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

[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.

[borg-princess.livejournal.com]

Hold up, so Voldy believed that DD was the Master.

Snape killed him, hence he's the new Master.

Then the next obvious step is killing Snape, which Voldy indeed does.

What was the great plan here, because I used to think I understood, but now I'm baffled again.

I thought it was to provoke Harry into attacking and killing Snape, fuelled by the rage against the man who killed his mentor [right, the boy couldn't land one curse on him in the immediate aftermath of DD's death, what were the chances he'd get lucky later on without that righteous fury driving him?] so that he could get mastery of the wand from Snape, but then...what if Voldy had killed him during the year before Harry got to him?

Gah, so confused!

The only way that works is if DD let Draco would disarm him on purpose so that he would become the new Master, and then he left Snape as the smoke-screen to deflect attention onto himself so that when Voldy killed him, thinking he would gain mastery of the wand, he'd be puffed up with false confidence and fail big-time.

'cept he couldn't predict Harry slapping a wand out of Draco's hand and taking mastery that way...*confuzzled*

Also, BASTARD, for making Snape a decoy and leaving him to die without having the courtesy to tell him!

the risk of Voldemort becoming master of the EW accidentally (by taking Draco's wand for some reason or other)

Yeah, 'coz he was taking the Malfoys' wands just for fun, so it would've been entirely in character to strip the younger Malfoy of his wand as well. OOH, how close he came to being Master of the EW for real!

[oryx_leucoryx]

I don't believe Dumbledore intended Harry to become Master of the Elder Wand. Had Draco not disarmed Dumbledore the wand would have lost its powers everywhere except in Voldemort's imagination. If Voldemort learned of the wand's existence he would have set Nagini on Severus just as in canon and used the defunct Elder Wand on Harry in the forest as in canon. Harry would have survived anyway because Voldemort's body was made with his blood - that was the reason for the infamous gleam of triumph in GOF and the explanation Dumbles gives to Harry in King's Cross. The only part I am less certain of is whether Harry would have been affected by the Cruciatus after his return from the dead if he weren't the master of the Elder Wand.

The only chance Severus had of survival in face of Dumbledore's plan was if Voldemort never heard of the Elder Wand. (Or if he figured out Voldemort was going t sic Nagini on him and took precautions that allowed him to play dead in the Shack and escape afterwards, of course.)

[wolf-willow31.livejournal.com]

... he would have set Nagini on Severus just as in canon ...

I keep wondering why Voldemort would choose to use Nagini to kill Severus. Could Nagini possibly have become Master of the Elder Wand? (That would have been no more far fetched than any of the other wand lore nonsense in DH)

Nagini contains Voldie's horcrux and he appears to control her, of course, but does that make her an effective stand-in for him? Or could using her as a proxy possibly mess up the wand ownership transfer? If I were Voldie, I wouldn't take a chance on it, but then he is "the stupidest evil overlord evah."

[cured4life.livejournal.com]

Lurked awhile but made an account to respond to this....

If we believe the story JKR gave us about Nagini being an extension of Voldie because she was a horcrux and thus killing Snape gave Voldie mastery of the Elder Want...then using that logic..it was unnecessary. Since Harry was his horcrux and had mastery already using that logic...Voldie had mastery.

Sloppy sloppy writing.

[wolf-willow31.livejournal.com]

You are so right! The logic is inescapable.
If Nagini = horcrux = Voldemort
Then Harry = horcrux = Voldemort
And the Master of the Elder Wand is … all 3 of them? :-o

It must be the biggest plot-hole in the universe.
*headdesk* *headdesk* *headdesk*

[oryx_leucoryx]

Clearly Voldemort had no idea how the mastery of the Elder Wand was actually transmitted. He proved that by killing Gellert who had lost his mastery of the wand decades earlier. One could argue he killed Gregorovitch so he couldn't warn anyone about what Voldemort was up to but the moment Voldemort realized the thief was Gellert he should have gone directly to take the wand from the white tomb, no need to find where Gellert was being kept and no need to kill him. So it doesn't surprise me he thought he could win the mastery from Severus by having Nagini as his stand-in, even if it was not true.