Deathly Hallows, chapter 2

[anehan]

In Memoriam

* The Dursleys are leaving tea cups outside Harry's bedroom door. What are they, house elves?

*Harry has never learned to heal wounds and thinks it's a serious flaw in his magical education. Maybe he ought to have, you know, studied during the six years at Hogwarts instead of letting Hermione do all his work for him. Sorry, Harry, but you have no one else than yourself to blame. Normal people, if they had a lunatic after their blood, would have actually devoted some time for making sure they weren't completely unprepared.

* Harry has never cleaned his trunk before. Gross. Our Harry isn't much for hygiene.

* Finding a fragment of the mirror Sirius had given him, Harry feels a sudden upsurge of bitter memories, stabs of regret and longing. He suffers, I tell you.

* Harry is going to take his photograh album and a stack of letters with him. Good lord, what does he think he's going to do with them. The boy is an idiot.

* And we come to the sickening obituary by Elphias Doge. One more person whom Dumbledore managed to hoodwink into believing he was a noble person.

* Dumbledore never revealed the remotest anti-Muggle tendency. Except when he bullied the Dursleys. But that doesn't count, because the Dursleys totally deserved it.

* Dumbledore became the most brilliant student Hogwarts had ever seen and constantly outshone his friends. Bet he liked that. It would have done good for him to be second-best at something. Instead, everything confirmed him in his belief that he was superior to others and that it was his duty to manipulate others for the greater good.

* According to Doge, Dumbledore never had Ministerial ambitions. True enough. He just wanted to take over the world.

* "Albus Dumbledore was never proud or vain". Ahahahahahaa!

* Dumbledore's losses "endowed him with great humanity and sympathy". Bitch, please. The man is clearly incapable of empathy.

* Doge was right in one thing, though: Dumbledore always worked for the greater good. Too bad his methods and definition of "greater good" were rather questionable.

* Harry had thought he knew Dumbledore quite well. What made him think that? The great openness Dumbledore displayed in his dealings with Harry, perhaps?

* Harry thinks that the idea of a teen-aged Dumbledore was odd, like trying to imagine a stupid Hermione. Much as I love Hermione, I have no problem in imagining her stupid. She isn't half so clever as she likes to think. For example, what good did it do to the DA to brand the traitor's face? It didn't prevent Marietta from squealing.

* The only personal question Harry had asked Dumbledore was the only one he suspected Dumbledore hadn't answered honestly. That's too naïve even for Harry.

* Unpleasant Skeeter may be, but I at least would rather read her book than any more of Doge's pennings. There might ever be a shred of truth in what she writes, if you manage to discount the more lurid details.

* Skeeter calls the Potter-Dumbledore relationship unhealthy, even sinister. Brava! At least someone finally got it right.

* Another chapter in which nothing happens comes to an end. I really need that alcohol to get through this.



Informed Attributes:
Dumbledore is noble. No, really.

Misdirected Answering:
Did you hear what Dumbledore got up to as a teenager? What do you mean, you're not interested?

Nut o' Fun:
Desiccated beetle eyes.

Final score: 3. Nothing happens in this chapter.

Comments

Re: Time turners: story breakers?

[cressida0201.livejournal.com]

MoM was eating from DD's hand at the point

Not necessarily every single member of the MoM, though. Which might have made the story more interesting.

and really, refusals wouldn't stop him if he wanted something. He'd just break in and take it.

But he only has an hour to do so, and DD isn't so omnipowerful that he can't be stalled for an hour.

An old heirloom that only works once? Perhaps, but frankly that's just too much dancing around needed to accommodate one "cool" moment. Not worth it, IMHO.

And here I was thinking that it might make the "cool" moment even cooler. *shrug* We've probably reached the point where it's best just to agree to disagree, actually.

Re: Time turners: story breakers?

[(Anonymous)]

Just wanted to point out that :

But he only has an hour to do so, and DD isn't so omnipowerful that he can't be stalled for an hour.

Wouldn't apply for CoS. DD had more than half a year after the first student was petrified in which he could have obtained a time-turner. If a kid can get one to sit in extra lessons, then a headmaster certainly can do so to ensure safety of the school. Heck, given that DD easily abandoned borders of legality when he chose, he would have gotten one regardless, to counteract various dangers.
Hm... maybe Harry's continued survival in face of adversity wasn't sheer dumb luck, after all. Perhaps DD rolled back that basilisk fight 50 times, until Faulks and Harry finally won?

Another example of a new element making previous stuff problematic/illogical, even in the early books, are Apparition issues.

Re: Time turners: story breakers?

[cressida0201.livejournal.com]

Wouldn't apply for CoS.

My point is that it could have applied if JKR had thought about it and made it apply. It's her world, after all; she gets to decide what DD's relationship with the Ministry is.