So today is the anniversary of Harry Potter finishing off You-Know-Who for good (J.K. Rowling said so). I am a self-professed huge Harry Potter nerd and I have loved the books since I read 'Goblet of Fire' back in...was it high school? I think so. Gosh, I can't even remember.
Anyways, this fictional, Internet-fueled "holiday" is the perfect excuse for me to write about Harry. If you do not like how nerdy this post is about to become, by all means, scroll down and read how I vent about 'Glee.'
The thing about Harry Potter, especially for people of my generation, is that we feel a certain sense of ownership when it comes to the books because we were the ones who waited, speculated, argued, and discussed what we thought would happen in the next book. I'm sure at some point people thought about what they wanted to see happen in the series and when that didn't happen, some people got really mad.
I can remember hearing comments like "that wasn't how the book was supposed to end!" or "it didn't go the way it should have" from people when they finished 'Deathly Hallows' three years ago. In fact, some people may even say things nowadays. I think that these people forget that the story comes from a real person. In Jo Rowling's mind, she had it all planned out. She knew how it was going to end, and they are her books, so really she is the one who should determine the ending (at least in my opinion).
So really it's not up to us about how it "should" end, but instead it's up to the writer. Therefore, it's stupid to argue about certain canon things in the book. For example, some people think Harry should have married Hermione. Now, I can understand if you say 'I wish they had gotten married' or 'I always liked them together best.' That's all well and good, we are entitled to our own opinions. But, I can't understand why people say that she should have married Harry, especially after reading the fifth book where Hermione scolds him like she's his mother. Some people even still hold to this claim after reading the seventh book, in which Harry tells Ron that he loves Hermione like a sister and ends up marrying someone who is NOT Hermione!
Sorry, I got on a bit of a tangent there. Clearly I was in the camp that wanted Ron to marry Hermione and I based this on the subtle hints. I just like to read closely (and I believe if you do the hints are there). Another thing that Harry Potter readers complain about is the epilogue.
Now, I myself have a few beefs with the Epilogue, but I completely understand Rowling's thinking behind it. The Epilogue is silly and poorly written. It's clear that she wrote it well before she wrote the rest of the books because the style is just...younger and less sharp. It's also quite trivial. Some of the dialogue is cheesey and almost painful to read. It seems like it was twisted so Rowling could tell us as much as she could about what happened to character who were not the Trio.
If you take a step back and look at the epilogue in an abstract way, it makes perfect sense and really it's kind of sweet. Think about this: when we first meet Harry, before he goes to Hogwarts, we see this little eleven-year-old boy who is neglected and treated horribly by people who are "family" but really act nothing like it. In the span of the first book we see Harry coming to terms with what really happened to his parents. We also see that his heart's greatest desire is to have a family. Throughout the series, Harry is plagued by the shouts of his mother before she died and he's reminded of his father every time he uses his Patronus. They burst out of his wand in the graveyard when he faces Voldemort and they walk with him to meet his death. He comes close to them, but never gets to experience life with them. It's really, really, REALLY sad. I challenge any reader not to feel bad for Harry.
So we get to a point, nineteen years later, at the end of the epic tale of Harry Potter, and we see that Harry got his heart's greatest desire. He was then surrounded by people who he not only loves, but who are his family. He and Ron are brothers-in-law. He has children. He has a wife and instead of foggy images in a mirror or ghostly apparitions they are real people and they act like a real family. After all that Harry's been through, I think he deserves the family he always wanted. He saved the Wizarding World, people! And I think as readers you want the hero of a book series you invest time, money, and possibly your sanity and reputation in to come out on top. And he did.
That was the way that Jo Rowling intended it. I give her props. And really, I feel a certain ownership of the series as well, but I understood that it's Rowling's writings. She's the one telling the story to us. If you want to some interesting insight into her writing Deathly Hallows and her post demons you should watch her 'Year in the Life' documentary, which is on YouTube (this is where she mentions that the anniversary of Voldemort's final defeat is May 2). It's pretty candid.
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