I read the books this year because I wanted to feel pain, basically, and I wanted to be justified in disliking Harry Potter. I was not disappointed. However, I still don’t understand how the fuck the end of the book worked. It was so harebrained and convoluted and sloppy as fuck that I don’t know what actually happened. Am I stupid or was it a bad ending? And what the fuck happened? How did they actually kill Voldemort?
Battle is joined (EDIT: I actually totally forgot about the “love protection” aspect of Harry’s earlier sacrifice - because Harry sacrificed himself under the impression he was going to die, his non-death still conveys love protection to literally everyone on his side in the battle and they wipe the floor with the remaining Death Eaters) and Harry and Voldemort confront each other one last time in the Great Hall. Voldemort, all arrogance, intends to kill Harry once and for all. Harry tries to I guess “redeem” Voldemort one last time by warning him that the situation is not what he thinks it is and if he tries to kill Harry, the curse will backfire. Why is this?
The “love protection spell” at the end was Harry Potter bluffing. If I remember correctly, after Neville showed his badassedness, Harry slipped on the invisibility cloak and ran through the battlefield casting shielding/reflecting spells while he went looking for Voldemorte and Ron and Hemione.
I’m pretty sure you’re not remembering correctly, the love protection thing was real.
There’s what he said when he faced up against voldemort…
‘– I meant to, and that’s what did it. I’ve done what my mother did. They’re protected from you. Haven’t you noticed how none of the spells you put on them are binding? You can’t torture them. You can’t touch them. You don’t learn from your mistakes, Riddle, do you?’
and then there’s what he did.
Hidden beneath the Invisibility Cloak, Harry cast a Shield Charm between Neville and Voldemort before the latter could raise his wand. (DH, page 733)
Voldemort raised his wand and directed it at Molly Weasley. “Protego!” roared Harry, and the Shield Charm expanded in the middle of the Hall, and Voldemort stared around for the source as Harry pulled off the Invisibility Cloak at last. (DH, page 737)
And that’s just from some quick googling. Pretty sure there were a couple more shield charms in between the two. Harry may have been protected by the Love spell, like during the crucio stuff, but the thing protecting his friends at the end was him.
I thought it was both, like he was protecting them AND they were shielded from all the Death Eaters, but maybe he didn’t realize in the moment that he didn’t need top protect them. Because why would Harry lie there? To psych Voldemort out? He’s about to die anyway because of the Elder Wand owner thing. IDK, it’s sloppy writing on Rowling’s part, some editor needed to tell her that it wasn’t clear at that part.
