The Deathly Hallows is a book, though anticipated was still read with great trepidation. I couldn’t wait for the next installment, but I really wasn’t ready for it to end. I was afraid in the end of how things would unfold. My deep fear is that nothing  good will come of this.

 

Harry is seventeen, but I have known him since he was eleven.  Because of RK Rowling’s excellent character development, I care about Harry, Ron, Hermonie and countless others who have become my friends.  Knowing not what was going to happen in their war has sharpened my anxiety.  In the Half Blood Prince, I mourned a really long time when someone I cared about died. His death was real to me.  I experienced the character as a father and when he was gone, it was like experiencing my daddy’s death all over again. I do not mean to trivialize my father’s life and death by making this comparison, but I am giving an example of the power of a good writer to bring to life a story so vividly that it becomes a touchstone for a reader’s own experiences.  

 

Once I had the Deathly Hallows in my hands, I could barely bring myself to begin reading it.  I was afraid to experience the contents. So much is at stake in this last book.  The Wizarding World has descended into war by the time the Deathly Hallows begins.  This series is so good  because JK Rowling has never spared her readers.  My real fear is that I do not know if the losses of this war against Voldemort will be tolerable and I wonder if I can bear to read the answers.

 

Why do I care so much?  I believe that a really good story helps me to frame my own life. If the Deathly Hallows can give me hope even when all seems lost, then maybe I can find hope today in my own life.  I know life is full of loss, but I want more than anything is for my losses to have meaning; and not just be useless sacrifices to a greater evil.

 

Yes, I am a proud participant of the Harry Potter mania.  I am as guilty of others of being sucked into certain rages of our society.  Harry Potter and Apple Computers are two of my obsessions.  And yes I have an IPhone. I will tell you all about it in another post.  But back to being a Harry Potter fan.  I read the books for myself, then read them to R Holly, who from the first book began demanding them to be reread to her.  By the fourth book we switched to the audio versions.  I read them for myself, read them to R Holly, watch the movies, reread them before new releases so that some important intricacy of the plot will not escape me. I have internalized this adventure. It is an epic, an odyssey and a modern tale of heros. I want an ending I can bear - one that gives me hope.