Keep each other safe. Keep faith. Good night.

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
by J.K. Rowling

Spoiler Alert: Plot Summary

Book 1:
Harry Potter is our protagonist, along with friends Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger. He finds out at the age of eleven that he is a wizard and not only does he have magical powers, but he is famous in the wizarding world. His parents were killed by one of the most powerful (and evil) wizards of all time, Lord Voldemort. Lord Voldemort attempted to kill Harry after killing his parents, but was unsuccessful. Harry escaped at the tiny age of 1 with just a small lightning-shaped scar on his forehead. Voldemort was presumed dead, disappearing from the wizarding world. He has not been seen or heard from since Harry's parents were killed, so Harry is viewed as both a celebrity and a hero by most of the wizarding world. Harry has been raised by his dreadful aunt and uncle, Vernon and Petunia, and co-habitates with their son Dudley. They despise him and the fact that he is a wizard (they are Muggles, aka non-wizards) and they are happy to send him off to Hogwarts, a school for wizards to which Harry is accepted. Harry meets Ron (who is from a large and somewhat poor family of wizards who have bright red hair) on the train to Hogwarts, and they become best friends. Later on, they become friends with Hermione, who is Muggle-born, but an extremely talented witch. Too many things happen in this book to list here, but the relevant parts are that the threesome befriends Hagrid, the gamekeeper, and, we find out later, a half-giant. They also get into a bit of trouble here and there, they are all in Gryffindor house (there are four houses at Hogwarts, Gryffindor (for the brave and loyal), Slytherin (for the sly), Ravenclaw (for the wise and intelligent), and Hufflepuff (all the rest - I know, stinks for Hufflepuff, eh?), they hate Draco Malfoy (in Slytherin) and they also hate Snape (Professor of potions). They like the headmaster, who is simultaneously quirky and sage, Albus Dumbledore. It turns out that the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, Professor Quirrell, has been harboring a non-human form of Lord Voldemort, and Voldemort is trying to steal the Sorcerer's Stone, a powerful object that will give its owner eternal life, so that he can be fully restored to human status. Harry thwarts him in this plan (along with Ron and Hermione) and he defeats Quirrell (and Lord Voldemort) forcing Lord Voldemort to flee yet again. Harry is shocked by this (oh, and Harry is the Seeker for the Gryffindor Quidditch team, a magical sport played on broomsticks) but recovers decently well, and the book ends.

Book 2:
Harry starts out at Vernon and Petunia Dursley's house. He meets a house elf, Dobby (house elves are enslaved by wizards, sort of like indentured servants), who appears in the Dursleys' home. Dobby tries to get Harry not to go to Hogwarts, but won't tell Harry why. Harry refuses not to return, as Hogwarts is his only real home. Ron rescues Harry from the Dursley's clutches with his father's bewitched flying car. When they get to King's Cross train station to catch the express to Hogwarts, Rom and Harry can't get through the magical gate to Platform 9 and 3/4 and they rashly decide to fly the bewitched car to Hogwarts. They are very nearly badly injured, but they make it there. As the book progresses, several scary things happen - a cat is petrified, followed by a few people, and finally, Ginny, Ron's sister, disappears. The walls bear messages in blood about the Chamber of Secrets being reopened by the heir of Slytherin. Harry hears voices that no one else hears, saying things like, "Rip, tear, kill." He is disturbed by this, but tells no one but Ron and Hermione. Harry discovers a diary that writes back to him, and he finds out it belonged to a Tom Riddle. Harry sees Tom Riddle's memories, and believes that Hagrid opened the Chamber of Secrets when it was opened decades before. Hagrid is well-meaning, but harbors a love of dangerous creatures. Eventually, Harry finds the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets and enters it with Ron. (Hermione gets petrified as well. No one is killed, it turns out, because the basilisk (aka giant snake) didn't look anyone directly in the eye (mirror, water, ghost, etc)) Ron gets stuck behind a rockslide, and Harry is forced to battle the basilisk and the ghost Tom Riddle. It turns out Tom Riddle is Lord Voldemort when he was younger, and the diary was an attempt for Voldemort to return to human existence (yet again). Harry escapes, Ginny recovers, and it turns out that the Malfoys placed the diary in Ginny's bag earlier in the year and Voldemort possessed Ginny to write on the walls, open the chamber, etc. Harry heard voices because he is a Parseltongue (aka he can talk to snakes). Dobby was the Malfoy's house elf, and so he knew about the plan, and was trying to save Harry's life. Harry gives him a sock at the end of the book (elves generally don't get clothes unless their masters are trying to set them free) and Dobby is free of the Malfoys.

Book 3:
Harry returns to Hogwarts, only to find out that a mass murderer, Sirius Black, is on the loose. Harry finds out Black is after him. He is later informed that Black betrayed his parents and led Voldemort to them, after being James' friend for years and years. Harry is befriended by his new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher (the last one had his memory obliviated in the second book in the Chamber of Secrets, which is good, because he was a bit of a prat) Remus Lupin. Harry learns how to fight dementors (creatures who suck out happiness from you and try to steal your soul, which happen to be stationed at Hogwarts to keep Black out) from Lupin, and creates a Patronus, or a spell that sends dementors packing. It was thought that Black killed Peter Pettigrew, another of James' friends, right after he had sold out Harry's parents to Voldemort, then blew up the street and disappeared. He was caught and imprisoned in Azkaban, the wizard's prison, but escaped somehow. At the end of the book, however, we find out that Peter Pettigrew is really Ron's pet rat, Scabbers. Pettigrew, James, Lupin, and Black were all good friends and they all became Animagi (they could turn into an animal - they never registered though, so no one knew). They did it because Lupin is a werewolf (taboo in the wizarding world) and so they could hang out with him when he transformed. Harry, Ron, and Hermione end up in the Shrieking Shack (the house where Lupin used to transform when he was at Hogwarts), where they find out that Peter Pettigrew was the one who betrayed Harry's parents, not Sirius. Sirius was framed! Sirius is also Harry's godfather, and Harry bonds with him immediately (after finding out that he was innocent). Pettigrew escapes (by accident) and Sirius is captured (no one will believe that he is innocent since Pettigrew is gone and wasn't registered as an Animagus). Harry and Hermione turn back time (using Time Turners) and manage to free Sirius, but they are unable to clear his name.

How are we doing? Still there?

Book 4:
Harry and Ron go to the Quidditch World Cup, which is a blast, until Death Eaters appear, torturing and humiliating Muggles (from under their hoods and masks) and the Dark Mark appears in the sky. Winky, a house elf, is blamed, but something seems amiss. Once back at Hogwarts, Harry is mysteriously entered into the Triwizard Tournament (which is supposed to be for only wizards over 17). It is a competition between three wizarding schools: Beauxbatons (in France), Durmstrang (in eastern Europe), and Hogwarts. Harry is the mysterious fourth champion, and duplicate from Hogwarts (Cedric Diggory of Hufflepuff was already chosen). Fleur Delacour represents Beauxbatons and Viktor Krum (star of the Bulgarian quidditch team) is the Durmstrang champion. Harry is bewildered as to why he was entered, but participates just the same. He defeats a dragon to get a golden egg in the first task. He deciphers the story of the egg and realizes he will be underwater for the second task. He saves Ron and Fleur's little sister from the merpeople in the lake next to Hogwarts for the second task, not realizing that it was only magic, and that no one would really have been trapped at the bottom of the lake. He receives high marks in both tasks. For the third task, he enters a maze full of wizarding enchantments. Harry receives help with the tasks from Hagrid, Dobby, and Mad-Eye Moody, a former auror (person whose job was to fight the dark arts), who has been teaching Defense Against the Dark Arts. Viktor dates Hermione, by the way. In the maze, Harry makes it to the end (just barely) with an injured Cedric. They decide to take the cup together, but the cup is a portkey (a magical portal) that transports them to a graveyard. Cedric is killed immediately upon their arrival, to Harry's horror. Peter Pettigrew uses Harry's blood to revive Lord Voldemort (by the way, Harry had been getting visions from inside Voldemort's head throughout the book) and Lord Voldemort takes corporeal form once more. He tries to kill Harry (because he's furious that Harry has managed to survive against him, the most powerful wizard in the world) but their wands connect, and Harry is saved by a spell that brings forth the ghostlike visages of his parents, who tell him what to do. Harry returns to Hogwarts with Cedric's body and announces that Lord Voldemort is back. Dumbledore believes him, though most everyone else doesn't, and Mad-Eye Moody steals Harry away. It turns out that Mad-Eye Moody is really Barty Crouch Jr., the son of a Ministry of Magic official who used to be a Death Eater (sorry, one of Voldemort's followers). It's extremely complicated, but he was impersonating Moody to help Voldemort return to power. He is discovered, but before he can testify, the dementors suck out his soul. Harry is extremely disturbed that Voldemort is back, and back to full power, and the book ends.

Book 5:
The Order of the Phoenix is reformed (the secret rebellion against Lord Voldemort that Harry's parents used to be a part of). Harry is transported to their secret headquarters (which is Sirius's old house, 12 Grimmauld Place) and he is all angsty and upset because (a) he got attacked by dementors in the Muggle world, at his aunt and uncle's house, and he might be expelled from Hogwarts for using magic outside of school (though it was an emergency) and (b) no one has been telling him about what's been happening with Voldemort, and he's terrified Voldemort will appear and kill him at any moment. They return to Hogwarts only to find that Dolores Umbridge, a witch from the ministry, is the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher. She is an extremely evil and nasty witch, and the Ministry refuses to admit that Voldemort has truly returned. Umbridge gets increasingly more powerful at Hogwarts, and eventually overtakes Dumbledore and is appointed Headmistress by the Ministry of Magic. Harry forms the D.A., or Dumbledore's Army, and helps many of his fellow students learn and practice defensive magic (because Umbridge refuses to teach them anything and makes them sit and read the book rather than doing spells). Harry has visions of a dark corridor (which it turns out are coming from Voldemort). He sees a snake attack Mr. Weasley while guarding something for the Order of the Phoenix, and Harry's vision saves Mr. Weasley's life. Frightened by this connection, Dumbledore has Harry take Occlumency lessons from Snape (to learn how to keep Voldemort from invading Harry's thoughts). Harry hates Snape, though, and fails miserably at Occlumency because of this. Harry is tricked by Voldemort into going to the Ministry of Magic (the dark corridor) and the Department of Mysteries, because he thinks Voldemort has Sirius and is torturing him. Evil Umbridge tries to stop Harry and his friends from going to the Ministry, but they lead her into the forest and she gets attacked by centaurs. Harry and Hermione are saved from the centaurs by Grawp, Hagrid's half brother who is a giant. It turns out Voldemort was using Harry to go to the Department of Mysteries to get him to steal a prophecy that concerns the two of them. Harry battles Voldemort's Death Eaters (with the help of some of Dumbledore's Army) and the Order of the Phoenix arrives. The prophecy gets smashed (much to Voldemort's dismay) and no one hears what it says. Sirius is killed by his cousin, Bellatrix Lestrange, a Death Eater, in the battle. Harry is horrified and feels responsible. Dumbledore battles Voldemort, but Voldemort disappears. Harry finds out that the prophecy says that he and Voldemort cannot both live while the other one survives. (Aka, he has to be the one to kill Voldemort, and no one else, OR he will die at the hands of Voldemort).

Book 6:
Harry is depressed after Sirius's death, but he returns to Hogwarts and begins to deal with his grief. Horace Slughorn is hired to teach Potions and Snape becomes the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher. (Snape, by the way, is a double agent, working for the Order of the Phoenix and Voldemort. Unclear where his true loyalty lies, though Dumbledore trusts him completely.) Harry takes private lessons with Dumbledore, during which he learns about Voldemort's past. Harry learns that Voldemort has created 6 horcruxes, which is to say that he has torn his soul into 6 pieces after violent acts. He stored those pieces of soul in extremely powerful magical objects so that no one can kill him without first destroying those 6 pieces of his soul. The diary from Book 2 was one (Harry destroyed it with a basilisk fang). Dumbledore discovers a ring that belonged to Voldemort's family (by the way Voldemort killed his dad and his grandparents because (a) he's evil and (b) his dad left his mom after the love spell she put on him (she was a witch, he was a muggle) wore off and after giving birth to Tom, she died.) and destroys it. Harry goes with Dumbledore on a journey to discover a third Horcrux, by traveling to a distant cave where Voldemort traveled as a child. Harry and Dumbledore barely escape from the cave, and Dumbledore is severely weakened, but they have a locket, which Dumbledore believes is the third Horcrux. Harry suspects that Draco Malfoy is up to something during the whole book, and on the night he goes to the cave with Dumbledore, he asks Ron and Hermione to watch out for Draco while he's gone. We also know (as readers) that Snape took an Unbreakable Vow to protect Draco and fulfill his mission if Draco cannot. We don't know what the mission is. When Harry and Dumbledore return, the Dark Mark is set over the castle (which traditionally meant that Voldemort's Death Eaters had committed a murder). They rush back the castle, and Dumbledore puts a freezing spell on Harry as Draco bursts from the top of the Astronomy tower and disarms Dumbledore. Harry is hidden under his invisibility cloak. We find out Draco used a vanishing cabinet to transport Death Eaters into Hogwarts and his mission is to kill Dumbledore. He is unable to do it, and when Snape arrives on the scene, to Harry's horror, Snape kills Dumbledore. The Death Eaters are battling with students and members of the Order of the Phoenix downstairs. Harry tries to chase Snape, horrorstruck at Dumbledore's murder, but is unable to capture him. Many are injured in the battle, but no one is killed. Bill Weasley (Ron's brother) is attacked by a werewolf, but he doesn't completely become a werewolf. He is scarred for life, but Fleur (his betrothed) still loves him. Dumbledore's funeral is held at Hogwarts. Harry realizes that the locket is a fake, and there is a message from R.A.B. saying that he has stolen the real Horcrux in an attempt to destroy it. Harry doesn't know who this is, and is horrified to find that despite his battle with Dumbledore to get the locket, he is missing yet another Horcrux. Harry realizes he's in love with Ginny in this book, but he has to break up with her because he doesn't want Voldemort to use her to get to him. He tells Ron and Hermione that he won't be returning to Hogwarts because he has to keep on looking for the Horcruxes (a secret only he and Ron and Hermione know). Ron and Hermione promise to accompany him, and he decides to allow them to help him in his battle against Voldemort.

Book 7:
Harry works to destroy the Horcruxes while on the run from Voldemort with Ron and Hermione. They remain constantly hidden and narrowly escape the Death Eaters and Voldemort several times. They discover that R.A.B. was Regulus Black, Sirius's brother, and with the help of Kreacher (a formerly treacherous house elf) they find the real locket. They are unable to destroy it, but they carry it with them. Ron deserts Harry and Hermione because he is too depressed and hungry and downtrodden by their lack of a plan, but he returns (using a gift from Dumbledore's will, the Deluminator). He helps Harry discover the sword of Gryffindor, which Ron then uses to destroy the locket. While on their journey to find Horcruxes, Harry, Ron and Hermione learn of the existence of the Deathly Hallows, three extremely powerful magical objects which, when united by one owner, can defeat death. Harry is tempted to search for these (one is his invisibility cloak, which he owns already, he is convinced one has been left to him by Dumbledore in a locked Snitch (piece of Quidditch equipment), a Resurrection Stone, which brings people back from the dead, and the last is the Elder Wand, or the most powerful wand in the world, which will defeat any other wand.) Harry makes a decision not to go after the Hallows, though he knows Voldemort is close to finding the Elder Wand. Harry also goes through a crisis of faith about Dumbledore, having been told many disturbing stories about his past, and not being able to verify with Dumbledore as to their veracity or lack thereof. This plagues him throughout the book. Harry, Ron and Hermione are captured by the Death Eaters after a mishap, Hermione is tortured using the Cruciatus Curse, but they escape with Dobby's help. Dobby is killed in the escape, to Harry's utter despair, and Harry buries him. They discover (from the Death Eaters) that Voldemort is hiding something in Bellatrix Lestrange's vault in Gringotts, a wizards bank. They hatch a plan and break in. They make it into the vault (Hermione is disguised as Bellatrix) and they find Helga Hufflepuff's cup, which is another Horcrux. They narrowly escape with their lives (riding a dragon out of the depths of the bank's caves) and they have the cup, though no way to destroy it. Harry realizes from a vision that Voldemort now knows that Harry has been destroying Horcruxes. Harry discovers that (other than Voldemort's snake, which we now know is a Horcrux) the last one is at Hogwarts. Snape is headmaster there (to Harry's disgust) and Harry, Ron, and Hermione break back in with the help of Neville and Luna (former members of Dumbledore's Army). Harry discovers the last Horcrux, which is Rowena Ravenclaw's diadem, which Voldemort has hidden in the Room of Requirement, a magical room that conforms to the needs of the wizard's demands. They manage to destroy it (accidentally, using Fiendfyre, a dangerous curse set off by Crabbe, one of Malfoy's lackeys) and they save Goyle (another lackey) and Draco in their escape from the fire. Harry, Ron and Hermione follow Voldemort to the Shrieking Shack in an attempt to kill the snake, but they watch Voldemort murder Snape. It turns out that Snape had killed Dumbledore as part of a master plan. Dumbledore was already dying because he accidentally cursed himself by putting on the second Horcrux, Voldemort's ring. He knew he had only a few months to live, and by asking Snape to kill him, he hoped that the Elder Wand (which we finally realize Dumbledore had won in a duel against Grindelwald, another powerful but evil wizard) would pass to Snape, thereby keeping it from Dumbledore. Voldemort kills Snape so that he can become the true owner of the Elder Wand. As Snape dies, he offers Harry his memories. From these memories, Harry learns that Snape loved Harry's mother, Lily, from when they were children. He turned on Lord Voldemort when he found out his plans to kill Lily, and he spent the years after her death trying to protect Harry in secret. Harry also finds out from Snape's memories that he has to let Voldemort kill him, as part of Voldemort's soul is in Harry because of the curse Voldemort tried to perform on him as a child. So long as Harry lives, Voldemort still lives. Harry approaches Voldemort and Voldemort kills him. Harry sees Dumbledore in his dreams (and or/heaven) and discusses things with him. He discovers that he has not really died, just the part of Voldemort's soul in him died. Harry wakes up but plays dead, letting the Death Eaters show off his body with Voldemort to the rest of the wizards doing battle. Voldemort believes he has won, but while he tortures Neville, Neville breaks free and kills Voldemort's snake. The battle continues, and Harry eventually reappears, to everyone's triumph. He realizes that Draco is the true owner of the Elder Wand (because he disarmed Dumbledore BEFORE Snape killed him) and therefore Harry, who dueled Draco's wand away from him when the Death Eaters captured him earlier in the book, is the True and rightful owner of the Elder Wand. Voldemort tries to kill Harry and Harry casts a spell to disarm Voldemort. Voldemort dies from the rebound of his own curse and the Death Eaters are defeated. Ron's brother Fred dies in the battle, along with Remus Lupin and his wife, Nymphadora Tonks, who just gave birth to their child Teddy and named Harry godfather. Harry is extremely dismayed by all of the tragic deaths, but Voldemort is defeated. The book lurches forward 19 years, and we find that Harry is married to Ginny and has three children (Albus Severus (Snape's first name), Lily, and James). Ron and Hermione are married (did I mention they date from the end of the 6th book on?) and their children are friends with Harry's kids as well as Teddy, Lupin's son. And Voldemort has never returned, which we know because Harry's scar hasn't prickled in 19 years.

Spoiler Over: Continue Here

Whew! Did you make it? I sure did. My hands actually hurt from all this typing. Sheesh! Well, to my lovely blog enthusiasts and devotees, hello! I'm sure you missed me. :) I got caught up in the holidays, as well as in the adventure of the Harry Potters. Ragina, my roommate, yelled at me for saying I was "bogged down" in the Potters, which is truly blasphemous. They are a magical journey, a wild ride, and every minute is joy when I read them. I know that some people will insist on arguing that they are not classic, but if we define classic as "something with lasting worth or a timeless quality", then Harry Potter had better be on the top of that list. Rowling writes with eloquence, humor, compassion, creativity, anger, fear, and delicacy. She handles issues of racial inequality, questions of good and evil, children forced to mature at an alarming rate, and lifelong struggles with demons. And she does it with style.

I don't want to blog too long on these, because, though I love them, I don't want to give them away. I know I'll read them many times in my lifetime (in fact, I already have) and I want to rediscover the magic each time. I told my roommate Ragina that I couldn't really remember the 7th one, and she said, "Well, well. You're in for an adventure. I wish I could go on that adventure with you." And I said, "But surely you can! We must have more than one copy of the book!" To which she replied, "Oh no. I will never be able to read it as if for the first time again. I remember it too well." And it made me think of the children in Narnia, when they can't return to Narnia after a certain age. There is a profound, and sometimes for me, a truly desperate sort of sadness that follows the end of a truly great book, or series of books. And to be able to grow up with the Harry Potters, to follow them as they were physically in the process of being created, was such a pleasure, and one that cannot ever be truly replicated now that the series is complete. Rowling's series were the holders of a magical energy, and now that they are available in a complete set, a tiny bit of that magical energy is lost. I suppose I could hide the books from my children and make them hunt for the later books, but it's really not the same as knowing that the next book in the series doesn't even exist yet.

Now seems like an appropriate time to share this story. Many of you have already heard it. I studied abroad in France the fall of my junior year in college, in 2005. The 6th Harry Potter was released in the summer of that year, I think in June. I read it voraciously, and wept at Dumbledore's death (SORRY - spoiler!). I thought little of the book once I got to France, until I found out my family were huge Harry Potter fans. My host brother was learning the saxophone, and would frequently squeak out the few bars he knew of the Harry Potter theme song from the movies (bum Bum bumbum Bum bum Bum, Bum, Bum bumbum bum, bum bohmmmmm). This was much cuter than my host sister, who frequently practiced the Bach double (right next to my room). She was not so cute.

Anyway, after months of trepidatious dinners, during which I responded only to direct questions from my host mother, I understood an entire dinner conversation. My family had guests over, and they were fervently discussing "arree pottair." I realized what was going on, and proudly waited for my host mother to ask for my opinion. She did, and I declared, triumphant, "Moi, je ne pense pas que Dumbledore est mort. (I don't think Dumbledore is really dead.)" There was a deafening silence at the table, after which my host sister mumbled, "Dumbledore n'est pas mort. Non, Sirius est mort, oui. Mais Dumbledore? Non." (Dumbledore isn't dead. Sirius is dead, but not Dumbledore.) Mortified, I stared blankly into my plate. Conversation sputtered back to life, and I didn't speak at the table again for several weeks. On my way to class several days later, I walked past a book store. I glimpsed a huge Harry Potter sign, scanned it, and then came to an abrupt halt. I stared at the poster again, just to be sure, but there was no denying it. The poster advertised the release of the 6th Harry Potter. The book was to be released in France in two weeks. I had ruined the ending for my entire host family. I find this to be one of the funnier stories from my time abroad now that I can reflect on it, but I'm fairly sure my host sister never looked at me the same way after I so neatly destroyed her potential enjoyment of HP 6. Ah well. I never really liked her anyway, after that terrible violin playing.

Okay, well I'm hungry and I want to watch the Office in 9 minutes, so here are my two nuggets.

I love fantasy because it makes me feel alive in a way that nothing else does. I cry, I laugh, and I feel completely at one with the characters. This will always always always be my favorite genre, and no one will ever convince me otherwise.

I realized that I love fantasy because it allows the characters to become heroes in the battle against evil. In most of the fantasies, there is a somewhat clear line between what is good and what is evil. Sometimes evil is represented by monsters, sometimes by dark magic, and sometimes by humans who have "gone bad." In real life, the line is never so clear. In fact, I think the lines between good and evil have never been so muddled before in the history of time. What I know for sure is that we are all humans, and we all share common things. It may not seem like it, but it is absolutely the case. I can never feel assured that I am "battling evil" because I refuse to believe that anyone or anything is truly the purest form of evil. I, like Anne Frank, will choose rather to believe that there is good in everyone.

I cried like a baby at the end of the 7th book. I'm damn proud of it. I'm proud that I can feel things so acutely, that I can express true joy and true sorrow in the same half hour, and I'm proud that I can enjoy and savor and love the written word. People who don't read fantasies, especially ones that are written as well and as painstakingly and as carefully as the Harry Potters are REALLY MISSING OUT. I'm telling you. If you haven't read the books, or if you've "read a few lines of one, and a few lines of another", go give them a try. They really are masterpieces.

Words can't express my feelings of effusive enthusiasm for the books enough. And if you've read the Harry's, by all means, read them again. Don't you dare get bogged down in them. Get mired in them. Dig deep into the world of Hogwarts and magic and mystery and delight, and after you've drowned in the sumptuous wonder of Rowling's creation, resurface for air, and enjoy the sunlight in the sky, the wind on your face, and the pure mastery of life and existence in this world where evil (a murky and often faceless evil) stands ready to be defeated, battled, and, often, endured.

And I forgot! The title is from Potterwatch, a secret radio station that supporters of Harry create in the 7th book. It's the signoff that Ron, Hermione and Harry hear just before they are captured by the Death Eaters.