Deathly Hallows, Chapter 23: Malfoy Manor
Jan. 2nd, 2014 07:11 pm![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
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deathtocapslockBeethoven was right: It’s vastly harder to rewrite something you’ve finished than to write something entirely new. Especially when you have to revert to HTML because that’s the only way to enter tables on LJ. Aaaaagggggghhhhh!!!!!
I apologize if they look weird, but I followed the instructions, and that's how they turned out. However, the instructions were posted almost eight years ago, and LJ has changed its programming some since then. It's also possible I couldn't transfer my tables because I wrote this on iPages, not Word.
Are everybody’s barf bags at the ready? All right, then, let’s go!
Hermione hits Harry in the face with a spell that makes his face swell up as if he’s just been stung by an entire hive of bees. The Trio lies about their names, and Harry’s pseudonym is particularly dumb: Vernon Dudley. I know I’m probably being entirely too logical, but if I were in charge of the DEs and their allies, I would give them a list naming not just the people I was looking for, but also their quarries’ friends and relatives. If that had been done, the Snatchers would immediately have said, “Vernon Dudley? Oh, yeah, Harry Potter grew up with an uncle named Vernon and a cousin named Dudley. Given how dumb Potter is, this is probably him using a phony name.” Of course, calling Harry “dumb” would prick his Gryffindor pride, making him indignant, and he would reveal himself by that alone.
Fenrir Greyback says Voldemort’s name has been tabooed because his enemies weren’t showing him the proper respect, so he wanted to be able to punish them when they acted rude. At last the business of referring to him by pseudonyms makes sense. In the previous books, it just makes everybody look too wimpy to call him by his alias. Come to think of it, they still look wimpy in the books when he was incorporeal.
I wonder whether Voldemort is the only name that’s tabooed? What about Tom Riddle? What if somebody calls him a satiric corruption of his name, like Moldyshorts, Oldywart, or even Noisyfart? Those epithets are much more disrespectful than calling him by his assumed name. And if he were really as mean and nasty as he’s cracked up to be, he’d also taboo “He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named” and “You-Know-Who.” Think of the fun! He and the DEs could wipe out nearly all their enemies at once, just by waiting for them to slip up and use one of his silly pseudonyms.
Despite the efforts of Hermione the Genius, the Trio are found out and taken to Malfoy Manor, along with Dean Thomas and Griphook the goblin. When they arrive, Batty Bellatrix is in charge, and Draco is dragged over to see if he can ID any of the prisoners. He very reluctantly IDs Hermione, which means two of the others must be Ron and Harry. Fenrir Greyback makes some leering remarks about Hermione, but there’s no tension because we know JKR won’t allow her self-insert to be sexually abused.
However, she will allow her to be tortured. With true Gryffindor gallantry, Ron offers himself instead, but Bella wants to spill some muddy blood with her pretty silver knife. Technically, only the handle could be silver; the blade would have to be stainless steel, or a similarly hard metal. Silver is too soft to make an effective knife blade.
Ron, Harry, and the other prisoners are stashed in the cellar, where they find Luna and Ollivander already there. Meanwhile, Bella starts in on Hermione, demanding to know where she got the Sword of Gryffindor, which is supposed to be in Bella’s vault at Gringotts.
I didn’t start out creating tables for this chapter, but they worked so well in my sporking of chapter 35, part 1, that I made some for this chapter, also. First, take a look at how Rowling portrays the torture of Xeno Lovegood in chapter 21. Everyone’s actions and reactions are detailed, and separate assaults on a particular page are designated by number in the Descriptions and Reactions columns. Page numbers refer to the American Scholastic hardcover edition of DH.
Notice the way Xeno reacts to being tortured: He is described as screaming after the first attack. Then he squeals repeatedly, although the second mention of him squealing is dismissed with the phrase, “repeated squeals of agony.” Note that he is described as screaming only once; the rest of the time he squeals, which makes him sound more like a nonhuman animal (a traitorous pig, maybe?) than a human. Next he sobs, and finally, he gives “a wail of fear and despair,” maybe because he’s realized, as terri_testing has asserted, that he’s not going to get out of this encounter alive.
Rowling minimizes the terrible suffering of this old man in two ways: First, she compresses several vicious attacks into one short phrase: “...there was a volley of bangs interspersed with squeals.” The dictionary in my computer defines volley as “a number of bullets, arrows, or other projectiles discharged at one time.” The thesaurus lists the following as some of volley’s synonyms: barrage, bombardment, fusillade, hail, shower, deluge, torrent. In other words, Xeno was cursed at least several times in quick succession, and possibly dozens of times. Hundreds of times is unlikely, given the short time span, but it’s not out of the question. Anyone who doubts these assertions should consider how quickly it’s possible to get soaked in a shower, deluge, or torrent of water. Or watch the title characters’ death scene from the 1967 movie Bonnie and Clyde. That’s what a barrage, bombardment, fusillade, or hail of bullets looks like. Imagine Xeno being cursed even half that many times, half that quickly. It looks a whole lot worse than Rowling makes it sound, doesn’t it?
Notice also that, although he is referred to as being hurt seven times, he only reacts vocally five times. This makes it appear he was not seriously injured by two of those curses. It’s also possible he was briefly knocked unconscious from the assaults and then revived. This would mean he was hurt worse in those instances than in the others, but since the scene is told from the point of view of the Hs, who didn’t see what was happening (and didn’t care, either), we can’t be sure what occurred.
That’s disgusting enough, but it actually gets worse. Now look at the elaborate, loving detail Rowling lavishes on Hermione’s sufferings in this chapter.
So the multiple episodes of Xeno’s torturing are blown off with just a few brief mentions that contain no detailed descriptions of how he was injured or how badly, let alone what his screams sounded like. The DEs hurt him at least as many times as Bella hurts Hermione, and over a shorter period, but his torture is virtually shrugged off by the narrator, being dismissed by only a few brief mentions over just one-and-a-half pages. By contrast, Bella’s torture of Hermione goes on for six pages, with each assault and each scream described in detail, and is briefly described on three other pages. There are nine attacks altogether, judging by the number of screams.
Look also at how Rowling structures these scenes. First, take Hermione and Bella: (1) Bella yells her questions. (2) She cuts Hermione. (3) Hermione screams. In other words, there is a loud sound, then silence, then another loud sound. Like rests in music, those silent pauses between the vocalizations put the focus on the sounds that come after the pauses, i.e., Hermione’s screams. Rowling increases the emphasis in two other ways: (1) Her histrionic descriptions of the screams, e. g., “Hermione’s screams echoed off the walls upstairs.”(2) Her equally histrionic descriptions of Harry and Ron's reactions, e.g., Ron repeatedly bellowing "HERMIONE!", and “The sound went through Harry like physical pain.” There are also several descriptions of their frantic efforts to escape the cellar and assist Hermione.
Contrast that with chapter 21, when the DEs attacked Xeno Lovegood: (1) A DE yells a question. (2) There is a loud “bang” as a curse is fired. (3) Xeno shrieks. By having a yelled question, then a “bang,” then a scream, the loud noises all run together, which implies they’re all equally important. This takes the focus off the torture of an innocent man and gives equal weight to his torturers’ interrogation of him--which is about the Trio. So even when a harmless old man is being tortured, what really matters is not the victim’s suffering, but the danger the interrogation poses to Rowling’s self-inserts (and sidekick)--two of whom are torturers themselves! (Remember Harry’s tormenting of Filch. Come to think of it, Rowling seems to have a thing for defenseless old men being tortured. I wonder if that’s another expression of her hostility towards her father?)
This was also not the first time Lovegood was attacked by the DEs. It was the third time in as many weeks. It isn’t stated outright that he was harmed on the other two occasions, but only a fool would believe the DEs didn’t torture him when he disappointed them on their previous visits. In addition, Xeno is an old man, not a healthy teenager. That alone makes it worse to torture him than Hermione.
Rowling’s own indifference to a minor character’s completely gratuitous pain is made explicit by the behavior of her “heroic” Hs: They have no reaction at all to any of the times Xeno is attacked, despite their not only being able to clearly hear his shrieks of agony, but also being close enough to render assistance to him. They don’t even talk about helping him. They just stand there listening, like Cletus the Slack-Jawed Yokel (the “village idiot” character on The Simpsons) trying to make conversation with Stephen Hawking at a cocktail party. They couldn’t care less about saving, protecting, or even helping this pathetic old man who is being tortured right under their noses! (Just like Dumbledore’s attitude towards the suffering baby in “King’s Cross,” come to think of it. There’s an excellent reason for that, as we’ll see in part 2 of that chapter.) They don’t wake up and start responding to the danger of the situation until they hear Xeno leading the DEs up the stairs to get them. In other words, it isn’t until their own asses are on the line that they bestir themselves to action--and then they only exert enough effort to save themselves, not Xeno.
Now, I expect Harry and Ron to react far more strongly to the torture of their friend than to that of someone they don’t know, and whom they regard as having betrayed them. That’s only natural. What is not natural is for any of the Trio to have no reaction at all to someone screaming in agony just a few yards/meters away. For them to feel nothing--no shock, no horror, no revulsion, no desire to help--is at best catatonic, and at worst psychopathic. These characters are not just monumentally selfish; they also seem to be lacking the most basic of human instincts for the care and protection of members of their own species. They are, well, freaks.
They are also gutless. What was it Harry told himself while trying to work up the nerve to jump into the frozen pool? Oh, yeah: “Their daring, nerve, and chivalry set Gryffindors apart.” And what was it James boasted about Gryffindor on that first train ride to Hogwarts? “Gryffindor, where dwell the brave of heart.”
Coulda fooled me.
Returning to Bella’s interrogation of Hermione, I know I’m supposed to be all high-minded and aver, “Torture is always wrong,” but I just can’t get worked up in this case. I also know I’m supposed to see this as an innocent, noble young girl being horribly tormented by a sadistic fiend, but after cataloguing Hermione’s own crimes earlier, I see this as one violent, ruthless criminal abusing another. It reminds me of a book by Kathy Reichs called Deadly Decisions, about a conflict between biker gangs in Canada. The attitude of most of the respectable citizens in the story was, “So what? They’re cleaning up the country by killing each other.” That’s how I feel about Bella torturing Hermione. In fact, when I read this chapter, I thought, “IT’S KARMA, BABY! I’M JUST SORRY YOUR ROTTEN LITTLE FRIENDS DIDN’T GET THEIRS, TOO!”
Back to the story:
I love the way Ron and Hermione compete as loudmouths, with her screaming loudly enough for the sound to echo off the walls, and him bellowing her name each time she screams. I’m really surprised nobody bellowed back, “SHUT THE FUCK UP, RON! YOU’RE DEAFENING US!”
While Ron is uselessly screaming, Luna is making herself useful by using a rusty nail to cut through the ropes binding the prisoners. Ron stops yelling long enough to bring out his Deluminator, which has some lights from their tent stored in it. Harry gets out his magic mirror and, seeing the blue eye in it again, tells where they are and demands help.
Draco is ordered to bring Griphook upstairs to look at the sword and authenticate it. Little does Draco know that Harry has persuaded the goblin to proclaim sword a fake even if it’s not.
Dobby suddenly appears and Apparates Luna, Dean, and Ollivander to Shell Cottage. I thought one had to be familiar with one’s destination to Apparate there, and Dobby’s never been to Bill’s house. Either Rowling’s screwed up again, or this is another difference between elves and humans regarding the rules of Apparition.
Lucius hears the crack of Apparition and orders Pettigrew to investigate what’s going on in the cellar. Ron and Harry grab Peter, and Ron takes his wand. Peter’s first impulse is to strangle Harry with his awesome silver hand, his master’s wishes be damned, but Harry reminds Pettigrew he owes Harry a life debt for saving him back in PoA. Just as if this were a 1950s B-horror movie, the hand gets angry at Peter’s merciful act and turns on him, strangling him instead. All those fan theories about how the hand would be used against Remus, and that were much cooler than anything in the actual book, bite the dust along with Peter.
Although Ron and Harry try to save Pettigrew, they are unsuccessful. They drop his body and head upstairs to rescue Hermione. They see her collapsed on the floor at Bella’s feet, while Griphook examines the sword. He conveniently declares it a fake and gets slashed in the face and kicked by Bella for his trouble. She then calls Voldemort and offers Hermione to Fenrir.
Ron completely blows the element of surprise--stupid Gryffindor! he could use some Slytherin subtlety--by screaming, “NOOOOOOOOOOOO!” and charging into the room, wand a-blazing. Bella loses her wand, which Harry grabs, but she gains Hermione and holds a knife to her throat, which she uses to force Ron and Harry to surrender.
Dobby exhibits both Gryffindor foolhardiness and Slytherin dramatics by making the crystal chandelier drop onto Bella, Hermione, and Griphook. Bella drops Hermione and leaps to the side, but the light fixture lands on the girl and the goblin.
As Ron rescues his girlfriend, Harry grabs the three wands Draco’s holding and Stupefies Greyback. Narcissa rescues Draco, who has cuts all over his face from the flying, broken crystals, and Bella screams at Dobby, calling him a traitor. Dobby Apparates out with the Trio, just as Bella throws her knife at him. They land at Shell Cottage, just in time for Dobby to die in front of Harry from Bella’s knife.
While all this was going on, Harry’s Voldie-vision allowed him to tune into the Dull Lord tracking down, questioning, and killing Gregorovitch. Although Harry manfully fought against the mental contact, he conveniently received just enough information to move the story forward.
Whew! That chapter was a long one--29 pages of histrionics and screaming. On the plus side, we are now fewer than 300 pages from the end of the book. Hang on, people! We can make it!
Happy New Year, everyone!
I apologize if they look weird, but I followed the instructions, and that's how they turned out. However, the instructions were posted almost eight years ago, and LJ has changed its programming some since then. It's also possible I couldn't transfer my tables because I wrote this on iPages, not Word.
Are everybody’s barf bags at the ready? All right, then, let’s go!
Hermione hits Harry in the face with a spell that makes his face swell up as if he’s just been stung by an entire hive of bees. The Trio lies about their names, and Harry’s pseudonym is particularly dumb: Vernon Dudley. I know I’m probably being entirely too logical, but if I were in charge of the DEs and their allies, I would give them a list naming not just the people I was looking for, but also their quarries’ friends and relatives. If that had been done, the Snatchers would immediately have said, “Vernon Dudley? Oh, yeah, Harry Potter grew up with an uncle named Vernon and a cousin named Dudley. Given how dumb Potter is, this is probably him using a phony name.” Of course, calling Harry “dumb” would prick his Gryffindor pride, making him indignant, and he would reveal himself by that alone.
Fenrir Greyback says Voldemort’s name has been tabooed because his enemies weren’t showing him the proper respect, so he wanted to be able to punish them when they acted rude. At last the business of referring to him by pseudonyms makes sense. In the previous books, it just makes everybody look too wimpy to call him by his alias. Come to think of it, they still look wimpy in the books when he was incorporeal.
I wonder whether Voldemort is the only name that’s tabooed? What about Tom Riddle? What if somebody calls him a satiric corruption of his name, like Moldyshorts, Oldywart, or even Noisyfart? Those epithets are much more disrespectful than calling him by his assumed name. And if he were really as mean and nasty as he’s cracked up to be, he’d also taboo “He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named” and “You-Know-Who.” Think of the fun! He and the DEs could wipe out nearly all their enemies at once, just by waiting for them to slip up and use one of his silly pseudonyms.
Despite the efforts of Hermione the Genius, the Trio are found out and taken to Malfoy Manor, along with Dean Thomas and Griphook the goblin. When they arrive, Batty Bellatrix is in charge, and Draco is dragged over to see if he can ID any of the prisoners. He very reluctantly IDs Hermione, which means two of the others must be Ron and Harry. Fenrir Greyback makes some leering remarks about Hermione, but there’s no tension because we know JKR won’t allow her self-insert to be sexually abused.
However, she will allow her to be tortured. With true Gryffindor gallantry, Ron offers himself instead, but Bella wants to spill some muddy blood with her pretty silver knife. Technically, only the handle could be silver; the blade would have to be stainless steel, or a similarly hard metal. Silver is too soft to make an effective knife blade.
Ron, Harry, and the other prisoners are stashed in the cellar, where they find Luna and Ollivander already there. Meanwhile, Bella starts in on Hermione, demanding to know where she got the Sword of Gryffindor, which is supposed to be in Bella’s vault at Gringotts.
I didn’t start out creating tables for this chapter, but they worked so well in my sporking of chapter 35, part 1, that I made some for this chapter, also. First, take a look at how Rowling portrays the torture of Xeno Lovegood in chapter 21. Everyone’s actions and reactions are detailed, and separate assaults on a particular page are designated by number in the Descriptions and Reactions columns. Page numbers refer to the American Scholastic hardcover edition of DH.
| Page Number | Times Xeno-Related Action Mentioned | Description of Words and Actions | Xeno's Reactions | Trio's Reactions |
| 420 | 4 | 1) “There was a bang and a scream of pain from Xenophilius.” 2) “another bang, another squeal” 3) bang 4) bang |
1) scream 2) squeal 3) none 4) none |
none mentioned |
| 421 | 3 | 1) “...there was a volley of bangs interspersed with squeals of agony from Xenophilius” 2) Xeno sobs while speaking 3) “Xenophilius gave a wail of fear and despair.” |
1) repeated squeals of agony 2) sobbing 3) wailing |
none mentioned |
| 422 | 5 | 1) Xeno tries to climb the stairs. 2) Xeno draws nearer. 3) He’s feet away. 4) He tries to shift more debris. 5) His face appears before them. | none mentioned | 1) Harry says they have to leave. The Hs climb over debris. 2) Hermione frees Ron. 3) She tells Ron and Harry what to do. 4) She continues to give orders. 5) She Obliviates Xeno and makes the floor collapse under them all. |
Notice the way Xeno reacts to being tortured: He is described as screaming after the first attack. Then he squeals repeatedly, although the second mention of him squealing is dismissed with the phrase, “repeated squeals of agony.” Note that he is described as screaming only once; the rest of the time he squeals, which makes him sound more like a nonhuman animal (a traitorous pig, maybe?) than a human. Next he sobs, and finally, he gives “a wail of fear and despair,” maybe because he’s realized, as terri_testing has asserted, that he’s not going to get out of this encounter alive.
Rowling minimizes the terrible suffering of this old man in two ways: First, she compresses several vicious attacks into one short phrase: “...there was a volley of bangs interspersed with squeals.” The dictionary in my computer defines volley as “a number of bullets, arrows, or other projectiles discharged at one time.” The thesaurus lists the following as some of volley’s synonyms: barrage, bombardment, fusillade, hail, shower, deluge, torrent. In other words, Xeno was cursed at least several times in quick succession, and possibly dozens of times. Hundreds of times is unlikely, given the short time span, but it’s not out of the question. Anyone who doubts these assertions should consider how quickly it’s possible to get soaked in a shower, deluge, or torrent of water. Or watch the title characters’ death scene from the 1967 movie Bonnie and Clyde. That’s what a barrage, bombardment, fusillade, or hail of bullets looks like. Imagine Xeno being cursed even half that many times, half that quickly. It looks a whole lot worse than Rowling makes it sound, doesn’t it?
Notice also that, although he is referred to as being hurt seven times, he only reacts vocally five times. This makes it appear he was not seriously injured by two of those curses. It’s also possible he was briefly knocked unconscious from the assaults and then revived. This would mean he was hurt worse in those instances than in the others, but since the scene is told from the point of view of the Hs, who didn’t see what was happening (and didn’t care, either), we can’t be sure what occurred.
That’s disgusting enough, but it actually gets worse. Now look at the elaborate, loving detail Rowling lavishes on Hermione’s sufferings in this chapter.
| Page Number | Times Hermione-Related Action Mentioned | Description of Words and Actions | Hermione's Reactions | Ron and Harry's Reactions |
| 463 | 1 | “...there was a terrible, drawn-out scream from directly above them.” | “terrible, drawn-out scream” | Ron bellows, “HERMIONE!” and starts to “writhe and struggle against the ropes” that tie him and Harry together. |
| 464 | 5 | 3) “Hermione screamed again....” | scream | 1) Ron yells, “HERMIONE!” three times in reaction to scream on 463 2) Harry tells Ron to be quiet so they can plan. 3) Ron bellows her name twice more when she screams again. 4) Bellatrix questions her again about the sword. |
| 465 | 4 | 1) Hermione says, “we found it--we found it--PLEASE!” and screams again. 2) Bella questions H further; “another terrible scream.” 3) Bella threatens to “run H through” with her knife. | 1) scream 2) “another terrible scream” 3) none listed | 1) Ron struggles some more. 2) Ron bellows her name again. 3) none listed |
| 466 | 7 | 1) H screams again. 2) Bella questions her more and Cruciates her. 3) H screams. | 1) screams again 2) “Hermione’s screams echoed off the walls upstairs.” 3) “Hermione was screaming worse than ever.” | 1) “The sound went through Harry like physical pain.” He runs around the cellar looking for a way out. 2) Ron half sobs and pounds the walls with his fists. Harry “in utter desperation” gropes in his neck pouch for the two-way mirror. 3) Ron bellows her name twice more. |
| 467 | 1 | Bella questions H again. | H sobs as she says the sword is fake. | Harry tells Griphook to lie and say the sword’s fake. |
| 468 | 1 | H screams as she’s “being tortured again.” | “An awful scream drowned out Harry’s words: Hermione was being tortured again.” | They continue to work with Dobby to escape. |
| 469 | 1 | H screams again. | “Hermione screamed again.” | Harry forces himself to come out of his Voldie-vision at her scream. |
| 471 | 2 | 1) H screams again. 2) She’s on the floor. | 1) “Hermione gave a dreadful scream...” 2) H is on the floor at Bella’s feet. “She was barely stirring.” | 1) none mentioned 2) They watch and wait for a good time to attack. |
| 472 | 4 | 1) Bella tells Fenrir to take “the Mudblood.” 2) Harry and Ron attack. 3) Bella tells them to stop or H dies. 4) Harry and Ron pause. | 1) none mentioned 2) none mentioned 3) none mentioned 4) Hermione seems to be unconscious. | 1) Ron bellows, “NOOOOOOOOOOOO!” 2) H and R attack. 3) They pause. |
So the multiple episodes of Xeno’s torturing are blown off with just a few brief mentions that contain no detailed descriptions of how he was injured or how badly, let alone what his screams sounded like. The DEs hurt him at least as many times as Bella hurts Hermione, and over a shorter period, but his torture is virtually shrugged off by the narrator, being dismissed by only a few brief mentions over just one-and-a-half pages. By contrast, Bella’s torture of Hermione goes on for six pages, with each assault and each scream described in detail, and is briefly described on three other pages. There are nine attacks altogether, judging by the number of screams.
Look also at how Rowling structures these scenes. First, take Hermione and Bella: (1) Bella yells her questions. (2) She cuts Hermione. (3) Hermione screams. In other words, there is a loud sound, then silence, then another loud sound. Like rests in music, those silent pauses between the vocalizations put the focus on the sounds that come after the pauses, i.e., Hermione’s screams. Rowling increases the emphasis in two other ways: (1) Her histrionic descriptions of the screams, e. g., “Hermione’s screams echoed off the walls upstairs.”(2) Her equally histrionic descriptions of Harry and Ron's reactions, e.g., Ron repeatedly bellowing "HERMIONE!", and “The sound went through Harry like physical pain.” There are also several descriptions of their frantic efforts to escape the cellar and assist Hermione.
Contrast that with chapter 21, when the DEs attacked Xeno Lovegood: (1) A DE yells a question. (2) There is a loud “bang” as a curse is fired. (3) Xeno shrieks. By having a yelled question, then a “bang,” then a scream, the loud noises all run together, which implies they’re all equally important. This takes the focus off the torture of an innocent man and gives equal weight to his torturers’ interrogation of him--which is about the Trio. So even when a harmless old man is being tortured, what really matters is not the victim’s suffering, but the danger the interrogation poses to Rowling’s self-inserts (and sidekick)--two of whom are torturers themselves! (Remember Harry’s tormenting of Filch. Come to think of it, Rowling seems to have a thing for defenseless old men being tortured. I wonder if that’s another expression of her hostility towards her father?)
This was also not the first time Lovegood was attacked by the DEs. It was the third time in as many weeks. It isn’t stated outright that he was harmed on the other two occasions, but only a fool would believe the DEs didn’t torture him when he disappointed them on their previous visits. In addition, Xeno is an old man, not a healthy teenager. That alone makes it worse to torture him than Hermione.
Rowling’s own indifference to a minor character’s completely gratuitous pain is made explicit by the behavior of her “heroic” Hs: They have no reaction at all to any of the times Xeno is attacked, despite their not only being able to clearly hear his shrieks of agony, but also being close enough to render assistance to him. They don’t even talk about helping him. They just stand there listening, like Cletus the Slack-Jawed Yokel (the “village idiot” character on The Simpsons) trying to make conversation with Stephen Hawking at a cocktail party. They couldn’t care less about saving, protecting, or even helping this pathetic old man who is being tortured right under their noses! (Just like Dumbledore’s attitude towards the suffering baby in “King’s Cross,” come to think of it. There’s an excellent reason for that, as we’ll see in part 2 of that chapter.) They don’t wake up and start responding to the danger of the situation until they hear Xeno leading the DEs up the stairs to get them. In other words, it isn’t until their own asses are on the line that they bestir themselves to action--and then they only exert enough effort to save themselves, not Xeno.
Now, I expect Harry and Ron to react far more strongly to the torture of their friend than to that of someone they don’t know, and whom they regard as having betrayed them. That’s only natural. What is not natural is for any of the Trio to have no reaction at all to someone screaming in agony just a few yards/meters away. For them to feel nothing--no shock, no horror, no revulsion, no desire to help--is at best catatonic, and at worst psychopathic. These characters are not just monumentally selfish; they also seem to be lacking the most basic of human instincts for the care and protection of members of their own species. They are, well, freaks.
They are also gutless. What was it Harry told himself while trying to work up the nerve to jump into the frozen pool? Oh, yeah: “Their daring, nerve, and chivalry set Gryffindors apart.” And what was it James boasted about Gryffindor on that first train ride to Hogwarts? “Gryffindor, where dwell the brave of heart.”
Coulda fooled me.
Returning to Bella’s interrogation of Hermione, I know I’m supposed to be all high-minded and aver, “Torture is always wrong,” but I just can’t get worked up in this case. I also know I’m supposed to see this as an innocent, noble young girl being horribly tormented by a sadistic fiend, but after cataloguing Hermione’s own crimes earlier, I see this as one violent, ruthless criminal abusing another. It reminds me of a book by Kathy Reichs called Deadly Decisions, about a conflict between biker gangs in Canada. The attitude of most of the respectable citizens in the story was, “So what? They’re cleaning up the country by killing each other.” That’s how I feel about Bella torturing Hermione. In fact, when I read this chapter, I thought, “IT’S KARMA, BABY! I’M JUST SORRY YOUR ROTTEN LITTLE FRIENDS DIDN’T GET THEIRS, TOO!”
Back to the story:
I love the way Ron and Hermione compete as loudmouths, with her screaming loudly enough for the sound to echo off the walls, and him bellowing her name each time she screams. I’m really surprised nobody bellowed back, “SHUT THE FUCK UP, RON! YOU’RE DEAFENING US!”
While Ron is uselessly screaming, Luna is making herself useful by using a rusty nail to cut through the ropes binding the prisoners. Ron stops yelling long enough to bring out his Deluminator, which has some lights from their tent stored in it. Harry gets out his magic mirror and, seeing the blue eye in it again, tells where they are and demands help.
Draco is ordered to bring Griphook upstairs to look at the sword and authenticate it. Little does Draco know that Harry has persuaded the goblin to proclaim sword a fake even if it’s not.
Dobby suddenly appears and Apparates Luna, Dean, and Ollivander to Shell Cottage. I thought one had to be familiar with one’s destination to Apparate there, and Dobby’s never been to Bill’s house. Either Rowling’s screwed up again, or this is another difference between elves and humans regarding the rules of Apparition.
Lucius hears the crack of Apparition and orders Pettigrew to investigate what’s going on in the cellar. Ron and Harry grab Peter, and Ron takes his wand. Peter’s first impulse is to strangle Harry with his awesome silver hand, his master’s wishes be damned, but Harry reminds Pettigrew he owes Harry a life debt for saving him back in PoA. Just as if this were a 1950s B-horror movie, the hand gets angry at Peter’s merciful act and turns on him, strangling him instead. All those fan theories about how the hand would be used against Remus, and that were much cooler than anything in the actual book, bite the dust along with Peter.
Although Ron and Harry try to save Pettigrew, they are unsuccessful. They drop his body and head upstairs to rescue Hermione. They see her collapsed on the floor at Bella’s feet, while Griphook examines the sword. He conveniently declares it a fake and gets slashed in the face and kicked by Bella for his trouble. She then calls Voldemort and offers Hermione to Fenrir.
Ron completely blows the element of surprise--stupid Gryffindor! he could use some Slytherin subtlety--by screaming, “NOOOOOOOOOOOO!” and charging into the room, wand a-blazing. Bella loses her wand, which Harry grabs, but she gains Hermione and holds a knife to her throat, which she uses to force Ron and Harry to surrender.
Dobby exhibits both Gryffindor foolhardiness and Slytherin dramatics by making the crystal chandelier drop onto Bella, Hermione, and Griphook. Bella drops Hermione and leaps to the side, but the light fixture lands on the girl and the goblin.
As Ron rescues his girlfriend, Harry grabs the three wands Draco’s holding and Stupefies Greyback. Narcissa rescues Draco, who has cuts all over his face from the flying, broken crystals, and Bella screams at Dobby, calling him a traitor. Dobby Apparates out with the Trio, just as Bella throws her knife at him. They land at Shell Cottage, just in time for Dobby to die in front of Harry from Bella’s knife.
While all this was going on, Harry’s Voldie-vision allowed him to tune into the Dull Lord tracking down, questioning, and killing Gregorovitch. Although Harry manfully fought against the mental contact, he conveniently received just enough information to move the story forward.
Whew! That chapter was a long one--29 pages of histrionics and screaming. On the plus side, we are now fewer than 300 pages from the end of the book. Hang on, people! We can make it!
Happy New Year, everyone!
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Date: 2014-01-07 03:15 am (UTC)I wouldn't expect them to react exactly the same in both circumstances, but Rowling has cast them as heroes, and heroes are supposed to be at least a teeny bit better people than average, yes? Furthermore, she has flagged Harry in particular as having an exceptional capacity for love and a "saving-people thing." This is what she expects us to believe of him. So shouldn't Our Heroes at least twitch when they hear Xeno's squeals of agony? Even just in the same way people tend to instinctively flinch when they see someone else's thumb get smashed with a hammer? They could be upset that he turned them in and still react to his pain. Or if they're too wrapped up in their own fear even for that, shouldn't they have a moment after they escape where one of them says what a dirty traitor Xeno was, and another realizes that gosh it would be tough to have one's child held hostage, and what would they do if one of them were captured? And maybe they don't come to an agreement, but sit and and somber a bit after their narrow escape.
Something like that would leave enough space to let the reader decide how they balanced Xeno's culpability against his victimization, not make the Trio too "perfect," and still make them look like decent people. Surely the final book in a series with supposedly moderately heroic characters is the point at which you're meant to show your protagonists becoming better people than they have been, able to sympathize and rise above where they might not have in previous books? Able to see a bigger picture, not just "Enemy SMASH"? This is why we were all expecting the Houses to work together, the magical species to become allies, the Dementors to be defeated, or at least one of the many injustices in the wizarding world put on track to be righted. After 6 books, Voldemort dying wasn't going to be a satisfying conclusion on its own. What does that leave? The protagonists growing as people surely figures in most possible endings. But in this book, they seem to regress.
The Pettigrew vs. Silver Hand thing is such a mess. I can't think of any explanation other than that she lost track of the plot thread and shoved in a hasty solution just to be done with it. Like so many other subplots! Poor subplots, they deserved better.
I expect that Bella's knife is a magic silver knife like the one Peter has, something capable of slicing off an entire human hand in one stroke and who knows what else. Maybe magic knives don't count as too Muggle-ish? They're probably an ancient magical technology and so would get grandfathered in as they might not have if invented today.
Why couldn't Harry have been trying to peek into Voldemort's head on purpose at this point to get intel? Something that would make him less passive, and the visions less contrived.
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Date: 2014-01-07 04:04 am (UTC)You know; "Power corrupts", "He who fights monsters should see to it that he himself does not become a monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you." kind of thing.
Give us three characters who started as flawed (but who isn't?) but still nice kids and along the way got twisted by a horrible society, monstrous mentors and by the choices they made. So that by the end of the last book readers have no doubt about the fact that the "heroes" are now heroes in name only.
But instead we got a highly unsatisfactory book that pretty much glorifies detachment and seeing others as things, might makes right and the idea that if you are one of the "good guys" you can do anything at all and it's perfectly okay.
In a book like that the idea that there may be shades of gray in Xeno's "betrayal" have no place.
Frightening really, when you consider how praised the books are and how many kids adore them.
I expect that Bella's knife is a magic silver knife like the one Peter has, something capable of slicing off an entire human hand in one stroke and who knows what else. Maybe magic knives don't count as too Muggle-ish? They're probably an ancient magical technology and so would get grandfathered in as they might not have if invented today.
*snort* It probably have precision-guided spell on it too! That's how it target locked to Dobby.
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Date: 2014-01-07 07:53 am (UTC)That would be wonderful. I would love to see a fanfic written on those lines.
And think how delightfully confusing that would be for the public! People would like the books but feel conflicted about it. Religious nuts wouldn't know whether to praise or condemn them. They feature witchcraft (bad), but the witches/wizards are rotten people (good).
Of course, I think that's how those of in the Rowling-critic community do see the books. The problem is, the rest of society isn't as perceptive as we are. *sigh*
But instead we got a highly unsatisfactory book that pretty much glorifies detachment and seeing others as things, might makes right and the idea that if you are one of the "good guys" you can do anything at all and it's perfectly okay.
In a book like that the idea that there may be shades of gray in Xeno's "betrayal" have no place.
Frightening really, when you consider how praised the books are and how many kids adore them.
IOW, the books glorify the mindset of a narcissistic psychopath: "We are all Voldemort now."
no subject
Date: 2014-01-08 03:01 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-01-08 06:35 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-01-08 03:01 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-01-07 07:46 am (UTC)Exactly. I mentioned Andrew Vachss above. All his books are "gritty anti-hero" novels. His main characters come across as heroic only because the people they're fighting are so much worse. His Burke series is about a career criminal in New York City who usually battles child pornographers. His new series features a former mercenary who's retired from the French Foreign Legion and living under an assumed identity. Those men aren't just unsavory; they stink to high heaven. But as unpleasant as they are, I don't doubt they'd have at least a little sympathy for somebody in Xeno's position. Sure, they'd be PO'd at him for betraying them, but they'd also understand he was terrified for his daughter and realize it was reasonable for him to put his child's well-being ahead of the safety of three strangers.
Rowling is right that this is the kind of ugly choice people are faced with in wartime. But instead of using this situation to explore the cruelty of war, and how important it is for the good guys to win so nobody has to make that choice again, she just presents it as a simple[-minded], clear-cut case of "bad man betrays heroic Trio = he deserves torture and no sympathy." So she ends up giving the opposite message to the one she probably intended.
no subject
Date: 2014-01-07 10:02 am (UTC)But Rowling has them do pretty much exactly that.
'One of them says what a dirty traitor Xeno was':
“That treacherous old bleeder.” Ron panted, emerging from beneath the Invisibility Cloak and throwing it to Harry.
'... and another realizes that gosh it would be tough to have one's child held hostage':
“She will,” said Harry. He could not bear to contemplate the alternative. “She’s tough, Luna, much tougher than you’d think. She’s probably teaching all the inmates about Wrackspurts and Nargles.”
And this:“I hope you’re right,” said Hermione. She passed a hand over her eyes. “I’d feel so sorry for Xenophilius if ---“
“---if he hadn’t just tried to sell us to the Death Eaters, yeah,” said Ron.
"They’ve kidnapped Luna because her father supported Harry! What would happen to your family if they knew you’re with him?"
'they could be upset that he turned them in and still react to his pain.':
“Oh I hope they don’t kill him!” groaned Hermione
So there you go. Our heroes aren't as tarnished as you thought.
(Although, as usual, I'll concede that Hermione is the most empathic/thoughtful.)
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Date: 2014-01-08 03:17 am (UTC)Okay, I take it back. The book needed more than a vague acknowledgement to be effective. That might have worked in a better book, but this one was such a mess and had the characters doing so many nasty things without the narrative so much as blinking that it needed something stronger.
“I’d feel so sorry for Xenophilius if ---“
Well, if you take Hermione at her word XD ... She says she'd feel sorry for him if. If, ie, she is saying she doesn't feel sorry for him, but that she sees how she could have felt sorry for him in an alternate timeline where he did not turn them in. But he did, so she doesn't; she only maybe regrets a bit that she couldn't. Or feels guilty that she can't muster up some pity anyway? Or intellectually knows that she ought to and is trying to make<,/em> herself feel it? Not enough information to tell.
Whatever it is, her not-actually-sympathy is better than Harry and Ron, granted, but I don't really count "not quite so callous as the others" as sufficient for heroism unless the circumstances are exceptional. Like, if Hermione had been raised by some Muggle cult that knew of wizards and believed they were all minions of Satan, and she was open to the idea that maybe some wizards weren't all bad, I'd say that took strength of character. But given her actual upbringing, "Gosh I hope the old man who was terrified for his daughter's life and was physically attacked and in fear of his own life as well isn't dead" is sort of a bare minimum. Unless you are reading this as a gritty anti-hero tale? Which might work better, all things considered!
no subject
Date: 2014-01-08 09:18 pm (UTC)What did you expect them to 'learn' from it? In your previous comment you were lambasting them for not 'reacting', not at 'least twitching'. But they did. You have no grievance here. :-)
Seriously, later on Harry saves his arch enemy, Draco, from Fiendfyre. Hermione begs him not to practise deceit with Griphook. While not 'learnt' from Xeno's case (?) their later behaviour still continues the 'good guy' trend.
In fact our heroes even continue exhibiting their empathy for Xeno's predicament later on, completely separated from the crisis itself:
“Well, as regular listeners will know, several of the more outspoken supporters of Harry Potter have now been imprisoned, including Xenophilius Lovegood, erstwhile editor of The Quibbler,” said Lupin.
“At least he’s still alive!” muttered Ron.
The book needed *more* than a vague acknowledgement to be effective.
Well, their initial reactions, as I quoted, were more than vague.
And then we have Ron's reinforcement, per the above excerpt.
Any more and we'd have to change the title of the novel to "Harry Potter and the Gang's Sympathy for Traitorous Fathers". :-)
She says she'd feel sorry for him if. If, ie, she is saying she doesn't feel sorry for him, but that she sees how she could have -
Heh, oh come on now. You're just being super-picky.
The understood/accepted interpretation of "I'd feel sorry for X if it wasn't for Y" in common English usage is that (a) I *do* feel sorry for X, but (b) the overriding circumstance of Y has other reaction/emotion which results in (c) a 'sum total' of feelings where the sorrow isn't in the majority.
I.e., Hermione *did* feel sorry for Xeno. But she also knew that he was acting selfishly, as an (albeit unwilling) enemy combatant, that this was war, that the Trio was the last hope of Britain and so forth. She *did* feel sorry for Xeno, but given the other concerns/priorities, she couldn't allow herself to act on that sorrow; other matters prevailed.
Honestly, I think your gripe in this case is pretty shaky. Rowling actually did what you wanted this time!
no subject
Date: 2014-01-10 03:52 am (UTC)On a second look, I don't think that some of the Trio (not Harry, though, in any of the parts you've quoted... why on Earth would you want Hermine to date him, again?) wincing at someone screaming and/or later sorta feeling sorry for them puts them ahead of most more-or-less decent people. If Rowling wanted to portray them as better than your average nice kid, then they should do a little better. (And if you think a little better than the Trio's reaction makes it "Harry Potter and the Gang's Sympathy for Traitorous Fathers," you're sounding pretty cold.)
Up to this point in the series, they've primarily dealt with people who were clearly friends or enemies. Sometimes they were wrong about which a person was (Sirius, Fake Moody), but in the end that person clearly revealed themselves to be in one category or the other and that was that. On this occasion, they get smacked in the face with the fact that some "good guys" might act against them for reasons the Trio can't deny are sympathetic. That should prompt some thinking. They don't know how the rest of their mission is going to go at this point -- are they going to have to deal with anyone else who might be in a similar bind, and if so, are there any plans they can make to minimize any damage?
I mean come on, planning for dealing with people whose relatives might be hostages is basic if you're fighting a group of bad guys who just took over your government, surely? Regardless of whether you look at it in a purely pragmatic way or out of sympathy for the people being threatened whom you don't want to put in worse positions if you can help it?
Of course these are the kids who spend weeks planning how to break into the Ministry and it never occurs to them to think about what they'll do once they're in...
no subject
Date: 2014-01-10 03:53 am (UTC)You make it sound like Hermione was absolutely helpless to do anything but beg Harry, and that the only options were either to give the sword back right away after the heist or to cheat him. Because she couldn't suggest making it part of the deal with Griphook that they would agree to give back the sword only once Voldemort was dead and defend the goblins' right to it to anyone who disagreed afterward, and save double-crossing as a last resort rather than making it Plan A? And hey, why are they just shaking hands on it when they have magic? We all know how good Hermione is at enforcing contracts -- couldn't she have and Griphook have written a contract they'd all agree to sign Or Else? If Griphook and the Trio signed something which they all knew would lead to horrible punishment for Griphook if he tried to take the sword while Voldemort lived, and for the Trio if they didn't do everything in their power to return the sword after Voldy's death and defend the goblins' claim in some legalese-specified manner, both sides might have been able to trust each other enough to avoid any double-crossing. (Assuming they think sacrificing the sword later for a better chance to defeat Voldemort is a fair trade. I'm sure there are other possibilities.)
It isn't that she knew "the Trio was the last hope of Britain" and so they had to do whatever it took, because she didn't try anything other than begging and then collaborating to cheat Griphook. If she'd come up with a plan or three and realized they all couldn't work for some reason and that they were out of time, that would be one thing. Like if Griphook had refused the "Voldemort's death > sword's return" deal, and they couldn't find a way to get in touch with any other goblins during these weeks to make the deal with instead without compromising their security (which they probably couldn't, but they could at least consider it), well, then they would probably be out of time for trying other options. I'm on board with cheating him as a last resort when the alternative is "Voldemort lives forever," which is obviously the greater evil. But she didn't try anything except "beg Harry," you say. Did she just forget that she knows how to write magically-binding contracts? For several weeks on end, while wondering how to make sure they all keep their promises? That seems unlikely. So Hermione values obeying Harry above not cheating someone, to such an extent that she doesn't think it's worth even suggesting alternatives.
I hadn't fully considered Hermione's culpability here (it's not like I deliberately look for things to hold against her -- and I think it's more likely that she's lying about mind-wiping her parents than that she's actually done it, so I'm willing to let her off the hook when it seems plausible), so this was interesting. Or maybe we have yet another hint that someone hit the Trio with an anti-thinking charm during the past couple of books, if you want to be generous. Er, thanks, I guess?
no subject
Date: 2014-01-12 04:03 am (UTC)It was a weak example in terms of practicality - yes, a really strong!Hermione should have stood her ground and come up with that sort of compromise. But - while DH!Hermione had recovered her brains from book 6 and saved the boys several times with her 'brilliance' - she still wasn't allowed to divert Harry from the simplistic one-dimensional plot that their author wanted them to take.
(Although, thinking about it, had they come up with a plan like yours, would that have affected the story any? Maybe ... are we supposed to believe that the Trio *deserved* Griphook's treachery - he betrayed them, didn't he? - because they had practised deceit with him?)
Anyway, I proffered the example more as one of Hermione's *altruism*, her demonstrating a sense of ethics, rather than intelligence or practical thinking. :-)
it's not like I deliberately look for things to hold against her -
Well, that makes at least two of us, then. :-)
I think it's more likely that she's lying about mind-wiping her parents than that she's actually done it
Oooh, that reminds me of when that theory popped up a while ago here. I don't think it held up, though. For that to be the case it had to be assumed that Hermione was assuming that Riddle was listening in. But there were lots of other times, after the Wilkins pronouncement, where Hermione 'leaked' information that she wouldn't have, had that been the case?
I'll have to try and find where that theory was mooted here on deathtocapslock. I'd love it if it were true - I want to let poor Hermione off the hook too! - but I'm not sure it works, darn it.