extra credit blog

There are so many characters that I love and adore from these novels.  We watch so many of them grow and change over time.  In the last book so much is revealed about many of them.  I have already spoken of Dumbledore and Snape and my revelations of them in the last book so I will go to some of my other favorites.  Neville Longbottom is a character that we got to see go from such a meek, clumsy boy to a powerful, brave man.  Through the earlier novels, though he shows signs of bravery by standing up to his friends, we see Neville struggle with “even the simplest spells,” as Snape put it.  We learn that he is raised by his grandma only because his parents were tortured to insanity by Bellatrix LeStrange, but he still loves them dearly.  We see that he is not treated the greatest by his grandma because she doesn’t think he is good enough, or as brave as his father.  She does nothing to help in Neville’s already extremely poor confidence.  That is until book seven, when Neville really reveals himself by showing his bravery, his fight, his confidence, his loyalty to friends, his conviction and how noble he is.  His grandmother even recognizes him and says how proud she is of him when he is sticking up to the death eaters so much at Hogwarts that they go looking for his grandmother to change his ways, but fail.  He proves himself a true leader by keeping Dumbledore’s Army alive in the hardest and worst of times.  He is eager to help when Harry returns and has looked out for all of the students in his absence.  Then he really has his becoming moment when he kills the last horcrux, Nagini, with the sword of Gryffindor, which only reveals itself to true Gryffindors.  It amazed me and made me so proud when he stood up to Voldemort.  He was never seen as very powerful through the first books but by the end he was indispensable and proved pivotal to the fight and keeping hope alive.

Someone else who was revealed in the final book was Professor Lupin.  Though we already knew by this point that he was a werewolf, we really see his vulnerable and tattered side when we find out Tonks is pregnant.  We see his fear.  I saw how serious it was t be a werewolf, even in the magical world.  It was revealed that he was scared to be around, scared that his child would turn out like him and even more terrified that the child would be ridiculed and cast out as he was.  I believe his intentions to help Harry we good, in fact, he really did want to help and protect Harry, but he also needed an escape.  I felt that we were witnessing his character unravel.  Then after Harry went off on him, we find that he returned and Tonks had the baby and he was just as proud and happy as any new father could be.  I am so glad that this happened before his untimely death.  A new depth to his character was brought to light.