Deathly Hallows, Chapter 5: Fallen Warrior

[oneandthetruth.livejournal.com]

Harry wakes up in the pond. Apparently it’s deep enough to keep him from getting killed on impact, but not deep enough to risk his drowning while he was unconscious. Since you can drown in 3 inches/6 cm of water, I’m not sure how this works.

He is discovered by Ted and Andromeda Tonks, then promptly passes out again. When he comes to, he’s on their couch, having been healed of a broken arm and broken ribs. Ted Tonks has also regrown Harry’s tooth that was knocked out during the battle. Whew! Good thing Ted’s better at healing charms than Harry is.

Explain to me again why, if these serious injuries can be healed by magic, and Harry’s missing arm bone could be regenerated with a potion in CoS, he’s still wearing Coke-bottle glasses. Even stupid, incompetent “muggles” have been successfully making surgical corrections of myopia since the 1980s. For that matter, since Harry has plenty of money, he could get surgical correction once he reaches legal age in the non-magical world. Yet in the crapilogue, he’s still wearing glasses. Why? Does he think it gives him a “man of the people” or “vulnerable hero” air? After everything he’s been through, you wouldn’t think he’d be afraid of a little surgery.

Once Harry is awake, he insists on making sure Hagrid’s okay. The Tonkses are understandably worried about their daughter--interestingly enough, they make no mention of their new son-in-law--but of course Harry doesn’t know what happened to anyone else. He suffers an attack of inappropriate guilt, insisting that if anyone was injured or killed because of this plan, it’s all his fault. It’s not his fault because the plan was sprung on him, and he was told he’d be forced into it if he didn’t consent. Why does he feel guilty about this thing that isn’t his fault, but he had no problem with almost killing Draco in the last book? Is it because anyone involved in this fiasco was a non-Slytherin, as far as he knows, so their pain matters, but a Slytherin’s doesn’t? (Insert appropriate quotation from The Merchant of Venice here.) Sure, Draco was about to Crucio Harry, but Harry could have defended himself in several ways without using Sectumsempra. If he could win by using Expelliarmus against DEs in battle and Voldemort in the final confrontation, he certainly could have done the same in the boys’ bathroom. More screwed up, contradictory morality. *sigh*

Harry and Hagrid go into another room to take a Portkey to the Burrow, and Hagrid asks about Hedwig. Harry again feels more grief for her than he apparently did love during her lifetime, and Hagrid makes the kind of insincere condolences that people often do in such situations.

When they arrive at the Burrow, they find out they’re the first to arrive, even though they were supposed to be third. Lupin and a maimed George arrive right after. Well, at least nobody will have trouble telling the twins apart any more--for as long as they’re both alive anyway. Bwahahahaha!

Lupin insists on making sure Harry is really Harry, and lectures him about the importance of fighting back when somebody’s attacking him. Harry thinks what for him is a strong insult: He compares Remus with “the sneering Hufflepuff Zacharias Smith, who had jeered at Harry for wanting to teach Dumbledore’s Army how to disarm.” Oh, no! He compared a Gryffindor with a Hufflepuff! The only way to get more insulting is to compare him with a Slytherin!

Harry insists, “I won’t blast people out of the way just because they’re there. That’s Voldemort’s job.” This is supposed to show us how much more virtuous he is than the bad guys, but all I could think was, “You mean you won’t blast them out of the way if you like them, like you do Stan Shunpike. If it’s somebody you can’t stand, like Draco or Snape, you’ve got no problem blasting them to Hell if you can.”

I guess this is also a difference between Harry and James, since Harry doesn’t attack people “just because they exist.” At least, he doesn’t if he likes them, and they’re not Slytherins. Oh, wait, I guess that’s not a difference at all.

This reminds me of a Buffy/HP crossover fanfic I tried to read a few years ago. I had to quit after a few chapters because the Harry was completely unbelievable, and I was nauseated by the saccharine narration. The narrator kept telling us how angelic Harry was, how he just radiated love and peace, and everybody loved being around him because he made them so happy. I said, “Okay, who is this, and what have you done with the real Harry Potter?” I mean, gosh, even Jesus chased the money lenders out of the temple with a whip.

When Kingsley and Hermione arrive, Kingsley has to make sure Harry and Remus are real. Remus proves himself by repeating what Dumbledore’s last words were to them: “Harry is the best hope we have. Trust him.” If that is indeed the case, you are so screwed, people. Fortunately, it’s not, no thanks to you. You have the eminently competent Severus Snape working behind the scenes to save your sorry asses.

That reminds me of a fanfic I’ve thought about writing. In it, Snape really is evil, and he tricks Dumbledore, Harry, and Voldemort into killing each other, then takes over the wizarding world as dictator.

Speaking of whom, when Lupin tells them it was Snape who cursed off George’s ear, he adds the wish he could have paid Snape back. I’m sorry Snape didn’t get Remus instead. That would have been payback for Lupin’s atrocious treatment of him over the years.

Arthur and Fred arrive and insist on seeing George. There’s a reference to Mr. Weasley’s bald patch. You’d think somebody as hung up on “muggle” stuff as he is would know about Rogaine. For that matter, why isn’t everyone in the wizarding world gorgeous? The only one who takes advantage of magic to improve their appearance is Hermione, and we all know she was corrupted by that depraved “muggle” culture. Is their lack of vanity supposed to indicate magicals are morally superior to the rest of us? Because if it is, that’s a very superficial kind of moral superiority. It’s better to be vain but not racist than racist but not vain.

When they realize Ron and Tonks haven’t arrived yet, Harry feels his fear for them “envelop[ing] him, seeming to crawl over his skin, throbbing in his chest, clogging his throat.” So fear is related to the “chest monster” of lust? Either that, or he’s got really bad GERD (gastroesophageal reflux disease).

When Ron and Tonks finally arrive, Tonks screams her husband’s name and immediately falls into his arms. Remus is somewhat less emotional. “His face was set and white: He seemed unable to speak.” No doubt he’s thinking, “Damn! I was hoping to get rid of you and get out of this sham marriage. Too bad if Ron dies, too, but you can’t have everything.” His lack of emotion continues as he “seem[s] almost angry at [her],” and can’t speak. Wow. He must be really disappointed she made it back.

Everyone is worried about those who haven’t showed up: Their “continued absence...seemed to lie upon them like a frost, its icy bite harder and harder to ignore.” This must be a precursor the “present death” we’re introduced to later in the chapter.

When Bill and Fleur arrive, Bill tells them Moody’s dead. “Harry felt as though something inside him was falling, falling through the earth, leaving him forever.” I’m sorry but--What? The? Hell? This makes absolutely no sense! Harry barely knew Mad-Eye, and he didn’t much like what he did know. Why does he feel like he’s skydiving without a parachute because some casual acquaintance just kicked the bucket? He reacts more strongly to the death of Mad-Eye than he does to his own death later in the book. This kid has some severely messed up emotions.

The group drinks a firewhisky toast to Mad-Eye and starts discussing who could have betrayed them to the Death Eaters. Harry says he trusts them all, and that if somebody did let something slip, it must have been an accident. Lupin gives him an almost-pitying look and says, “I think you’re like James, who would have regarded it as the height of dishonor to mistrust his friends.” Um, excuse me, Remus, but didn’t you get kicked out of the Potters’s inner circle when they went undercover precisely because James mistrusted you? So why are you now giving us this routine about how honorable and trusting he was?

And now we get to the most notorious line in this chapter: “The suddenness and completeness of death was like them with a presence.” NO! NO, IT WASN’T! THAT’S WRONG!

I think the reason people harp on the dumbness of this sentence is the sheer wrongness of it. When somebody you love dies, it’s not the presence of death you notice; it’s the absence of the dead loved one. Even if their corpse is there, it doesn’t matter because there’s no life force to animate it. A body with no spirit feels like a violation of the natural order, an obscenity, an abomination. In Loss: Sadness and Depression, psychiatrist John Bowlby points out that even very young children can tell the difference between a dead body and a living one because of the absolute stillness of the corpse. When Rowling treats death like “a presence,” she is displaying her own inability to deal with the reality of death by replacing the real presence of the dead loved one with the false presence of death.

Harry insists on leaving the Burrow, saying his own presence is like death, i.e., that he puts everyone in danger by staying there. This sounds noble, but it’s really ridiculous. Everybody there is in danger anyway because they are known enemies of Voldemort. Furthermore, Harry cannot possibly defeat the Dull Lord on his own. He has to have help from other people, and that will inevitably put them in danger. Going off on his own like the ultimate Dumb Gryffindor will only ensure Voldemort wins. If that happens, a lot more people will die than if Harry stuck with his friends and fought with them together.

Molly tries to persuade Harry to stay by offering to feed Hedwig, which brings on another gut-clench of grief on his part.

Harry tells everyone about his wand doing magic on its own. They all argue with him, insisting that’s not possible, and he was just doing accidental magic. Haven’t you gotten the memo, people? This is Harry Freakin’ Potter! He does not live by the rules you lesser beings do. The laws of magic that have been in effect for thousands of years are suspended by the mere presence of his awesomeness. Just as space itself bends around a massive object, magic itself bends around the massive greatness that is Harry Potter!

Harry feels agonizing pain in his scar, which leads to a Voldie-vision of Voldy torturing Ollivander. Hermione tells him he must close his mind to the Dark Lord. While Harry doesn’t outright refuse, the implication is clear that he will. So while his mind has been closed to the idea of decent Slytherins for the last six years, his mind is open to the one Slytherin who is indisputably evil and dangerous. This may be the best example of illogic in this series!

Comments

[aikaterini.livejournal.com]

/he’s still wearing glasses. Why? Does he think it gives him a “man of the people” or “vulnerable hero” air?/

I remember reading some article about JKR objecting to a cover of a foreign edition of Harry Potter (I don’t remember what the language was or which book in the series it was) because Harry was depicted without glasses. If I recall correctly, she said that “the glasses show his vulnerability.”

/Why does he feel guilty about this thing that isn’t his fault, but he had no problem with almost killing Draco in the last book?/

Because Draco asked for it/Draco tried to use the Cruciatus Curse on him/Draco’s a Death Eater/it was an accident/it was the fault of Snape’s book…the justifications are endless. Harry spent one moment feeling horrible about what he’d done and that was the end of it. I know that many Harry/Draco shippers liked that scene because all of its potential and the heated interaction between Harry and Draco, but really, what was the ultimate purpose of that scene? Harry realized what the Sectumsempra Curse could do. That’s it. Nothing else came out of it. Harry didn’t even try to talk to Draco after that.

/If he could win by using Expelliarmus against DEs in battle and Voldemort in the final confrontation, he certainly could have done the same in the boys’ bathroom./

Well, that’s another curious thing that I’ve noticed. Voldemort is supposed to be Harry’s archenemy. Yet when it comes down to it, Harry’s hatred of Voldemort seems a lot less personal than his hatred for Snape or Draco. We don’t get as many reminders that Harry hates Voldemort and don’t get as many descriptions about the intensity of Harry’s hatred. Granted, Voldemort’s chief crime against Harry was murdering his parents, who Harry doesn’t remember because he was only a year old. But consider that Harry *never* tries to use the Sectumsempra Curse or the Cruciatus Curse against Voldemort. He’ll try to curse Draco, Snape, Bellatrix, Amycus, but not Voldemort, who’s supposed to be an amoral psychopath, the worst of them all. I just find it odd that most of Harry’s morally dubious actions that have caused so much controversy in fandom are not even directed towards his worst enemy.

/“the sneering Hufflepuff Zacharias Smith, who had jeered at Harry for wanting to teach Dumbledore’s Army how to disarm.”/

What exactly is the point of Zacharias Smith’s character? Is it to show that not all Hufflepuffs are friendly and nice? Is it to be a Draco clone? Is it to show how awful Draco really is by reflecting his qualities in another character?

/“Harry is the best hope we have./

Dumbledore: Which is why I didn’t bother teaching him any useful spells and spent most of the precious few months that I had left showing him memories of how hot and evil Voldemort used to be, instead of just flat-out telling Harry that Voldemort made seven Horcruxes, what a Horcrux is, and how to destroy one.

/Is their lack of vanity supposed to indicate magicals are morally superior to the rest of us?/

Well, Gilderoy Lockhart was vain…but it seems like his greatest vanity lay in his fame, rather than his looks.

Although it’s interesting to think about when it comes to Voldemort’s transformation. We all know that Tom Riddle was handsome before he started making Horcruxes and that the process was what supposedly turned him ugly. Yet at no point is this treated like a sacrifice that he had to make. In fact, in many fanfics, I’ve seen Voldemort either not caring about his changing appearance because he’s much more concerned about achieving his goal or actually looking forward to the transformation because he hates looking like his father. Whatever faults Voldemort has, vanity (at least vanity when it comes to physical appearance) is not one of them.

/Harry barely knew Mad-Eye/

In fact, he spent more time bonding with Fake!Moody, a.k.a. Barty Crouch Jr. the Death Eater, than with the real Moody.

/Everybody there is in danger anyway because they are known enemies of Voldemort./

Well, this is the same boy who broke up with his girlfriend because he didn’t want his enemies to come after her, even though said enemies already had reasons to come after her. I think that it’s the gesture that’s supposed to count.

[oryx_leucoryx]

What exactly is the point of Zacharias Smith’s character?

I think in OOTP he was supposed to be a red herring for the traitor. A reader expecting betrayal might expect him to be the traitor because of his skepticism, and then it turns out to be Marietta. Or perhaps just to make the conversation at The Hog's Head a bit interesting. But then Rowling was stuck with him.