SPOILERS BELOW!

Chapter 31-Epilogue

In Chapter 31, Voldemort makes an announcement to the school, loud-speaker style: “Give me Harry Potter, and none shall be harmed. Give me Harry Potter, and I shall leave the school untouched. Give me Harry Potter, and you will be rewarded.”

Slytherin Pansy Parkinson makes to seize Harry, now in the Great Hall, and the students point their wands at her. Still looking for Ron and Hermione, Harry sees Muggle-born Colin Creevey, who snuck into the school to fight. Harry sets out to look for the diadem Horcrux. Since Flitwick told him no one as seen it “in living memory,” Harry realizes a ghost might know what happened to it. He asks Nearly Headless Nick about the diadem, who tells him to ask the Grey Lady, Ravenclaw’s ghost.

The Grey Lady was Rowena Ravenclaw’s kid, and she’d stolen the diadem. Dying, Rowena sent the (Bloody) Baron to find her daughter, whom he loved. She refused to return with him, so he killed her, then himself. That’s how he became the Bloody Baron, Slytherin’s ghost. The Grey Lady hid the diadem inside a hollow of a tree in a forest in Albania. This answers a fandom question, “In Book 1, why was Voldemort hiding out in Albania?” The Grey Lady told a young Tom Riddle about the diadem. He found it and hid it in Hogwarts. After he tried to kill Harry, his half-self went back to the secluded forest to hide.

But where was the diadem now? In the hiding place version of the Room of Requirement. In Book 6, Harry hid his potions book in a room filled with dangerous and banned objects. He marked the spot by putting a wig and the diadem on a nearby bust.

Ron Speaks Parseltongue?

Deathly Hallows, like all of JKR’s books, is rich in detail. Asking and answering questions, making observations, and commenting on everything that made me stop and go, “Hmmm,” would fill up enough books to make a seven-part series of my own. Consequently, I’ve skipped over a lot of things I wanted to explore more fully, but I have to pause for this Ron-speaking-Parseltongue thing.

Starting with Book 2, it’s been drilled into our heads how rare this talking-to-snakes “gift” is. Harry can do it because some of Voldemort’s powers were transferred into Harry when he tried to kill him. We learn in Chapter 31 that Ron spoke Parseltongue to get into the Chamber to get the fangs. How? Did he fake it? If so, how was did his fakery fool the Chamber?

Three More Dead and Panic Attacks

Moving on…Ron tells Harry that Hermione destroyed the Hufflepuff Horcrux with one of the fangs. The trio enters the Room of Requirement (now the Room of Hidden Things) to find the diadem, and Harry’s ambushed by Draco, Crabbe, and Goyle. Spells start flying, and so does the diadem. Crabbe tries to kill Hermione and Ron with the Avada Kedavra curse, misses, and conjures a cursed fire that chases the trio.

Harry, Ron, and Hermione grab brooms to escape and double back to try to save Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle. All escape the flames except Crabbe, who’s killed. The fire destroys the diadem Horcrux. In the corridor, the Death Eaters attack. Fred is killed.

The diadem is destroyed, now it’s time to kill Nagini, the snake that contains part of Voldemort’s soul. Harry sees Voldemort and Lucius in the Shrieking Shake. He sends Lucius to fetch Snape. The trio head to the Shack.

I have to pause here to highlight a nice parallel JKR set up. In Book 1, Hermione panics when Harry and Ron are about to be suffocated by the Devil’s Snare on the way to the Sorcerer's Stone. She remembers that it doesn’t like fire. Ron tells her to make the fire, and she yells, “But there’s no wood!” In irritation, Ron says something like, “There’s no wood? Are you a witch, or not?”

In Deathly Hallows, they’re about to enter the Shrieking Shack but must get past the Whomping Willow. Ron says, “How’re we going to get in? I can—see the place—if we just had—Crookshanks again—”

In Book 3, Crookshanks the cat pressed a knob at the base of the tree to stop the branches from moving. Now it’s Hermione’s turn. “Crookshanks? Are you a wizard, or what?” Cool.

So the trio goes through the tunnel to the Shack and sees Voldemort and Snape, who keeps insisting that he must find Harry Potter for him. Voldemort believes Snape is the true owner of the Elder Wand, since he killed Dumbledore, the last holder. In a most inglorious and un-heroic scene, Voldemort sics Nagini on Snape, killing him with a bite to the neck.

And that’s it. The most intriguing character in the series, the double agent who risked his life spying for Dumbledore, who loved Harry’s mother, and who promised Dumbledore he’d protect Lily’s child, is snuffed out. I was hoping Snape would get his moment of glory, reveal his treachery, and stand physically between Voldemort and Harry in a duel, fighting alongside him. Can you picture it? Snake face, Snape, and Harry, dueling at Hogwarts. Alas, it was not to be. Snape drops like a sack of potatoes on the dirty Shack floor.

The Prince’s Tale

Harry enters the room, taking off his cloak. Snape gives Harry his memories, which he collects in a flask Hermione conjured. Before he dies, he whispers to Harry, “Look…at…me.”

This is one reason why Harry’s green eyes, so much like his mother’s, are mentioned throughout the series. Snape left the dark side to work for the good because he loved Lily and felt responsible for her death. He wanted to look into "her" green eyes one last time. A poignant scene but the Harry Potter slash fiction folks will have a field day with it.

Now here’s another convenient but unrealistic plot device: Voldemort makes another announcement, giving Harry one hour to turn himself in. OK. One of the world’s greatest sorcerers is giving his nemesis an hour to come up with a way to beat him? Real smooth. Why not give him five minutes or no minutes? An hour? Alas, Harry needs that hour to see Snape’s memories. How considerate of the Dark Lord!

Inside the headmaster’s office, Harry pours Snape’s memories into the Pensieve. We learn that Snape knew Lily as child. He was “that awful boy” Petunia mentioned in Book 5, the same boy many in fandom (including me) suspected she was referring to.

Captivated by Lily even as a child, Snape watched her perform magic while playing with her sister. The boy Snape told her what they were. He told her about Hogwarts and the letters they’d receive. They form a friendship. Lily knows about the arguments between Snape’s parents and how his Muggle father doesn’t like magic. Petunia, hiding behind a tree, is discovered when she loses her footing. After she insults him, Snape causes a tree branch to fall on her, and Lily runs after her, furious at Snape.

The scene changes, and we see Lily and her family and Snape and his on Platform 9 ¾ ready to board the Hogwarts Express. It’s revealed that Petunia, a Muggle, wrote to Dumbledore, asking to attend the wizarding school. So Petunia didn’t always hate magic. Probably already jealous of her more attractive younger sister, Petunia’s bitterness solidified when they were still children.

Lily and Snape encounter the future Marauders on the train. Snape, James, and Sirius exchanged the first of what will become many insults. The scene shifts again, and the first years are being sorted. Lily, in Gryffindor, watches her friend walking to the Slytherin table.

In a different scene, Lily is concerned about Snape’s fascination with the Dark Arts. He shrugs it off and questions her about James, who he knows fancies her. Oh, the Green-Eyed Monster will get you if you don’t watch out!

Snape’s Worst Memory

Many fans have wondered why the scene in which James and Sirius hex Snape is his worst memory. After Harry saw this memory in Book 6, an enraged Snape throws him out of his office. Was he merely embarrassed? Perhaps, but it goes much deeper. Wandless, Snape was unable to defend himself against James and Sirius. In his anger, he calls his best friend, the girl he’s in love with, a Mudblood. This ends the friendship. Later, he apologies, but Lily’s “not interested.”

Double Agent

In the next scene, Snape 's on a hilltop, waiting for Dumbledore. He confesses that he told Voldemort about Trewlaney’s prophecy about a child born at the end of July with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord. Voldemort believes Lily will have that child. Snape pleads with Dumbledore to keep Lily — and her husband and child — safe. In return, Snape offers his services to the good side.

The scene changes again. Lily and James are dead. Voldemort found them. An anguished Snape, wanting to make amends for what he’d done, promises to protect her son. He makes Dumbledore promise never to tell Harry.

“My word, Severus, that I shall never reveal the best of you? If you insist…”

The scene shifts from Harry’s first year, where Snape complains to Dumbledore that Harry is arrogant like his father, to the fourth year, where Snape says his Dark Mark is becoming darker. Voldemort is getting stronger. In the next scene, we see Snape working spells over an injured Dumbledore. In Book 6, the headmaster had found the ring Horcrux, which contained the Resurrection Stone. In his desire to see his dead family, he tried on the ring. The curse “killed” him, but Snape stoppered his death, delaying it for about a year.

Scar Horcrux

Knowing he’s going to die in a year anyway, Dumbledore tells Snape he must kill him when the time is right. In the next scene, Dumbledore tells Snape why he’s teaching Harry — and Harry alone — about what he needs to do to defeat Voldemort.

The night Voldemort tried to kill Lily, his killing curse rebounded. Here’s the kicker: Harry’s scar contains part of Voldemort’s soul, which explains the connection between the two wizards. “[W]hile that fragment of soul, unmissed by Voldemort, remains attached to and protected by Harry, Lord Voldemort cannot die,” Dumbledore tells Snape.

The realization hits Snape: Harry must die. Snape reacts in anger, accusing Dumbledore of raising Harry like a pig for slaughter. He’s been protecting the boy all this time, only to see Dumbledore send him to his death? But it’s not Harry Snape cares about. To clear up the headmaster’s confusion about why he’s angry, Snape conjures a sliver doe Patronus, the same as Lily’s, the same Patronus that beckoned Harry in the woods and led him to the Sword of Gryffindor earlier in the book.

Still Under Orders

In the next scene, Snape the spy is ensconced as headmaster and Voldmort has captured the castle. Dumbledore is dead, but Snape receives orders from Dumbledore’s portrait. He agrees to feed the Order’s escape plans for Harry to Voldemort. Harry sees Snape attempting to curse another Death Eater, but the curse missed and hit took off George's ear. Harry also sees Snape crying in Grimmauld Place over Lily’s letter to Sirius. He’s the one who took the second page of the letter and Lily’s part of the photo.

The next memory reveals that Snape communicated with Phineas Nigellus’s portrait. Phineas calls Hermione a Mudblood. Remembering how much the slur cost him, he tells Phineas not to use the word. Snape plans to send his Patronus to lead Harry to the sword. The memories end.

Death and Resurrection

JKR has called “The Forest Again” her favorite chapter in the book. Harry realizes that he has to allow Voldemort to kill him in order to destroy the part of Voldemort’s soul that’s inside him.

Imagine knowing when and how you’re going to die. Suddenly, you’re aware of your heart beating and your lungs expanding. You’re aware of yourself in a way you’ve never been before. You can count the remaining minutes of your life as time ticks away.

Harry’s doing some quick soul-searching at the beginning of this chapter. He’d always assumed Dumbledore wanted him to survive the final battle with Voldmort. Now, he faced something very different. This is why he told only Harry about the Horcruxes and asked him to tell no one but Ron and Hermione.

Willing to face death, Harry dons the cloak and goes to find Voldemort. On the way, he tells Neville that the snake Nagini, which holds part of Voldemort’s soul, must be killed. Walking toward the forest, where Voldemort has gathered his cronies, Harry pulls the Snitch Dumbledore willed to him out of his pouch. I open at the close. He suddenly understands what it means: the Snitch, which contains the Resurrection Stone, will open at the close of his life.

“I am about to die,” Harry says, and the Snitch opens. With the Stone, he summons his dead loved ones, who’re neither flesh nor ghosts. His mother, father, godfather Sirius, and Lupin, who was killed in the battle earlier than night, walk with him deeper into the forest.

When I read that Harry Potter had to die to destroy Voldemort, I was horrified he'd found out in such a detached way. No one was there to explain, to comfort. But when his loved ones showed up to walk beside him, it was as though his calmness radiated out of the book, and my fear for this fictional character’s life abated.

Two Death Eaters emerge from behind a tree. Unable to see Harry under the cloak, they lead him to the clearing where Voldemort and his Death Eaters are waiting. His family vanishes, and Harry steps forward. Hagrid, bound to a tree, yells, “HARRY! NO!”

But it’s time. With no wand in his hand, Harry’s ready to die. Voldemort sends the killing curse, and it’s lights out for Harry.

“King’s Cross” is a strange chapter. Harry wakes up in a sort of netherworld, naked. He wishes for clothes, and they appear on his body. He’s sees a baby-like figure in a corner, whimpering. Some readers say it symbolizes the part of Voldemort’s soul that died when he killed Harry.

Harry sees Dumbledore and asks, “Then…I’m dead, too?”

“Ah. That is the question, isn’t it? On the whole, dear boy, I think not.”

And we learn why Dumbledore had that gleam in his eye when Voldemort took Harry’s blood in Book 4 and what the prophecy really meant. Voldemort has Harry’s blood inside him, and as long as he lives, Harry survives. With Harry’s blood inside him, Lily’s sacrifice to save Harry lives on. Voldemort didn’t take the time to understand this kind of “deeper magic,” similar to the White Witch’s ignorance in C.S. Lewis’s The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.

Dumbledore and Harry are in a place that looks like King’s Cross station. King’s Cross? The cross of Christ? JKR ditched the subtlety for Book 7, didn’t she?

Dumbledore explains his temptation with the Deathly Hallows and his hunt for them. Possessing all three — the Cloak, the Stone, and the Elder Wand — makes the holder the “master of Death.” Dumbledore explains why he had James’s cloak the night James died. He wanted to examine one of the Deathly Hallows, passed down to James through his ancestors.

Dumbledore tells Harry that by having Snape kill him, he intended for Snape to be the Elder Wand’s new owner. But Voldemort got to it first.

Harry chooses to return to life.

I confess myself disappointed with this chapter. There was too much exposition. Mostly all of Harry’s questions were answered, and the revelations came too quickly. But if I had my way, Deathly Hallows would be twice as long.

Ding, Dong, The Wizard's Dead

In the next to last chapter, the final battle begins. Again, too quick. Harry wakes up still on the ground. Voldemort sends Narcissa Malfoy over to see if Harry’s really dead. She feels his beating heart and asks if her son is still alive. Harry tells her yes. Concerned only for her son and wanting to get into the castle, she lies to Voldemort. “He is dead!” Voldemort performs the Cruciatus Curse on Harry’s body, yet the very-much-alive Harry feels no pain. Didn’t understand that part.

The group goes up to the castle, and Hagrid’s crying with the “dead” Harry in his arms. Still feigning death, Harry hears people cry out as Voldemort tells them he’s dead. Neville confronts Voldemort, who summons the Sorting Hat, places it on Neville’s head, and sets in on fire, which prompts Harry to act.

Neville cuts off Nagini’s head, chaos ensues, and everyone is fighting, wizards and magical creatures alike. The matronly Mrs. Weasley ends up killing Bellatrix (sorry Neville!), and Harry protects her as Voldemort tries to curse her.

Harry’s alive, and the showdown begins. This wouldn’t happen in real life, but instead of just killing (or trying to) Harry, Voldemort chills out and listens to him explain why he’s still alive. He tells him that Snape was double agent, that Dumbledore asked Snape to kill him, and that Voldemort, contrary to his belief, did not possess the Elder Wand. Draco, who disarmed Dumbledore, became the true owner, and Harry, who took it from Draco, was now the true owner.

Harry is the true master of the Elder Wand. Unremorseful about everything he’d done, Voldemort threw the killing curse at Harry, who shouted his trademark Expelliarmus spell at the same time. The two spells meet, and the Elder Wand flies out of Voldemort’s hand into Harry’s. Voldmort drops. His killing curse rebounded on him. Again!

Harry, who doesn’t want to be the master of Death, dropped the Resurrection Stone in the forest and plans to put the Elder Wand back in Dumbledore’s tomb. All is well.

The events in the Epilogue occur 19 years later. The married Harry and Ginny are dropping off their sons James and Albus Severus at King’s Cross station to catch the Hogwarts Express. Daughter Lily will head to the school in two years. The married Ron and Hermione are seeing off their daughter Rosie. Son Hugo is too young. Harry’s godson, Teddy Lupin, orphaned son of Lupin and Tonks, has completed his wizarding education. He’s on the platform kissing his Hogwarts-student girlfriend, Bill’s and Fleur’s daughter Victoire, goodbye.

And it’s goodbye to the cast and crew of the Harry Potter series. But the canon is not complete. JKR answered fans’ questions last week, providing character and plot details that weren’t in the book. She’ll also write an encyclopedia, with detailed information about characters. I’m looking forward to it.

If anyone is still with me, thanks for sloughing through this very long post. I wrote this three part summary for myself so I can reference details quickly in future posts. If you get something out of it, too, I’m glad.

Addendum: Corrections are noted and appreciated.