when Harry was talking to his son about the bravest man he’d known, punched the air when Neville turned up with the sword, hid my face as Snape died and when Lupin and Tonks’s bodies were seen, and laughed at Fred and George twice. Horrified that Harry might go to his death without telling anyone about Snape’s sacrifice or that it was belittled after the war and reassured when he spoke to his son about the bravest man he’d known.
One question – where did Neville get the sword from…?
The End
He’s still eating and drinking and is getting about the hutch a little better after the steroids, though I need to work out if I can/need to make him an indoor piggy. It’ll make my menagerie two cats (one semi-paralysed), two guinea-pigs (one semi-paralysed), two rats and one rabbit – quite a lot to fit into my little flat. As Dong commented – it’s just as well I don’t work with elephants…
