Deathly Hallows Chapter 2

[montavilla.livejournal.com]

Deathly Hallows: Chapter 2

In Memoriam

This chapter starts with the bang-o sentence: “Harry was bleeding.” Way to get our attention! Unfortunately, we’ll eventually find out that Harry is bleeding because he’s an idiot.

Humorously, Harry steps on a teacup placed just outside his room. I think it would have been funnier if Harry had been barefoot. Then he’d be bleeding in two places and he’d have to hop to the bathroom. Then, maybe he could lose his balance on the slippery tiles and end up with his head in the toilet. I’m really surprised Rowling missed his opportunity.

Instead, Harry merely picks up the pieces of broken teacup and throws them into a bin, speculating that the cup is Cousin Dudley’s “clever” idea of a trap.

I’d like to take a moment here to comment on Dudley’s devolution as a villain in the series. In PS/SS, Dudley was mercilessly beating on Harry and terrorizing all the other kids at school from even considering Harry as friend material. He was then punished with by karma and Hagrid with a pig’s tail. And after that he… what does he do, exactly? Nothing much to Harry as I recall. In CoS and PoA, he’s just there, enjoying the adoration of adults who dislike Harry. In GoF, he’s fat. In OotP, he’s shaped up and he’s bullying other kids—but not Harry. In HBP, his only crime is to refuse an alcoholic drink (which, in our country would be considered responsible behavior for an underage boy).

So, in DH, Dudley is reduced to placing teacups outside Harry’s door in a vain attempt to express his admiration. Something which Harry, who is apparently blind to Dudley’s actual mindset, interprets as a hostile action. No, Harry. Dudley isn’t your enemy. He’s your House Elf.

But, then Harry is distracted by the thought that he has four whole days until he can do magic. Not that his magic can heal anything. Even the narrator on Harry’s shoulder thinks he’s lame for never taking a Wizard’s First Aid class.

That should have been one of the elective courses, don’t you think? They could have called it the “Spells That Aren’t as Flashy as Turning Hedgehogs into Pin Cushions But a Whole Lot More Useful” class.

As for me, I’m distracted with wondering why Dudley didn’t set the teacup on an end table or something. Or maybe knock on the door so that Harry would get the tea before it got cold. But then, he’s never been portrayed as being very clever.

You know, I’m not trying to be mean about Harry... he is the hero and I’m trying as hard as I can to like him, but I can’t get over this next bit. We’re told that in six years, Harry’s never really unpacked his trunk completely, but always left a layer of “mulch” at the bottom. Is this a boy thing? I’m a really messy person, but I unpack my bags when I get home. And, if there’s broken glass in it, I clean it out. Even if it means lugging in the vacuum cleaner to my room. It’s not like I have this handy little stick on me at all times that will magically clean stuff.

Also, if I cut myself on something embedded in “mulch,” I put Bactine on the cut. Or iodine. Or clean it out with alcohol. Just because you’re a wizard doesn’t mean you can’t get infected.

Oddly, Harry thinks that his uncle and aunt will probably burn his things in the middle of the night, because they are so anti-magic. He’s obviously forgetting that his aunt and uncle are supposed to leave in an hour or so for parts unknown. The last thing they’d do is lug his stuff along with them for the pleasure of setting it on fire.

Among the things Harry is leaving behind are his school robes. What he’s keeping is his Muggle clothing. This sounds like he might be thinking of hiding out in the Muggle world. Or, that Rowling has finally owned up to the fact that Wizard clothing is stupid.

Harry packs the Marauder’s Map, not that the map will have any purpose on his Quest.

He also packs a small fragment of mirror (which he cut his finger on) and the locket which “cost” Dumbledore’s life. It seems that Harry values things by how much pain they have caused him. Or by how important they are to eventually wrapping up the plot in a surprising twist!

Meanwhile, Hedwig is pretending to sleep because she hates Harry. I’m not making it up. That’s in the book.

Hehe. Harry finds the newspaper he was looking for by remembering the short mention of Charity Burbage’s resignation on the front page. Too late, J.R! You’re placing the Chekhovian gun on the mantelpiece after it was fired!

In my book, this chapter takes up approximately 16 pages. Of those, 11 pages are filled with stuff about Albus Dumbledore’s life. Didn’t we have an entire chapter in the last book dedicated to his funeral? There wasn’t this much coverage of the John Kennedy assassination! (On the other hand, there was some effort to actually catch the man who murdered Kennedy, so maybe it balances out.)

The first article, by Elphias Doge goes something like this: I met Dumbledore when he was eleven and it was awesome! He awesome to me and awesome to Muggles. He was an awesome student and when we graduated, we were going to go on an awesome trip! But his mom died, so he didn’t go. But he was still awesome! He went on to get an awesome job as a teacher! Then he had an awesome duel and even more awesomely turned down the job as Minister of Magic! Wasn’t he awesome?

Dumbledore’s defeat of Grindelwald is considered a turning point in wizarding history on a par with the enactment of the Statute of Secrecy or the downfall of Voldemort. Consequently, it was never included in the history class at Hogwarts.

Harry feels ashamed about how little he knew Dumbledore. I think Harry’s giving himself a bum rap here. He tried to ask a personal question once when he was eleven and even then he could tell Dumbledore was lying.

Besides, Harry never even asked anyone about his parents. Nor does he know the names of Hermione’s parents. So, you know, asking personal questions isn’t Harry’s strong suit.

Then, Harry notices that Rita Skeeter is being interviewed about her upcoming book on Dumbledore’s life. Feeling the need to become enraged, he decides to read through a six-page article of “lies” about his beloved mentor.

By the way, nobody in the U.S. would ever write an interview like this (what with the descriptions of Rita tossing her hair back and such). Is this a common style for British tabloids?

Rita promises her readers that there’s a lot of nastiness in the Dumbledore family—much worse that Aberforth’s illegal goat charms. I don’t know how much nastier you can get than screwing goats. Maybe that isn’t such a big thing in the wizarding world, when you have half-giants and half-goblins running around. But it puts a whole new light on the Blast-Ended Skrewts, doesn’t it?

Rita brings up a controversial take on the famous Grindelwald duel, declaring that Grindelwald basically gave up. I wonder if this is a dropped part of the story. Why make the duel controversial, unless it has some bearing on the Elder Wand storyline? But, since we never find out how the duel went down, this never really goes anywhere and just becomes part of the whole “Was Dumbledore Just a Big Phony?” debate.

Rita goes on to insinuating that there was something “sinister” in Dumbledore’s relationship with Harry. Not that gay = pedophile by any means, but this might have been a good place to bring up the fact that Dumbledore was gay. I find Rita rather restrained for not mentioning it.

Or maybe Doge should have, just to enhance Dumbledore’s awesomeness. After all, Dumbledore appears to be the only gay person in the entire history of Wizardry.

Revolted and repulsed, Harry balls up the newspaper and throws it with all his force at the bin. Bwahaha. Nothing funnier than someone trying to throw a balled-up newspaper with force. I think that’s the nerdiest thing Harry’s ever done.

In his rage, Harry picks up the fragment of mirror and sees a flash of blue—just like Dumbledore’s eyes! He is despondent at the thought that Dumbledore’s blue eyes will never pierce him again. But he does get the consolation of having the mirror cut his finger again as he picks it up. See? They did pierce you after all!

Fan Service:
Shout-outs to Draco’s badge from GoF and Ron’s Sneakoscope from PoA.
Sirius’s two-way mirror finally makes it return!
References to Dumbledore/Harry slash! (Should that be Humbledore?)

Fan Slappage:
No, Harry can’t use the mirror to communicate with Sirius in the afterlife.


DVD Extras:

INT. DAY – GREENHOUSE NUMBER ONE

A first-year student with a pock-marked face listlessly prunes a Flutterby bush. In the background, other students can be seen working on other bushes in groups of twos and threes.

A boy, wearing the Gryffindor colors approaches. The sun, shining behind this head, turns his red hair into a golden nimbus.

GRYFFINDOR
Hullo. You look as though you could use a partner. I’m Albus. Albus Dumbledore.

The listless student, ELPHIAS DOGE, squints up at Albus.

ELPHIAS
Elphias Doge. No one wants to work with me. They’re afraid I’m catching.

ALBUS
That’s silly. Dragon Pox is only contagious for the first two weeks.

He takes out a pair of secaturs and squats down. They begin working on the bush. After a moment:

ELPHIAS
Oh, I say! You’re Dumbledore. Is it true that your father is in Azkaban?

Albus nods.

ELPHIAS
I’m sure it wasn’t as bad as the papers made it sound.

ALBUS
It was.

ELPHIAS
Oh, sorry.

There is an awkward silence. Finally, Albus sits back on his heels:

ALBUS
Well, that’s a jolly good job, if I do say so myself.

They smile shyly at each other.

ALBUS (cont’d)
So… shall we go wank off behind the shed for a bit?

ELPHIAS
(beaming) Oh, I say! Rather!


FADE OUT

Comments

[eir-de-scania.livejournal.com]

I remember wondering, somewhere mid-series, if our Jo realised what she had gotten herself into. Here we have a newbie writer, with a story that would stretch over seven years, with a cast of thousands, many supposed to grow up from children to young adults. Then she was contracted by a publisher that a) hadn't much experience of children's/YA books and b)were happy to let their newbie writer do it all on her own.

Then, newbie writer becomes a worldwide success. Newbie writer under lots of stress. Third book crosses into YA territory. Happy publishers still leaves newbie writer to fend for herself.

And I'm just going WTF??!!?? This is just so unheard of. No writer I know about keeps the MS a closely guarded secret until TA-DAAAAH! it's left to the publisher's who does a quick check to see no rude things are included while being busy with scheduling as release date.

Instead, they have one or two trusted Beta readers, then the first draft is sent to the editor who sends it back with suggestions and questions, the writer works some more (or a lot more) on the MS, sends it back to the editor...Until it is deemed to fit for publishing, without too many contradictions and WTF moments.

Perhaps our Jo, being a newbie, thought working on her own was a great idea, I don't know. But it's beyond me why Bloomsbury thought so. Because the books sold billions anyway? Because it was a good marketing ploy?

Juist imagine what the books could have been if our Jo had worked with a good editor. Someone who knew were the whole story and what JKR was trying to achieve. Someone who could see her characters and their actions from the outside. Someone who could hepl newbie writer to crawl out of plot holes and avoid hurdles...

Now, a big part of the problem is that Jo created interesting, life-like characters but placed them in a children's book world. Then, not to ruin The Plot she had to let those characters act totally dumb. Especially her main characters. It didn't matter much in the first two books, but it started to grate in PoA, only to get worse in the rest of the series.

[jodel-from-aol.livejournal.com]

Actually, there are any number of editorial changes which *were* made to the first four books -- exactly as there ought to have been with a professional publishing house and a newbie writer. And the ones she lists on the official site were probably not the half of it.

But it's as if once Warners stuck their finger into the pie, the schedule became everything. Rowling *does* appear to have been left to write the book, turn in the manuscript and the publication date was generally set about 6 months later, which scarcely leaves time for basic proofreading.

I suppose they figured that they'd fix any problems in postproduction...

[mary-j-59.livejournal.com]

True - but the weird thing is, it's not just the later books that include scenes that would look good in the movies. That, too, starts in POA, if not before. And, as you said above, it's a particular type of movie. It's Bugs Bunny; it's Wile E. Coyote and the Roadrunner. I thought of that almost at once when we got to the Snape-shaped hole, but the same thing is true of the scene that bothers me (and other readers) so much - of Sirius casually banging the unconscious Snape's head on the ceiling of the tunnel. This is meant to be funny, I think, in a cartoonish way. That people would draw conclusions about the characters based on that scene may possibly be something Rowling didn't think of - but perhaps I'm being too harsh there.

Really, though, the thing that amazes me throughout the series, and especially in the last two books, is Harry's lack of any reasonable emotional response to the events he's involved in. That's why OOTP was such a relief to me; I thought Harry was at last acting like a believably hurt and overwhelmed kid. And now we learn that wasn't Harry at all! It was all Voldemort!

Oh, well.

[jodel-from-aol.livejournal.com]

Yes. The whole Toontown connection now looks like a bad lapse in judgement. Probably from the get-go. And it was *present* from the get-go. This is something that was with us from the very beginning with Vernon Dursley. (And it is with us *particularly* with the Dursleys -- only it didn't end there, and we didn't leave it behind when we left them.)

The thing is that the exagerations of the first couple of books were in scale with the cartoonish quality of so much of Rowling's humor. So it didn't stand out as something objectionable that *didn't fit*. It was simply one of the reasons why a lot of people didn't much like the books to begin with.

And, like I say, this caliber of humor belongs to the Trickster. It is his stock in trade. It's got his fingerprints all over it. But it just doesn't function properly in something that has grown beyond being a Trickster tale.

And, like *you* say, it became objectionable by the time we reached PoA, because the series itself had grown beyond being a Trickster tale by that point. The Trickster can make a joke out of anything. But that doesn't mean that the joke is in good taste, or an appropriate subject for humor.

If Rowling were writing a series like Narnia where all the volumes were about the same length and the same treatment was given to all of them, maintaining this kind of a mix of genre/style might have been possible. But Harry Potter is not Narnia. In Narnia, no single volume was intended to be of greater "weight" than any of the others. They are all individual stories that explore different facets of the same overriding subject -- which from where I am standing looks a lot like an examination of the question of what is the individual soul's proper relationship to its creator -- regardless of the changing circumstances in which it may find itself.

Potter is all the same story. And each volume may tell a different portion of it, and each portion may be of importance to the whole, but they are not the same size, they are not the same "weight", and they are certainly not all given the same treatment. Things that work in one of the volumes may not work in others.

I end up with the impression - which may be entirely incorrect - that Rowling really doesn't remember what it was like to *be* a kid all that well, and her attempts to throw in "things that kids like" are straight from what it is generally *assumed* that kids like without ever asking a kid what they think on the subject. Or knowing the right question to ask.

After all, if you ask a kid; "You're a kid. All kids like clowns, don't they?" The kid will probably say yes, because you've just told him which answer is going to be acceptable. Kids are very good at giving adults the answer the adult wants, since it's the adult who is in control of what happens, and if you don't give adults the answer they demand, things get nasty very quickly. But if you ask him "How do kids *really* feel about clowns?" you might get a different answer, ranging from 'They're fun", through 'They're stupid', all the way to 'They're scary!'

[mmmarcusz.livejournal.com]

Really, though, the thing that amazes me throughout the series, and especially in the last two books, is Harry's lack of any reasonable emotional response to the events he's involved in. That's why OOTP was such a relief to me; I thought Harry was at last acting like a believably hurt and overwhelmed kid. And now we learn that wasn't Harry at all! It was all Voldemort

Just as Ron's one decent bit of characterisation in DH was actually an evil locket. He doesn't really think that Hermione respects Harry more, or that he's inferior to Harry in every way, or that his mother doesn't love him! The locket just says crazy things! Smash it so we can be happy again! It's Ron taking a leaf out of Luna's book: "friends friends friends friends friends friends friends friends"

[montavilla.livejournal.com]

The only "scientific" explanation I could imagine for the Snape-shaped hole would be that Snape knew a spell that would surround him with a thin micro-layer of super-heated air. That way, the air would melt the glass as he went through it.