Nine Reasons Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows would have been Better at Hogwarts

So this has been rattling around in my head for quite some time now--an inappropriately long time. It wasn't until I was driving down a certain snowy road when it popped into my head, this really weird chain of thoughts (it was really early in the morning and I hadn't had coffee yet. So sue me): Once, when I drove down this road as a kid, I was watching Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone in the backseat. That snowy forest over there looks a lot like the forest where Harry and his friends spent a lot of Book Seven camping. Pity they weren't at Hogwarts in Book Seven. 

 The more I thought about it, the more I realized that I (as so rarely ever occurs) was right. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows should have been set at Hogwarts. Yes, Harry's isolation from his peers creates a sense of foreboding and doom. Yes, Hogwarts had been taken over by the Death Eaters. Yes, it allowed us to further explore the wizarding world. But I argued this point with my equally Harry Potter obsessed roommate last night for an hour and a half, and she finally gave in (according to her, she didn't give in, only admitted that I have a point. Whatever. It's the first argument I've ever come close to winning). 

The ability to spend an hour and a half arguing about a work of fiction is one of the more useful skills they teach you at Cornell. 

First off, four plot reasons.

1. Harry would be safer at Hogwarts. Now, obviously, he couldn't just hop on the school train and motor down there, but there's other ways to get there. He and Ron fly to school in an invisible car in Book Two, and Harry's an expert on ways to sneak on and off school grounds. He could have had Kreacher Apparate him in (the chapter at Malfoy Manor establishes that house elves can bring people with them under wards and Voldemort doesn't know this). Heck, eventually he uses a tunnel into the Room of Requirement (which I will now call the RoR, because I'll be talking about it a lot) to sneak in. Why didn't he just tell Neville to open one at a set place and time? Or why not use a Portkey? We know from Book Four that a Portkey can get you in and out of Hogwarts. Once you're in the RoR, you're safe--you can make it so that no one who'll hurt you can get inside. Yes, it's dangerous, but so is wandering around in the wilderness when you have minimal camping experience and, besides, Harry  functions best when he's in mortal danger, as every single book goes out of their way to demonstrate.
2. It's easier for Harry to find the Horcruxes at Hogwarts. Obviously, there's one hidden there, but there's more stuff he can use. Harry knows there's one thing there that can destroy Horcruxes--the basilisk fangs. He destroyed a Horcrux with one in Book Two. This entirely eliminates the need for the Sword of Gryffindor subplot (on a side note, Harry could also go and hide down in the Chamber of Secrets. Only Voldemort can open it and why would Voldemort think to look for him there? Voldemort doesn't know Harry can speak Parseltongue). Harry and friends would have an easier time doing things like plotting their break-in at Gringotts if they had access to the books in the Hogwarts library. Also, if they could access the school's employee records, they could have discovered Umbridge's address and her emergency contact information. Using those things, they could have ambushed her and stolen back the missing locket without having to break into the Ministry of Magic. 
3. At Hogwarts, Harry has way more help. Neville, Ginny, and Luna form a secondary trio of characters that help him quite a lot in books Five and Six. We get tidbits of information about them during Book Seven and learn that they're trying their best to resist the Death Eaters controlling Hogwarts by restarting Dumbledore's Army. You remember, the student anti-Dark Arts club Harry started in Book Five and spent a good part of the book training to fight against the Death Eaters. That's exactly what they do in Book Seven . . . unfortunately  we don't get to witness any of it until the final battle. Instead, Neville Longbottom takes over from Harry as the leader of the student resistance. Not only do we not get to witness the student resistance, Neville is nowhere near as good at fighting the Dark Arts as Harry is. Which brings me to my next point.
4. Harry has a moral responsibility to come back to Hogwarts. When he meets Neville in the tunnel leading back into the RoR, right before the final battle, Neville offhandedly mentions some of the things the horrible Carrow siblings have been doing to students. Kids get beaten up, tortured, are forced to torture other kids, get knife wounds to the face, taken hostage, chained up, tortured some more--some as young as eleven years old! In The Hunger Games, Katniss volunteers to be sent to certain death to save a twelve year old (who's her sister, but still). Harry's reaction to the same kind of evil is to go into hiding. He got the highest OWL score in Defense Against the Dark Arts of any student in his year. His presence, even if he was in hiding, would have provided a huge moral boost for the student resistance, and he could have coordinated with the teachers to help protect the kids. If you give Hermione the Invisibility Cloak and put her in the library, she will eventually find out where the Horcruxes are hidden. There is no need for Harry to be on an extended camping trip that doesn't actually help him accomplish anything. Yes, it's dangerous, but there are children being tortured, Harry. You're the hero. Hello?

And here's my five literary reasons. 

1. It would have allowed the Harry/Ginny relationship to develop much better. In a story that's primarily about Harry and his two best friends, this romance always seemed a little forced. Harry and Ginny are friends, but I never detected any real chemistry between them. Sure, that's normal for a teenage relationship--but Book Seven is about these characters progressing into adulthood. Part of that progression is (I hate to say it in a Harry Potter article) sexual maturation. Now, I'm not saying I want an actual sex scene (Ron would kill him), but the proximity of danger could have sparked a little more chemistry between the two. Instead, we see the lonely Harry sitting in his tent and following Ginny's movements with the Marauder's Map. Tracing your girlfriend's every move may be a typical (horrible) teenage behavior, but it sure doesn't make me hope they get married at the end.
2. We would have seen the resistance. The text mentions that Hagrid threw a 'Support Harry Potter Party' and then fled into the woods with the help of the giants. This would have been a great scene, had we actually seen it--Harry, discovering the plans and trying in vain to talk Hagrid out of it, brief moments of joy and celebration, and fleeing as the Death Eaters swoop down on the hut. While he's not searching for Horcruxes, Harry could lead guerrilla forays through the halls of Hogwarts. This could have filled in quite a few dry spots and, come on, Harry Potter and the Hogwarts Resistance is a way cooler book title. Since the Deathly Hallows don't really have much of an impact on the way the story turns out (the wand can just be a really powerful want, the cloak has been there since day one, and the stone doesn't really matter), let Harry connect with his friends and supporters, instead of isolating him from everything at the key point of the story.
3. Hogwarts is so important to Harry. When he walks into Gringotts for the Great Horcrux Heist,  he thinks of how Hagrid brought him here on his eleventh birthday ("the best birthday of his life") and how he could have never dreamed he'd return to steal. It's a real poignant moment, but one that's a thousand times stronger at Hogwarts. This is the first place he ever felt happy, his childhood sanctuary, and it's being defiled by the Death Eaters. Instead of welcoming new students, they're torturing them. To see his powerful teachers made helpless and his sanctuary turn into  a war zone would kill Harry inside--which is exactly why he needs to be there. Seeing this would both push him into adulthood and galvanize him to keep fighting. There would be no time for Emo Potter sitting in the woods and wishing he had the Deathly Hallows, which again, have no real impact on the story at large. The Death Eaters have violated his most sacred sanctuary. So does Harry run or confront them? What makes a better story? 
4. Finally, without Hogwarts, it's not a Harry Potter book. Lots of fantasy stories have wandering around in forests. Only Harry Potter has Hogwarts. There's a formula the books follow: Harry spends miserable summer with Dursleys, something magical happens, Harry goes off to school,  learns stuff, there's something weird going on, Harry solves the mystery, big fight, and Harry goes home. The reason this formula is so successful is that everyone who's ever been to school can relate to it. Hogwarts isn't just a set piece, it's the universe in which these stories take place. Without it, we loose our key connection to this world. We're just as isolated as Harry. The rich world Rowling has created is meant to be explored, of course--but not in the forests. In the places she's created. 
5. Come on. Harry Potter and the Hogwarts Resistance? Awesome title or what?

And for those of you who say that Harry would have never found out about the location of the Horcrux  in the Lestrange vault if he hadn't been taken to Malfoy Manor, keep in mind that this happened over Hogwarts winter break and Luna had been captured and brought there. Harry might have very well decided to rescue Luna and gotten captured for his troubles. And if Snape had given Harry the real sword as per Dumbledore's instructions (which would have been easier at Hogwarts!), he might have very well had it on him there!