End of an Era, Part 3

Note: This is the third entry in my "End of an Era" essay. If you have not yet read part 1, or part 2, I suggest you do that first. Be warned: Thar be spoilers ahead AND behind!

Ah, now we're getting to the really good stuff. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is probably the most important book in the series, not only because of what we learn about Voldemort's most closely guarded secret, but what we learn about his past and the quest that Harry and his friends must undertake. Up till now, we never really knew how Voldemort had survived the curse that gave Harry his scar. We did find out about the charm left by his mother when she tried to sacrifice herself to save Harry in the previous books, but there was never any real clues as to how Voldemort managed to live.

The concept of the Horcrux is one of the most fascinating and sinister ideas to appear in the Harry Potter books. Even the Unforgivable Curses, while horrible in their own right, pale in comparison to what a Horcrux represents. The description that Slughorn gives to the young Tom Riddle about how Horcruxes are made sent chills up my spine. To take one's soul and rip it in two, and store a piece of your soul inside another object? Terrifying to think that anyone could be so careless with one's soul. What makes it even worse is that the only way to tear one's soul apart, is by killing another person. And the fact that Voldemort made not one, but six Horcruxes brings into sharp relief just what Dumbledore meant when he tells Harry that "the transformation [Lord Voldemort] has undergone seemed to me to be only explicable if his soul was mutilated beyond the realms of what we might call 'usual evil'..." As if being one of the most powerful dark wizards in history weren't enough, now we find out that there are six unknown and most likely extremely well protected objects carrying around a bit of his soul? Now that's just plain evil, in every sense of the word.

Fortunately for Harry, we learn, he already has a bit of experience destroying Horcruxes already. I remember thinking that the diary that nearly kills Ginny in Chamber of Secrets seemed oddly powerful to just have been a spell or enchantment of some sort; it had to be something far more sinister. I never thought much of it, but when I learned about Voldemort's creation of the Horcruxes, it hit me that there really was more to that diary than was revealed in book two. And in Half-Blood Prince, we find out that this is indeed the case. Not only that, but Voldemort had intended it as a weapon, not just as a safeguard for his soul. He wanted it to be found by an unsuspecting person so that he could use them to return to human form if he ever needed it. I knew Voldemort was arrogant, but that seemed unbelievably brash.

The revelation of the Horcruxes is certainly a crucial aspect of book six and the rest of the series, but it was not the only important event. This is the book where we finally see Harry start to fall, and fall hard, for Ginny Weasley. I think that of all the potential matches Harry could have had, Ginny is definitely who had my vote. As I've said before, Ginny became a favorite character of mine in book five and her growth as a character in book six really solidified my opinion of her. And I will admit that I cheered when they (Harry and Ginny) kissed after the Quidditch match because it was what I was hoping for all along. While the Harry and Ginny romance was full of some pretty funny jealousy scenes, I have to say that the way Rowling played Ron and Hermione's jealousy against each other was brilliant.

So now it seems we come to the main event, so to speak, of Half-Blood Prince. Rowling had said that a major character was going to die in book six and while I knew it wouldn't be Harry I was very worried for Ron and Hermione, not to mention the major-minor characters of Ginny, Neville, and Luna. But never in a million years did I expect that the person that would be killed would be Dumbledore, and that it would be Snape that did it. I remember reading that passage and then stopping for a second, not sure if I had read that right. I was shocked and saddened by Dumbledore's death. He was always so powerful and so knowledgeable about everything that it seemed that if he was going to die, it would have been at the hands of someone like Voldemort himself. I think it was at this point, more than any other, that I really felt that no one was safe anymore and it was only a matter of time before Voldemort began to take control. The end of this book was probably the most bleak and desperate of any of the books up to this point. With Dumbledore gone, left with only a fake Horcrux and a enigmatic note with no inkling of where to look next, Harry's decision to break up with Ginny for her protection, and his realization that he will not be returning to school the next year, makes for a dark and harrowing future indeed.

And yet, in the midst of the grief and pain at the loss of someone so important, as Harry prepares to take the final road that will lead either to his death, or to the death of Voldemort, there is still happiness to be found. On the very last page of the book, Harry, Ron, and Hermione are making plans for where they will start looking for the Horcruxes. Harry is, as usual, trying to convince his friends that he needs to do this alone, but of course they are having none of it. You'd think he would have learned after six books that the trio is an all or nothing package. I think I just need to quote the passage here, as I can't do it justice otherwise:

"No-," said Harry quickly; he had not counted on this, he had meant them to understand that he was undertaking this most dangerous journey alone.
"You said to us once before," Hermione said quietly, "that there was time to turn back if we wanted to. We've had time, haven't we?"
"We're with you whatever happens," said Ron. "But mate, you're going to have to come round my mum and dad's house before we do anything else, even Godric's Hollow."
"Why?"
"Bill and Fleur's wedding, remember?"
Harry looked at him, startled; the idea that anything as normal as a wedding could still exist seemed incredible and yet wonderful.
"Yeah, we shouldn't miss that," he said finally.
His hand closed automatically around the fake Horcux, but in spite of everything, in spite of the dark and twisting path he saw stretching ahead of himself, in spite of the final meeting with Voldemort he knew must come, whether in a month, in a year, or in ten, he felt his heart lift at the thought that there was still one last golden day of peace left to enjoy with Ron and Hermione.

Part 4 will be posted soon.