Out of the blue, during the climactic last scene, there’s some line that goes:<\/p>\n
“Harry reocgnized the old wizard who had killed the Prewetts.”<\/p>\n
I swear to God – I have no clue who the Prewetts are. Is it important? I need an index of names. That would have been very helpful because I had no idea in which book the Prewetts showed up.<\/p>\n
I got this little lump in my throat when I realized that Sirius was … you know. I just felt awful about that. I was just getting to like Sirius, and rely on him … when poof. He was gone. What a great character.<\/p>\n
I don’t want to get too deep about all of this, but I’ll just make one observation, the main one that I have after completing the book:<\/p>\n
Harry is 16 years old in this book. He is no longer the little boy from the other books, and he is also no longer the Golden Boy of the school. He has been isolated, he has a failed romance with Cho, there is no quidditch, and things just keep getting darker and darker. Harry is 16 years old. He is a moody temperamental teenager in this book, completely self-consumed. To me, the book ended up being all about identity. For example: when he goes back in the past and sees his father as a 16 year old boy, being kind of an arrogant and mean to Snape … he has this whole identity crisis afterwards. He had counted on the fact that his father was someone to look up to … he had based much of his identity on that “fact” … And now he had to actually just accept that his father was a human being, and not perfect. In a way, that’s Harry’s journey of the book as well. Things always went very well for him in the other books. Sure, he had challenges … but the general feeling in the magic world about him was that he was a star, he was special … In this book, he no longer has that protection. So he actually has to … you know … develop his character<\/i>. And it’s hard, and he doesn’t like it, and his growth spurt in this area is NOT graceful … but by the end of the book it’s happened.<\/p>\n
You know the moment when I realized how much he had changed? At the end of the book, before he leaves Hogwarts, he runs into Luna Lovegood in the common room. She says she’s looking for her things – and that everybody always “takes her stuff” and hides it around the tower.<\/p>\n
I don’t have the book with me, but then there’s a moment that goes something like this:<\/p>\n
“It took a minute for Harry to realize what he was feeling towards Luna. It was pity. He felt sorry for her.”<\/p>\n
Through the entire book he is so self-consumed that Hermione and Ron constantly have to scold him, saying, “Why are you yelling at US? We’re on YOUR side?” He is incapable of feeling for other people, because it’s such a full-time job feeling his own feelings.<\/p>\n
But in that moment – when he suddenly feels pity for Luna – and then when he says in the next moment: “That’s not right, Luna. They shouldn’t hide your stuff” … I realized how much he had grown up.<\/p>\n
It still “took him a second” to figure out what he was feeling – it didn’t come immediately – because it was a new muscle being used. It feels weird when, after a time of being consumed with your own problems, you come out into the world, and not only realize that other people have problems too – but that you actually FEEL for them. Not in a “let me be the one to swoop in and solve the problems and save the day” feeling (which Harry had through the other books) – because that would still have to do with satisfying his own ego. “Look at me! Helping people!!” No. That moment with Luna – he truly feels for her as a human being. Not only that, but in that moment he actually REALIZES that she is a human being.<\/p>\n
This is such an important step for teenagers to take. Being all wrapped up in your own life is part of being adolescent, part of separating yourself from your parents, part of growing up … But that’s not the only part.<\/p>\n
Harry has learned that (in a painful way) by the end of the book. It was strangely moving.<\/p>\n
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