Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (novel)/Heartwarming

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


  • To finish off the series, Jo writes in her dedication: "...and to you, if you have stuck with Harry until the very end." A touching nod to all the HP fans—many of whom did start the series as children right around Harry's age and finished it as adults. Personally, as eager as I was to dive headfirst into the final book, that little acknowledgment gave me pause to reflect that after all this time it really was the end, guys!
  • Harry being driven to use the Cruciatus Curse on Amycus Carrow after he spat at Professor McGonagall.
  • This troper's favorite chapter was always The Silver Doe, for the part where Harry and Ron make up. Always.
  • The aftermath of the Gringott's escape. The dragon busts out of the glass roof of the bank, then just stands there, breathing in the fresh air. This troper actually wondered if it had ever been outside before that moment.
    • The DVD commentary suggested it hadn't.
  • "Dobby is happy to be with his friend, Harry Potter."
  • "After all this time?" "Always."
  • When confronted with the possibility of owning the Elder Wand, Harry instead repairs his own wand, which Hermione broke. Awww.
    • Especially heartwarming because Harry has essentially accepted Ollivander's assertions that a wand is sort of like a person, with feelings. To him, his old wand is like a brother or an old friend.
  • These lines:

But he was home. Hogwarts was the first and best home he had known. He and Voldemort and Snape, the abandoned boys, had all found home here...

  • And again,, after the Final Battle, when he saw Dumbledore's portrait...

But Harry had eyes only for the man who stood in the largest portrait directly behind the headmaster's chair. Tears were sliding down from behind the half-moon spectacles into the long silver beard, and the pride and gratitude emanating from him filled Harry with the same balm as phoenix song.

    • Reduces this troper to tears every time she reads it.
  • Harry, on the run from Death Eaters and the Ministry of Magic, visits the house where his parents died, which still stood as a memorial to them. On the sign commemorating his parents, visitors had written graffiti, the latest of which are all messages of support for Harry in his struggle against Voldemort. The reminder that Harry is not as alone as he seems is a very nice moment in what is otherwise perhaps the darkest part of the entire series.
  • The Graveyard scene. After searching for a while, Hermione finds Harry's parents' grave. After seeing it, she calls Harry. Harry, seeing the grave, starts wishing for some flowers. Hermione, as if reading his mind, conjures flowers, and gives them to Harry so that he can put them on the grave. After that, Harry starts crying, and the book describes the tears falling on the snow and melting. Leaving the graveyard, Harry puts an arm around Hermione's waist and she wraps her arm around Harry's shoulder.

"Merry Christmas, Harry."

    • Also, Harry, at the start of the book, tells both Ron and Hermione that they shouldn't come with him. He says they'd be outcasts and hated, and tells them the trouble of going with him, that he isn't worth it, and that they could be killed. Hermione and Ron explain that: Hermione removed her parents' memories of her and sent them to Australia, so that if she dies they won't know, won't care, and will live happily without her; and Ron was tricking everyone (but his family) into thinking he had Dragon Pox, and they will stand with Harry, no matter what.
    • At the end of Half-Blood Prince, Harry breaks up with Ginny because he knows that she'd be in constant danger otherwise. He intends to do essentially the same with Ron and Hermione, but:

Ron: We'll be with you, Harry. At your aunt and uncle's. And then we'll go with you.
Hermione: You said to us once before that there was time to turn back if we wanted to. We've had time, haven't we?
Ron: We're with you, whatever happens.

  • Harry's kisses with Ginny. All of them.
    • Even more so Ron's kiss with Hermione.
  • When at the end Harry has to cast a Patronus. What does he think? About Ron and Hermione.
  • Snape's Pensieved memories of Lily Potter.
    • The significance of the doe Patronus was a biggie. It is an awe-inspiring moment when Harry sees it in the woods and senses a connection to it. No one would have thought in a million years that Snape was capable of making a Patronus or that his Patronus would be the very one that was once Lily Potter's. And Dumbledore's shock that after all those years, Snape's love for Lily did not die and remained the driving force behind protecting Harry...
    • All captured perfectly in the most simple of lines.

Dumbledore: After all this time, Severus?
Snape: Always.

  • Ron, the person who has spent years mocking S.P.E.W., being the one to think of the House Elves' safety.
  • Augusta, Neville's grandmother, gets one when she says she's proud of Neville, for what's probably the first time in the series.
    • Solidifying the above is a moment at the end when it describes Neville, one of the most picked-on, maligned, laughed-at kids in the school, as being 'surrounded by a knot of fervent admirers'. And he earned it by being a total Badass.
  • When {{spoiler|Ron comes back:

Harry: You've sort of made up for it tonight. Getting the sword. Finishing off the Horcrux. Saving my life.
Ron: That makes me sound a lot cooler than I was.
Harry: Stuff like that always sounds cooler than it really was. I've been trying to tell you that for years.

    • The thought that Dumbledore gave Ron the Deluminator so he could always return to his friends is heartwarming in itself.

Ron: He'd known I'd leave, didn't he?
Harry: No, he knew you'd come back.

  • When Harry speaks to the shades of his mother, father, Lupin, and Sirius about dying, right before he believes he is about to die.

Harry: Does it hurt?
Sirius: Dying? Not at all. Quicker and easier than falling asleep.

    • And then right after that: "Harry looked at his mother. 'Stay close to me.'" had me in tears.
  • Luna Lovegood during the battle of Hogwarts:

Luna: "That's right. That's right, Harry... come on think of something happy..."
Harry: "Something happy?"
Luna: "We're all still here. We're still fighting. Come on, now..."

    • Also, Harry and the others go to her room at home and see their faces on the wall with the word "Friends"; it makes you want to cry. Here, for maybe the first time in her life, she has real friends.
      • What makes her mural especially beautiful is that although it isn't created with sorcery, Harry recognizes that there's "something magical" about it nonetheless.
    • After the Battle of Hogwarts, a crowd gathers around Harry, and Luna is refreshingly considerate of Harry's exhaustion. After everything that Harry went through, it was nice to read that someone was thinking of him.

Luna: I'd want some peace and quiet, if it were me.
Harry: I'd love some.
Luna: Use your cloak. *points out the window* Oooh, look! A Blibbering Humdinger!

I don't think you're a waste of space... You saved my life.

  • The Will of Albus Dumbledore: Molly gives Harry his traditional 17th Birthday present: a unique, gold watch. And Harry gets up and hugs her.
    • What makes the watch better isn't just that it's his 17th birthday watch, it's the fact that it belonged to her brother Fabian. She was effectively giving Harry a Weasley hand-me-down, as if to say "you're not just as good as family, you are family."
    • Made even better again considering an obscure line in Philosopher's Stone, when Harry is locked in the cupboard (after the zoo incident, I think) and he considers sneaking into the kitchen for food, but doesn't know if it's late enough that the Dursleys will be asleep. He stays put, wishing he had a watch. Think about that—if he had a watch, he also wouldn't be living with the Dursleys or sleeping under a staircase, he'd be with a family that loves him. Six freakin' books later, JK gives us the payoff for that microscopic scene: he has his watch and a family that truly loves him along with it. Yeah, I think there were a lot of unsaid things in that hug after all.
    • Fabian and Gideon, Molly's brothers, were killed by Death Eaters. She gave Harry one of the few mementos of her brother that she still had. Considering that their deaths are probably a major reason why she was so overprotective...
  • Near the end, when Harry and Dumbledore talk and Harry tells Dumbledore about Grindelwald protecting his grave.

"Perhaps that lie to Voldemort was his attempt to make amends... to prevent Voldemort from taking the Hallow..."
"...or maybe from breaking into your tomb?" suggested Harry, and Dumbledore dabbed his eyes.

  • "Here lies Dobby, a free elf."
  • As much as people may not like to admit it, even the Malfoys get one of these. It's ridiculously obvious that both Lucius and Narcissa are way over their Fantastic Racism tendencies and just want to go back to a normal life. Narcissa, the mildest member of the family, is understandably terrified not only for own life, but also for her husband, and is blatantly sickened at the scarring Voldemort is inflicting on her son by making him party/privy to acts of torture and murder.
    • Draco is revealed to have some humanity when he is stricken by Crabbe's death, despite the fact that Crabbe was willing to kill him along with Harry at one point. All of this builds up to the Crowning Moment of Heartwarming when Narcissa checks Harry's "corpse", realizes he's alive, and totally escapes the Moral Event Horizon by asking him if Draco is in the castle (i.e. is he okay/alive). Lucius joins her in doing this when he and wife more or less refuse to care about any more bloodshed and simply look for their son. Later, once it was all over, all three sit down like shellshocked war refugees and consider themselves lucky they have each other.
    • The fact that Narcissa actually managed to lie to Voldemort, who was renowned as a master of Legilimency, earns her a Crowning Moment of Awesome as well. That's right, snake-boy, you better not mess with the mother protecting her child. (That's actually twice that he tried and twice that he got pwned.)
    • The end of the line describing the last battle, where it says "...and Lucius and Narcissa Malfoy running through the crowd, not even attempting to fight, screaming for their son," is a sure tear-up moment.
    • During the fire in the Room of Requirement, Draco also shows some humanity by attempting to drag an unconscious Goyle to safety instead of abandoning him to save his own skin.
    • It gets even better in the epilogue when Harry and his friends bear Draco no true lasting hatred.
  • "NOT MY DAUGHTER, YOU BITCH!!"
    • The entire scene that followed, when contrasted with the the Molly vs. boggart scene in OoTP. There, Molly had been unable to cast a simple spell because of her fear for her family's safety. Here, when it really counted, she went full badass to protect them, even claiming her right to fight the most murderous and psychopathic witch in the series - and, of course, winning.
  • Snape's last words, "Look at me"—wanting to see Lily's eyes again before he died.
    • The film adaptation doesn't stop there. "You have your mother's eyes..."
  • When Percy comes back at the end, and that entire reunion scene.
    • Especially the moment between him and Mr. Weasley when Percy simply looks at him sadly and says 'Dad, I'm sorry.' It's just a small, quiet, but incredibly heartwarming father-son moment.
    • And the fact that out of all the people there, the one who reacted the worst to Fred's death was Percy. It just showed that he really did love his brothers, despite all the differences between them. Just the idea of him clinging to Fred's body made me sob like a baby. And that he was the one who wouldn't let go! Percy needs a hug!
  • "He spat at you."
    • It's a testament to the quality of Rowling's characters that every reader who knew Harry and McGonagall could instantly feel why Harry performed the Cruciatus curse just for that - no descriptions of his anger were necessary.
    • Just the sheer love for the teachers and Hogwarts, and the hate for Voldemort and his Death Eaters.
  • No love for Kreacher? He's involved in two in Deathly Hallows. For as sad as his backstory with Regulus Black was, it's Harry's first act of genuine kindness towards him (and Kreacher's reaction to receiving his former beloved master's locket) proving Dumbledore's words that provoked more tears. Not only was Kreacher so moved that he stayed to help Harry despite technically being free, but he even gets his own Crowning Moment of Awesome by leading the Hogwarts house elves in counterattack against the Death Eaters... in Harry's name.

Kreacher: Fight! Fight! Fight for my Master, defender of house-elves! Fight the Dark Lord, in the name of brave Regulus! Fight!

  • All of Potterwatch. The whole thing. In a time of fear and chaos, a few brave people risk their lives to give hope to everyone via a regular radio broadcast. It's especially a Crowning Moment when they say that, if Harry is listening, they're all rooting for him.
  • When Lupin travels to Shell Cottage to deliver the news of the birth of his son, and immediately seizes Harry in an embrace and asks him to be godfather, their previous argument forgotten.
  • During the Battle of Hogwarts, after Molly Weasley kills Bellatrix Lestrange (do we actually need spoilers?) Voldemort attempts to kill her, but Harry protects her and reveals himself. Why is that important? Because Harry has, for most of his life, lost many loved ones and mentors, several times right in front of him, and with him unable to do anything. His parents, James and Lily? Dead when he was one. His godfather Sirius? Fell through the Veil of Death and a few meters from Harry, who later realised he could have prevented it. Dumbledore? He has been immobilized by Dumbledore and can only watch as Snape kills him (of course, it was a Mercy Kill, but still...). Alastor Moody? Dead at Voldemort's hand, while he tried to distract him from finding Harry. Remus Lupin, his last connection to his parents? Killed by Dolohov while he looked for Voldemort's last Horcrux? Nymphadora Tonks, Remus' wife? Killed by Bellatrix Lestrange in the same circumstances as Remus. Fred Weasley? Killed by Augustus Rookwood just a few minutes after Percy appeared and reconciled with his family. Severus Snape, who had been protecting him out of love towards Lily Potter? Killed by Voldemort, right in front of his eyes. Molly Weasley is probably one of the few adults with whom he still has a connection based in love, she has been his sort of adoptive mother ever since they met, they love each other like mother and son... and finally, finally, Harry can do something to prevent someone from being killed, and Harry eventually manages to do what he hasn't been able to do for nearly seventeen years.
  • Just the very nature of the relationship between Regulus Black and Kreacher.
  • It's a small one, but when you discover that Rufus Scrimgeour died to protect Harry, you realise that even the ultimately dislikable characters can be amongst some of the bravest.
  • The epilogue.
    • The names of Harry and Ginny's children, and the fact that Teddy has obviously been well cared for and loved by his godparents after both his parents died when he was less than three months old. So it's cheesy; so it's cliche; it's still lovely to know that things turn out for the better after all.
    • And discovering that Harry had given his son the middle name of Severus, even calling Snape "the bravest man I ever knew", took my breath away.
    • Throughout the series, the Slytherin House was always filled with evil, horrible people who all became dark wizards, with few exceptions to the rule. In the epilogue, Young Albus wangsts about being put into Slytherin, and Harry assures him that there is nothing wrong with that house, that it is just as good as any other. It seemed, finally, after years of hearing only the worst parts of Slytherin, Harry (and JKR as well) pointed out that one house of people may not be solely bad or good, but then completely ruins it by basically telling the whiny little brat to just choose Gryffindor.
    • Not really; Harry told Albus that if he truly had a problem being sorted into Slytherin, the Sorting Hat would take his choice into account. It was a call-back to the first book.
    • On that same note about their naming, although lesser in terms of sheer dramatic impact; as a huge fan of Luna (she became my favorite character in the books upon her introduction)... there was just something oddly and simply heartwarming about her getting their daughter's middle name. Out of all the friends they had made, all of whom fought together and bled together, most of whom they had known for longer; it was Luna's they chose to pass onto their kid. A simple statement, but very, truly heartwarming nonetheless.
  • "The scar had not pained Harry for nineteen years. All was well."
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