Well, I have put it off long enough but unfortunately, we have to give the V man some time too. I must admit I was pretty freaked out by all his scenes, and the fact that he didn’t have a proper face tripped me out. He was totally evil to the core. He was pretty much born bad. There didn’t seem to be a catalyst of change and there was certainly no redeeming feature of his personality. I suppose sometimes the villains are just the villains. We don’t always NEED a redemption arc. This was interesting though, as all the other characters seemed to understand that sometimes you were good, and at times you were bad, but there was usually a history or a reason. Every time I had to read the words ‘Avada Kedavra’ I sucked in so sharply I was in danger of causing myself a mischief. Haunting stuff. Even the Death Eaters were mostly just obeying from fear, and probably a small bit due to the fact they saw him suspend and kill a teacher, and who am I to judge? I would have let Kreacher ride on my back Yoda-style if Voldemort told me too. Until he had to talk to me, because whenever he went to speak he was super high pitched in his delivery and that just made me laugh. I was trying to get the image of the Alpha Doberman from ‘UP’ out of my head, and describing it ‘cold and calculating’ wasn’t really doing it for me on that front. Terrifying visually, but audibly hilarious. Kind of like that Goat that screams at Taylor Swift songs. No one else find Goats absolutely horrifying to look at? No?

Aside from his voice though, I did find the fact that he was always able to see where Harry was quite a lot scarier than it should have been. It’s that fear of the unknown, when the unknown is constantly hunting you down. The catalyst moment in the final book where he had the genius thought of cursing his own name? Forget about it. Reading Harry utter those words and knowing what it would bring on, or not knowing more to the point, was truly petrifying. It meant that I developed a totally irrational fear of being whipped out of bed by some horrible people, and forced to kill other innocent people with a wand. Got PTSD from the time I read V for Vendetta. I really don’t want to be bald! I didn’t instantly recognise all the things that he was doing towards the end (finding Ollivander etc) or the reasons why, I was a bit slow on the up take there. The clear way Harry spelled it out piece by piece once he had sussed it, meant Rowling was obviously expecting some people like me to be reading. Granted they would have been a bit younger than I was!

The first big time that he turns up with all his cronies in the graveyard (not creepy at all by the way) during the Tri-Wizard Tournament is a bit menacing and tense, but I was quite bored by the end of that book. This continued on to the next book too. It wasn’t the size of ‘The Order’, it was the content. I didn’t find it all that interesting and read a few things in between as I had to keep putting it down. I have since heard others say the same thing, and at the time I knew I was totally bored with it, but it’s still not meant to be taken as a criticism. The Order of the Phoenix was completely necessary for filling in gaps and bridging them all together, it was just a bit hard going. Saying that, I was slightly surprised that he battled him so early on. While I understand that leaving it to the final battle might have felt a bit lingering, I personally would have found that terrifying. Building it up through his Occlumency and then in the final book he catches up with him! Chilling. Thankfully not everyone’s like me.