Harry mania and the Borders mismanagement (Possible Spoilers)

Today being 21st July, the world finally knows the fate of how Harry Potter and all the characters created by J.K. Rowling will finally end their battles with Voldermort, for better or for worst.

I'd pre-ordered my copy 2 months ago from Borders which gave a 20% discount and a free beanie toy of Hedwig to boot. Thinking of seeing how things were at Borders I arrive around 6 and already a queue of about a hundred people were already lining up at the doorway. It was fine, everyone was on their best behaviour and the people from Starbucks were even serving coffee to those present and lining up.

Up to the point it was fine but that was when all things went to hell. Someone from the staff from Borders said the store was opening and mentioned it was first come and first serve. The problem was they did not have any barriers and when the people that were lining up since 5a.m. saw other latecomers cutting them and heading straight for the front door all hell just broke loose. This sent everyone into a stampede to the front door. I recollect humorously that a woman was complaining to the staff there that it was a stupid setup and crowd control should have been better and it was not fair to those who had been queuing up since early morning. I believe as well that it was the management's fault to have let this happened, they knew that an event such as this would lead to rowdiness and should have prepared temporary barriers to funnel people in and to tell off those cutting the queue.

Not only that they encouraged everyone to bunch up at the entrance and when the guard opened a sliver of the sliding door, the rowdy youngsters in front just pushed and to the end the door actually broke, so you can imagine a hundred people pushing through a tiny opening trying to be the first few to get in for a RM30 rebate. It also didn't help that they never put up signs of which counter to go and ultimately two lines formed, one at the cashier and another at the information counter. I was unfortunate to be caught in the latter and when I did manage to find my way to the correct line it seemed I was farther than I was lining outside, sucks.

Anyway I didn't put much expectations in the final book and truthfully I thought that Rowling's writing degraded after the fourth book and only by a slight saving grace was the Half Blood Prince redeemed the series somewhat though it did not bring back the excitement and magic of the first four books. I just wanted to read how it all ended and the series resolved.

My verdict for the book:

It was readable, but ultimately suffered from the fragmented and redundant story arcs that plagued the past 3 books. Rowling has deemed to try and capture the entire 6 previous book's characters, locations, and subplots no matter how insignificant all into this final book. This it made reading a bit engorged with parts that just drags on and could have done with omissions and pruning. It also seems that the storyline lost its magic a bit as it became disjointed, the title of the book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows featured so small a part in the entire 600 pages that it was subsumed by the rest of the hundreds of minor subplots found there. Come on we could have avoided bringing minor characters that were cast out before such as Aragog's brood, Firenze, Peeves, Nobby, Rita, Lovegood and other minor character that just appeared on 2 pages of the books with stories that did not contribute to character or story development.

But overall, the series ended as expected and readers would be pleased that even if there were quite a number of important deaths, it did turned out like a fairy tale ending with the expected results.

So for those too lazy to read the entire volume here are some spoilers. I've put the words to match the background of my blog as not to spoil it for those who have not and plan to read the book but for those who can't wait or just plain lazy here it is, just highlight the text and the words will 'Magically' appear.

1) Hedgwig dies
2) Alastor 'Mad Eye' Moody Dies
3) There are 7 Horticrux
4) RAB stands for Regulus Arcturus Black, Sirius's Brother
5)The three deadly hollows are the Elder wand, the Resurrection Stone and the Invisibility Cloak
6) Dumbledore owned all three Hollows
7) Snape was a good guy
8) Snape loved Lily Potter and vowed to protect Potter after Lily was killed and was through and through Dumbledore's man
9) Dumbledore had a dark family history
10) Harry carried part of Voldermort's soul
11) Tonk and Remus were married and had a son, Teddy Lupin
12) Tonk, Remus, Fred died in the defense of Hogwarts. Crabbe dies.
13) Dumbledore's brother was working in Hogmeade all the time
14) Ginny and Harry finally marries and has 3 kids, Albus , Lily and James
15) Ron and Hermione marries, their kids are Rose, and Hugo
16) Draco turned good and marries, his kid goes to Hogwarts
17) George lost an ear caused by Snape
18) Bill and Fleur marries, their wedding was disrupted by Deatheaters
19) Dobby dies, killed by Bellatrix as he tries to save Harry and gang
20) A dragon guards the vault of Gringots and Harry and friends broke it and later flew out with it
21) Snape's Patronus was a doe
22)The Ministry of Magic was taken over by the Deatheaters and a Registration of Muggle-Born Comittee was formed, headed by Umbridge
23)Neville slew Nagani and later after the events he became Professor of Herbiology at Hogwarts

The End