Harry was given the task of locating and destroying objects called ’Horcruxes’ as part of his bid to kill Voldemort which are said to contain parts of the Dark Lord’s soul. Harry, Ron and Hermione each declared their individual intents to not return to Hogwarts at the end of book six (after those traumatic events.) and of course the only time the action focuses on that incredible castle is right at the end of the story. And of course book seven can now be read (lived, experienced, and never to be forgotten) by another generation of readers, and what a book it is. Life is about love, and anger, and loss, and of course death, and all of this - and more - all began to hit home with book four.īooks five and six continued to ’up the ante’ when it came to representing the trials and tribulations of life (as much as any book can involving children studying to become wizards and witches.) but it was the end to book six that truly shook the world by it’s foundations. These kids - and the world wide audience of book lovers that were hanging on JK Rowling’s every word - soon learned that life is not always a bed of roses, its not always about a game of Quidditch, and its certainly not just about fun lessons in magic.
The series began to find its literary legs with book four, and life quickly got serious and deadly for our trio of magical superstars. It’s still fun to read, of course, but you know by now that everything is at stake, so it’s a different kind of fun from the earlier books. And from that narrow escape, the action simply did not let up. It opened at a frantic pace, with a surprise appearance of the world’s most hated magician in an early but doomed attempt to kill the story’s hero right in the opening chapter. He'd later pass the Cloak down to his own son, James Sirius Potter - James' younger brother, Albus Severus, would later lift it in the events of The Cursed Child.THE SEVENTH AND final book in the Harry Potter series is easily the best volume of this amazing and record breaking series.
Plus, it was something that belonged to his late father. Instead, he snapped the Elder Wand in half, dropped the Resurrection Stone in the Forbidden Forest to be trampled into the dirt by a centaur, and he kept the cloak for himself because, well, that had always been a good source of fun. Unlike Voldemort, though, Harry didn't aim to use these items for world domination once he came into possession of all three.
He eventually recovers the Stone, too, after kissing his Snitch goodbye with the intention of sacrificing himself. Voldemort got his hands on one - the Elder Wand - while Harry had been casually given the cloak in his earliest days at Hogwarts, not knowing its strength. When combined, the three gave a wizard untold power, the ability to disappear from Death's purview, and a means to bring back lost souls. The Deathly Hallows - as Part 1 explained in animated format - consisted of the Elder Wand, the Cloak of Invisibility, and the Resurrection Stone. And his obvious contempt for Harry at Hogwarts was due to his similarity to his pseudo-bully dad James, but despite his distaste for those personality traits, he really was trying to protect Harry all the while, so he could fulfill his destiny to defeat the Dark Lord. The only reason he murdered Dumbledore was because the headmaster was already dying from wearing Marvolo's Gaunt Ring (with the Resurrection Stone), and he didn't want Draco to be forced to do it at Voldemort's demand. More importantly, he showed him how he'd always been looking out for "the boy" by feigning allegiance to the Dark Lord.
Instead, Snape got a split-second to give him a teardrop full of memories, so that he could show him his gut-wrenching backstory of unrequited love of Harry's mum Lily. Harry, overhearing the attack, tried to rush in and help him after Voldemort apparated away, but it was too late. After being banished from the school by Professor McGonagall after Harry's return, he was killed by Voldemort's trusty sidekick snake Nigiri, so the Dark Lord could take true ownership of the Elder Wand (more on that later). Snape spent a long time - a lifetime, by the measure of Harry's existence - running subterfuge for Dumbledore, but his true loyalties were never quite clear until his final moments.