Deathly Hallows, chapter 3

[anehan]

The Dursleys Departing

* This is probably the most boring chapter to date in any of the Harry Potter books. Eleven pages of faffing around. Did I say that nothing happened in the previous chapter? I was wrong. It was positively action-packed compared to this one.

* In the previous chapter Harry wondered what his uncle and aunt would do with the things he left behind. In this chapter, we learn that the Dursleys are leaving before Harry. It seems to me that Vernon and Petunia are in no position to do anything to Harry's things. Quite the contrary. From their experiences of wizards, the Dursleys have every reason to believe that their house has been ransacked when they eventually come back to it.

* In addition to the photograph album and the stack of letters, Harry now adds a piece of broken glass to the pile of things he'll take with him.

* Uncle Vernon doesn't trust wizards to tell him the truth. I wonder why?

* On the other hand, perhaps he should believe them when they tell him his family is in danger from some of "their lot". It would go with his previous experiences of contact with the Wizarding World. Dudley especially has been twice in very serious danger from wizards and their ilk.

* Harry admits that considering Mr Weasley's previous action in the Dursleys' living room, his reappearance couldn't have been expected to delight Uncle Vernon. There's hope for you yet, Harry.

* BTW, why does the protective charm in the house fail when Harry turns seventeen? I always thought that seventeen was an arbitrary age picked merely for administrative purposes, much like eighteen is in the Muggle world. Does this mean that the age seventeen is magically significant?

* Harry tells the Dursleys that they are being offered the best protection there is. Considering that it's the Order, with its not-so-stellar record of protecting those in danger, I wouldn't be reassured if I were in the Dursleys' position.

* The Order thinks the Ministry has been infiltrated. O RLY? It's good that the Order and Voldemort are using the same calendar for the timing of Nefarious Acts. Otherwise Voldemort might have infiltrated the Ministry earlier and the Order wouldn't have had a clue.

* Kingsley is competent! He knows how to dress like a Muggle. Yay for Kingsley!

* Harry gets all impassioned at Vernon. Torture! Murder! Fleeeeeee!

* Harry tells Hedwig they are leaving real soon and that then she'll be able to fly again. I wonder why he doesn't let Hedwig out at the Dursleys and tell her to fly to the Weasleys on her own. I doubt very much that the Death Eaters are on the look-out for owls, hoping to kill Harry's pet to cause him Pain.

* Another person from the Harry Potter Fan Club arrives.

* Why on earth would the Order send someone as clearly inept at Muggle things and Diggle is to protect the Dursleys? Oh, sorry, I forgot. Even the acknowledged experts on Muggles like Arthur Weasley can't do anything as simple as spell "electricity" correctly.

* They can't do magic in the Dursleys' house because Harry is still underage. I've never understood how the Ministry couldn't differentiate between magic done by Harry and magic done by someone else in Harry's vicinity. After all, a surveillance method that can't do that wouldn't be much use in magical households where fully-grown wizards and witches lived with underaged ones. I've explained it away by presuming that the Ministry kept an eye on the residences of Muggle-born students only (thus adding another way in which Muggle-borns are discriminated against). But now we learn of this mysterious Trace, which is supposed to be personal. Then how, exactly, does the Ministry pick up on magic done by someone else than Harry in the Dursleys' house? (Moreover, in the next chapter Harry will use magic willy-nilly without having the Ministry to descend on him. Logic, what logic?)

* Harry wonders why Mad-Eye can't take him by Side-Along-Apparition. For once, the readers are with him.

* I thought the protective charm on the house would break when Harry turned seventeen. Now we learn that it's going to break when Harry leaves the house and the Dursleys Disapparate away, I don't know which one is the decisive action.

* Suddenly, Dudley is all concerned with Harry. This personality transplant is almost as bad as Ginny's was.

* Oh, come on, Rowling. I don't believe Dudley is as stupid as you make him to be here. Surely it's not too difficult to form the words "where is Harry going to go". Concepts too difficult to put into words, indeed.

* Oh, by the way, Dudley's hand is ham-like and he stands with his mouth slightly ajar, reminding Harry of Grawp. I mention this so that you won't forget how ugly and stupid Dudley looks.

* Hestia is outraged with how little the Dursleys care about Harry. We must get a little Harry-praising here. "The unique position" Harry holds "in the hearts of the anti-Voldemort movement". *gags*

* Dudley doesn't think Harry is a waste of space. Oh. My. God. Kill me now.

* Dudley is thankful for Harry saving his life. Bravo, Dudley, that happened only two years ago. What marvelously quick thought processes you have.

* Finally, finally the Dursleys Depart.



IITS:
Why does Dudley worry about Harry? IITS!

Ken and Andrew's Rule of Plotholes:
Diggle and Jones can't do magic in the Dursleys' house. Don't ask me how that works.

Misdirected Answering:
This whole chapter is Misdirected Answering embodied. We don't care about the Dursleys. For fuck's sake, let them leave already!

Final score: 3

Comments

[sunnyskywalker]

Aw, give Dudley a break. He only sees Harry for what, a month every year, with Harry spending most of his time in his room? How could Dudley know about all the times during the year Harry is useless? I can buy Dudley thinking things over and going, "Huh, Harry can be a jerk, but he did save me from whatever-that-was even though I was being a jerk too. Maybe he's okay sometimes? I guess I should thank him..."

The tea, though, that is still ridiculous. And the giant contradictions about who can do magic where and when. Your Confundus Charm is not working, JKR! We can still figure out that these rules change from page to page!

I wonder what ever happened to the Dursleys after this? For all we know, the Death Eaters had some fun Muggle-baiting with them. I guess we're not supposed to think Muggles matter.

[anehan]

The rules over who can do what magic where are probably one of the most head-ache-inducing in the whole series.

I guess we're not supposed to think Muggles matter.

Like Hermione's parents don't matter. I wonder what happened to them.

[sunnyskywalker]

Sadly, they might actually be better off. Maybe Australia has better wizard-Muggle relations - who knows? Regardless, Hermione has no further reason to meddle with them.

[go-back-chief.livejournal.com]

He only sees Harry for what, a month every year, with Harry spending most of his time in his room? How could Dudley know about all the times during the year Harry is useless? I can buy Dudley thinking things over and going, "Huh, Harry can be a jerk, but he did save me from whatever-that-was even though I was being a jerk too. Maybe he's okay sometimes? I guess I should thank him..."

I'd like to reada fic about this. But yeah, the tea is still ridiculous.

[t0ra-chan.livejournal.com]

* In addition to the photograph album and the stack of letters, Harry now adds a piece of broken glass to the pile of things he'll take with him.

Guess someone told him to hold onto it for plot purpuses. Or maybe he just packs any old crap in there. Who knows, maybe he planned to go McGuyver on Voldemort's ass.

* They can't do magic in the Dursleys' house because Harry is still underage. I've never understood how the Ministry couldn't differentiate between magic done by Harry and magic done by someone else in Harry's vicinity. After all, a surveillance method that can't do that wouldn't be much use in magical households where fully-grown wizards and witches lived with underaged ones. I've explained it away by presuming that the Ministry kept an eye on the residences of Muggle-born students only (thus adding another way in which Muggle-borns are discriminated against). But now we learn of this mysterious Trace, which is supposed to be personal. Then how, exactly, does the Ministry pick up on magic done by someone else than Harry in the Dursleys' house? (Moreover, in the next chapter Harry will use magic willy-nilly without having the Ministry to descend on him. Logic, what logic?)

Oh, bullshit. The Order used magic in OotP at the Dursley's house and nothing happened. Tonks packed and moved Harry's trunk and Moody used the Disillusionment charm on him. How come the Ministry didn't pick that up, especially since they already summoned him for a hearing? The trace is bullshit and only exists to make things harder for Harry, just like those new rules about food later.

This whole chapter is a waste of space. Couldn't we have just skipped to the part where the Order gets Harry, if the Dursleys do nothing of importance and never appear again? Because I could have done without all the Harry-ass-kissing in this chapter.

[anehan]

The Order used magic in OotP at the Dursley's house and nothing happened.

Good catch. I'd completely forgotten that. I'm sure that, considering the Ministry was grasping at every possibility of getting Harry expelled or worse, they'd have used this as well against him.

[montavilla.livejournal.com]

I predicted before DH came out that the Dursleys would have to seek protection in 12 Grimauld Place--partially based on Angua's crack theory about the seven HP books corresponding to Seven Deadly Sins and Seven Acts of Charity and Seven Cardinal Virtues. (Which works pretty well up to and including HBP and probably works through DH, but I haven't bothered to apply it.)

I thought it had great comic potential to see the Dursleys having to be in the wizarding world. This farewell chapter, however, is just painful. Dense as Dudley may be to take two years to figure out that Harry saved his life, how dense is Harry not to notice the change in his cousin? (Poor Harry used to be such a perceptive little boy!)

I'm really surprised that the Order bothered to do anything with Harry's relatives. Voldemort doesn't waste a moment's thought on them. I guess that's because he's a half-blood raised in the muggle world and realizes how unattached wizards become to the muggles they grew up with. (Look at Hermione and her pet parents!)

[anehan]

(Poor Harry used to be such a perceptive little boy!)

Too true. It's sad to see him going from the basically normal boy in PS to this idiot in the later books.

[kaskait.livejournal.com]

It's sad to see him going from the basically normal boy in PS to this idiot in the later books.

Actually it is a fantastic example of what a Hogwart's education does to a normal, if magical muggle child.

Hogwarts, we create village idiots and nurture potential sociopaths.

Harry/Hermione, the best examples.

[sunnyskywalker]

Wizards really don't have an ounce of logic. Hermione used to know that.

[tdotm.livejournal.com]

Whoa - I’ll have to lie down after all the excitement here! There was no need for Petunia to suddenly like Harry, I’m glad she didn’t. They were all being driven out of their home because of someone they hated, why would she suddenly care? But there should have been some sort of final discussion/exchange between them to complete the story arc. When reading, however, you don’t realise that you’ll never see her again. By halfway through the book, you don’t care.

Also, I wasn’t convinced that Dudley would take TWO YEARS to express his gratitude/blossoming respect. That means he had to have been more friendly all this time and our Hero only just noticed it. Sadly much more believable. I’ve said it before, but why does JKR deliberately set up Harry as really slow, stupid and passive?. He’s practically bovine in DH. She tries to damage the characters around him (successfully) to make him appear more dynamic (very unsuccessfully). I like Ron, so that's wound me up over the later books, but am just grateful I’m not a Remus fan!

DH is where JKR made her worst mistake. She got boring. I’m in a minority here in that I actually quite enjoyed Books 5 and 6. I’d read the first 4, then lost interest during the long break before Phoenix. When I was ill late in 2005, I got 5 and 6 and while not as good as Azkaban, they kept me nicely entertained. I didn’t care about the mistakes etc. I’ve read worse. I didn’t care about unfeasible stories etc. All I wanted was to enjoy myself.

That’s what got me about Book 7. It was as dull as dishwater. Once she failed to keep my interest, I started to pick holes in the plot (!) and concentrating on all the problems I’d happily ignored before. I didn’t care about the Trace and all the plotholes before this book. (As mentioned above, The Order do loads of Magic when they collect him in Phoenix - shouldn’t he already be in major trouble/under probation after the whole Patronus thing? It‘d have been funny to see them trying to rescue him without magic, no need to trample all over the story you‘d set up in the PREVIOUS CHAPTER) In DH, the Trace just drove me mad. This book was far too badly planned to risk letting your audiences minds wander.

If I was in the Order, I’d have got Vernon to go to work the Friday before, Dudley to go out with his mates and Petunia to go shopping, all as usual - then just not come home. Surely that’d have been safer. In fact, Harry, under his invisibility cloak could have got into the boot of Petunia’s car with his shrunken belongings (Hedwig having been sent to the Burrow or wherever days before.) They’d all meet up with Dedalus Diggle/ Hestia Jones at prearranged spots and Harry could be apparated to the Burrow.

I’m all for her coming up with excuses why existing magic can’t be used if she wants to go down a certain path, but I wasn’t convinced here. I know she wanted an exciting chase, that’s fair enough, but the reasoning behind it wasn’t convincing. I’d rather have an uneventful, but amusing chapter, than pages of badly written or ill conceived action. When it’s uneventful, ill conceived AND badly written…..

[intotheaether.livejournal.com]

but am just grateful I’m not a Remus fan!

Tell me about it. ;________;

[aasaylva.livejournal.com]

why does JKR deliberately set up Harry as really slow, stupid and passive?.
I think the sad answer is that with halfway intelligent heroes, the book would have ended at about michaelmas. So they had to be collectively stupid, even Hermione. As Hermione's driving characteristic is to be the brain of the operation, she had to dumb down the other two accordingly, ending up with two lumps that rival Crabbe and Goyle...

but am just grateful I’m not a Remus fan!
OMG yes! I really liked him in PoA (flaws and all) and even thought he might be a romantically interesting character in a understated well handled way. By the time he actually WAS a romantic character (HBP) he was already only a shadow of himself. And in DH ... when we were told about his and Tonks' corpses my only thoughts were "Whatever..."

[mmmarcusz.livejournal.com]

I think the sad answer is that with halfway intelligent heroes, the book would have ended at about michaelmas. So they had to be collectively stupid, even Hermione. As Hermione's driving characteristic is to be the brain of the operation, she had to dumb down the other two accordingly, ending up with two lumps that rival Crabbe and Goyle...


Crabbe? The Crabbe who can cast complex curses such as Fiendfyre? The Crabbe who stands up to his friend-master in a convincing manner? He's worth twelve of Ron.

[aasaylva.livejournal.com]

LOL!!! Although I'd like to weigh in with Ron's sudden mastering of Parseltongue - so among all the dumbing down, there were occasional unexplained bursts of pure genius as well!

[sunnyskywalker]

If I was in the Order, I’d have got Vernon to go to work the Friday before, Dudley to go out with his mates and Petunia to go shopping, all as usual - then just not come home.

Clearly, you are too smart to live in the wizarding world, because that would make sense.

I would have even been okay with the stupid escape plan if the characters had realized it was a stupid plan afterward, resolved to do better, and then done so. But no.

[anehan]

I like your version of the events much better.

I didn't much like OotP and HBP, but nevertheless they had redeeming features, things I enjoyed. DH is, just like you said, dull.

Also, what she did to Remus is just painful. He was very calm and collected in PoA, and even in OotP and HBP. For fuck's sake, the man was prepared to kill his former friend in cold blood in PoA. He was just about as far from being emo as possible. Not so much in DH. It was just... God. Blegh.

[mmmarcusz.livejournal.com]

Just occurred to me: when Lupin gives his speech in 12DH about not wanting to stay with Tonks, why doesn't Harry (or Hermione at least) think, hmm, maybe she's kicked him out? And surely leaving your family to fight for the security of the world is an honourable act?

[go-back-chief.livejournal.com]

That means he had to have been more friendly all this time and our Hero only just noticed it.

Yeah, I can beleive this. For all we know, maybe Dudley's been leaving teacups outside Harry's room every day for two summers, and Harry never even noticed because he never fell on one before? Or maybe Dudley just figured out that this was the last book, so he'd better take this opportunity to thank him with tea, because it's not like he would get another.

He’s practically bovine in DH. She tries to damage the characters around him (successfully) to make him appear more dynamic (very unsuccessfully). I like Ron, so that's wound me up over the later books, but am just grateful I’m not a Remus fan!

So much WORD.

[cressida0201.livejournal.com]

am just grateful I’m not a Remus fan!

I fear that I now have to count myself as a former Remus Lupin fan, or perhaps as a fan of PoA!Lupin only. OotP!Lupin is tolerable, but barely there, so I don't really count him. I could even still like him in HBP if I cut him large amounts of slack for what he was going through, and if I assumed it was his low point of the series. But DH succeeded in completely killing my fondness for him. He used to be a lot better than that.

[sistermagpie.livejournal.com]

It is rather funny you never see an adult worried about doing magic in a Muggle house until...er...now. Or just near an underaged kid. How's that supposed to work if the trace is only near the kid instead of on the kid?

Note that the best protection involves keeping your memory of your own identity. They probably offered this to Hermione and she said no, she had this great plan to give her parents brain damage and didn't want to give it up.

Hedwig gets so fucked in this chapter. Any minute now, you can fly! But not until I've dragged you next to me through the air while people are shooting at me.

[anehan]

I get a headache when I contemplate the magic-doing rules. I would have liked it if the Ministry could only have monitored the general area instead of individual persons and if they had monitored only Muggle-born students' homes (because monitoring wizarding-born students' homes would have been useless due to all the magic being done their by adults). It would have been a good example of how the Muggle-born students are discriminated against, which is something we don't really see in the books.

[aasaylva.livejournal.com]

In addition to the photograph album and the stack of letters, Harry now adds a piece of broken glass to the pile of things he'll take with him.
Oh come on! It's the sliver that reminds him of his dearly beloved godfather who he mourned for about two weeks one year ago and never ever thought of again. But for the dead man walking scene to pull its punches we have to be reminded of Harry's deep longing for what's-his-face.

BTW, why does the protective charm in the house fail when Harry turns seventeen?
I never really understood how this protection was meant to work. Was it bound to the actual walls of the house? Then shouldn't Harry have been told not to wander around outside? Let alone go to school? Or was it attached to the actual people? Then why couldn't the DE have overcome it by simply killing the Dursleys first? considering the hash Rowling made of magical concepts in general, I suppose I should be glad she didn't offer an explanation though. Thus fandom is free to come up with something logical instead.

I wonder why he doesn't let Hedwig out at the Dursleys and tell her to fly to the Weasleys on her own.
No doubt her cage had been locked magically and he CANNOT USE MAGIC OMG!!! In fact, Hedwig was killed in collusion of DE and the evil bureaucrats!

Logic, what logic?
LWL should be a jabootoo score on its own.

Harry wonders why Mad-Eye can't take him by Side-Along-Apparition.
This really annoyed me - just like the idiotic explanation we were given by Bellatrix in OotP of why Voldy couldn't have gone to the ministry himself. It's obvious Rowling just wants to have her seven (naked, cough-equus-cough)Potters and I admit the visuals of that sequence will be stunning in the movie (oops - I was thinking of the ensuing flight scene here! Really! - blushes -), but the explanation about why they couldn't apparate him out of there are an insult to any reader's intelligence.

Oh, by the way, Dudley's hand is ham-like and he stands with his mouth slightly ajar, reminding Harry of Grawp.<7i>
Maybe all would have been well if Harry had tied him up in the back garden? The whole end of the Dudley arc is like taken out of a cheap B-movie - you know, the sort where any major problem can be solved by two sentences of deep meaningful wisdom and several well placed tears. The depiction of the Dursleys never has been realistic, but in the early books I liked the over-the-top caricature we were given. But starting in HBP it's deteriorated into nothing but plain bad writing.

[anehan]

The protective charm is another of those great mysteries, like the magic-doing rules. Clearly, Rowling shouldn't try her hand at complex magic. Just stick to Wingardium Leviosa.

The depiction of the Dursleys never has been realistic, but in the early books I liked the over-the-top caricature we were given.

You aren't the only one. They were delightfully Roald Dahl-esque, but that was before the series decided to become Realistic and Dark.

Mike Smith

[(Anonymous)]

*Bursts into the Great Hall* "Attenion all! Mike Smith is doing Chamber of Secrets! Thought you oughta know" *faints*

Re: Mike Smith

[artystone.livejournal.com]

ZOMG!
*rushes over*

[anehan]

The Petunia/Harry storyline was disappointing. There was this tantalizing moment in OotP when Petunia says that Harry can stay at the Dursleys, but then nothing is really resolved.

[(Anonymous)]

Petunia was an important last direct genetic link to Lily, and it is surprising that JKR tossed that plot point. After so many books of dangling it in our face (i.e the OOtP moment you mention above) in B7 she leaves Harry without saying a word.

Really, the main question here is WTF was Harry doing at the Durseleys? I mean when DD forced them to promise to take Harry one more time, there were lots of theories why that should be the case. That he'll learn something essential for his victory from it. But now it turns out that there was _no_ reason - neither rational nor plot one for Harry to return at all. Well, unless you want to count Dudley grovelling to him. Honestly, it was one more excuse for Harry to be passive for a month.

Re: whether Durseleys were in danger - if Voldy was a somewhat realistic villain, they would have been for all the nuisance that their blood protection caused him. It is funny that they pay pretty dearly for their protection of Harry, however mean-spirited - Vernon loses his job, Dudley a year of school or apprenticeship, their house is likely to be destroyed and they themselves are in mortal danger, "protection" of the OoP notwithstanding, and our great-hearted hero has not a spark of empathy or guilt.

But then, all the families of known Muggleborn would have been targets as well, if Voldy was worth his salt. In fact, instead of killing some random faceless unknowns that's who the DEs should have been going after in HBP, forcing Muggleborn kids to leave Hogwarts via terror.

Re: underage magic, yes, no consistency whatsoever. If it was so easy to set up Harry in CoS, surely bloodists could have caused quite a few Muggleborn kids to be expelled over the years? After all, their adresses aren't secret or anything.
And while I wouldn't call kids from magical families being able to get away with magic at home discrimination, exactly - after all, their families can fix whatever happens without involving the MoM - it would, if spelled out, be an illustration of why the Muggleborns are at a disadvantage. Because, well, we were shown zero discrimination of the Muggleborns in text, so it is difficult to see them as oppressed in any way until DH.

[(Anonymous)]

Well, it was supposed to be for his continued protection until he came of age.

But given the ease of their staying hidden for a whole year after that, one could imagine any number of places where he would have been safer than the one place where he would be _known_ to be and in mortal danger after a well-publicized date. Re: Apparition from the porch - I could imagine that the DEs could prevent it, somehow. After all, anti-apparition wards _are_ in canon. And also, oh noes, he didn't pass his apparition licence. Just mentioning it becase is suddenly so important not to break laws at the start of DH, while it is perfectly OK to cast Unforgivables at the end of it.

[(Anonymous)]

Heh, you'd think that all those knucklehead DEs staking the place would have put anti-Apparition wards on the area.

Depriving the Durseleys of their house seems rather extreme, though. But since Fidelius from the rare, powerful magic with some unspecified, but strong drawbacks transformed into something trivial in DH, a Weasley could have put any old shack under Fidelius, made Harry it's SK - and presto! A much more secure place to wait for his coming of age and much easier to leave secretly than Privet Drive. And he could have done something productive there - but of course Rowling couldn't have that. For some incomprehensible reason Harry had to be a paragon of passivity.

[jodel-from-aol.livejournal.com]

As to Hedwig; in the early books I noticed that logic and plausibility flew out the window as soon as Rowling saw the opportunity to make a cheesy joke. In this book logic and plausibility fly out the window as soon as Rowling sees an opportunity to jerk a few tears from the reader. It's not an improvement.

She hadn't anything for Hedwig to *do* in this book. So why keep her around?

Crookshanks ends up being abandoned at the Weasleys', and we never hear what happened to him. Why the hell *couldn't* she have done the same with Hedwig? Even the Weasleys would have known better than to send a conspicuous owl to Harry while he is dodging DEs.

[va32h.livejournal.com]

My daughter - who was 11 when DH was released - pointed out the absurdity of Harry keeping Hedwig locked up in her cage, as he was always loathe to do it in the previous books.

Note to JKR: when 11 year olds can easily spot your flawed premises, it's time for a rewrite!!

[tdotm.livejournal.com]

There are several comments about how magic is monitored here (and I’ll bet there’ll be many more over the weeks). I didn't know who to reply to, so this is to everyone who’s struggled with this load of old nonsense.

I always thought there were 3 types of magic:-

1. Normal magic with a wand. Under 17s aren’t allowed to use this outside of schools. Therefore the households where the only magical people are children are monitored. This is obviously going to be muggleborns, but I think this is common sense. How on earth could they monitor somewhere like the Burrow? Far better to leave it to the resident adults to control the children in their care. I’m also fine with that not being used as an example of Muggleborns discrimination. It’s actually rather sensible for the Wizarding Community/JKR which is too rare to complain about.

2. Wandless Magic - This is either kiddies losing control, or simple spells by older Wizards. (Even the mighty Hermione never used it, so I always presumed you had to quite experienced ) This isn’t monitored, as it’s either spontaneous and uncontrolled, (not deliberately breaking rules) or Wizards who are comfortably of age.

3. Sub-Species magic - sorry Dobby! This isn’t monitored either, or probably even acknowledged.

The above three rules fitted most events up till DH and that damned Trace! In Chamber, Dobby blew up the cake, but Harry didn’t get into trouble, see No.3. In Azkaban, he blew up Aunt Marge, but seemed to get off. I’ve convinced myself that Harry would never have been in too much trouble as it was spontaneous, not calculated (see No. 2) - despite the number of muggles who saw her floating over Surrey…..In Goblet, I can’t remember the details, but hadn’t Arthur cleared his going to collect Harry? Therefore, any magic done wouldn’t be questioned.

In Phoenix, it really fell apart. When the Order collected Harry from the Dursleys, JKR just ignored rules that had been in force a few pages before and would be needed again a couple of chapters later to form the basis of the trial. She could easily have mentioned it during the trial as a further point against him and have Dumbledore say he sent Remus to collect him. Therfore any magic done at a certain time wasn’t Harry taking the piss. Or, she could have had the Order just throw his stuff into the trunk and Moody do a wandless spell to shrink it. What she shouldn’t have done, was just ignore the screaming discrepancy.

The Trace flies in the face of all my excuses (I became damned good at them over the years) and is a pile of soiled pants. I was fine with the idea of a chase for a bit of excitement - I really needed it by that point. The problem was trying to link the Trace to Underage Magic, when she should have made it something new. She should have said it was something that Aurors very occasionally used when staking out a suspected stronghold of Death Eaters, which prevented them from magically escaping from a house and the ¼ mile area around it. Something only possible with authorisation from high up in the Ministry, which Voldemort could now obtain. Or something along those lines.

We've all overlooked far worse, we'd have accepted it. Then the Seven Potters, in all of its nonsensical glory, could go ahead, exploding owl and all.

Alternatively, Harry could call Dobby and get to the Burrow that way. Most sensible of all, but we really did need some action at that point…….

[anehan]

3. Sub-Species magic - sorry Dobby! This isn’t monitored either, or probably even acknowledged. [...] In Chamber, Dobby blew up the cake, but Harry didn’t get into trouble, see No.3.

Except that Harry did get into trouble. He received an official warning for doing magic, so clearly, to the Ministry, there's no distinction between Harry doing magic and a house elf doing magic near Harry.

[tdotm.livejournal.com]

Bugger - my desperate attempts to understand are in vain. I prefer my version (again). Well, I'm still going to cling to my wanded vs wandless theories. I rather wish JKR had clung constantly to her own theories - whatever they were. (I certainly couldn't tell from reading the books)

Also, I never understood whether apparition was impossible, or just being monitored. Couldn't they apparate to the middle of nowhere, then apparate again quickly. The second apparition wouldn't be monitored, they be off before anyone could get to them, and then they could head for the Burrow...

I give up - which is a shame because it's all about to kick off. I bet you can't wait to recap the next couple of chapters with the nonsense theories and the Seven Potters. Rather you than me!

[anehan]

I bet you can't wait to recap the next couple of chapters with the nonsense theories and the Seven Potters.

Yes. I'm all aquiver with excitement.