Harry Potter: The Last Words Of Dying Characters

Harry Potter was never just about the adventures of a young wizard thrust into a magical universe, but also about the eternal struggle between good and evil, right and wrong, light and darkness. In fact, Harry’s backstory is replete with tragedy, and his entire saga is marked by death and loss, concepts that keep resonating throughout the books.

From the precocious House-elf Dobby to the ultimate anti-hero Severus Snape, several important characters call it lights out at various times during the series, leaving fans sobered. Let’s take a look at their dying words, some of which drive fans to tears even today, while some are simply a window to the characters themselves.

Lily Potter

“… have mercy…”

Lily Potter’s death practically set in motion the wheels for the entire series. She died at her home in Godric’s Hollow trying to protect infant Harry, whom Voldemort was hell-bent on murdering.

Lily’s last words were an ardent request to the Dark Lord to let her little boy live. As the books reveal by and by, the fact that she made the ultimate sacrifice for her son sealed Harry with her love, a form of old magic that proved powerful enough to keep him safe in years to come. Lily’s dying words were a testament to her desperate desire to save her child.

Dobby

“…Harry Potter.”

One of the most tragic moments in Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows Part I came when Dobby was murdered by Bellatrix Lestrange’s knife as he was disapparating from the Malfoy Manor with Harry and his friends.

Irrespective of the unpopular opinions by Harry Potter fans on Reddit, Dobby had been a loyal friend to Harry. The final words he said were, very aptly, almost an ode to the Boy Wizard who held him as he breathed his last. He had believed in Harry Potter and allied with him in the fight against the dark forces, for better or for worse. It seemed like perfect poetic justice that he should be content in his last moments, dying in Harry’s arms.

Cedric Diggory

“Who are you? What do you want?”

Cedric Diggory became one of the earliest victims of what would soon be the Dark Lord’s new reign of terror. Completely at the wrong place at the wrong time, he died suddenly and unnecessarily, and with so little ceremony that it left fans stunned.

Cedric was, however, a brave young man right until his last moments when he died from Peter Pettigrew’s killing curse. Even though Harry repeatedly urged him to get back to the cup, which might have worked as a portkey back to the school, he held his ground, addressing Wormtail, never once suspecting that he was in such terribly imminent danger.

Fred Weasley

“Yeah”

The Weasley brothers had always been fan favorites with their incessant mischief-making and hearts of gold. Fred’s death thus left audiences devastated, his last words before taking the fall in the battle of Hogwarts being, very appropriately, to his brother, George. The twins were always deeply attached to one another and fans could only imagine what the death of one would have done to the other.

Just as the final battle was starting in full swing, the twins stood staring out at the flush of colors in the sky from all the protective charms and spells that had been cast over and around the school. As George asked him whether he was okay, Freddie replied in the affirmative, never knowing that might be one of the last words he would speak. Very poignantly, fans might have noticed his eyes glistening with tears for the first time ever, right before his off-screen death.

Bellatrix Lestrange

“Yes!”

The ruthlessly and gleefully violent Bellatrix was something of a right-hand man for Voldemort. She was certainly the most heartless and powerful of the Death-Eaters in Harry Potter and didn’t gain any brownie points with fans when she murdered Sirius in front of Harry in book five.

Bellatrix was killed by Molly Weasley in the final battle of Hogwarts. The latter took her to task to protect her daughter Ginny. The vicious Death Eater’s last word was a delighted whoop at casting an aggressive spell at Molly, only to be attacked by her before finally biting the dust. It seems reasonable that someone like her should have died at the hands of another witch, and that her dying word should be one of gloating.

Remus Lupin

“Me.”

Remus Lupin’s death was heartwrenching. As he and Shacklebolt realize that they are vastly outnumbered during the final battle of Hogwarts, he comes up with an inspirational quote about the quality of one’s conviction, and not their numerical strength, determining success.When Shacklebolt questions the authenticity of the quote, Lupin smiles ever so slightly, informing him that he had come up with the quote himself. Thus, his last word before Harry finds him dead beside his wife, also dead.

A man who had firmly chosen his side from the very beginning, Lupin had been something of a father figure to Harry in the absence of James, and then Sirius Black. Kind, loyal, and the humble product of his lifelong struggles with lycanthropy, he died as he had lived–fighting.

Sirius Black

“Nice one, James!”

Talking of father figures, Sirius, Harry’s godfather, and a great friend of James and Lily had very briefly appeared in Harry’s life as a beacon of hope. Harry had dreamed of living with Sirius, far away from the toxic ambiance of the so-called home he had had the Dursleys.

Yet, in the fifth book, Sirius’s sudden death left him, and readers, dazed and shocked. Interestingly, right before his death, Sirius had been fighting Death Eaters at the Department of Mysteries in the Ministry of Magic alongside Harry. He had been on the warpath, routing his enemies when he gets hit by Bellatrix Lestrange’s killing curse and falls through the veil into his death. His last words addressed at Harry, subconsciously and heartbreakingly, refer to his attachment to his friend, and Harry’s father, James, with whom he must have fought many a good fight.

Severus Snape

“…You have your mother’s eyes…”

Probably one of the most heartbreaking deaths in the Harry Potter series was that of Severus Snape, whose character is deconstructed in the final moments when it is revealed to Harry that Snape had always been much more than the murderous villain that fans and Harry himself had regarded him to be.

Snape’s last words imply his urgent desire to get a glimpse of Lily Potter’s eyes, a woman he had loved his entire life and for whose death he felt largely responsible. Harry is constantly reminded throughout the series that he has his mother’s eyes. It was thus a profoundly layered tragedy when Snape wanted to look into Harry’s eyes, a boy he had openly loathed, simply to see Lily in him before he died.

Albus Dumbledore

“Severus…Please!”

The most powerful of wizards in the Potterverse, Albus Dumbledore’s death at the end of Harry Potter And The Half-Blood Prince was completely unexpected. Surrounded by Death Eaters on all sides, Dumbledore appears to be making helpless entreaties to Snape, only to be killed by him most cruelly.

Yet, as fans find out later, he had orchestrated his own death. By having Snape murder him in front of the Death Eaters, Dumbledore had with one genius stroke saved young Draco–who had been tasked with killing him by Voldemort– from being scarred for life, and ensured that Snape would become Voldemort’s most trusted lieutenant. His dying words are therefore a mark of the extremely shrewd and clever man that he had always been.

Voldemort

“Avada Kedavra”

The evilest character in Harry Potter, Voldemort utters the killing curse in a desperate bid to end Harry in the final book. The curse rebounds since Harry was already the master of the Elder Wand and therefore immune, making ‘Avada Kedavra’ the Dark Lord’s dying words.

This is of course immensely appropriate since one of the greatest dark wizards of all times could go out in no other way. Voldemort, in his lifetime, was responsible for torturing and murdering millions of innocent souls. He had also made unimaginable strides in the dark arts, all of which had culminated in a bloodbath. It made sense, therefore, that his last words before he died himself would be the curse he must have used on innocents many times before.

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