Hogwarts and Beyond

Remember how sad it was in the previous installment of HP and the Deathly Hallows, when Harry and the gang couldn't return to Hogwarts for fear of, you know, getting murdered?

Well, that all changes this time around: a big portion of the movie takes place at the school.

The kids start out at Bill and Fleur's house, recovering from their adventures on Malfoy Manor and Dobby's death, but Harry quickly gets on the move—he has Horcruxes to find and all. After a misadventure in Bellatrix Lestrange's vault to retrieve one of those Horcruxes, the kids are headed back to Hogwarts to take care of the final ones.

Unfortunately, Harry's arrival at Hogwarts = the castle is immediately besieged by Death Eaters. But do you think a few (hundred) Death Eaters could take down Hogwarts? Yeah, right. The entire school (well, except for Slytherin) comes together to take on Voldemort. The castle's statues even join in the fun and do battle with the Dark Lord's cronies.

Anyway, magical statues and cool pyrotechnics aside, it's appropriate that this is where the story ends, since Hogwarts has been a super important place to both Harry and Voldemort. After all, it's where their journeys as wizards began, right?

And it's where one of their stories ends. For good.