Deathly Hallows, chapter 13

[anehan]

The Muggle-Born Registration Commission

* What ought to have been a break of a couple of weeks stretched into a break of.. a couple of months? Dude, I so fail at this. But never mind, on with the show.

* I'd forgotten it was this chapter I was supposed to be doing. Maybe my subconsciousness remembered that and it was for that reason that I stayed away. Couldn't I please skip this chapter? Pretty please? Oh, I guess not. Damn. ;-)

* What's it with Rowling and the comparisons of people with animals? Rats, lions, toads and now the Minister is like a crab.

* Also, Runcorn's feet are big. Is that a sign of evilness? *eyes her own feet*

* "... the plan he had been carefully concocting with Ron and Hermione..." Plan, Harry? What plan? Oh, the one where you waltz into the Ministry and then, um, do something.

* May I just point out how stupid it is of Harry to remove the magical eye from Umbridge's office door. It does no good and is bound to alert people to the fact that someone has been in the office.

* Harry is angry, which does not bode well for him. If I were him, I'd try to keep a check on my temper, because not doing so increases the risk of discovery. But then again, Harry has never cared about what consequences his temper-tantrums have, so it's not fair of me to expect any better of him.

* Rita Skeeter is the bestselling author of Armando Dippet: Master or Moron? I wonder how that book has managed to sell well. It sounds like the most boring book ever. Also, I didn't know Dippet was important enough to have a biography made of him.

* Ahahaa, Dumbledore had elbow-length hair even as a teenager. I can so imagine him grooming his hair, looking for split ends. With his fancy clothes and his fancy hair, Dumbledore is quite vain a wizard.

* OMG, is that what JKR thinks gay people are?

* Is the Muggle-Born Registration Committee supposed to be another shout-out to the Nazis?

* I think that stunning Umbridge and Yaxley, and then taking the locket and getting the hell out of there would have been the best course to take, what with their non-existent plan having been shot to hell, but true to himself, Harry acts out of anger. Tsk tsk, Harry. Keep your cool.

* Harry says the Patronus spell is the only one Hermione ever has trouble with. Maybe my memory is like a sieve, but I thought it was the Riddikulus spell she had failed to do. In fact, IIRC she was the first of the DA to learn the Patronus spell.

* I hate to compliment Harry, but his impersonation of Runcorn in the atrium was quite good. The boy has hope, if only he could learn to control his temper.

* I wonder, why didn't Hermione stun and obliviate Yaxley instead of abandoning Grimmaulf Place? It would seem like the most sensible approach.

*Well, that was short. I seem to be out of practice. Well, maybe next chapter will be less of an ordeal to slog through.

Comments

[jodel-from-aol.livejournal.com]

Not to quibble unduly, but it is already established that Moody's magical eye can see through the Cloak.

Of course Rowling doesn't appear to have *remembered* that, for she certainly doesn't make any kind of a point of it, so Harry's removing the eye comes across as an act of misplaced sentiment, rather than a rather lame attempt to conceal his presence (they may *think* he infiltrated the Ministry, but they cannot *prove* it was him, without the record the eye was making). All they can say for sure is that they had an intruder.

Dropped the ball again, in other words.

*I* still think that finding out where Umbridge lives and trying out a bit of burglary would have been a better plan. But you can't try to convince everyone that you are a *hero* by breaking into someone's flat.

Yes, why didn't the stun and obliviate Yaxley? 3 to 1 odds not good enough for them?

[anehan]

Except that we have never been told that Moody's eye makes a recording of what it sees, so there would have been no reason to remove it.

*I* still think that finding out where Umbridge lives and trying out a bit of burglary would have been a better plan.

Definitely.

[jodel-from-aol.livejournal.com]

Well, no, we weren't *told* that the eye was recording what it saw. But if it wasn't, why was it even there. Yeah, sure, it was keeping watch over the envelope stuffers, but what is the point of surveylance if there is no way of relaying the information?

And in fact, I think it probably *did* relay the info that Harry had been sighted in the room. Otherwise, why would an intruder *automatically* be assumed to be Harry? I'm sue there were *some* other "undesirables" who would have made the list.

[go-back-chief.livejournal.com]

Rita Skeeter is the bestselling author of Armando Dippet: Master or Moron? I wonder how that book has managed to sell well. It sounds like the most boring book ever. Also, I didn't know Dippet was important enough to have a biography made of him.

But he was a principal at Hogwarts! Surely this makes him the WW eqivalent of a super celebrity all by itself? It's practically the same as being the president of the world's most powerful nation!

[montavilla.livejournal.com]

I like to think that the Rita's book about Dippet was written while she was first year at Hogwarts (when Dippet was Headmaster). It was a best-seller among the other students, who found the rude scrawled cartoons showing Dippet stupidly stirring his coffee with his wand hilarious.

[violaswamp.livejournal.com]

Haha. I like this idea. Because I'm not sure who else would be interested.

[go-back-chief.livejournal.com]

That's food for thoughts.

[anehan]

That must be it. Because from what we've seen of him, Dippet seems to have been a fumbling idiot, ripe for some Dumbledorian manipulation.

[merrymelody.livejournal.com]

http://www.acedmagazine.com/content/view/2199/33/

Tom Felton's got your back, chief! ;)

[sistermagpie.livejournal.com]

Don't worry about taking a break. With this book you can rest assured the characters are doing the same thing.

Ah, another classic Harry plan--lots of talking leading up to not really a plan at all.

Remember the Patronus spell is the most slippery when it comes to its difficulty, so it also fits that Hermione would learn it first and then be the one to have trouble with it. Also it's Harry's Big Deal spell so it's a good tool to remind us that Harry's supposed to be better than Hermione at DADA for some reason.

I do think the Registration Committee is clearly a Nazi reference. Which will have to do in lieu of thinking through what should actually be happening here.

[anehan]

At the very least I didn't spend my time sitting in a tent. My life, as boring as it is, would have made for more interesting story than that of our heroes.

Also it's Harry's Big Deal spell so it's a good tool to remind us that Harry's supposed to be better than Hermione at DADA for some reason.

Ah, yes. All semblance of logic flies out of the window when it comes to Harry and DADA.

[eir-de-scania.livejournal.com]

* Harry says the Patronus spell is the only one Hermione ever has trouble with. Maybe my memory is like a sieve, but I thought it was the Riddikulus spell she had failed to do.
***JKR is not good at remembering details like that. I have a dark suspicion she doesn't find them very important/interesting, but don't quote me on that. Anyway, that's what beta-readers and editors are for, among other things, catch inconsistencies like this. And those WTF?!? moments where things that are clear to the writer is not so to the reader.

(I know it's hard to believe, but JKR actually had editors looking through the MS, but evidently they just checked for Rudeness that might Upset the Kiddies (or their parents), before the MS was rushed off to be printed.)

[anehan]

I suspect that the more famous JKR became, the less her editors were allowed to interfere with what she had written.

[eir-de-scania.livejournal.com]

Either that, or they didn't care? It would sell millions no matter what.

I'm still intrigued about the secrecy and lack of proper editing. No other author I've heard of is working on their own to this extreme. The normal way is the author has one or two trusted beta readers they can discuss things with, and when the MS is finished the editor have their say. No matter how big and famous an author, they don't try to write even single books, much less a series, without input. If nothing else, there are those WTF?!? moments that fresh eyes will catch.

[tdotm.livejournal.com]

The thing is, at this stage, the money had been earned and should have been less important. Not for the publishers obviously, but for JKR. By book 6, she should have been worried about her legacy. As the hype dies down, and the years pass, these books, and her reputation, may well be ripped to shreds. (Not just by a few bitter ex-fans on websites, either!) The first ones were refreshing and fun, but the last one in particular was embarrassingly sub-par.

[night-axe.livejournal.com]

* What's it with Rowling and the comparisons of people with animals? Rats, lions, toads and now the Minister is like a crab.

Go figure. It used to be shorthand for characterization. In popular stereotype rats are treacherous and toads disgusting, so Pettigrew's a rat and Umbridge looks like a toad. But what's the stereotype of a crab, and when did Harry ever see one, under a rock or otherwise?

* Ahahaa, Dumbledore had elbow-length hair even as a teenager. I can so imagine him grooming his hair, looking for split ends. With his fancy clothes and his fancy hair, Dumbledore is quite vain a wizard.

* OMG, is that what JKR thinks gay people are?

I wouldn't put it past her, but otoh she's made such a point of wizards' freaky dress sense that Dumbledore doesn't stand out in any way. Whatever she intended it comes across like he's just one more conceited wizard who likes attention.

Btw, elbow-length red hair? Seriously? Maybe the Ron-is-Dumbledore theorists gave up too soon. They should have been looking closer at Ginny.

[anehan]

I wonder if Dumbledore's hair dances in the wind when he finally goes off to confront Grindelwald.

[go-back-chief.livejournal.com]

With a hard blazing look!

[seductivedark.livejournal.com]

I don't buy red hair dancing in the wind (with or without hard blazing looks) for either Ginny or Dumbledore. Red hair tends to be stiffer than the softly wafting blond hair one normally associates with the dancing bit.

[tdotm.livejournal.com]

No, it was probably in a severe bun, hidden under his balaclava. As Grindelwald was the owner of the Elder wand that JKR insists was infallible that means Dumbles couldn't win in a duel. Therefore he must have snuck up on him, and hexed him in the back. What a guy!

[tdotm.livejournal.com]

It's great to have you back! Hope your exams went well. This chapter was pants, but there's so much worse to come. Does that help?

I totally agree with whoever said that a burglary should have been arranged at Umbridge's house to retrieve the locket. In fact, giving the invisibility cloak to a House Elf would probably have circumvented whatever wards Umbridge had set up. Dobby could have snuck in at night and stolen the locket. Then Hermione could change the false horcrux (sorry Kreacher!) to look like the real one and Dobby replaced it. Umbridge would have been none the wiser. Most of this would have happened off the page, but writing 'action' is no longer one of JKR's gifts, so it's for the best.

Kreacher, unable to bear this final slight from the mongrel/mudblood/blood traitor could have betrayed their location. Heh. Still better than Hermione's sudden (and temporary) ineptness. As you point out, it makes no sense that she didn't just apply some quick thinking to the Yaxley problem so they could stay in Grimmauld Place. She managed it in the Ministry, so why not now? She managed it on Tottenham Court Road, so why not now? She'll manage it at the Lovegoods, so why not now? She'll manage it at Godric's Hollow, so why not now? She took care of her OWN PARENTS, so why not now? To drive the damn plot - that's why! Pah.

Umbridge having the eye in the door may have served no other purpose except to make a point about who's boss. That Moody, who probably commanded quite a bit of respect/fear was no longer a threat. Insecure meglomaniacs do that a lot. Harry taking the eye served no point except to make him look like an idiot, instead of the fiery (dare I say blazing?) hero I fear was the intent.

[anehan]

This chapter was pants, but there's so much worse to come.

How encouraging. ;-)

Most of this would have happened off the page, but writing 'action' is no longer one of JKR's gifts, so it's for the best.

In fact, most of the Trio's escapades could have happened off the page and we could have used the time to follow for example Snape.

To drive the damn plot - that's why!

And to give us the oh-so-interesting camping trip.