The End of the Affair

I really hate goodbyes and endings. I get ridiculously sentimental about leaving people and places, and a fair amount of my everyday anxiety is tied up in worrying about when I will have to move on and let go of where I am. Finishing Harry Potter and the Dealthly Hallows was no different. There was something incredibly bittersweet about reading the end of the series. It was as if I would be seeing a very dear friend for the last time. And even though I have revisited that friend many times since, it’s no longer the same experience, just as if you are revisiting memories of someone rather than the real person. Despite that, I absolutely adored the end of the series.

In particular, I loved the Kings Cross chapter. One of my favorite parts of the series was Harry’s conversations with Dumbledore. After Dumbledore’s death in the sixth book, I was devastated. All I could think was, “who is Harry going to talk to at the end of book seven??” To me, those were pivotal moments when Harry got some insight into his eventual destiny. I loved this chapter because there were no more secrets; Dumbledore revealed as much as he knew and Harry made peace with the fact that Dumbledore was not the perfect figured he always thought. Since I, like Harry, questioned what I knew about Dumbledore during Dealthly Hallows, I appreciated the fact that Dumbledore did not hide the truth about his family and his fears about Ariana’s death. The honesty that seemed so long in coming really tied up that loose end for me—no, I don’t know everything about Albus Dumbledore, but I feel that what I know is true and that’s enough for both myself and Harry.