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

[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.