PoA Chapter Seventeen

[sistermagpie.livejournal.com]

Don’t want to get anyone’s hopes up but judging by the title this is a chapter where actual important stuff happens that relates to the title of the book and everything!

Harry’s mind has gone blank with shock. Do I need to make a joke about that not being a change for Harry?

It actually took me a minute to remember what that line was talking about. It’s one of the weird things about this Buckbeak story. It’s the classic “Keep the animal from being put to sleep” story only the kids have no actual emotional investment in keeping the animal alive. Yeah, they care about Hagrid but they also know he’s irresponsible in this area and they usually have to pay for it. It’s not like any of them have any attachment to Buckbeak that justifies minds going blank with shock.

Hermione, especially, just spent the whole book being singularly insensitive to peoples’ dead pets as if she just didn’t get the problem. Suddenly she’s transfixed with horror at the idea and choking at someone daring to put down a wild animal.

Ron’s rat runs away, followed by Crookshanks, followed by Ron, followed by Harry and Hermione. The last two can’t run under the invisibility cloak, so they hold on to it, “streaming like a banner.” Which is weird because it’s streaming like an invisible banner.

Ron’s getting dragged into the willow is pretty good. The leg-breaking is pretty harsh!

Basically the whole trip through the tunnel with the animals leading them is pretty good. Yup, I was right. This is the good chapter. This whole section is the reason I always think this book should be my favorite and yet it’s not.

Why is there furniture in the Shrieking Shack? Wouldn’t a padded cell look be more appropriate for its purposes? Or just a doggie bed, wee wee pads and chew toys?

I guess Sirius could have turned into himself before carrying Ron upstairs, but it’s just too funny to imagine Ron getting dragged upstairs by a big black dog, bumping his head on every step. Sucks to be Ron.

Sirius Black emerges from the shadows. Hey, that’s the guy from the title! Glad to see you, FINALLY!

Sirius disarms Harry and Hermione. So he’s the master of their wands now, right? *rolls eyes*

Sirius reminds us that he’s, well, who he is by commenting that it was “brave” of Harry and Hermione not to run for a teacher when their friend was dragged into a tree by a large animal. Even if it plays right into his seemingly nefarious plans for them it was the right choice.

Ron vows that if Sirius wants to kill Harry he’ll have to kill them too. I mention this only because I’m pretty sure Steve Kloves expelliariumsed this line of Ron’s and presented it to Hermione along with every other admirable thing he could get his hands on in this movie, so I’ve heard.

Harry hulks out, daring Sirius to kill everybody in the room. I’m sure Ron, at least, appreciates this line of trash talk.

The description of Harry forgetting he’s small, skinny and 13 and only wanting to hurt Sirius without caring if he gets killed in return, is probably the essence of goodness according to this series. This is courage in its purest, least diluted form. And Slytherins can’t ever have it because even in their most angry moments they’d probably still be afraid of something.

Harry hears a voice in his head telling him to kill Sirius. Years ago I read a theory about how the voice in Harry’s head directing him to do something in GoF was Ginny’s because she was his true love. So now every time Harry has one of these “voice in the head” moments I imagine it’s Ginny. And certainly this is something HBP!Ginny would order him to do here, at least.

Harry can’t kill Sirius. Too bad he’s not meeting him a few years from now where he’d be able to throw a few Crucios. You know, just to assure us that he can and thus is even more heroic when he shows you mercy.

Lupin arrives to save the day! And I’m sure he hasn’t forgotten anything important…

Lupin expelliariumses everybody’s wand. So now he’s the master of everybody’s wand. Or just the one Sirius was using? Or just the ones where the people who owned them were holding them. Something like that.

Harry feels like a failure for not killing Sirius since now he’s going to be handed over to the Dementors. Yeah, that’s…not sure what the problem is there, Harry. That’s worse than being killed.

Lupin hugs Sirius like a brother. Harry and Hermione are all, “OH NO HE DIDN’T!”

Lupin hugs Sirius like a brother. Or in slash terms, Lupin hugs Sirius like an old lover with whom he will be having sex again as soon as possible.

Oy. Lupin, following Sirius’s lead, decides to hug Sirius before explaining everything, so now he has to fight through a chorus of “Shut up!” and “I trusted you!” before he can explain everything. Explain first, emote later, people!

Hermione reveals she knew Lupin was a werewolf. Lupin tells Hermione she’s the cleverest of witch of her age he’s ever met. Frankly I’m surprised the whole school wasn’t buzzing with the rumor that Lupin was a werewolf. Wouldn’t everybody notice those symptoms if they knew werewolves existed? Particularly if the guy’s name was Remus Lupin?

Lupin, continuing his usual method of discipline, watched the Trio leave the castle because he was afraid they might, but didn’t go out and get them.

Peter’s not very good at being a rat. I’d like to see somebody try to keep a real rat in his pocket under these circumstances.

But that’s not a rat, it’s…Peter Pettigrew! Dun dun DUNNN! Okay, admit it. Best reveal in the whole series.

Can’t wait till Snape gets here, though.

Things that happen more than once:

The Trio takes the same long walk down the tunnel as Snape took all those years ago.

An innocent prisoner seems to be punished for a crime. That seems to be the whole idea with Buckbeak. He’s not an animal, he’s a person innocent of a crime and being executed for it. Except that Buckbeak actually did attack Draco and Sirius didn’t kill the Potters or anyone else. I guess it comes down to the book’s belief that “he started it” or “he looked at me funny” or “he wanted killing, your honor” really is a solid defense.

Harry’s inability to kill Sirius when he’s finally got him where he wants him is like Draco (who already set up the parallel earlier) not killing Dumbledore. Only Harry’s freezing says good things about his character where Draco’s hesitation just says he’s a pussy.

Harry’s carefully praised for being brave over being smart.

He’s an animagus! Just like Rita in the next book!

It’s a gun. No it isn’t! It’s Chekov! No it isn’t!
Sirius is a pale-eyed dog
Status: fired and you didn’t even know it was a gun. I suspect Sirius and Draco having the same color eyes was a clever hint to their connection by blood.

Who’s that dog and why’s he hanging out with Crookshanks?
Status: Fired, neatly.

Is this Sirius Black guy ever going to show up?
Status: Fired, finally.

Scabbers’s missing toe
Status: Fired, surprisingly.

Snape’s poisoning Lupin
Status: Fired, lycanthropically.

Harry wants to kill Sirius
Status: Not fired, thematically.




The Cricket Rule
Day-for-Night
Chirping up a storm by now.

Idiot Picture
What is it with Gryffindors and explaining things quickly? Honestly Sirius, holding on to the story is what got you put in Azkaban to begin with! After all these years you’d think you’d want to spit it out fast.

James Bond Exposition Rule
Sirius is very committed to the opposite of this in this chapter, making sure not to say anything to explain his true position to Harry, even while Harry’s attacking him.

Not to be undone, Lupin then yammers on about how he got his job as a teacher instead of explaining the same stuff Sirius refused to explain.

Light Bulb Moment
“But then…why hasn’t he shown himself before now? Unless…unless he was the one…unless you switched…without telling me?”

Misdirected Answering
No really, the psycho murderer will just sit here next to the kid with the broken leg as the moon rises in the sky and Snape rushes through the tunnel. Go head, Lupin, and tell us how Dumbledore totes made you a teacher even though you’re a werewolf because he’s just that tolerant. And how’d you get the idea for the Marauder’s Map? And why’d your friends call you Moony?

POV Shots
Harry and Hermione run through the tunnel following Crookshank’s fuzzy tail.

Spring-Loaded Cat
All that training of Crookshanks’s has been for this scene.

Jabootu score 8

Comments

[lissa2.livejournal.com]

"Although Deathly Hallows has changed it all, because Lupin knew full well that he REMAINED THE MASTER of those wands that he handed back. He was NEVER in any danger at all!"
I expect that the "JO defense army" respond to that would be that nobody in the WW besides wandmakers knew about the "wand will change alliance if taken by force" rule.
That would explain why learning this rule wasn't part of the Hogwarts curriculum. But otoh it's very unbelievable that wandmakers could still keep it a secret from the general public after centuries of conflicts between wizards.
And why keep it a secret anyway?

[madderbrad.livejournal.com]

Well, regardless of whether the wand rules were known by the general public before Rowling dreamed them up in desperation once she sat down to start writing DH, the fact remains that wands were doing weird things in that last book. Harry couldn't use Hermione's wand as well as his own. Draco's worked better for him. We hear all about the Elder Wand.

So things were clearly wonky with the wands in DH. Doing things, having problems, that had NEVER been seen in all the previous books.

I've come across some really desperate arguments from various Jo disciples. The wands are fully sentient. The Elder Wand didn't 'decide' whom it was going to obey until the last second. It only decided to obey Harry because Harry raised the issue (if Voldemort had said "no, *I* am the master of the Elder Wand", the aforesaid wand would have decided to stick with him, you see. ;)). And so forth.

On the other hand, the actual canon - that the Elder Wand was able to pick up Harry's slapping Malfoy's OTHER wand out of his hand when it was hundreds of miles away at the time - and decided to honour that - is just as stupid.

[jodel-from-aol.livejournal.com]

And don't forget the amazing auto-defense wand in the escape from Privet Dr.

[lissa2.livejournal.com]

So you don't think that the explanation for the auto-defense wand that Dumbledore gave to Harry in the "King's cross" chapter was sufficient?

[madderbrad.livejournal.com]

NO! :-)

That 'explanation' must surely go down in HP history as one of the most blatant and horrible attempts by Rowling to conjure up a 'must save Harry somehow' gimmick out of thin air.

[jodel-from-aol.livejournal.com]

Oh don't make me laugh. That wasn't an explanation, that was a smoke screen. So Harry had accidently and inadvertantly caught and stolen a piece of Tom's magical power in his wand by breaking the contact of their first duel and running away.

So why did the wand just lie there like a stick when Tom attacked him in the Atrium the next year? Why did it leap to Harry's defense two years later? While Harry sat there like a gormless lump. Do they take turns?

Stupid, stupid, stupid.

Mind you it can be massaged into something that *pretends* to have a cause and effect. Tom wasn't using his *own* wand in that encounter so he made an *extreme* effort to draw *every scrap* of his power up to send it through that wand.

Surprise. Part of his power was in range of that draw, swung round and exploded out of Potter's wand and came at him from another direction rather than from inside himself. Both parts hit Malfoy's wand from opposite directions and it couldn't take the stress and exploded. (Kind of like sticking your finger in the muzzle of the enemy's gun.)

But like I say, it only pretends to be an explanation. It was a recipie for a flashy special effect to look good on screen, but without any substance whatsoever.

[borg-princess.livejournal.com]

So why did the wand just lie there like a stick...? Why did it leap to Harry's defense two years later? While Harry sat there like a gormless lump. Do they take turns?

Hee! I have this funny image of Harry and his wand being basically one organism and only one of them can be in charge at a time. Too bad the series wasn't 'Harry Potter's Wand and the...' etc. His wand makes a better hero than Harry himself!

I have to say, I admire your explanation for looking like it makes more sense and has more logic behind it than the entire series put together. *nodnod*

[madderbrad.livejournal.com]

*gags*

Oh dear, did you have to remind me of that?

That stupidity wasn't even connected to the uber wand nonsense. Rowling just needed a(nother) deux ex machina to get Harry out of a jam.

She was so, SO desperate to ensure that Harry never won out of any situation due to any actual prowess or ability on his part. It really amazes me the lengths to which she went in the last book to keep him down as a barely competent (if that) wizard. Dobby saves him from the Manor. Hermione saves him from Nagini. The Elder Wand saves him from Voldemort (the second time). Something we'd never heard of before nor been given hints about saves him from Voldemort (the first time).

And then the 'golden fire' from his wand, operating on must-save-the-helpless-protagonist mode.

*gah*

[oryx_leucoryx]

That stupidity wasn't even connected to the uber wand nonsense. Rowling just needed a(nother) deux ex machina to get Harry out of a jam.

Actually she needed a reason for Voldemort to mistrust all wands but an Uberwand. There were plenty of ways to save Harry without that - have the AK hit something else and bounce, have something or someone crash into Harry thus moving him out of the way etc. But anything like that would be conventional enough and Voldemort would assume Harry was just lucky again, next time catch him in the open and get a clear shot. But if Harry became wand-resistant that's another story altogether.

[madderbrad.livejournal.com]

Ah, that's right! Thanks for the reminder. Well, the gimmick itself was deplorable, but at least there was another reason for it to be plonked in there.

As it turned out Voldemort didn't need the Elder Wand at all ... by the time they next met Harry's wand was broken, so its 'golden fire auto pilot' ability wasn't available to save Harry anyway.

[lissa2.livejournal.com]

"As it turned out Voldemort didn't need the Elder Wand at all"- well Voldemort isn't a seer and he was never truly the master of the Elser wand. So we don't know what would have happened in a duel between Harry's original wand and the EW with Voldemort as his true master.

[oryx_leucoryx]

True. I think Dumbledore's greatest fear was that if Voldemort managed to obtain mastery of the EW he would be able to overcome assorted unique magical protections, including the protection he himself gave Harry when he used Harry's blood for his own regeneration. But once Voldemort became interested in the EW Dumbledore wanted him to believe he had it. Which is why he never warned Severus to put it away or destroy it. Of course this plan carried the risk of Voldemort becoming master of the EW accidentally (by taking Draco's wand for some reason or other). It's just a plan that is so carelessly crafted, so obviously risky, all for giving Harry a chance to survive the destruction of the Horcrux, while ensuring Severus' death and risking that it would all have been for nothing anyway.

[lissa2.livejournal.com]

"On the other hand, the actual canon - that the Elder Wand was able to pick up Harry's slapping Malfoy's OTHER wand out of his hand when it was hundreds of miles away at the time -"

Do you remember in which chapter Harry figured it out? (or was it Dumbledore?)
Thanks.

[oryx_leucoryx]

It's all in Harry's speech to Voldemort in their last confrontation, when Harry gives his version to the Dirty Harry 'am I feeling lucky' speech.

[madderbrad.livejournal.com]

Harry never really figured it out; when he comes out with the theory, in that melodramatic farce of a final battle, he acknowledges that it's all a gamble, it all depends on what the living!sentient!Elder wand thinks.

(Really, the Elder Wand should have spoken up then and there and started an auction for its good graces, best offer becomes its master.)

[seductivedark.livejournal.com]

(Really, the Elder Wand should have spoken up then and there and started an auction for its good graces, best offer becomes its master.)

I've heard auctioneers. Neither of our dueling banjos could have followed the patter.

[the-bitter-word.livejournal.com]

My current cracky theory on the Elder Wand transference is that the calculating Wand hated being owned by Dumbledore, the no-personal-violence lemon drop who wanted to end the Wand's power. Draco was a fluke, and never could have mastered the Wand, defeated as he had been by multiple Gryffindors on multiple occasions. The Wand wouldn't be owned by Voldemort, who was unstable, who never learned from past mistakes such as insisting on killing The Chosen One himself, and who might again become immortal, not giving anyone else a sporting chance at gaining the Wand (unless that person stole it in the dead of night, I guess). The Wand finally realized it had a better chance of surviving and creating chaos for many more centuries by being owned by Potter, who had previously lost his wand to a duel with Snape and to theft at the Quidditch World Cup, who Moody lectured about leaving his wand casually sticking out of his pocket. In the penultimate chapter of DH, when always-jealous Ron marveled at how Harry could let the unbeatable Wand go, it was obvious the Wand chose wisely.

[madderbrad.livejournal.com]

Your Elder Wand! IT'S ALIVE!!! :-)

The Wand wouldn't be owned by Voldemort, who was unstable ...

I liked fanfic author Paracelsus's recent take on that part, in his story 'Coming Back Late' (on portkey.org), where it is surmised that the Elder Wand didn't 'work' for Voldemort because the Hallow - created by Death - would naturally eschew anyone who tried to *defeat* death/Death, as Voldemort did in his attempt to become immortal by making the Horcruxes.

[oryx_leucoryx]

I think you might be interested in some of swythyv's whacky theories. Alas she hasn't posted since September 2008. But she has been working on what was 'really' going on in the Potterverse. According to her the 'Death' in the Hallows story was some really brilliant dude (whom she named Mort for simplicity) who made a Horcrux and somehow got it into the cave later also used by Voldemort. And he created the Hallows, but the Peverell brothers stole them from him. When Trelawney made a prophecy about some unnamed Dark Lord and those who defied him thrice - Dumbledore was mistaken about the identity of the Dark Lord. It was Mort, and Harry had the power to defeat him because he was a descendant of the Peverells who thrice defied Mort when they stole all three of his artifacts. (And it gets whackier still.)

[borg-princess.livejournal.com]

the actual canon - that the Elder Wand was able to pick up Harry's slapping Malfoy's OTHER wand out of his hand when it was hundreds of miles away at the time - and decided to honour that - is just as stupid.

LMAO! So true! I want someone to make a list of really dumb canon facts that would be just unbelievable to someone not familiar with the story. 'No, really, this actually happened- so lame, IKR?!'

I really don't understand why JKR frakked up the wandlore so thoroughly. If it were just the Elder Wand, that's one thing, it's a special wand so it might obey different rules, but for all the wands ever to suddenly have different modes of conduct contrary to everything we saw throughout the series? How does this woman expect us to take anything she writes seriously when she can't be bothered keeping her own mythology coherent and logical? You'd think JKR was a witch herself, what with the spectacular logic!fail shown in the books

Harry couldn't use Hermione's wand as well as his own.

I didn't like the way Harry just ordered Hermione to hand over her wand. I mean, yes, she was responsible for him losing his but in the process of saving his ass, FFS! Some thanks there. *shakes head*

Draco's worked better for him.

And lol, I'm sure H/D shippers took that as more support of their ship. *snorts*

[oryx_leucoryx]

And lol, I'm sure H/D shippers took that as more support of their ship. *snorts*

There is a lot more Harry/Draco, Harry/Dumbledore, Harry/Snape than Harry/Ginny in DH.

[borg-princess.livejournal.com]

*g* Ain't that the truth!

To be fair, I'm sure JKR thought her job portraying a realistic relationship was accomplished with all those heartwarming, sentimental scenes of Harry poring over the Marauder's Map...just watching Ginny's dot...er... O.o

I can't remember who came up with this idea, but I LOL'd at the person who wrote this scene where Ginny whacked Harry on the head and berated him for being so selfish and taking the Marauder's Map with him- it wasn't going to do him any good outside of Hogwarts, and it would've helped keep the DA safe and dodging the DEs...think how many torture sessions could've been avoided if they'd had that map to warn them of danger... *shakes head*

[oryx_leucoryx]

Even if wandmakers kept it secret (and why would they? for the sake of business they'd want everyone who has ever been disarmed coming for a new wand) wouldn't people notice?

[lissa2.livejournal.com]

I know, that's what I've said: "But otoh it's very unbelievable that wandmakers could still keep it a secret from the general public after centuries of conflicts between wizards"

[lynn-waterfall.livejournal.com]

Frankly, if it were true and people knew about it, they'd demand wands that *didn't* work that way. And the first wandmaker to create wands that didn't work that way would make a fortune.