SPOILER: Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows

I read the book - all 750+ pages - in about 7 hours. An outline of the entire plot is below. I'll leave space in case you don't want to be spoiled:

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STOP NOW IF YOU DON'T WANT TO KNOW



Harry doesn't die. He lives, apparently to a ripe old age (or at least to 38 or so). Ron and Hermione also live.

This is one action-packed (and very long) book. It will be a non-stop movie, that's for sure.

Short version:

Essentially, Harry and gang are in search of Horcruxes, which are pieces of Vlodemort's soul. Vlodemort takes over the Ministry. Snape is named headmaster of Hogwarts. There's a big fight at the school. V. is killed along with about 60 other people.

Long version:

The book opens with Snape being a bad guy and the right hand of the big V. Harry sends the Dursley's off for their own protection, and then he is taken away by the Order of the Phoenix. Using Polyjuice Potion, the Order creates six other Harry Potters from folks like Ron and Hermione, Fred and George Weasley, etc. As soon as they leave the house, they are ambushed by Death Eaters. Much fighting ensues but they all escape except that George loses an ear.

Fleur and Bill wed at the Weasley's, but immediately after the vows V. takes the ministry and the wedding is crashed. Harry, Ron and Hermione escape by dissparating (sp) but they are attacked almost immediately even though they've landed in a place where they should have been safe. More fighting, they get away. They go to the old Order of the Phoenix house and stay there for a long time. Harry makes up with his house elf, Kreacher.

They figure out that Sirius's brother is the R.A.B. who took one of the Horcruxes, and then they learn that Dolores Umbridge at the ministry has it. It is in the shape of a locket. So they use polyjuice and infiltrate the ministry. Harry gets the locket; they barely escape.

Then they are on the run, hopping about the countryside magically. Ron and Harry have an argument and Ron leaves. Hermione and Harry carry on. On Christmas they go to Godric's Hollow to find Harry's parents' grave.

They meet an old woman who turns into V.'s pet snake. They get away.

Whiling away the time at a camp site, Harry sees a silver doe patronus. It leads him to a pond and he sees the Griffyndor sword hidden in the water. He dives in - it is winter and the pond is frozen - and the locket around his neck (the Horcrux) tries to kill him. Ron appears from nowhere and saves him. The sword is one of the few things that will destroy a Horcrux so Ron destroys the necklace.

They visit Luna's father to ask for help with a symbol, but the Ministry is holding Luna and the father turns them in. However, he tells them about the Deathly Hallows before the Ministry arrives. The Deathly Hallows are the invisibility cloak, an unbeatable wand, and a resurrection stone. There is fighting and they escape.

Later all three are captured. They are taken to the Malfoy estate. Hermione is tortured. Dobby the house elf appears and takes Luna, a goblin, and the wandmaker Ollivander away to Bill and Fleur's house. Harry and Ron escape and fighting ensues. Harry ends up with Bella's and Draco Malfoy's wands. Dobby reappears to take Harry, Ron and Hermione away. They escape, but Dobby is killed (I thought this was the saddest part of the book myself).

Harry befriends the goblin and asks the goblin to help them break into Gringotts (a bank) in order to get another Horcrux. The goblin agrees in exchange for the Griffyndor sword. Hermione takes polyjuice to look like Bella, and they enter the bank. They are quickly discovered, but they get to the vault. After they find what they need, the goblin takes the sword and then yells for help from his fellow goblins. The trio climb atop a dragon (who was protecting the gold) and they fly away on the dragon's back.

Harry's scar has been hurting him a lot and he's been reading V.'s mind, and this helps him. He realizes V. has figured out that they know about the Horcruxes because of the bank caper. The remaining Horcrux is V.'s snake and something at Hogwarts; Harry isn't sure what.

Harry goes to Hogmeade, near Hogwarts, and alarms go off. The bartender helps them escape. This turns out to be Dumbledore's brother. He has a secret passage into the school, so he helps them get into the school.

Neville calls all of Dumbledore's Army to come. Hogwarts will make a stand against V. while Harry searches for the Horcrux. Harry realizes where it is and goes after it; Draco and his two friends attempt to stop them. Harry gets it anyway and it is destroyed by special fire which also kills one of Draco's friends. Harry saves Draco's life.

Harry then goes after the snake, which is with V. He sees V. have the snake bite Snape. V. leaves and Harry goes to Snape and takes his memories. He gets to the Pensieve and looks at Snape's memories. Snape, it turns out, is a good guy. He killed Dumbledore because Dumbledore had previously asked him to do so; Dumbledore was going to die anyway because of a curse that had withered his arm.

Harry also learns that in order for V. to die, Harry has to die, because part of V.'s soul is in Harry, in his scar. Harry is the 7th Horcrux. So Harry goes to meet V., and V. does a killing spell. Harry meets up with Dumbledore and they chat, and Harry goes back. He isn't dead, but the soul of V. is no longer in him. He plays dead a while, then jumps up, lots of fighting.

Finally it's a show-down between Bella and Mrs. Weasley and Harry and V. Mrs. Weasley takes out Bella. Harry and V. face off and Harry kills V.

An epilogue takes place 19 years later. Harry has married Ginny; they have three kids. Ron and Hermione are also a pair and they have children. They meet at the train to send the kids off to Hogwarts. All is well.

The End


(Of course, there is a lot more going on than that - Rita Skeeter writes a Dumbledore expose', a lot of back story on Dumbledore turns up with that. Remus and Tonk marry and have a baby, but Remus and Tonk both die in the end...)

It was a good way to spend the day, reading this book. It was the best of the seven - but it required the other six in order to be that way.