All Was Well

I'm not the most diehard of Harry Potter fans. I've not read all the books, nor have I seen all the movies. I know the story well though, being surrounded by those who read and watch religiously. So I found myself in the position where I went to see the last installment of this epic series. Spoilers lurk ahead.

We open to Voldemort desecrating the grave of Albus Dumbledore to obtain the Elder Wand, one of three items needed to become the Master of Death. Then we swiftly cut to Harry Potter, burying the loyal house elf Dobby who gave his life for his master in the previous film.

Sure enough, the kids go back out on their adventure to slay the horcruxes, the shards of Voldemort's soul enshrined in different objects. What they discover leads them back to Hogwarts, where they raise their fellow students and the faculty into an army as they seek a horcrux and the others must hold off a full assault by Voldemort and his Death Eaters. They find and destroy the item and then go after Voldemort, who kills Snape.

Harry gets to Snape's side in time to be told to take his tears and put them in the pensieve, that shows memories. This moment is the pinnacle on which the entire series for many turns, when everything is cast into doubt. The pensieve shows Harry the truth; Snape has been acting to protect him for his entire life, and wasn't one of the villains at all. Snape had loved his mother dearly, and after she died, he swore he would protect Harry, no matter what; it is also during this montage that Harry sees Snape and Dumbledore meeting and learns a terrible truth...he is the last horcrux. For Voldemort to perish, so to must he.

Harry stumbles back into the hall and sees a number of friends wounded and lying dead, all for the sake of his cause. They have lost their lives because he rallied them to fight the Dark Lord. The Gospel of John tells us that Christ said to His disciples, "Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends."

In that moment, Harry becomes more than a boy and a horcrux. He fully assumes the messianic mantle that has been prepared for him throughout the entire series. He knows and accepts the burden of what he has been destined to do since not long after his birth. He will lay down his life for his friends.

As he determinedly marches forward into the Forbidden Forest, the snitch opens to reveal the Resurrection Stone, which would allow him to bring people back from the dead. His parents and mentors give him counsel one last time, telling him that they have always been with him in his heart. Harry faces a temptation; he can bring them back from the dead and take them with him in more than spirit. Yet, he resists this temptation and drops the Resurrection stone to the ground.

He shows up and Voldemort slays him. He goes to a white light filled King's Cross where Dumbledore awaits, telling him that the horcrux is dead and that he has a choice to go back or not. Harry ends up taking upon himself the next piece of his Messianic mantle. While Neville Longbottom, a character well known for his bumbling nature stands up face to face with the Dark Lord, Harry rises from the dead.

In the battle that follows, Neville destroys the last Horcrux, Voldemort's pet snake, with the legendary sword of Gryffindor. Mrs. Weasely, already having lost a child in the battle, defends her daughter and slays one of the primary villains of the series. Voldemort...dies. For good this time.

As Harry walks the halls of the celebrating people, he hugs his friend Hagrid and walks out onto the battlements to do what perhaps no one else would have done. He shows his best friends that he controls the Elder Wand now. With his dad's invisibility cloak and that Resurrection Stone he dropped in the Forbidden Forest, he could never be challenged by anyone and would be able to control life and death itself.

His friend Ron even says, "With that wand we'd be invincible, no one could touch us." He gives a nod and then breaks the wand in two, flinging both ends off the battlements. Harry has realized that no one should have that sort of power, and that it is that sort of power that would corrupt as surely as it did for Lord Voldemort.

We fade to black to see 19 years later, where the main characters are sending their own children off to Hogwarts. His son slumps and asks what if he gets sorted into Slytherin? Harry pats him on the back, "Albus Severus Potter, you are named for two Headmasters of Hogwarts, one of them a Slytherin and the bravest man I've ever known..."

Snape is redeemed in death. Good has triumphed over evil, and people have lived happily ever after. In short, it is as Rowling's last line of the book said, "All was well".