HBP Chapter Twenty-Seven

[sistermagpie.livejournal.com]

*Warning: This is the chapter where stuff actually happens, so it’s one of the good ones imo.

*Harry’s pretty much mastered this Apparition thing over the last few pages. An hour ago he wasn’t sure he could get himself to the right place. Now he’s teleporting half-dead old guys with him. All you need is confidence!

*ETA: Recently I ran into the suggestion that Harry's ability to do Crucio was partly down to Draco's wand being so familiar with it, which to me reads like a neat way of sloughing off anything bad about the good guys onto Slytherins again. Anyway, I mention it here because one of the arguments for it was that Harry hadn't practiced Crucio a lot in between his attempt at Bellatrix and the one at Snape in this book, so the fact that it worked well is some sort of plot hole. I argued that sometimes Harry is given a long-term block about a spell that then works when he needs it. Here's another one.

*Harry knows the Apparition worked before he opens his eyes, because the smell of sea air is gone. It doesn’t occur to him that there are millions of places on earth that don’t smell of sea air, and yet are not Hogsmeade.

*ETA: If this were Ron, he'd defintely be in one of those places right now.

*Bizarrely, that concept made me suddenly imagine Harry and Dumbledore accidentally popping into the Dursleys’ bedroom as they were having sex.

*ETA: Whoa! I didn't remember that popping into my head before. Yipes!

*Dumbledore needs Professor Snape. I’ve nothing to say about this, but I’ve heard it repeated so often since this book came out I feel like I should mention it. This chapter will have a lot of that.

*ETA: But don't worry, we'll stop hearing about Snape after this book's over.

*Hmmm…I just noticed that he starts out saying he needs Professor Snape but when he fades out starts calling for Severus, his first name, the more intimate one. The name he knew him by as a student?

*ETA: Err...I gues so. But not because he likes the guy, he just likes talking to everybody like he did when they were students because it reminds him he's in charge. He's only calling him Snape in front of Harry because he wants Harry to remember Snape's a teacher. He doesn't think of him that way himself.

*Funny nobody else in town notices the honkin’ great Dark Mark or is up in arms about it. Just the saucy barmaid who of course wears high-heeled fluffy slippers. And is called Madam.

*I love the little moment for Harry to demonstrate how great he is at summoning brooms. I won’t ask why Rosemerta, who’s also a witch, had to offer to run for them in her three inch mules.

*What would have happened if the pub door was shut with a catch? Would the brooms have broken the door and splintered themselves with it?

*One thing about Harry, he’s consistent. If something’s happened he’ll be thinking about how he caused it. He refers to getting his "friends" killed, which ironically doesn’t make Sirius come to mind.

*ETA: Btw, I could swear recently I read some random comment where someone referred to Harry "moping" about Sirius throughout this book. It seemed to be a serious comment too.

*I really do love the moment where Dumbledore freezes Harry and gets his own wand expelled for it—which is actually a good thing in a weird way, for everyone involved I suspect.

*ETA: ::sigh:: Yeah, that would be the Elder Wand. The big importance of that moment really has nothing to do with Dumbledore making a mistake or opening himself up to attack by freezing Harry.

*I’m sure many readers are wistfully thinking about how nice it would have been if other people had thought to do that to Harry in earlier scenes.

*Unfortunately, with Harry immobilized, Dumbledore must face his greatest challenge yet. A challenge he’s avoided throughout the entire series thus far. Dumbledore must…seriously converse with a student who isn’t Harry! Eeeeeeek!

*JKR’s working really hard to show signs of Draco’s inner turmoil in his physical appearance, but telling me he’s panting is kind of weird.

*ETA: But I'll bet sydpad would illustrate Draco wonderfully in this scene.

*Clever little "you seem unsupported" line from Albus, suggesting that Draco can’t really depend on DE backup.

*Dumbledore’s using "Draco" right and left in the scene, but the narrator stubbornly sticks to Malfoy, thanks!

*Does Malfoy know what the Order of the Phoenix is? Not that it would be hard to figure out. Saying the Order of the Phoenix in this context would have to be like saying the League of Justice had arrived or something. They’re not likely an a cappella group.

*ETA: Oh man, the Justice League would have taken care of all of this so easily.

*You really have to give up any hope of being a murderer when you have to try to convince someone verbally that you even meant the times you almost killed somebody before.

*When Malfoy seems paralyzed Dumbledore suggests he’s afraid to act until the DEs join him—that’s sure to do the trick. You can get a wizard to do anything by calling him chicken.

*Poor Draco doesn’t even really know how to play the part of a badass killer. "It’s you who should be scared!" is about as threatening as telling Dumbledore that he’s rubber and Dumbledore is glue.

*ETA: God, this scene is hard to read in retrospect. People often talk about stuff from DH being written before the rest of the series, like suggesting that JKR had a lot of ideas for where it was going and just stuck with them? I've no idea how much that's true, but I can believe it reading stuff like this. I can't help but feel like a lot of the Slytherin characters got seriously stuffed back into a box in the next book with the lid bashed on their heads.

*Okay, I’m going to try to keep track of Malfoy’s physical descriptions to get the change here. So far first he’s panting from the exertion of getting himself to this place. Then he’s frozen, sort of in denial. Then he goes into some childish attempts at posturing that still suggest that he sees himself as having done something significant to Katie and Ron.

*ETA: Not that any of this has as much significance as it seems to at all. Best I can figure in retrospect, he's moving to a place of giving up in this scene and not much else.

*DD asks Malfoy how he got the Cabinet to work and Malfoy looks like he’s fighting the urge to shout or vomit. Was that his attempt to find the killer within? He gulps and has to take deep breaths before he can speak again, and I don’t think it’s directly in response to Dumbledore asking him about the Cabinet. That seems like a happier sort of memory.

*ETA: Or maybe it's just fear he's fighting through the scene and occasionally he comes close to wetting his pants or throwing up and just avoids it.

*Montague nearly died Apparating himself out. NEARLY DIED DOING IT I SAID.

*ETA: And I'm sure that will be important. Right? Oh wait...

*Does anyone else find it strange that of all the would-be student murderers at Hogwarts the two Slytherins so far seem the only ones to acknowledge themselves as such? I was arguing to the death discussing this with someone and they were convinced that Malfoy skips through the year totally unfazed by the near-deaths of a few blood traitors and Gryffindors, because he’s got no reason to care about them. But he seems far more aware of what he did to them than the twins or anyone ever did about Montague, or Sirius does about Snape, or even Harry will admit to about Malfoy.

*ETA: Because he's a pansy. See, when Harry almost causes a death accidentally he just reminds himself he was in the right and is totally innocent and forgets about it.

*I love Draco drawing comfort and courage from Dumbledore’s praise. He’s good enough, he’s smart enough, and gosh darn it, people like him.

*ETA: He's an idiot.

*Heh. I think the comfort and courage is what gives Malfoy the ability to be sulky when Dumbledore brings up his feebler murder attempts. Yeah, well. That could’ve happened to anybody!

*So following Malfoy’s stages, he’s sick, but then draws comfort from being reminded he’s not a total screw up. Enough that Dumbledore can get back to the "you are not a killer" theme with Malfoy actually able to follow him.

*When Draco says "Why didn’t you stop me?" he actually does seem to be potentially doing more than challenging Dumbledore’s claim to have known it was him all along. I wonder what he does mean there, but it’s one of those rare times JKR keeps it ambiguous without even an adverb!

*ETA: Or maybe he was just challenging him.

*Now we get into Draco the Sulky Teen again when he talks about Snape. Though again we don’t get the usual adverbs to tell us exactly how Draco is delivering every single line. Is he angry at Dumbledore for being taken in by Snape? Are the lines about Snape’s "wanting a bit of the action?" Draco trying to rub Dumbledore’s face in it?

*ETA: Does it matter? Not really. Draco and Snape don't mean much to each other.

*This seems to get Draco a bit carried away, crowing about how great it’s going to be—if only he could actually do the thing he’s not going to do in a million years.

*Kind of cool the way Draco’s livelier in response to role models. He draws strength from impressing DD, and is just determined to show up Snape.

*ETA: Which just shows how pathetic he is. Kids can't overtake their role models, Draco! You were lost the moment you envisioned yourself as even being at their level. Look at how nicely Harry continues to look up to Dumbledore and trust him to know what's best even after he's dead.

*Yup, the one thing that Draco seems practically drunk on in this scene is not being a fuck up. Ha ha! I did good! I surprised you and Snape! I rock! Can I go home now?

*ETA: I miss this Draco.

*Filch would of course not check a bottle from Rosemerta. A nice illustration of why racial profiling doesn’t work.

*Okay, now Malfoy’s shaking again. Was it hearing people downstairs that reminded him of his real position? The fact that DD is going over the mead and the necklace? Or just we need to wrap this up so start shaking, kid.

*Malfoy admits to getting the coin idea from the DA with a twisted smile. Love the twisted smile. It’s fitting but could mean so many different things.

*ETA: None of which are important, natch.

*I always say this, but really I think Dumbledore’s telling Draco not to use the word Mudblood here is somehow important. At least I hope it is. Ironically, it’s like the only time someone’s ever seriously said something to him about the word. Usually the Gryffindors just get angry and say DON’T CALL HER THAT! Which is exactly what he’s going for in using the word.

*Nope. Not important. Except to remind us how awesomely non-bigoted Dumbledore is, I guess.

*Awww. Now Draco’s tasting the bitterness of knowing he’s not a killer.

*I love the way Malfoy has to point out everything he’s done right ever—we put up the Dark Mark to have you come up here. And it worked! I should get house points for that part!

*Malfoy’s voice goes up an octave at the idea of a member of the Order dead. Seriously, isn’t it rather bizarre to have your bad guy so much more sensitive about the death of anyone than your good guys?

*ETA: Coward!

*Re-reading this I can’t believe I have spoken to people in fandom who actually think Dumbledore is trying to talk Malfoy out of the murder he’s totally about to commit in the scene, reasoning with him as if trying to calm some deadly animal. Could JKR have made it more obvious the one thing that can’t happen in this scene is that Draco will kill Dumbledore? That’s sort of the point, the reason we can be wondering what on earth will happen.

*ETA: Okay this, at least, remains true. Though just last week I read somebody who said that if Snape hadn't intervened Draco would have killed Dumbledore. Seriously guys, if there's one thing that Draco is not? It's a murderer. It's like the one thing that carries over into the next book.

*And now we finally get to Draco’s Dilemma that he can’t consider not killing Dumbledore only because he and his family will be killed if he doesn’t.

*ETA: I guess he doesn't love them as much as Harry loves his parents. Where's the revenge, there, Draco?

*Still wincing at the sound of Voldemort’s name I see, Malfoy! Good to know…even if I will never really get it except in certain fanfics.

*ETA: I certainly won't get it after DH. Why the hell do people flinch at his name? Why does Dumbledore not tell anyone his real name? Is it really setting up Harry's desperate attempt to get the plot moving again in DH by saying the name once it's got a trace on it?

*ETA: Btw, that trace on the name? Makes it an even better idea for everybody to say Voldemort whenever they want. If everybody's saying it the trace does little good. (Though we wouldn't have a handy way of identifying the bravest people then so maybe it's not worth it.)

*No harm done, nobody’s been hurt. I repeat the line I quoted earlier: Yeah, you took real good care of that August kid!

*I would so love to see Lucius Malfoy’s face when he learned his kid had gotten him protection and an out of the DEs. My kid? Are you sure?

*You know, I’ve gotten used to talking to people who assume Draco’s got to have outside DE help with the whole Rosemerta caper, but does he? The book seems to suggest it might just be him.

*ETA: Still no clue. But then, the way all this comes to nothing in DH the whole thing almost seems like a dream anyway.

*Btw, you'd think that a barmaid with nice tits and high heeled fuzzy slippers and all would need to be a hell of a lot better at throwing off Imperius, wouldn't you? What else has this woman had to do for people lately?

*You know, the last moment of the DD/Malfoy scene is so deliberately written (as is the later bit with Snape) I don’t get people re-writing it: Malfoy says he has no option. Dumbledore offers him one. Malfoy goes over how far he’s come, how he came close to succeeding, because he’s saying good-bye to that alternate self who was supposed to be the successful Death Eater. By going over that before lowering his wand it’s a conscious rejection from a place of strength. He’s not just running to DD because he’s completely helpless, he’s choosing.

*ETA: Did I say place of strength? Well, it can't be that because Malfoy can't have any strength. Maybe it's just a place of submission. He's admitting that he'd prefer to be protected. Just be a child forever. That'll work.

*Once I spoke to someone who literally re-wrote the scene to be the opposite: Malfoy lowered his wand, and then said the bit about getting that far, and then raised the wand again and spent the rest of the scene trying to kill DD only he couldn’t aim because he’s a big sissy.

*ETA: He is a big sissy, of course, but let's be clear what kind.

*Amycus and Alecto are like little Campbell soup kids gone wrong. How could anyone spend much time with the Death Eaters? They’re all total freaks except for Snape and Lucius!

*Dumbledore explains he’s practicing manners. Well, Alecto’s practicing good manners too, DD. If we go by your example at the Dursleys in chapter 3, DD.

*Who thinks Draco’s ever been able to be in the same room with Fenrir for more than thirty seconds before needing to run away and take an herbal bath?

*ETA: Ah, Fenrir. Another character who seemed a lot more sinister than he was. But then, what DE actually is sinister when you get to know them?

*Is Fenrir bleeding? Or does he keep a blood capsule in his mouth just for smiling obscenely and licking his lips?

*You know, Fenrir would have made a far better boggart for Lupin. Imagine if that guy had popped out of that wardrobe!

*ETA: That would have been awesome.

*ETA: I think we all know what would pop out of that wardrobe for Lupin now: Tonks in a neglige with a baby at her breast demanding he satisfy her sexually.

*Dumbledore says he’s shocked Draco would bring Fenrir to a place where his friends live. Silly, Dumbledore—Slytherins don’t have friends!

*Everyone pay attention, please! Draco Malfoy just asserted his actual personality in saying he didn’t want Fenrir to come instead of loudly proclaiming this is great by him! It’s his last line in the book, and probably the first honest one!

*Draco’s looking into Dumbledore’s face now—like he’s a person and all.

*ETA: Dammit, this scene actually is *good*. And deserving of far better follow through than DH. There, I said it.

*Amycus reminds us that Death Eaters are almost all, to a man, dim-witted.

*I see no reason for Fenrir to be a Muggle. Just mentioning that as a response to many theories on this that I’ve seen, including some that claim his DE robes not fitting well means he must have borrowed them from a wizard.

*Snape enters with a large can of whoop-ass and he’s not afraid to use it.

*Snape does not enter with a look of hatred on his face. This is the other bit of the scene that keeps getting rewritten to fit how people want it to go. He walks in and looks around neutrally, and Dumbledore pleads immediately. Not in response to Snape’s look of hatred, in response to Snape’s mere appearance.

*Everyone falls back, awed by the Shaft-like coolness that is Snape. So much cooler than James Potter. Sorry, James.

*ETA: Oh man, sorry James indeed. I think you win the coolness competition in the end. Snape loses a lot of points in DH.

*OMG Snape killed Dumbledore!!!111!!

*Yipes! Just had a flashback to a theory about how the skull by Dumbledore at the end is clearly a reference to Golgotha. As if any author in their right mind would miss having Dumbledore suspended under a glowing green snake skull at his moment of death!

*ETA: So Dumbledore's dead now. I guess he'll leave the story. Not.

*ETA: Wow, this chapter really loses everything after DH. It's not even a Lightning Struck tower like it seemed. It seemed like a moment where everything fell apart so now our heroes would have to step up and figure out a way to triumph. Instead it was just one more step in Dumbledore's Incredible Irritating Plan. We could have avoided it all and just had Harry grab Dumbledore's wand for some reason somewhere.





The Borgnine Proviso
JKR created a lumpy Death Eater just for Ernest Borgnine!

Foley Work
Footsteps and crashes, mostly, to punctuate the right moments in the conversation.

Designated Hero
Not that Harry does anything bad here, but when any chapter where your hero is petrified is a good chapter, you might want to think about it.

Idiot World
Not a single one of these Death Eaters besides Draco and Snape seems able to understand a simple pun much less take over the world.

James Bond Exposition Rule
But turned on its head, since Draco’s exposition is explicitly a way to avoid killing. Which is probably why his victim winds up dead while Dr. No’s wind up alive.

I can’t believe I can’t give this chapter either of Ken’s Rules of High Altitude Mortality! Dumbledore doesn’t shriek and he flies backwards! There’s no rule for floating suspended in the air for a moment. Also, maybe because Harry’s frozen, there’s not much misdirected answering.

"Watermelon, watermelon, cantaloupe, cantaloupe"
Watermelon, watermelon, THEY’VE BLOCKED THE STAIRS cantaloupe, cantaloupe, Ack! Zap! Bang! Order of the Phoenix powers activate!

Final score: 6

Slytherin Liquid Count: No actual liquid, but drinking is referenced, as is the deadly potion.

Comments

Re: I knew this would take more than one post...

[sistermagpie.livejournal.com]

Speaking of which, isn't it odd that Rita Skeeter practically accuses Dumbledore of having sex with Harry in DH, but neglects to mention that he's gay? You'd think that would have come up.

Yeah...Rita's nasty insinuation of Dumbledore preying on Harry is the only serious reference to a same sex relationship of any kind. (The Weasleys make a couple of jokes about Percy, of course--again not nice ones.)

One would think people with 'strong wills' would all be good at throwing off Imperius. Though with Harry it seems like it's something more noble than just being strong willed. I mean, Harry's isn't even so very strong-willed compared to others. (But then, people bow to his will so much maybe he never has to try.)