The Deaths in Harry Potter

I thought about going through the last four Harry Potter novels one after the other like I had with the first three, but somehow that just wasn’t doing it for me.  I might still do that in the future, but for now, I am much more interested in the common themes each of the books take.  Goblet of Fire was a game changer in the series and forced us to look at some pretty heavy, mature issues, especially death.

I remember reading once that Rowling was surprised at some of the outrage parents had with Goblet of Fire.  Many complained that the series had become too dark and not fit for their children, and Rowling replied that Sorcerer’s Stone began with a double murder and had an instance of a villain drinking blood.

I get Rowling’s point, although I can still poke holes in her argument.  Sorcerer’s Stone is different because all of the deaths take place offstage.  The book actually opens the day after the Potters deaths, the unicorn was already killed (and since it’s neither human nor real, it’s a little tough to work up sympathy) and Quirrel, the bad guy, passes away after Harry faints.

Chamber of Secrets, Myrtle died 50 years prior to the events of the story.  Prisoner of Azkaban, the mass killing of the Muggles happened 12 years prior to the Sirius Black’s escape.  Death is present in the early Potter novels, but there is a distance set there.  Harry and his friends face danger quite often in the books, but they never have to confront death head-on.

Goblet of Fire changed that tone in Chapter 1, where we witness the murder of Frank Bryce and learn about the prior murder of Bertha Jorkins.  Later on, we have the killing of Barty Crouch, and by the end, Barty Crouch Jr. is left without a soul.  Goblet of Fire is extremely brutal with its characters but there is one death that set the dark tone that followed not only this book but for the rest of the following series.

Cedric Diggory

I’ve always liked Cedric, even from his introduction in Prisoner of Azkaban.  Hufflepuff House was not taken very seriously in the series until he came along, and he exemplified loyalty and honor from the first.  When he won the Quidditch game, he demanded a rematch because he felt he hadn’t won fairly.

There are some who would argue that he’s not smart enough to take an advantage when it comes to him.  I say that this shows integrity and a willingness to live a higher law.  Also, it was a sacrifice for him to say “no” to winning.  At the third trial, Cedric is a walk away from victory and he wants to win.  He wants to win badly.  But out of respect for Harry constantly saving his life, he sits down because he doesn’t believe it’s deserved.  He doesn’t crave honor for himself; his greatest desire is to honor those helped him.  Very admirable figure.

And then Voldemort kills him.

This was a very effective death and it really threw me for a loop the first time I read it.  There aren’t many characters I think Rowling could have picked that would evoke as powerful a response.  And it’s not just because Cedric was so good.  Cedric’s death was powerful because he was a student.

There was a distance in the danger of Voldemort.  When the series started, the murders were in the distant past, but they were also affecting other people.  Grownups.  Cedric’s death brought it home that Voldemort is not a distant threat.  He has no scruples and he will kill children for no other reason than they’re in the way.

It’s a very sudden and sobering realization of what the story was turning into.

It also cast a long shadow over Harry and his actions over the course of the next novel.  I’ve had many conversations about Order of the Phoenix with friends in the past, and there are a lot of complaints about Harry’s anger, and I was among them.  He lashes out at everyone, and the closer his relationship, the meaner he is.  It made me want to punch him more than a few times.

But after reading all the series in one fell swoop like this, I was much more sympathetic.  This is the first time Harry ever saw death with his own eyes.  His parents died a long time before; he misses having them in his life, but they’ve never shared the vast majority of time with him. Cedric is the first death he’s witnessed and it leaves a huge effect on him.  This is something I can empathize with; I mourned my grandma’s death for over a year before I felt myself ready to move on, and that was a significant chunk of my childhood devoted just to that.  Harry has to live with Cedric’s death and instead of receiving any comfort, he’s treated with suspicion and doubt on every corner.

Sirius Black

Sirius Black is proof of Rowling’s talent.  In the last 50 pages of Prisoner of Azkaban, she turned the most feared character into one of the most beloved figures in the entire series.  He barely appears at all in Goblet of Fire and yet all of the fans looked at him as Harry’s true guardian.  His death shocked them with its abruptness and once again, it was made clear that Harry was indeed alone.

With so much love poured in his direction, I’m going to rub them all the wrong way and say, I really didn’t care that he died.  Harry cared a lot about him, but they really didn’t get to know each other that well over Prisoner of Azkaban and Goblet of Fire, and in Order of the Phoenix, he is angry, petulant, downright cruel to Kreacher, and encourages Harry in dangerous activities that it’s hard for me to see him as a great role model for Harry.  And after seeing Snape’s worst memory, and Sirius’s utter lack of remorse, I was just disappointed in how he turned out.

Besides, Molly and Arthur Weasley were always Harry’s true parents, more so than Sirius could have ever hoped to be.

The most this death did was put Bellatrix Lestrange on the radar as a villain to look out for.  If anybody could be the true disciple of Voldemort, it is her, and she won’t let anyone stand in her way, not even her cousin.

Albus Dumbledore

I thought I had a heart of stone.  I had been reading tragic stories for years now, and when I first read Half-Blood Prince, I was in the middle of Lost, a show that is ruthless with its heroes.  Over half of the original cast was killed off by the time it finally finished, along with the majority of its new characters.  After all the crap that show dragged me through, I thought nothing a fictional work could do would get me.

And Dumbledore’s death made me cry.

It was still hard this time around.  My eyes were watery, and the funeral scene was simply beautiful.

This was the most necessary death, and in the end, was inevitable.  How could Dumbledore live to the end?  He was the only person Voldemort was ever scared of, and proved to be Harry’s shield at the end of Order of the Phoenix.  We always trusted the Dumbledore would save everybody.  He had to go if Harry was ever going to step up and become the hero we wanted him to be by the story’s end.  Beautiful moment.

Hedwig

I’m pretty callous.  I don’t care about Hedwig’s death.  I’ve had too many cats, dogs, and chickens coming in and out of my life, that reading about a pet dying isn’t going to do much for me.  But, it was his first pet, and Hedwig did have a noble death in protecting Harry.

Mad-Eye Moody

He’s not a character that anyone ever feels close to.  His biggest role is Goblet of Fire, and it turns out that the whole time, Mad-Eye was really Barty Crouch.  The real Mad-Eye was imprisoned throughout the course of the novel.  Every book afterwards, we’re presented with the same paranoid individual, but Harry has no shared experiences with him.

Still, he was very heroic every time whenever he showed up, and watching Harry take the time to bury the only remnant they have of Mad-Eye is a very sweet and touching moment.  It’s the first moment of personal reverence that Harry shows for the deceased.

Scrimgeour

Nobody liked him, but I like how Rowling showed that even the people we don’t agree or get along with can show incredible bravery and honor at the end of their lives.

Dobby

This one was heroic, but I’m actually to take this opportunity to talk about the Malfoy home in general.  There’s always been a darkness surrounding the Malfoy family, but in this story, you get the sense that their home is under siege by an even greater darkness.  The fact the Dobby came back under his own free will speaks volumes about his own courage.  And, of course, it makes us hate Bellatrix all the more.

Fred Weasley

There was no way that the Weasleys were going to get out of this unscathed.  After all the sacrifices they’d made, they would have had to pay sooner or later.  And I don’t think Rowling could have picked a more effective target.  Fred and George have been beloved since Sorcerer’s Stone.  There’s never been a moment when I wasn’t rooting for them to succeed, whether it was taunting Percy or starting their own joke shop.  Taking out one of them is like taking out half the light of the sun.

That moment as Percy weeps over his brother’s death, too, is the purest moment of reconciliation I’ve seen depicted in literature.

Lupin and Tonks

By the time they die, I am numb to all the tragedy.  This is when I know I’m reading a war novel:  seeing another soldier die for the cause no longer has the power to shock.  There’s just a deep sense of sorrow at the waste of it all.  And yet, I’m actually happy that Lupin passed, because otherwise, how could he have walked with Harry on that fateful march to his own death later?

Severus Snape

Even knowing what I know about Snape on this read-through, I can honestly say I don’t like him at all.  I feel pity for Snape, I weep for how he was wronged, but I can’t say that I’m ever on his side through the course of the series.  All of his tragedies happened in his youth.  From the time of Harry’s first Potions class until the moment Harry chased him after Dumbledore’s death, Snape showed himself to be a hateful, petty, and despicable man, whose insane prejudice caused more problems than it ever solved.  His love for Lily does not outbalance his stubborn refusal to forgive James, at least not enough to separate Harry from his father.  In Ron Weasley’s words, “He’s a git.”

I think it’s a mark of Harry’s goodness that he sees past Snape’s flaws, enough so that he would honor Snape by giving his son the middle name of Severus.

Harry Potter

Harry counts as a death.  In fact, it’s the most important death.  I can only liken it to Aslan’s death in C. S. Lewis’s The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe.  Aslan goes to the White Witch, sad and lonely.  As he journeys to the Stone Table, he is accompanied by Susan and Lucy, but eventually leaves them behind to observe but never participate.  He is mocked and bullied by his enemies before the knife stabs his heart, but after, a deeper magic is invoked which gives him life and breaks the power the White Witch had over Narnia.

Harry’s journey parallels this so well.  He knows his duty and goes to his death without complaint, but he is frightened and walks alone.  All he has to comfort him are the spirits of his parents and their dear friends, and before he faces the enemy, he has to leave them behind.  The enemy treats him with scorn before Voldemort strikes him down.  And when Voldemort does this, an ancient magic is invoked; Harry’s love for his friends gives them the same protection that his own mother gave him.  Voldemort and his followers no longer have power over them.

Why does the hero who voluntarily sacrifices himself to save the life of another mean strike such a powerful chord in any feeling human being?  I believe this story appeals to the best in us.  Giving up your own life is the definition of a selfless motive.  Nobody can doubt your intent when the only reward you receive is to protect your friends.

Also, I love that Harry has a chance to rest and he chooses to return to the darkness because he feels there is more that he can do.  Even when he’s given all he has, he wants to give more.  How do you not respond to that heroism?

Bellatrix Lestrange

This is where we actually get to see Molly Weasley in action.  That battle was riveting.

Voldemort

Voldemort’s death was certain.  Harry knows this.  Reading their final conversation again, I noticed that Harry is trying to save Voldemort, not from death but from damnation.  The chapter at King’s Cross showed that death is not the end of the soul, but that Voldemort was in danger of losing his own.  Harry was practically begging Voldemort to show some remorse, to make at least a first step towards repentance, or his very being was in danger of destruction.  It’s a very interesting moment.  Rowling is hinting at the eternities beyond mortal existence, but never explaining more beyond that.  In the end, we don’t have to know everything that happens after.  We just have to know enough not to be damned.  In the end, Harry couldn’t convince Voldemort to grieve even once for his mistakes, but that doesn’t he failed.  All Harry could do was warn; his duty first and foremost was to save his friends.  With Voldemort, all Harry was responsible for was to give him a chance.

There’s a lot of depth to the final chapter that I didn’t get the first time through, and I’m pretty sure I’ll catch more in the future when I decide to go back through the books again.