The Man with Two Faces
In which Harry is a winner, Gryffindor wins the house cup, and the book comes to a close.
Confession: I came down with a huge bout of the nostalgias upon reading this chapter. Something that I love in particular about all of the Harry Potter books are the endings (and, no, not because they're finally over). But the huge attacks of sentimentality overcome me and make me so happy inside.
By now you know the fight between Quirrelldemort and Harry and how that all panned out, so I won't explain it in too much detail; basically, Harry wins. There are definitely things in Harry Potter that are scary, but they aren't scream-out-loud, hide-under-the-pillows scary. As a first grader, though, I remember being freaked to the nines by the back of Quirrell's head a.k.a. Voldemort. I love Rowling's physical description of Voldemort throughout the entire series. The red eyes especially. The eyes being the window to the soul and all that schtuff, it makes since that the most humanlike part of Voldemort—his eyes—would be the first to go when he started splitting his soul.
It's an incredible twist that Voldemort can't come into contact with Harry without crumbling. If only something like that existed in real life. I guess the point isn't that Voldemort can't touch Harry, though, its really that Lily's love for her son was so strong that it created an unbreakable bond in which her goodness will always defeat Voldemort's evil.
After defeating Quirelldemort, Harry wakes up in the hospital wing three days later to find Dumbledore. One of my favorite conversations between Harry and Dumbledore (let's face it, 99.99% of conversations between Harry and Dumbledore are just great) is this one. It's a great set up for all that Harry is about to encounter in his next years. Something really admirable about Dumbledore, what makes him such an excellent headmaster, is that he understands eleven-year-olds. He's authoritative enough, but not to the point where he becomes condescending. He understands students and knows that just because they are younger doesn't make them stupider. That's a trait of J.K. Rowling, too. Her writing, while geared toward a younger audience, isn't your basel This is Dick. This is Jane. Dick and Jane are friends.
Now for what the whole point of the book was, really. The house cup. Gryffindor comes in fourth unfortunately. Thanks, Hermione. But wait—fifty points for Ron, fifty for Hermione (thanks, Hermione!), sixty for our good old man Harry Potter, and ten for Neville means GRYFFINDOR WINS THE FRIGGIN' HOUSE CUP! So that's thrilling.
Hagrid gives Harry quite possibly the second-best present ever (behind the invisibility cloak, 'cause you can't beat that): that he promises never to drink again. Just kidding, the photos of his parents from all of Lily and James's friends was the sweetest gift I could imagine. And it's awesome that Hagrid loves to scrapbook. He and Molly Weasley have a lot in common.
And with that, the end has come. Until thirty seconds later when I picked up the second book. Catch you on the flip side, fellow Hogwartians.
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