Deathly Hallows, chapter 7

[anehan]

The Will of Albus Dumbledore

* In my memory, before this re-read, DH consisted of the wedding, three hundred pages of sitting in a tent, and the final showdown. I'd completely forgotten all this blather I would have to get through to get to the bloody wedding. Alas.

* Now I know why Dumbledore didn't insist Harry continue his Occlumency lessons after OotP. If he'd mastered Occlumency, we'd have no way of knowing what Voldemort was up to in DH.

* Are we supposed to be as clueless as Harry about who this Gregorovitch is? Because fandom knew his identity the moment his name was mentioned.

* "'No,' said Harry. 'I'm definitely not thinking of Gorgovitch.'

'I try not to, either,' said Ron."

Wow, Ron is actually funny! If only he'd be allowed to be this delightfully snarky, I might actually like him.

* Ron's present for Harry is something I'd expect from 14-year-old boys. Twelve Fail-Safe Ways to Charm Witches, indeed.

* "It's not all about wandwork." *tries to get her mind out of the gutter* What did I say in the last chapter? JKR likes almost-sexual jokes.

* Actually, in a world that has love potions, the book's title isn't in the least bit funny.

* There's something a bit repulsive about Hermione's mother-act, but I guess someone's got to prepare the Trio for their upcoming tenting expedition, since Harry and Ron don't seem to concern themselves with any preparations.

* Looking at Ginny is like gazing into a brilliant light. And in HBP, she has a hard, blazing look on her face. What's with all this imagery? Has her fiery red-headedness put her permanently on fire?

* Harry thinks it's wonderful that Ginny was rarely weepy. That's right, let's not inconvenience Harry with girls who have actual emotions. The Chosen One's chosen one must exist merely to support him. Any independent thought, act or emotion is to be frowned at.

* Kissing Ginny is better than Firewhisky. When has Harry tasted Firewhisky?

* Ginny isn't allowed to cry, but Harry can get as maudlin as he chooses. Buck up, you prat. Ending a short teenaged love affair isn't a tragedy of Shakespearean propotions.

* Lupin looks unhappy whereas Tonks looks radiant. What a lovely marriage they have. It's quite clear whose wish getting married was.

* I hate hate hate what JKR did to Lupin in this book. PoA!Lupin wouldn't have worn his emotions in his sleeves. And why, oh why did he let Tonks badger him into marrying her when he so clearly didn't want it? I hate wimpy Remus. Grrrrr.

* Wizards have oil lamps. Just noting.

* Dumbledore could have passed the objects he left to the Trio to them at any time during the past six years. Instead, he prefers to give them in a fashion that is quaranteed to get the Ministry's attention. He just loves to be mysterious, does Dumbledore.

* Actually, he could have just told the Trio what they needed to know. Of course, in that way the book would have been about the lenght of Philosopher's Stone. Instead, we got three hundred pages of the Trio sitting in a tent.

* I thought the Deluminator was called the Put-Outer in PS/SS.

* Was there anything about Snitches having a flesh memory in Quidditch throught the Ages? I can't remember.

* Frankly, I agree with Scrimgeour that the sword of Gryffindor was not Dumbledore's to give away.

* Harry says Voldemort chased him across three counties. Does anyone else think that unrealistic? Surely the chase wasn't that long.

* I really, really don't like this Ministry vs. Harry set-up. They should be co-operating, not fighting each other. I know I'm supposed to take Harry's side here, but IMO both Harry and Scrimgeour are being extremely childish.

* Maybe JKR had to set the Ministry up as another villain because Voldemort was such an ineffectual one.

* Even the Trio, much as they adore Dumbledore, agree with me that it was a tad curious of Dumbledore not to give the sword et al. when he was alive.

* Ron's a bit of an idiot for expecting Harry and Hermione to have heard wizarding children's tales. But then again, that's just par for the course.

* I would love to get my hands on The Tales of Beedle the Bard. Imagine how much you could learn about the Wizarding World by reading children's stories.

* Thank god it's over. Next week, the wedding! Maybe something will finally start to happen. (I won't hold my breath, though.)



Atomic Grenade:
Harry vs. Scrimgeour. And Harry has a hole in his shirt to prove it.

Box Picture:
Rufus Scrimgeour is The Designated Villain.

IITS:
Why didn't Dumbledore give the sword etc. when he was alive? I know, IITS!

Light Bulb Moment:
Harry desperately needs one to solve the mystery of the Snitch. It ain't coming, though.

"Watermelon, watermelon, cantaloupe, cantaloupe":
Happy birthday, Harry!

Whooshing Powder:
And Scrimgeour is gone.

Final score: 6. Or is it 4, since the Light Bulb Moment is a negative one?

Comments

[mary-j-59.livejournal.com]

I could understand why he hadn't said anything about Sirius' animagus form

Really? You see, I could not understand that, not when I thought about it. Here is the contrast between Lupin and Snape (or Severus and Remus, since I like them both):
Remus knowingly endangers every child in the school in order to be liked - in order not to lose the headmaster's respect (and, after DH, we know what THAT's worth!). I repeat - he knowingly endangers every child, thinking as he does that Sirius is a traitor and mass murderer, knowing that Sirius can sneak into the school undetected, knowing that Sirius has entered the Gryffindor dormitories, and searched a CHILD'S BED with a KNIFE. In the face of this act, with this knowledge, he keeps silent. And he is a teacher, sworn to guard and protect the students under his care. Not to speak out under these circumstances is cowardly, unless, as you said, he had his own plans and wanted to deal with Sirius himself. In that case, he's merely arrogant, vengeful and hot-headed -- a typical Gryffindor. It's still wrong and inexcusable.

Severus,OTOH, accepts scorn from Dumbledore and hatred and contempt from students and fellow teachers alike in order to fulfill his mission and keep Harry safe. And he is, in Harry's words, "the bravest man I ever knew".

That's the contrast I see, and it was already clear in POA, when Severus risked his life to try to rescue the kids, while Remus endangered them by failing to take his Wolfsbane potion - as well as failing to tell Dumbledore what he knew. Just my two cents!

[(Anonymous)]

Ditto. I thought that Lupin's moral cowardice was very well established. In PoA he knowingly and selfishly endangered all children in the castle and Harry in particular because he didn't want to admit to some wrongdoing in the past. And "he wanted to deal with it on his own" doesn't make it better. Not to mention that there is zero evidence that Lupin actually mounted guard on the secret passages - which he could have mentioned without admitting to Animagi sheningians. In fact, Harry managed to use the one into Hogsmeade without alerting him.
As a kid Lupin also didn't stand up to his friends when he knew that they were bullies and when it was his duty as a prefect to stop them. Not only that, he also let them mortally endanger _many_ other people when they brought him out in the werewolf form.

I also don't see him as a good teacher, contrary to what JKR says. His boggart lesson was incredibly badly thought through - I mean, what if any really nasty, private fears made an appearance? His "bolstering" of Neville via an underhanded and unprofessional dig at a collegue only made things worse for Neville. And Lupin was incredibly lucky that Neville didn't see his parents being tortured into insanity - how would he have made _that_ funny, I wonder? His getting Harry out of a richly deserved punishment for sneaking to Hogsmeade was blatant favoritism. His shower of points for simple classwork was a very cheap tactics to achieve popularity. And finally, he forgot to take Wolfsbane not once, but twice (the first time Snape caught him in time with a dose), thus actively endangering all the children in yet another way. I mean, huh?

I also used to like Lupin and couldn't understand why he was suddenly replaced with Sirius as a close adult confidant in GoF and OoTP, but yes, he was very flawed from the beginning. Naturally, the general devaluing of the Order in DH hit my view of him very hard, because the one thing which made him heroic was rendered largely irrelevant.

[cressida0201.livejournal.com]

When you put it like that, it sounds both logical and damning, but...*shrug* maybe it's just that the possibility of Sirius doing actual harm just wasn't real to me even when I read PoA for the first time. Maybe I was responding to the genre; they were still pretty firmly children's books by then. Anyway, perhaps that made Lupin's neglecting to reveal what he knew seem correspondingly less important. Or who knows, maybe if I read PoA again, I'd be indignant and horrified. I don't want to try the experiment just now, though. PoA is one of the books that I still have fond memories of, and I don't want to spoil what little positive feeling I have left for anything Harry Potter-related.

[mary-j-59.livejournal.com]

PoA is one of the books that I still have fond memories of, and I don't want to spoil what little positive feeling I have left for anything Harry Potter-related.

Oh, I understand! I, too, used to like these books, and I feel terribly betrayed. You see, although Remus's cowardice was quite clear by my second reading of HBP - and I was amazed I hadn't noticed it earlier - I thought: (1) that Snape would be revealed, unequivocally, as a hero in spite of his flaws, AND (2) that Remus would become a hero, also, and become worthy of Tonks. At least, that's what I was hoping for. Instead, Rowling did her best to diminish Severus - not succeeding too well, but she tried hard - while also diminishing poor Lupin and ignoring Tonks entirely. It was too bad. They could *all* have done so much more, and it was a waste of some genuinely complex and interesting characters.

[sunnyskywalker]

I would like to know why JKR threw in the whole Metamorphmagus angle when NOTHING EVER CAME OF IT. That's not a fun background detail like magic candy - that's a huge ability that should affect the plot somehow, because if you have a shape-shifter in the middle of a war, she's going to get drafted into using her ability somehow. Why wasn't Tonks morphing into Death Eaters and taking their places at meetings? Or at least having a pint with one of them regularly in someone else's form? But no, instead she just gets too depressed to morph, and that's it. The end.

[mary-j-59.livejournal.com]

You are SO RIGHT! Tonks should have been given a chance to DO something, but instead she merely gets killed offstage. There was a presentation at Terminus which I didn't get to attend, but which sounded really interesting; it was called "Where have all the Witches Gone" and questioned Rowling's negation of strong young women in DH. The main focus was on Tonks (of course) and Ginny.

I know a lot of people here hate Ginny, and I don't like her much, but you have to admit she could have been used better in DH. As for Tonks, there were so many possibilities Rowling simply ignored. You're so right.

[(Anonymous)]

In DH? I thought that Tonks was already thoroughly ruined in HBP. What, between her magic-weakening depression (and she an equivalent of an FBI agent protecting Hogwarts!) and complete lack of interest in actually investigating the murder of Albus Dumbledore she is got to be the most useless Auror ever. I mean, the fool didn't even question Harry, opting to corner Lupin about their relationship instead.
Deciding to have a kid while in the midst of a civil war - in which she was duty-bound to protect civilians, was only a logical progression, I guess. Oh, and being exclusively interested in Remus during the final battle. I mean, Tonks was only one of the few professional combatants and crime-fighters in their society, so it follows that she'd pursue her private interests when her skills are finally required in earnest. Bleh.

Ginny was a badly written character who should have been given an opportunity to shine in OoTP, if Rowling wanted to convince us of her awesomeness, and grown from there. As it is, she just turned out to be a prop to make Harry a "real" member of the Weasley clan.

It is not only the _young_ women, BTW. I always noticed that female characters are far less detailed, colorful and effective in the HP books than the males. And women never get to be more than loyal seconds-in-command. Even in the second trio, it is the formerly bumbling Neville that gets to be the leader, not the supposedly so great Ginny.

[sunnyskywalker]

That was how I saw Lupin too, and why his behavior in DH didn't seem all too far off from his usual in DH. I could buy that a year with Greyback put him into enough of a downward spiral that he ended up more unstable and emotional at times.

Which doesn't mean I liked that subplot, mind, or thought that it resolved even remotely satisfactorily... I mean, if JKR wanted to show that the previous generation's flaws led to all of them dying or something, then she should have shown that, clearly, instead of throwing in a subplot with no purpose but producing an orphan baby and killing Lupin offstage. Or she could have just, you know, not had the subplot in the first place.