Deathly Hallows, chapter 4

[anehan]

The Seven Potters

* Hedwig is sulking. Even she understands how stupid it is of Harry to lock her in her cage.

* Lupin is "greyer, more lined". In every book, Lupin looks worse and worse. I swear, he should have wasted away years ago.

* According to Kingsley, Harry is more important than the Muggle Prime Minister. Too bad we haven't seen Harry do anything to demonstrate this to us. As it is, I remain sceptical.

* Harry can't be Flooed, Portkey'd or Apparated out of 4 Privet Drive. So take him to Mrs Figg's and Apparate him away.

* The Trace. I think I've said all there is to say about it in the previous cap. The bloody thing makes no sense.

* "With You-Know-Who out there and half the Ministry on his side?" My, Voldemort has been busy. He's done more during this summer than in the previous two years together.

* According to Moody, Voldemort is bound to have a Death Eater or two on the lookout. Tell me again, why didn't he do that in the previous two years? Kidnap Harry in OotP and save us the tedium of reading through HBP and DH.

* Harry's Polyjuice Potion is a clear, bright gold. Remember the muddiness of Crabbe's and Goyle's? They were evil already at the age of 12. Remember, it's your choices that... Wait a minute, what am I saying? Some people are born good and some people evil.

* Good thing we have the Polyjuice Potion tell us about Harry's goodness. Otherwise we might have had some doubts, what we the Unforgivables an all that.

* Notice that Fleur doesn't change size when she drinks Harry!Juice. Just observing.

* "Bill, don't look at me -- I'm 'ideous." Ahahahahaaaa!

* Six naked Potters. *leers*

* Fleur give Bill a soppy, slavish look. It's the same look that's glued on Ginny's face when she looks at Harry.

* Moody won't lock the back door, since it won't keep the Death Eaters away. Maybe not, but at least it'll keep the neighbourhood children from ransacking the house while the Dursleys are away. Dear me, what am I talking about? No one cares about the Dursleys' property. They're just dirty Muggles.

* Why aren't the Potters and their guards Disillusioned? Quite aside from the fact that Muggles can now see them flying, why are they making the Death Eaters' job easier? Logic, what Logic.

* Hedwig died. Cheap, Rowling, cheap.

* Harry is doing magic willy-nilly. Whatever happened to the Trace?

* What is dragon fire and why haven't we hear of it before?

* Stan Shunpike's face is strangely blank. Maybe it's supposed to tell us that Stan is Imperio'd, but why would the Death Eaters take an Imperio'd person with them to such a delicate mission? I much prefer to think that Stan really is a DE.

* I don't get why the DE would think Harry's the only one who'd use Expelliarmus against them. Surely it's not that obscure a charm, considering that it was the first charm the students were taught in the Duelling Club in CoS. It doesn't make sense.

* Oh dear, here we have the incident of Harry's wand acting of its own accord. More things that don't make sense.

* Well, that was boring.



Designated Hero:
Harry's Polyjuice Potion reveals his essential goodness.

Hero's Death Battle Exemption:
The Killing Curses miss Harry by millimetres.

IITS:
Why can't Harry be Apparated away? IITS!

Final score: 3

Comments

[tdotm.livejournal.com]

The chapter of 1,000 questions. I have a few here I’d like to mention, if anyone has any answers....

Part One: Why not let Hedwig go days before? Why not hand her over to Dedalus Diggle (best name ever!) to slip away with the Dursleys if he thought she was at risk? Why were the Dursleys safe enough to drive together on the Day of Harry’s escape? Surely it was a bit of a risk, as a real psychopath would have slaughtered them for protecting his enemy. Then left them dead in the smouldering ruins of their house (I presume the protection stopped with Petunia’s heartbeat) and set Harry up for their murder - within the Muggle world at least. Indeed Harry could have been killed before the Order had poured their Polyjuice Potion into flasks and left the Burrow. In fact, why not kill Petunia in Phoenix, once Voldemort was up and running - or at least try to?

If the Dursleys were safe to just drive off with a couple of Wizards, why didn’t they put Harry, in the Invisibility cloak in the magically extended boot? In fact, why had the Dursleys not left days before, one by one, under the guise of going to work/shopping/hang out with mates? If Hedwig had to stay until the 7 Potters nonsense, why not shrink her cage and let her fly under her own steam, when she‘d be the last thing the Death Eaters would give a toss about? If she had to die, why not send her off a couple of hours before? Then when Harry got to the Burrow, he’d receive an early birthday present - a box filled with white feathers. That’d wipe the smug smile/scowl of self-pity off his face…

So many questions raised by the least important part of the story, but I haven’t mentioned the most important one yet. Why did Hedwig explode? Don’t get me wrong, I had a hysterical fit of laughter when I read this - but then I wasn’t reading it to small children. Do Post Owls have petrol in their veins? I can presume that her cage didn’t have fuel - if it was motorised, she wouldn’t have plunged to her death. Are Owl pellets made of gunpowder? I think JKR’s habit throughout this book of writing with Hollywood in mind has gone too far, very early on. They tend to make crashed cars explode far more then they normally would in real life. Maybe she decided that slow types (who still think she’s a great writer) wouldn’t understand death unless it happens in a ball of flames? Maybe the whole ‘Sirius through the veil’ thing made her cautious? (It would have been fine if better explained) Or maybe she wanted to prevent conspiracy theorists who’d insist that Hedwig had survived and was leading woodland creatures in the fight against evil. (I hoped Moody had survived until his eye turned up)

Why didn’t Dudley just walk off that morning to meet some mates as he always did? Diggle, could collect Dudley from a pre-arranged point, then after taking him to safety, cut a lock of hair and deliver it to the Burrow. Then about lunchtime, polyjuiced as Dudley, Arthur/Kingsley/Ron/Bill/Charlie/Fred/George/Hermione/Tonks/Diggle or anyone else apart from Moody with his limp could go back to Privet Drive ‘for lunch’. He could then walk off with Harry under the Invisibility Cloak to a prearranged point. If she really needed to make those ‘ear ear’ jokes, George could have had his little accident at the end of Book 6.

Why did JKR become so ridiculously simplistic that Harry’s polyjuice had to be golden, like his very soul (retch)? Why mention that at all? Why can’t she show his good nature by - I don’t know - MAKING HIM GOOD? Why all the ridiculous symbolism that doesn’t tie in with his dull, bovine, sulky, mean spirited, occasionally downright vicious nature in this book?

I actually liked Fleur as Harry eyeing up Bill, especially that Harry didn’t want to ever see that expression on his face again. A bit like catching your Mum snogging your Dad I imagine. Yuck!

[aasaylva.livejournal.com]

That’d wipe the smug smile/scowl of self-pity off his face…
Are you kidding? Woe would have been him! It'd be HIS owl who'd been cruelly slaughtered and again the universe had NOT stopped its existence. So of course another bout of self-pity would have been called for!

Do Post Owls have petrol in their veins?
LOL!!!

Or maybe she wanted to prevent conspiracy theorists who’d insist that Hedwig had survived and was leading woodland creatures in the fight against evil
Damn! Hedwig could have led the owlery during the battle of Hogwarts. In fact, it should have been Pigwidgeon, charging into the Great Hall ahead of the rest, screeching "For brave Hedwig!" But alas, Rowling just does not do melodrama (my keyboard starts fuming at this point, so I'll stop the irony).

[anehan]

In fact, why not kill Petunia in Phoenix, once Voldemort was up and running - or at least try to?

That's the question. Why did Voldemort wait for two years before taking over the Ministry, attacking Harry at 4 Privet Drive, et cetera ad nauseam.

Do Post Owls have petrol in their veins?

*giggles*