Sunday, August 23, 2009 / 3:03 AM
As requested, these are the guidelines for your second book review:
(a) What is the story about (summarise the story)?
(b) Choose a character from the story and write about him/her.
(c) Why did you choose to read this story?
(d) What have you learnt from this story (your reflections)
The story book that I'm reviewing on is Harry Potter and the Deathy Hallows. This story is the last installment of the 7 part series of the Harry Potter books.
A) What is the story about?
The story starts with Voldemort, the evil villian that is instilling fear into the whole wizarding world, looking for the wand-maker, Olivander. He was in search of an Elder wand, the one wand that has godly powers that no one can oppose.
The school term was about to start but Harry and his friends, Ron and Hermonie cannot go back to school, Hogwarts school of witchcraft and wizardry. Dumbledore, the previous headmaster was murdered by the school's potions master, Snape. A greasy man who once served the Dark Lord. He now runs Hogwarts.
On Harry's birthday, the Minister of Magic, Scrimgeour, brought Dumbledore's will and things that he left behind for Harry and his friends. Harry had the golden snitch that he caught for the first time in his life while playing the Seeker for Gryffindor's Quidditch team. (A game that consists of two teams on broomsticks scoring the most goals into the ring. However, if the snitch was caught first, the team would get 250 points and win the game.) Ron got the Deluminator, the one that Dumbledore used in the first book, Harry Potter and the Socerous Stone. The Deluminator collects any source of light in an area where the user is. Hermonie on the other hand got a children's story book, Tales of the Beedle Bard. There was more than meets the eye in these simple objects.
Harry and his friends are to go on a journey to finish Dumbledore's quest. To destory all Horcruxes. (Objects that holds part of the owner's soul. Once destroyed, that part of the soul would be gone forever.) Harry and Dumbledore had already finish destroying two Horcruxes, Tom Riddle's diary and the ring that Dumbledore found in Tom Riddle's home. Before Dumbledore died they found another Horcrux, Salazar Slytherin's Locket, but it turned out to be a fake. Someone had gotten to it before Harry.
However, after they started their quest, Reita Seeker, a newspaper columnist, gave a preview to her new book on the secret life of Dumbledore. After reading about how she defamed Dumbledore, Harry could not believe how much Dumbledore did not tell him about his life. He felt so used, as if Dumbledore used him for his own purpose.
The Death Eaters, Voldemort's minions, have taken control of the Ministry of Magic. They can write whatever rules and do what they wanted. Currently, Voldemort wanted the wizarding world to be pure blooded and not be tainted by Mudbloods. (Blood of normal humans without magic.) Therefore, he ordered all the Mudbloods to gather and took all their wands away, they did not deserve to use magic. There are also blood traitors, pure bloods who help Mudbloods. For example, the Weasly family. Ron's family.
All in all, Harry found a Horcrux and Ron helped him destroy it. It was the real locket. It was detroyed by the Gryffindor Sword. It was found by Harry while a Sliver patronous doe guided him. Harry was unsure of who the person was that cast that patronous.
Harry also found another Horcrux, Helga Hufflepuff's Cup, but it was not destroyed yet.
There was also a tale of the Deathly Hallows. It was a story that was told to all children. It was a tale of three men who were brothers, was about to cross a bridge. They met Death. Death gave them a choice of anything they wanted; the first brother chose a wand that could not be defeated in battle, the second asked for a way to bring back someone from death, and the third selected a cloak that made the wearer invisible to hide from Death himself. Therefore, the Elder wand, the Resurruction Stone and the Invisibility Cloak. Voldemort was seeking the Elder wand. He finally found it in Dumbledore's grave. Harry thought maybe it was the Deathly Hallows versus the Horcruxes. He did not know where the Resurruction Stone was but he definitely had the Invisibility cloak.
He went to Hogsmeade, a village right outside of Hogwarts. Dumbledore's brother, Aberforth, provided Hogwarts students a passageway from The Room of Requirement to his bar. When Harry and his friends came to Hogsmeade, the curfew spell was on. Whoever stepped out of their buidling would have to answer to the Death Eaters and Dementors. (Creatures that sucked the happiness out of your soul and could only be scared away by casting a patronous spell.) Death Eaters and Dementors chased after Harry and his friends, but Aberforth saved them.
The final battle was about to begin. Rowena Ravenclaw's Diadem was destroyed by Crabbe accidentally when he cast a fire spell. Hermonie also destroyed the Cup with the Basilisk fang she got from the Chamber of Secrets.
Harry was left with two more Horcruxes, Nagini (Voldemort's snake) and the last one which he did not know what. He creeped into the Shrieking Shack to slay Nagini but Voldemort had conjoured a spell to protect Nagini as he knew Harry was out to destroy all his Horcruxes and he had better keep Nagini close to him. In the Shrieking Shack, Snape was there. It was said that Snape was the last user of the Elder wand. That is why Voldemort could not unleash the power within the wand unless he killed the previous owner. Then without a word, he killed Snape. After Voldemort left, Snape passed his memories to Harry.
Harry looked through Snape's memory and found out the truth behind it all. Snape and Dumbledore had planned Dumbledore's death and Snape was not a villian at all. He was doing all this for Lily, Harry's mother. Because Harry was her descendant, he vowed to protect him. He also found out that, he was the last Horcrux. He himself. He had to get killed by Voldemort in order to destroy one of the last Horcrux. He told the rest of his friends to kill Nagini no matter what costs it took. He felt that he could trust them to carry that out.
Knowing that you were about to get killed or the feeling or being killed scared Harry. He did not know that it would come to this. Suddenly, his golden snitch opened. The Resurruction Stone was in there. Harry summoned, his father, Lupin, Surius and his mother. They accompanined him to his final moment.
Voldemort killed Harry. He was elated of course, but little did he know that Harry was not totally dead.
In Harry's mind, he had a conversation with Dumbledore. Clearing all his doubts on whatever was on his mind. After that, he came back to life. He did not want to alert Voldemort so he pretended to be dead. Voldemort sent Malfoy's mother to check on him. She helped him say that he was dead cause she only cared for her son.
Voldemort brought Harry's "corpse" to everyone at Hogwarts. Everyone was disraught. Out of anger Neville reached out for the Gryffindor Sword which appeared beside him and aimed for Nagini's head.
This is ultimately the last battle. Voldemort against Harry Potter. Of course, the Elder wand failed Voldemort and he was defeated at last. Everyone rejoiced as the Dark Lord was finally dead.
(b) Choose a character from the story and write about him/her.
Harry Potter. He had survived a killing curse since he was a baby and strive in his teenage years through criticism and fame. He went through near death experiences and with his friends, he was able to go so far to destroy Horcruxes and Voldemort himself. His friendship and bravery is to be admired. We can apply this to life, being courageous in everything you do and going through thick and think with your friends.
(c) Why did you choose to read this story?
My mother came home one day with a stack of books. 4 of them. She asked me to read them. I was only in Primary 3 and i got hooked onto the book. Somewhere around Primary 6, when I was able to read tougher words, I read Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. Sad to say, after days of reading it, I had to wear glasses because I did not take a break while reading. Well it certainly was worth it as I enjoyed the book as well as the movies that came out. I chose this particular book as this was the final series to the saga and like all the other books, filled with more adventures and magic.
(d) What have you learnt from this story (your reflections)
Like what I said in Part B, friendship and bravery.
