Deathly Hallows, chapter 9

[anehan]

A Place to Hide

* Alas, it's Friday again, and I must read another chapter of DH. Luckily I have some oat biscuits in the oven. They may not compare to what Molly would whip up, but perhaps they'll make the reading of this chapter more palatable anyway, since I don't have any alcohol handy.

* The protective enchantments around The Burrow have broken. I still don't understand how this and the DE attack on the Ministry are in any way connected. If the Order can manage to ward houses so well that even Voldemort himself can't get in (and where were these enchantments when the Potters were attacked in 1981?), surely they can keep a few Death Eaters away without the Ministry's help.

* Hermione just side-along Apparated Harry and Ron with her. Wow! Isn't Apparating supposed to be difficult? (Or did that go down the drain with do many other things?) I would imagine side-along Apparating would be doubly difficult.

* I still find Hermione's mother act a little disturbing.

* Though maybe I shouldn't judge Hermione too harshly. Someone must prepare the Trio for their guest, and since the boys display an unforgivable lack of interest in it, I guess the duty falls on Hermione.

* Harry is about to say that he wants to get back to The Burrow to help everyone there (especially Ginny). Is this supposed to show Harry's caring nature? Because to me, it shows his lack of brains.

* Hermione says Voldemort's name, and lo and behold, here are some Death Eaters. Snape was right when he warned Harry against saying Voldemort's name. What bugs me is that there's never been any indication that saying someone's name would enable that someone to find them. It should be something that every wizarding child would know (that would be the reason why everyone calls Voldermort You-Know-Who), but the Muggle-born would be ignorant of it. But here's Ron, not reacting in any way to Hermione's saying Voldemort's name.

* The larger of the DE is quite huge. Remember, all the baddies are fat. Or ugly. Or fat and ugly. Or if they are neither, at least they'll look like a vicar in dress robes.

* This is something British, and I'm sure I've heard this before, but I can't remember it: what are the "building society savings" that Hermione had?

* Ron recognises the big DE as Thorfinn Rowle. The reader has never heard of Thorfinn Rowle and wonders where Ron has got his mad DE-recognising skillz.

* Hermione has never done a Memory Charm. She's only planted fake memories on her parents' minds, a feat that usually takes a powerful wizard to do. I am reminded of Hermione the Dark Lady.

* It's not Hermione's fault that your jeans are too tight, Ron. That's what you get when you expect mommy to do everything.

* You can't put the Trace on an adult wizard, says Ron. You can't, or you shouldn't since it's illegal?

* I wonder, how is the Trace put on wizarding babies? Do the Ministry send someone to visit every newborn baby? What about the Muggle-born? I can imagine Muggle parents going all googly eyes over the random stranger who came to visit them at the hospital to mutter pseudo-Latin over their baby's crib.

* "Harry felt contaminated, tainted: was that really how the Death Eaters had found them?" Oh my god, kill me now. Harry is emoting. The guy's capability of wallowing in self-pity is really quite astonishing. Where's that communal sick bucket? I need it.

* Even if Harry had the Trace on him, the DE couldn't have found them through it since none of them used magic. Oh, come one, Hermione, you should have figured that out.

* Yes, Harry, Snape's just one Death Eater, but as he, like every member of the Order, is now a Secret Keeper for 12 Grimmauld Place, he can have the place crawling with Death Eaters if he so wants.

* A Tongue-Tying Curse and a figure of Dumbledore. Is that all the famed Moody could come up with? I can just imagine Snape sniggering to himself over the patheticness of it all.

* Harry thinks of Ginny as family. *eyeroll*

* Voldemort uses the royal "we" to refer to himself. *giggles*

* Poor Draco, to be forced to use the Cruciatus Curse. He, unlike Harry, doesn't enjoy it.

* Harry calls Draco by his first name in his mind! Wheeeeee!

* Mmm, the biscuits taste lovely. Like fudge with oat flakes in it.



"Fruit Cart, Fruit Cart!":
Cappucino cup!

Informed Attributes:
The anti-Snape enchantments at 12 Grimmauld Place are soooo scary.

Ken and Andrew's Rule of Plot Holes:
Protective enchantments. Can they or can they not keep Death Eaters at bay? Alas, the answer depends on plot needs.

Nut o' Fun:
Draco! Wheeee! Though it wasn't so much fun for him, poor baby.

Selling Wood:
Harry emotes. Again.

Final score: 5.

Comments

[tdotm.livejournal.com]

Ron does eventually ask them not to say ‘Voldemort’ when JKR remembers. Maybe Ron was previously fed up of Hermione’s harsh reprimands whenever he reacts in a way that he’s been conditioned to from birth. Unlike the perfect and brave Harry and Hermione, who had the trauma of breaking a habit of saying ‘You Know Who’ that must have been what - three or four years old?

It‘d have been cool if we were told that the Taboo was a very rare piece of Darkest Magic that Pure Blood Parents knew was possible, if illegal. So they taught their kids not to use the name of the one Wizard alive depraved enough to infringe basic laws of free speech in such a foul and depraved way - just in case. Or something like that. Maybe then Harry would have remembered and Dobby wouldn’t be decomposing 6 feet under.

Is Hermione pretending that she’s never done a Memory Charm so as to hide her evil deed of stripping her parents of their free will? Wouldn’t want Ron to think she was a rabid monster now, would we? Except she openly confessed it to them, then ‘cried’ looking for sympathy. Still it worked - on Ron anyway. He might have had an ulterior motive, but she had the same one, and we know he cares. Harry - not so much.

Perhaps JKR is just incapable of keeping a story straight (remind me not to ask her to give me a false alibi). Sadly this book is far too full of fascinating titbits to discuss how it actually worked - a major pet peeve of mine. Did Hermione also modify the memory of all of the Grangers’ family, employees and neighbours? Did she know any of them seeing as she avoids living in her old world as much as possible? Did anyone declare them missing? Did she arrange to rent out their house in their name? Surely they couldn’t - wouldn’t they have to produce legal documents? Did she amend all of them? Did she forge their new passports?

What happened to their practice? What happened to their patients? British Dentists are like gold dust - they’d have been constantly trying to make appointments. When did she have the time to do all that, plus the laundry? When a sub plot of such staggering inadequacy is nowhere near the worst thing in the book, you know the book needs major editing/re-writing. Bloody DH, for every exploding owl, you get ten plot-holes like this.

The Trace is arse.

It’s unbelievable that JKR would show Draco hating having to do the Cruciatus (torture let’s not forget), while Harry has no trouble with it at all(and McGonagall is rightly grateful for his ‘gallantry'). Does JKR really have no idea how this makes him look? Is this indicative of her own nature? It’s as bad as showing someone favour their own mother over Harry and expect us to hate them for it (Marietta, Seamus). I can understand Percy and Zacharias, because I know what she was trying to do, however badly, but I truly don’t understand these cases. She comes across as a harsh, judgemental character since Book 5. (However much she was paying the early editor it wasn’t enough). This woman worked for Amnesty International - she seems like the sort of person who’d imprison people unfairly, not try to free them!

JKR should have said that if the Secret Keeper dies, than the Secret dies with them unless a successor had been arranged, in which case they‘d automatically become the new one. McGonagall/Remus could have been said 2nd in line Secret Keeper. After all, the Trio are only forced out of Grimauld Place by Hermione apparating Yaxley on to the door step, so what on earth was the POINT in messing up the rules? (Not one word about Bill and Shell Cottage….) I think the book would have survived without all the ‘protections’ Moody put in place. And if he was dead, wouldn’t they stop working anyway? Why would JKR deliberately link it to the dead Member of the Order, as opposed to one of the many still living ones? Someone please help me.

[blndpetrcruzatt.livejournal.com]

It‘d have been cool if we were told that the Taboo was a very rare piece of Darkest Magic that Pure Blood Parents knew was possible, if illegal. So they taught their kids not to use the name of the one Wizard alive depraved enough to infringe basic laws of free speech in such a foul and depraved way - just in case. Or something like that. Maybe then Harry would have remembered and Dobby wouldn’t be decomposing 6 feet under.

Yeah, but then Harry&Co. would have had to find the last Horcruxes on their own or something. Heck, maybe, just maybe, the author would have had to come up with something more interesting than "the bank" and "that room where everyone hides everything" for locations for the last two. Though I still maintain that Harry was wrong about Voldemort thinking it was safe in the Room of Requirement--I say that he figured no one would every find it among all the junk. Tree in a forest and all that. Excuse me while I attempt to cling to some semblance of an intelligent villain. :(

[montavilla.livejournal.com]

Frankly, the whole Voldemort hiding places thing makes no sense at all. Okay, I get the cave. That one makes sense. He knew about it as a kid. It was probably already full of magic--which is why he loved it. So far, so good.

But, he hides the ring he took from his Gaunt grandfather in the very same place he murdered the guy? And it's a cruddy old shack? How does this jibe with the whole grandiose theme for hiding places? Then he just hands out two of the Horcruxes to his followers--even though he trusts no one. And then he sticks the tiara in a spot filled with junk. Plus, he put no safeguards on that tiara. How smart was that, when there were two ghosts who could identify it as Ravenclaw's?

Wouldn't it have been more grand to hide a Horcrux in the Chamber of Secrets? Or to, as I guessed he might have--transfigured one of them to look like his old school trophy.

And I still can't figure out why anyone in their right mind would horcrux a snake. Snakes aren't known for their longevity. It doesn't make sense to put a horcrux in any living organism, with the possible exception of a tree.

[aasaylva.livejournal.com]

I am sorry, but the tree-among-the-forest idea doesn't tie in with this:
"As for the school: he alone knew where in Hogwarts he had stowed the Horcrux, because he alone had plumbed the deepest secrets of that place..." (page 444 of the British edition). I don't see how that could mean anything but voldy thinking of the secret of the RoR itself - which of course is beyond idiotic as he saw all the junk hidden there and must have realized someone else had put it there.

[seductivedark.livejournal.com]

...which of course is beyond idiotic as he saw all the junk hidden there and must have realized someone else had put it there.

House elves. They don't qualify as "real people." Maybe he learned about it the same way Harry did - a house elf told him.

[tdotm.livejournal.com]

JKR messed up the Horcxruxes. Like everything else.

After Harry destroyed the diary, the chamber was sealed. We should have discovered that before it was, Dumbles went down there, checked it out, and discovered the ring on the finger of a statue of Slytherin. While the basilisk was there, and no-one knew where the entrance was, that'd be an excellent hiding place.

Dumbles could also have said that he believed Voldemort prized the horcruxes in Slytherin Artifacts the most (she fan-wanked desperately), so took the most care over them. The others were seen as second tier - after all, didn't someone say that nobody'd ever made so many before? Three key soul pieces - locket, ring, in Voldie himself, and 4 back-up ones which in his arrogance he was more casual with. A crap explanation, but for the 1,000th time, it's better than none at all.

I was fine with hiding the tiara in the RoR. Though that was probably my brain fanwanking merrily away, which it does of its own accord when reading Harry Potter.

If I was trying to hide a book, I wouldn't hide it in an empty room, I'd hide it in a library of 10,000 books. In the unlikely chance that someone would find the room, it would be far less likely to be discovered.

Equally, If I was trying to hide a Tiara, I wouldn't hide it in an empty room. However, if I hid it in a room filled with a thousand tiaras, and some Mundungus Fletcher type *did* find it, they'd be in sacks and down Diagon Alley before you could say 'spiv'.

It's be safer to hide something precious under a pile of junk. I always presumed that Voldemort mistakenly saw the junk as part of the disguise for his Horcrux, that the RoR had specifically provided for him - *not* as items belonging to other people.

However, I seem to be part of a very small minority, so maybe she could have written it more clearly. (If that was her intention, and it wasn't just another plot hole.)

[blndpetrcruzatt.livejournal.com]

I am sorry, but the tree-among-the-forest idea doesn't tie in with this:
"As for the school: he alone knew where in Hogwarts he had stowed the Horcrux, because he alone had plumbed the deepest secrets of that place..." (page 444 of the British edition).

Ack! Is that Voldy-vision? I remembered that explanation, but I thought it was something that Harry had given to Ron and Hermione.

I suppose it's just another case of Rowling shooting herself in the foot--without that little gem, we could still explain away the idiocy.

which of course is beyond idiotic as he saw all the junk hidden there and must have realized someone else had put it there.

Heck, even Harry realized that other people were responsible for all the junk.

[anehan]

When you start to question how everything works in this book, you are in for an endless task. The Grangers subplot is a case in point. There are so many things JKR just hasn't thought through. If the book was at least entertaining, I could forgive sloppy planning, but since DH is dull as hell, all we have to do is to pick it apart.

Building Societies

[tdotm.livejournal.com]

Helka Maria - Building Societies are British, they're like banks, but owned by their customers, not by share holders. Both types of institutions will offer a full range of financial products, however tend to have higher shares of the markets they traditionally operate in. Current/Cheque accounts and Loans for Banks, and Mortgages and Savings accounts for Building Societies. All these institutions would throw their Granny to a dragon to attract new business, but Building Societies still have a small vestige left of their old policy of rewarding existing customers (their owners), and slightly better interest rates - if you shop around. Please let me know if you need more information - it’s all a damn sight more interesting than DH.

Re: Building Societies

[anehan]

Thanks for the explanation!

[seductivedark.livejournal.com]

* Hermione just side-along Apparated Harry and Ron with her. Wow! Isn't Apparating supposed to be difficult? (Or did that go down the drain with do many other things?) I would imagine side-along Apparating would be doubly difficult.

I think this, as well as quite a few other double-take moments in DH were written before the series got underway, along with the fabled epilogue. I used to think DH was Rowling trying to shove a run-away plot back into its insignificant box. Lately I've been thinking she didn't bother to update these previously written scenes to comply with the rest of canon.

[anehan]

If that were the case, it'd explain a lot. However, I think this

I used to think DH was Rowling trying to shove a run-away plot back into its insignificant box.

is what probably was going on.

[jodel-from-aol.livejournal.com]

The Taboo is pants. I ended up inventing (or adopting) my own explanation. It's probably just as unnecessary, but I like it better.

Mind you, even in Rowling's version it does come across as fairly clear that the *Ministry* always had the power to impose something like that. But that the Ministry never would have done it. Why should they?

*HOWEVER* by the end of this silly book we know that the Dark mark was a communication device that went in both directions. Tom's followers can summon him as well as vice-versa, and any other DE in the vicinity can tell when they do it.

So by picking up some standard fantasy tropes, why not extrapolate that when someone mentions Tom's bogus title in the presence of someone wearing a Dark mark. he can listen in on what they are saying. This would explain why the DEs themselves refer to him as the Dark Lord (which is actually a real title, even if a presumptive one) which *doesn't* set off the connection.

Crouch Sr of course would have kept the existence of the Dark mark as classified information as long as he possibly could. (Fudge never heard of it anyway.) But if he did know about it, he may not have known that it was a communication device. And it seems likely that eventually people figured out that people who talked about "Voldemort" were getting attacked by DEs. And by the time this had leaked far enough for people to start overreacting, Tom would have probably upped the anxiety by making some kind of an announcement that; "Yes! I can HEAR you! Mwahhahahaha!"

Regardless of whether anyone could prove it or not it would have frightened them a bit.

Maybe he sent a letter to the editor of the Prophet.

[anehan]

Maybe he sent a letter to the editor of the Prophet.

*giggles*

Just about any explanation is better than Rowling's.

[aasaylva.livejournal.com]

The protective enchantments around The Burrow have broken. I still don't understand how this and the DE attack on the Ministry are in any way connected.
I imagine there is something like an access code involved in those wards and you had to have access to these files in order to break it (something like the ENIGMA code - I know, it's preposterous in the face of what we know about the ww, but one can always dream).

Hermione just side-along Apparated Harry and Ron with her. Wow!
Wow indeed! In one of the earlier posts I was whining about the impossibility of spinning around your own axis while holding onto someone who has to do the same himself. A commenter came up with the clever idea that both had to spin around the person in control of the disapparition which made sense. Only - in this case, if that IS what they did, you really have to admire Hermione's physical strength, spinning around her own axis while holding onto two boys, both of whom are taller than she is - I'd be hard put to do this with two toddlers.

I still find Hermione's mother act a little disturbing.
To date, Hermione has
- accioed the Horcrux books and read them
- memory charmed her parents
- packed everything they need including money for the next year for the whole trio including things like Harry's cloak for which really HE should have been in charge).
Note, that she didn't even think of talking about this with the two boys (like, e.g. "Harry, we might need money, do you think you could get into your vault at Gringotts?").
Ron has come up with the Ghoul-as-Ron idea (if it WAS his idea and not Arthur#s).
Harry has cleaned out his school trunk and messed up his room.
It's easy to see who is the hero of the story.

Hermione says Voldemort's name, and lo and behold, here are some Death Eaters.
The irritating thing about the whole changing of rules on a whim in these books is, that it makes it objectively impossible for the trio to reason for themselves in order to navigate their way through this world. You don't have anything to go by: Does such a taboo exist? If yes, why was it never mentioned before? If no, why would everybody be scared of using the name like some kindergarteners afraid of the bogeyman? Do you have to be near a person to cast that underage Trace? If yes, does a wizard appear at every newborn muggleborn's crib to do it (and if so, why would Neville's family be so worried about Neville being magical?)? If no, why would Ron think Harry couldn't have been Traced from afar? (Oops, just read further down and saw you argued the same..)
The height of idiocy, of course, is Ron thinking Voldy couldn't do it, because it is illegal, OMG...

It's not Hermione's fault that your jeans are too tight, Ron.
You are right - that's Fleur's fault (drags her mind out of the gutter).

Even if Harry had the Trace on him, the DE couldn't have found them through it since none of them used magic. Oh, come one, Hermione, you should have figured that out.
The awful thing is, in these books you can't even argue along those lines, because it might turn out that the New Trace was cued to go off whenever muggle drinks are consumed next to the Chosen one or something.

Yes, Harry, Snape's just one Death Eater, but as he, like every member of the Order, is now a Secret Keeper for 12 Grimmauld Place, he can have the place crawling with Death Eaters if he so wants.
Another idiocy of Rowling contradicting herself WITHIN the same book (How? How?!?!?). Here, it seems as if Snape can't take anyone with him who hasn't been told the secret himself. But with Hermione and Yaxley, that suddenly changes.

A Tongue-Tying Curse and a figure of Dumbledore. Is that all the famed Moody could come up with? I can just imagine Snape sniggering to himself over the patheticness of it all.
Word.

Harry thinks of Ginny as family. *eyeroll*
Well, did you expect him to think of her as a girl? Especially now that he is on a first name basis with Draco all of a sudden (I still wonder what made Rowling do that).

[seductivedark.livejournal.com]

(I still wonder what made Rowling do that).

I still say this and other snippets, scenes not entire chapters, were written, along with the epilogue, before the series got off the ground.

[blndpetrcruzatt.livejournal.com]

Heck, that seems like a good explanation for how she wrote the last couple of books. I don't necessarily mean writing before the series got off the ground, but rather that she had bits and pieces of scenes in her mind when she sat down to write the books. The problem became how to force her characters into that kind of situation. I think that's why her plots turn out so convoluted. The worst part is that the bits and pieces she had in mind weren't good enough to justify the twisted means she uses to bring them about. Combine that with the fact that her meddling is so incredibly heavy-handed and, well, you get DH and its ilk.

Actually, her style of writing kind of reminds me of a formulaic Simpsons episode. You've got your main plot, but you've also got to get the family there, which usually involves a lesser plot line at the beginning of the episode. The audience can practically trace the lines in a poorly-written episode.

A lot of DH, HBP, and even OotP and GoF are like a poorly-written Simpsons episode. The author's hand should not be so visible. Sometimes, you've got to let your characters be themselves, even if it means cutting one of the scenes you were looking forward to writing.

[seductivedark.livejournal.com]

I don't necessarily mean writing before the series got off the ground, but rather that she had bits and pieces of scenes in her mind when she sat down to write the books.

Yes! Exactly. As you mention below, Teleportation is a staple in sci-fi and fantasy books. So there's a scene where a lowlife belonging to the Good Guys vanishes off a broom in mid-flight, causing the death of a previous generation's hero. As far as we know, wizards don't sit side-saddle on brooms (even though it might make sense since they all wear robes). How would this lowlife Disapparate by turning around his own axis if he's straddling a flying broom? If there is yet no explanation developed for how Apparation works, then he just vanishes and people who know, understand that he Disapparated.

Before HBP, IIRC, we weren't shown wizards turning before they disappear with a pop. We aren't shown them finishing a turn when they appear. If several scenes, not whole chapters but just snippets, were written as the series was begun because they sounded interesting, then these mechanics were not thought out yet when the scene was written. Six books later, a method for Apparation is developed which involves turning around one's own axis. The previously written scenes were not retrofitted at that point to reflect the newly devised method. It may even have slipped the author's mind that there might be something to retrofit such as turning on one's axis while straddling a thin piece of wood.

That's all I meant by thinking that some scenes were written beforehand. The basics, such as wizards vanishing into thin air, are there, but the development of the magic involved is lacking. I also agree that she had to find ways to fit the characters to the scenes she fell in love with, and the forcing shows. By doing that, both scenes and characters are diminished, IMO.

[jodel-from-aol.livejournal.com]

>>>Here, it seems as if Snape can't take anyone with him who hasn't been told the secret himself. But with Hermione and Yaxley, that suddenly changes. <<<

To say nothing of the Ministry supposedly being able to trace Apparations in Chapter 4 which is why we got that *stupid* 7 Potters business, and yet in Chapter 11 Lupin tells us that the only way to trace an Apparation is to grab the person apparating.

This isn't the only issue on which Rowling decided she was entitled to have it both ways in this book, either. But yeah the whole concept of magical tracking is one that she has repeatedly fallen flat on her face over. Usually by trying to have things both ways.

The taboo is bad enough. But at least it comes across that the technology was always there -- just no one had any reason to try to use it for anything.

The Trace is complete rubbish. The only way that it could work is that it was something like a magical macro that activated when the Hogwarts Quill recorded a magical birth. And if that were the case where were the Ministry boffins who were supposed to be putting right the accidental magic that Harry (or any underage wizard) was doing for 10 years out among Muggles before they *got* to Hogwarts? No one ever seems to have seen hide nor hair of any of them.

[jodel-from-aol.livejournal.com]

And even at that the bloody Trace *ought* to be registering whether the *child* is the one doing the magic it's registering. WHat is the point of it if 3/4 of the magical children in Britain have at least one magical parent if the Trace only registers magic performed in the child's *vicinity*.

I mean, it might make some sense if it were Tracing *wandless* magic, since that's the kind the Ministry has to go and undo. And that would have let Dobby's hover spell register as Harry's, but if wandless, then why is the kid being blamed for it, instead of it being assumed that it was accidental?

[anehan]

if that IS what they did, you really have to admire Hermione's physical strength, spinning around her own axis while holding onto two boys

Super!Hermione: not only brains but brawns as well.

It's not Hermione's fault that your jeans are too tight, Ron.
You are right - that's Fleur's fault (drags her mind out of the gutter).

Hehe, does this mean Hermione is unable to cause Ron's jeans to tighten?

[aasaylva.livejournal.com]

Super!Hermione: not only brains but brawns as well.
It#s like that moment in the PoA movie, where Hermione grabs Harry's T-shirt with one hand, lifts him up and throws him down the tunnel under the Whomping Willow while being herself swirled around by said Willow. I thought it ridiculous at the time and sighed "Hollywood!". Little did I know what was in stock for me...


Hehe, does this mean Hermione is unable to cause Ron's jeans to tighten?
(grins sheepishly). IMHO, yes. we are TOLD how every boy in Hogwarts who doesn't have the hots for Ginny does so for Hermione, but to me, it never was convincing and not just because of the Harry-filter. She may be pretty and intelligent and strong-willed, but to me she always came across essentially humourless, spinsterish, priggish, very prim, self-righteous, bossy and in mother-hen mode - not the essence of sexy.

[blndpetrcruzatt.livejournal.com]

In one of the earlier posts I was whining about the impossibility of spinning around your own axis while holding onto someone who has to do the same himself.

Teleportation is such a staple of sci-fi/fantasy, as is the idea that if you grab onto someone who is teleporting, you'll go as well. Frankly, I liked Apparation better in the first book, before Rowling tried to explain how it was done. At the time, it seemed like highly advanced magic that only a certain few could do.

That's why I was so surprised in HBP when we saw that Harry's class was actually going to learn how to do it (I know the twins did the year before, but I never reread between novels, nor was I in the "fandom"). Of course, Rowling's always had a hard time keeping track of difficulty, numbers, how much money is a lot, how much money the Weaslys have (no galleons in their account in CoS, yet enough that Ron could possibly buy 40 galleon binoculars in GoF if he hadn't bought the Krum doll?), how magic works, etc.

Blegh. This series is a lot more fun if you wait a few months or years between books. That way, you forget as much as the author did . . .

[jodel-from-aol.livejournal.com]

Let me belatedly share the summary of the poster of the spork for this chapter over on the Sporking Community last year:

"In which Suemione owns a TARDIS, the Trio abandons an innocent to her death, Rowling forgets something she told us three chapters ago, Grimmauld Place is rigged up like Disney's Haunted Mansion, and Harry envisions Draco's face while being spread-eagled on the floor."

[anehan]

Pretty accurate, that.

[jodel-from-aol.livejournal.com]

Oh definitely. The poster also pointed out the underlying contradictions of:

1. Draco being *forced* to Crutio Rowle. What happened to needing to really *mean* it?

2. Hermione memory charming the DEs. So how did Rowle even remember that they'd been tracing Potter then?

2. Doholov having only been petrified, not stunned, while the trio discussed what they were going to do next in front of him. Although if the memory charm had taken that would have been the very first thing he would have known since they discussed it *after* the charm was implied.

And then someone in the discussion pointed out that not only does Rowling not read her own work after it's published, she doesn't even read back two paragraphs of her own drafts once she writes it.

[sistermagpie.livejournal.com]

Ah, those ever-changing enchantments that can be totally unbreakable and then not on a whim. Along with wondering why the Potters weren't protected by them there's the question of why Harry wouldn't have been just as safe growing up with people like the Weasleys with enchantments. Oh right, then he would have been a pampered prince. Like Percy.

I love that Hermione not only has to do all the laundry and make all the arrangements and pack everything and figure everything out but she's got to finance the trip with her own damn money. Even though Harry's got a vault full of goal. Could it be more obvious that Hermione is their mom?

Seriously, Wizard life is so weirdly stunted. Imagine being Harry's age and not immediately wondering what you were going to do about money for a year.

Harry thinks of Ginny as family. Not a good idea to marry somebody you love like a sister, Harry. Or even your best friend's sister.

What on earth was the point of all that "saying Voldemort's name means you're brave!" Just to turn it into "saying Voldemort's name makes you stupid?" Two books ago I might have thought this was building up to an actual theme of too much braver=stupidity.

Was Moody expecting Snape to send Shaggy to break into Grimmauld Place? Because he and Scooby are about the only people who would run from that alarm system. It's like the SNEAK hex. It doesn't actually prevent anybody from coming in or capture them.

How is Draco doing a Crucio when he clearly doesn't want to do it? Is the other person faking it? Not only did we hear the "you have to mean it" in OotP, we hear it referenced again at the end of this book. I get that Harry is cooler than Draco for being able to torture (Draco's cowardly), but how does he do it at all? It's like there are two parallel storylines about this curse. One's about how Harry does them the best because he means them and Crabbe and Goyle are evil because they mean them. In the other Neville refuses gallantly to do one when pushed as if he could and Draco does one when commanded as if he can.

[anehan]

ITA to everything you said. When you start thinking about this stuff you can't help but see how everything really just depends on the author's whims. Logic and Potterverse don't mix.

Could it be more obvious that Hermione is their mom?

Eww. This makes Ron's marriage to Hermione even more disturbing than it already was.

Harry thinks of Ginny as family. Not a good idea to marry somebody you love like a sister, Harry. Or even your best friend's sister.

And then there's this. The marriages in this universe are clearly fucked up.

[tdotm.livejournal.com]

Re: Hermione paying for everything, despite Harry inheriting TWO large fortunes:-

I’m sure this is because Harry has no idea of how muggle money works….er, no, I mean it's because Ron couldn’t contribute financially, so Harry was just trying to make him feel less uncomfortable. That’s it - definitely because Harry was being sympathetic to Ron’s potential embarrassment, *not* because he’s an appalling combination of entitled and brain dead, no sir!

After all, McGonagall herself pointed out how ‘gallant’ our hero is. I don’t want to hear any sarcastic comments about Unforgiveable Curses costing no money, either.

Saying/Not saying Voldemort:-

It started with Dumbles making a perfectly sensible soundbite. I mean comment. Then became a way of showing how brave the heroic Harry and unbearably self-satisfied Hermione were compared to everyone else. Harry just used the name. Hermione insisted that everyone else should because *she'd* mastered it. Cow. Ignoring the fact that H & H had only walked into this world a few years before, whereas the purebloods had been taught, from birth, by their parents, that the name would bring Voldemort to their door.

Do you think JKR had the taboo in mind, even during those earlier books? I thought it was totally new when I read Book 7, but thinking about why people said ‘you know who’ in the first place, maybe it was always in the back of her mind.Sorry JKR, I've done you wrong!

I wish poor, nagged Ron had finally broken down and pointed out that it wasn’t so very brave to say ‘Voldemort‘, but rather perpetuated a damaging myth and they should use his real name - ‘Tom Riddle’ after his MUGGLE father. Preferably at the final battle for everybody to hear. Harry eventually called him Tom, but never mentioned his bloodline which was a bit of a waste. It could have been a dramatic reveal, and embarrassed so many of those who were being ruled/impressed by an arch hypocrite.

Sadly JKR had her heart set on a dull death of the Dark Lord, and we‘d never have got to see the reactions of the Death Eaters/Slytherins etc anyway, what with the juicy epilogue pending. Still at least Hermione stopped her bleating when Harry saying ’Voldemort’ out loud got her violently tortured. Small blessings.

Cruciatus - I don’t know! I haven’t re-read this, I don’t remember the exact details.

Draco - I wish someone had had a wand at Narcissa’s head, threatening to hurt her. (Apologies if that’s what happened though it doesn’t sound like it) I could imagine Draco’d be willing to hurt someone in order to protect her. I’d have accepted that.

Neville - He shouldn’t be able to do it, but I’m proud to say he would refuse to even try.

Harry - is a punk.