Deathly Hallows, chapter 16

[anehan]

Godric's Hollow

* The long-awaited trip to Godric's Hollow. Bit of a let-down, to be honest.

* So, Ron is gone. Good riddance, I say. But then again, I don't like Ron. YMMV.

* I've said it before, but I'm going to repeat it: why would Hermione and Ron have thought that Harry knew what he was doing? The boy's not noted for his creative ideas, and besides, he told everything he learned from Dumbledore to them.

* In their new hiding-place, Harry performs the protective enchantments that Hermione usually does. What is she, their house-elf? I bet she always cooks the food, too, and takes care of the dishes. Not to mention the laundry, and packing, and so on and so forth.

* Hermione's turned into a watering pot. Pull yourself together, girl. There's no time to be wasted. Voldemort gets more and more powerful, the Ministry continues to persecute Muggle-borns, and your friends go to school which is under the management of Death-Eaters. And you sit in a tent and cry.

* Harry stares at Ginny's name in the Marauders Map. Creepy, or what?

* Oh my God, Harry gets all martyrish, being staggered "to think of his own presumption in accepting his friends' offers to accompany him on this meandering, pointless journey. Meandering and pointless the journey is (which makes me think that, if Rowling recognized it for what it was, why did she write it in the first place?), but Hermione and Ron have the right to make their own decisions. Everything's not about you, Harry. Voldemort is a threat to everyone.

* So, Snape is the first Slytherin Headmaster at Hogwarts since Phineas Nigellus. Rather telling that he had to be put there by Voldemort, right? And some people say Slytherins are not discriminated against.

* "Grindelwald's mark?" Hah! So there's something Hermione doesn't know.

* Harry asks Hermione for permission to go to Godric's Hollow. He feels "exactly as he had done on the occasion, several years previously, when he had asked Professor McGonagall whether he could go into Hogsmeade, despite the fact that he had not persuaded the Dursleys to sign his permission slip." *headdesk* Come on, Harry, she's not your mother.

* Imagine if this is the effect Hermione has on Ron as well. What a marriage that will be. (In fact, I'm reminded of Molly and Arthur.)

* Harry is surprised that Godric Gryffindor was born in Godric's Hollow. Apparently the anvil-sized hint of the place's name wasn't enough to penetrate the cloud of ignorance Harry is surrounded by.

* Hermione asks whether Harry ever opened A History of Magic, and Harry replies that he might have opened it just the once, when he bought it. You remember, when he still was the knowledge-hungry little boy, eager to learn everything there was to learn about the Wizarding World. You know, that boy who disappeared as soon as he got to Hogwarts.

* A History of Magic seems to be the only history textbook that is used at Hogwarts, yet it doesn't cover anything later than 19th century. No wonder wizards are an ignorant bunch.

* Harry hadn't been thinking about Gryffindor's sword when he said he wanted to go to Godric's Hollow. For him, the attractions are his parents' graves and the person of Bathilda Bagshot. No wonder the search for the Horcruxes doesn't advance, when all Harry does is obsess about his parents and Dumbledore.

* Hmm, obsess about Dumbledore. Is this in any way similar to his obsession with Draco, when he needed so see the place where Draco kept coming secretly? Ow, ow, bad place, brain, bad place. *scrubs brain*

* Oh my god, a statue of the Potters. Worship them, O Wizarding World.

* I wonder, will Harry erect a statue of his mother and father in the lobby at the Ministry when he becomes the Minister for Magic? Tastefully made of gold, of course.

* Harry thinks he could have visited the graveyard in Godric's Hollow with Dumbledore, if only Dumbledore had told him about the connection they shared to the place. The boy really is obsessed with being "special" in Dumbledore's eyes.

* Harry would rather look for his parents' grave than investigate the connection that the old grave has to Grindelwald's mark -- mark that has to be important, considering Dumbledore drew it in the book he left to Hermione.

* Once again, I wonder why Dumbledore didn't just tell Hermione that the mark, and what it symbolizes, is important. Too fond of riddles, that man is. Maybe he thinks they make him sound wise.

* To recap, what happened in this chapter: Hermione cried, and then Hermione and Harry went to Godric's Hollow, where Harry cried. Seriously, this book is very difficult to recap because nothing whatsoever happens besides camping.

Comments

[tdotm.livejournal.com]

That is EXACTLY right. At the end of this book of tears, one of my (many) misgivings was how it ended with Harry wanting Kreacher to wait on him. Yes, it was in a benevolent way, but still....

SPEW, as well as both stinking out Book 4 by being tiresome, and making one of my previous favourites, Hermione, seem like a self-righteous nag, acheived absolutely nothing. Kreacher (like Dobby) reacted to kindness, not freedom, or being given rights. Dobby had to be freed to get away from the Malfoys, but I'm sure he'd have preferred to be inherited by Harry. If JKR had never drawn attention to it, it'd have been easier to accept as part of this world - after all the House Elves themselves seem happy enough (except Dobby originally). Most people wouldn't have given it a second thought.

By making Hermione constantly assert (rightly) that they had the right to determine their own future, and to be paid for the work they did, JKR set the stage for a big something that didn't happen. (I know - not the only occasion). At the end of the book, Harry could easily have thought a couple of lines about the House Elves deserving their freedom after the way they fought, but he knew it'd take time to convince them - hopefully Hermione wouldn't be too cross if he asked Kreacher to get him a sandwich in the meantime. Or something. Just to give the impression that things would change for the best. By ignoring it, she and her secondary self insert (after Ginny) come across as raging hypocrites.

Unless, of course, she explained all this in one of her many follow-up interviews where she gives extra information that she apparently always believed, but somehow forgot to put in the book.