HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS by J.K. Rowling

Kimber An here.  Did we go to the new Harry Potter movie?  Are you kiddin'?  We dressed up and made cupcakes!  I went as Mrs. Weasley and Kimber Jr was Luna.  Okay, on with Jr's review.

Countdown to Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows-Month Five-Book Seven-HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS BY J.K ROWLING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

.

YESSS!!!!!!!! FINALLY, IT’S TIME FOR THE DEATHLY HALLOWS!!

.

Sorry, I’m just kind of excited. You know, ‘cause the first part of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is coming out THIS MONTH!!!!!!!Can you believe it?!?!?!!!!!

*****WARNING*****

I AM NOT DOING THE WHOLE THING!!! INSTEAD, I AM DOING IT IN HALVES SO THAT ALL THOSE WHO HAVE ONLY WATCHED THE MOVIE DON’T HAVE IT SPOILED FOR THEM. THANK YOU AND ENJOY!!

The story opens somewhere in the middle of nowhere, with a familiar face and a not-so-familiar (but still, he’s been mentioned before) face. Snape and the other guy proceed to meet Voldemort at the Malfoy’s house. The Malfoys are there, along with most of the other Death Eaters, including everybody’s least favorite maniacal Death Eater, Bellatrix Lestrange.

.

Voldemort has captured a very special woman. You haven’t met her yet, but I say that because she used to be a teacher at Hogwarts. She taught Muggle Studies, though; that’s probably why you don’t know her. Only Hermione ever took it, and she quit it at the end of Prisoner of Azkaban.

.

Now she’s in a predicament; Voldemort has her cold. And he’s not at all pleased at the way she taught her subject.

.

Nagini had a very big dinner that night.

.

Many miles away, we catch up to Harry himself, fresh out of the situations surrounding the Half-Blood Prince. He’s at the Dursleys’, packing to set out on his hunt for Horcruxes.

.

We also see two characters we haven’t seen for a while-the Dursleys’ escorts, Hestia and Dedalus (they both have their root in Greek mythology-do you see it?). They help the Dursleys escape, and soon thereafter Harry’s ensemble comes.

.

It consists of Mad-Eye Moody (the real one), Lupin, Fred, George, Ron, Hermione, Fleur, Bill, Mundungus, Mr. Weasley, Kingsley, Tonks, and Hagrid. They’ve devised a clever way to smuggle Harry out, and it’s absolutely hilarious. They turn some of them into Harry, with the help of some Polyjuice Potion, to make decoys, to confuse those wily Death Eaters.

.

It almost doesn’t work. Voldemort himself chases Harry, and he just barely makes it to Tonks’ place in time. During the chase, he met his old buddy Stan Shunpike, remember him? Well, now he’s a Death Eater, and Harry was just a little too forgiving on him, so the Death Eaters knew it was him.

.

Now, please don’t punch the screen when I say this, but I have a bit of bad news. During the chase, Hedwig was hit with the Avada Kedavra.

.

That’s right. Hedwig is dead.

.

And that’s just the beginning of the end.

.

Once we get to safety at the Weasleys’, an anxious wait plays out. Luckily, everyone makes it….but for two. Mundungus (I never did like that guy) freaked out when Voldemort came after him and Disapparated, leaving Mad-Eye Moody to take the full brunt of Voldemort’s Avada Kedavra.

.

That’s right. Mad-Eye Moody the ex-Auror is also dead.

.

All in all, a rather depressing start to Book Seven-well, Harry’s stunt doubles were pretty funny, (I think) but that’s just about it. However, there is some good news: Ex-Professor Lupin and everybody’s favorite don’t-call-me-Nymphadora Tonks have gotten married!!!!! YES!! And Ron’s older brother Bill and (guess who!) none other than our old friend Fleur Delacour are also going to be married!!! Whoo-hoo! Though, you’ve got to wonder how they’re going to pull this off in the movie. In the book, they held it at the Burrow, but if you’ll recall in the movie of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, it was destroyed by the Death Eaters. I’ll just have to wait and see, I guess.

.

In the meantime, however, they have some other things to deal with. On Harry’s seventeenth birthday, the then-Minister of Magic Rufus Scrimgeour visits Harry and tells him he’s come to read Dumbledore’s will.

.

To say the least, Dumbledore has confused us all. To Hermione, he leaves a little book called The Tales of Beedle the Bard. To Ron, he leaves a little object we first saw way back in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone-the Put-Outer, otherwise known as the Deluminator. And to Harry, he leaves two things-Gryffindor’s sword that he used way back in Book Two to kill the basilisk, and a Snitch. That’s right, just a little Golden Snitch. Granted, it isn’t just any old Snitch-it’s the one Harry caught in his first-ever Quidditch match, way back in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. Nonetheless, to all appearances, it’s just a Snitch. Or is it? That is the question. Also, about the sword, it’s currently missing, so Harry doesn’t get it. Not that those seriously annoying Ministry people would let Harry have it if it wasn’t-and it’s quite essential. But what was Dumbledore doing giving it to Harry even though he knew it was missing? We’re all sure Dumbledore had his reasons, but it’s time to move on.

.

Oh, I forgot something. That morning, Ginny gave Harry a birthday kiss!! Unfortunately, Harry says they can’t go out anymore because of the hunt for the Horcruxes….but still, I see something in the works! Also, I’m going to note this is the first of two major kisses in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. I’m not going to say when or between whom the next is, but I guarantee it’s worth the reading!!!

.

At Bill’s wedding, Harry is disguised as a Weasley cousin and finds out some interesting things. Luna and her father Xenophilus are there, and according to everybody’s favorite Bulgarian bonbon Viktor Krum, the symbol Xenophilus is wearing is the mark of Dark wizard extraordinaire, Gellert Grindelwald. But is it? That is the question.

.

Then, just as things are starting to get into swing, a Patronus courtesy of Kingsley appears and delivers some horrifying news: The Death Eaters have penetrated the Ministry and killed Scrimgeour. They are on the way to crash the party.

.

Harry, Ron, and Hermione make a hasty exit to a café in London, where they promptly run into two large Death Eaters. Luckily, they manage to escape, but the problem is: how did the Death Eaters find them? That, my friends, is an extremely pressing issue.

.

So then they proceed to the first safe place they can think of: Number Twelve, Grimmauld Place. There we find another old friend: Kreacher the house-elf. He’s just as nuts as before, needless to say.

.

And a crazy house-elf is exactly the last thing the trio needs. Harry, in fact, has found the identity of the mysterious R.A.B: he’s Sirius’s brother Regulus Arcturus Black. And that has got him thinking: has the locket really been destroyed?

.

According to Kreacher, the answer is no. When Regulus set out to destroy the locket, he drank the potion, gave the locket to Kreacher, and presumably was killed by those ugly-so-not-Twilight-kind dead guys. Kreacher took it home and tried to destroy it, but was unable to. In the end it was taken by none other than Mundungus, who sold it to another old friend of ours.

.

That’s right. The locket is right now in the possession of good old Dolores Umbridge.

.

And that, my friends, is very, very bad.

.

And so, Harry and his friends hatch a plan to take back the locket. The only problem is, Professor Umbridge is right now very deep down in the Ministry of Magic. And at the moment, the Ministry isn’t all too fond of Harry or any of the others.

.

So they’ve devised a plan: go in disguised as Ministry members. Unfortunately, they get split up: Ron has to cleanup a raining office, Hermione has to record a hearing, and Harry…..well, and Harry is just Harry.

.

Eventually, though, Harry manages to find the locket-around Umbridge’s neck! She’s wearing it during a hearing, to try a supposedly “Muggle-born” witch. See, thanks to Voldemort taking over and all, the Ministry has also turned against all Muggle-borns, thinking they have “stolen” magic or something stupid like that. And anyone who doesn’t have a recorded wizard or witch parent (and even some who do) are being sent to Azkaban.

.

Yeah. I told you it was stupid.

.

So Harry bursts in on a hearing and manages to knock out Umbridge and her assistant the Death Eater Yaxley. They manage to conjure up Patronuses and fend off dementors, but it’s not until they get back to Number Twelve, Grimmauld Place, that they realize a fatal flaw.

.

They have nothing to destroy it with.

.

To top that off, Yaxley managed to grab hold on to Hermione as they were making their escape and found out how to get in to Number Twelve, Grimmauld Place. And as they got away from there, Ron got badly hurt by being Splinched. Ouch.

.

So now they’re stuck out in the middle of nowhere with a Horcrux and no way to destroy it.

.

Yeah. Really.

.

Finally, Ron reaches the end of his rope. After yet another night of no productiveness he flares up and makes like a banana and splits. Hermione is heartbroken-in case you haven’t caught the hint by now, she really does like him. But there’s nothing they can do about it-yet.

.

In the meantime, they decide to visit Godric’s Hollow, birthplace of many famous witches and wizards including Harry, and also none other than Dumbledore! Hmm…

.

The first place they visit is a graveyard, where they find James and Lily’s graves, near their destroyed house and a statue of them with Harry. Nearby they also find the graves of Kendra, Dumbledore’s mother, and his sister, Ariana. Hermione also finds an intriguing grave-that of Ignotus Peverell. It has an odd symbol on it-that of a triangle with a circle inside and a line splitting it in half. What is significant about it? I know, but I’m not by any means telling! Don’t worry, though-you’ll find out.

.

But then they find an old woman whom Harry thinks is an old family friend, Bathilda Bagshot. However, she is actually Nagini in a clever disguise. Nagini tries to call in Voldemort but, luckily, Hermione manages to get Harry and her out before he gets there. It’s only when they reach their new campsite that they realize that, while they tried to escape, Hermione cast a curse that hit Harry’s wand.

.

That’s right. Harry’s wand is broken.

.

Soon after, Harry is sitting on guard when he notices something odd: A silver doe Patronus. But who cast it? You don’t know until the next installment, so I’m not saying, but it’s someone you would have never suspected.

.

Anyway, the doe leads Harry to an icy pool. On the bottom is the answer to their Horcrux problem-the sword of Gryffindor! It’s full of Basilisk venom, so it can destroy Horcruxes!

.

Problem is it’s at the bottom of an icy cold pool in the dead of winter. Also, that Horcrux isn’t stupid-it tries to drown Harry as he attempts to get the sword.

.

Luckily, Ron shows up just in time to save Harry and get the sword. He also manages to destroy the Horcrux and get totally beaten up for his troubles courtesy of-who else?-Hermione.

.

Soon after Ron’s return, the trio decides to pay a visit to Luna’s father, Xenophilus Lovegood. He is able to explain just what the symbol Hermione saw on Ignotus Peverell’s gravestone was-the symbol of the Deathly Hallows! The Deathly Hallows are three powerfully magic objects-the Elder Wand, the Resurrection Stone, and the Cloak of Invisibility-that, when brought together, will make their master the Master of Death. Now, in the movie it just says they will make their master immortal, but I beg to differ. That’s just cutting a serious corner, as Harry learns next installment.

.

Unfortunately, we find out that something is terribly wrong. The Death Eaters got mad at Xenophilus for his supporting Harry and kidnapped Luna. However, they promised that if he was the one to capture Harry they would give him Luna back.

.

Luckily, they manage to make their escape, making sure the capturers catch a glimpse of Harry so they won’t kill Luna. But what next? Now they know about the Deathly Hallows, what will they do with their knowledge?

.

The answer is: they’ve already got one, maybe two! The Cloak of Invisibility is, obviously Harry’s Invisibility Cloak that he got for Christmas back in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s/Philosopher’s Stone! And remember that Snitch Dumbledore left Harry? Well, Snitches have flesh memories-meaning they’ll only open for the person that caught them-so they’re ideal for hiding things! And what could fit in a Snitch? Why, the Resurrection Stone, of course!

.

But what about the Elder Wand? Unfortunately, before that question can be answered, the trio are kidnapped by a bunch of Snatchers, including the super-ugly werewolf Fenrir Greyback. They are taken to Malfoy Manor, where the trio finds Mr. Ollivander, wandmaker extraordinaire, Dean Thomas of Gryffindor House, and none other than our old friend Luna Lovegood!!

.

But before we can start squealing in delight Bellatrix Lestrange starts torturing poor Hermione for information, interrogating her and another old friend, Griphook the goblin, about the sword of Gryffindor.

.

Luckily, just a little bit after things start getting out-of-hand, none other than Dobby the free elf shows up and transports Luna, Dean, and Ollivander out of there and comes back for Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Griphook. But even as he makes his escape, Bellatrix stabs him through the heart.

.

Meanwhile, very far away, Voldemort is on the move. He goes to Hogwarts and steals a certain, very powerful wand from Dumbledore’s grave.

.

That’s right. Voldemort has the Elder Wand.

.

And that is not good. At all.

.

Sorry, but I’m at the end of my rope! You’ll have to wait until the release of Part II next July for the final half of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. But don’t worry; I’ll review again before then. That’s a promise.

.

But before I sign off I’d like to thank Nayuleska again. She’s awesome, writes books, and loves Harry Potter. What more need be said? Hope you enjoy the movie, and see you here next July for-

.

HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS PART II!!!!!!