The Hallows, the Dark Lord and the double agent

The beginning

Much has been said & written on the finale of the Harry Potter Books Saga, expressing discontent as well as satisfaction in equal measure. The Harry Potter world has been so minutely studied by the fans that they had already come up with lots of revelations supposed to be known not before the last book. But probably half of them were completely turned off by the dry ending. Did such a brilliant series deserve so lackluster an ending? Well, let us see.

First point we must discuss is the title. JK Rowling has a penchant for strange but apt names and once again she does not disappoint with “The Deathly Hallows”. This title created enough eagerness & suspense amongst the legion of HP admirers making them go berserk with speculations & theories. But nobody, I am sure, even came close to the actual Hallows of JKR.

Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows starts well. Amazingly well. Yaxley & Snape meet outside the Malfoy Manor, being used as a Death Eater base & deliver separate useful information to Voldemort. Here JKR expects us to understand scores of things. That is partly why she is such a terrific writer- implications galore in her penmanship! What she expects to drive home is Voldemort’s menace! Throughout the series we see people peeing in their pants at the mention of Voldemort. Here we see why. Voldemort is ruthless, as he mercilessly kills a Hogwarts professor and then & there feeds her to his giant snake. Which Death Eater won’t fear such a monster? Then again, no Death Eater know about Voldemort’s Horcruxes. But they know that he has taken precautions against mortality. Horcruxes are a very obscure branch of magic even for Dark Arts. That is why the Death Eater’s ignorances are believable. An unkillable man is frightening when he is ruthless. Don’t you agree?

Secondly, concentrate on the Snape- Voldemort relationship. Bellatrix is very close to Voldemort but unfortunately she is very impulsive, though brilliant. So she looses herself scores of times. In short she is not fit to lead the Death Eaters. Enter Snape, who has just killed Albus Dumbledore, the one person Voldemort is scared of. Now Voldemort is not foolish. He should have considered the possibility that Dumbledore may have died voluntarily. He considered it but he did not understand how that was possible. You see, Voldemort had right from his very first stint at magic considered death a mark of a Muggle. Surely Dumbledore, the great old wise crooked master would not have laid down his life so cheaply! Here was the biggest handicap in Voldemort’s absoluteness- fear of death. Whatever Dumbledore might have said about death being not so terrible and all, surely actually dying prepared for it is an inconceivable task, thinks Voldemort. And it is, actually. Snape is thus loyal to Voldemort, or so he thinks. He now trusts Snape with important tasks and information. He asks Snape to procure information on when Potter will be moved. Snape is an excellent Occlumens, well, not just excellent but the best. How? He has learned to shut himself from the world. The only person with whom he was actually himself was Lilly. Rest of all of the world had rejected him as hopeless. It is a curious thing. Don’t we see people like these all around us? Snape pretty much had mastered this ability, being continuously tortured & poked throughout his life. So when Voldemort looks for traces of lies in Snape’s information, he detects nothing. He is satisfied. Snape is also more intelligent than others say Yaxley. Snape is given the task of being Hogwarts Headmaster, a very important position and I must admit, a very brave one too. As the Hogwartians think Snape had actually murdered Dumbledore, you can imagine how difficult it

was for Snape to be roaming around them within the same castle, bear their hatred, tolerate their mean looks and all. More so, because he was still on their side.

That is it…the awesome start to the mysterious last book, the Deathly Hallows.