Deathly Hallows, chapter 17

[anehan]

Bathilda's Secret

* "Harry thought of A History of Magic; the graveyard was supposed to be haunted.
Wot? Harry remembers something he has read? Must be the first time.

* Ooh, look! The Potters' cottage, which Harry has been so eager to see that he hasn't mentioned the place once in the first six books. Harry's obsessions seem to come and go according to what is convenient.

* Harry could think of many reasons not to follow Bathilda, like the fact that she doesn't utter a word, but decides to follow her anyway, like a good little idiot that he is. I'm just surprised Hermione isn't a little more careful.

* Harry the hero reassures Hermione when she's feeling uncertain about the visit to Bathilda's. Yes, of course they could overpower someone as small as her. It's not like she couldn't be under the Imperius Curse, with a dozen Death Eaters waiting in her kitchen. Or, you know, dead.

* You know, this would be the kind of time and place where Remus would have come handy. He'd have probably been a bit more cautious about walking into a house where he couldn't know what was waiting him.

* Bathilda doesn't say anything, and the Horcrux beats faster and faster against Harry's chest. No, Harry, of course you shouldn't get out of there as fast as possible and send the Order in there to look at what was going on. You just take care of everything with you superpowers.

* Oh my god, can Hermione be any stupider? Of Harry I can believe it, but Hermione letting Harry to follow Bathilda alone upstairs is sheer idiocy on her part.

* Not only is our Boy Wonder stupider than any hero I've ever encountered, he can't even handle one snake. And he is someone who is supposed to be able to defeat Voldemort? Excuse me if I'm slightly sceptical about his chances of success.

* Does anyone else find the image of Voldemort flying without a broom ridiculous? I have this image of Voldemort in tights, a gigantic V emblazoned on his chest and a cape billowing behind him in my mind. Verrrry scary.

* But Hermione, who got only an E in her Defence against the Dark Arts OWL and is presumably much worse than Harry in duelling, doesn't freeze and manages to divert the snake from crushing Harry. Go girl! Hermione-Harry 1-0.

* Oh, all right, so Harry manages to finally get them out of the house, so I guess the points stand 1-1.

* This whole episode of visiting Bathilda was an exercise in stupidity.

* Ah, a trip down the memory lane. Was it really necessary to make us re-live the night the Potters died? We know what happened quite well enough. It's this kind of unnecessary things that make these books so bloody long.

* It's interesting that not even Voldemort knew that the wand thief he was looking for was Grindelwald. I would have imagined that, after he fell, photograps of Grindelwald as a young man would have found their way to the papers. Once again the Wizarding World only knows what is convenient to know.

* I wonder, could Voldemort sense that one of his Horcruxes was near?

* Okay, so a wound caused by Nagini's bite can be healed by dittany. And the Healers at St Mungo's didn't try this all-purpose healing agent at once why exactly?

* Oh, sorry, only our heroes are allowed to know useful things. Adults are notoriously stupid and ignorant and therefore unworthy.

* Yes, Harry, you shouldn't have gone to Godric's Hollow. I'm happy to see that you recognize your stupidity. Now, if only I could trust that it had taught you something, I'd be happy.

* Of course Voldemort knew Harry would go back to Godric's Hollow. A simpleton could have worked that out.

* I hate it when Hermione becomes this blubbering wreck who flinches at the tiniest sign of an impending Harry!tantrum. I guess that's part of the reason why I ship Harry/Draco. I see Draco as someone who wouldn't put up with Harry's bullshit the way Harry's friends do.

* And the chapter ends with a pity-party. Bleargh.

Comments

Rant 2

[tdotm.livejournal.com]

- “Ah, a trip down the memory lane. Was it really necessary to make us re-live the night the Potters died?”

Hell, No! It only reminds us of something that turns out to be irrelevant. I thought that night would turn out to be key – what other events happened that night we had yet to learn of? How was Dumbledore so sure of what had happened? Exactly who was there that night? I'll tell you, Voldemort, James Harry and Lily, that’s who. Dumbledore took a guess at what happened. The End.

All this flashback did was made James and Lily look like fools. Where was James wand? I presume Wizard’s robes have pockets especially for them. Muggle clothes (especially for men) have endless places to keep a wand. Maybe JKR though that living in fear, but still leaving your wand lying around made them seem more noble than putting up a fight and losing. Even if it was to the most feared dark wizard of all time (a title he deserved then) with decades more experience than them. She was hella wrong.

- I’d rather have Voldemort on a broom. Just saying. In fact, someone please remind me why he doesn’t apparate and get there immediately. Is it a feasible reason, or just more nonsensical plot machinations by our favourite fantasy author?

- “I hate it when Hermione becomes this blubbering wreck who flinches at the tiniest sign of an impending Harry!tantrum. I guess that's part of the reason why I ship Harry/Draco. I see Draco as someone who wouldn't put up with Harry's bullshit the way Harry's friends do.”

Word. JKR wanted Harry to be the dominant member of the Trio, so she usually wrote him that way, despite it making no sense at all and involving the most capable member having to constantly cringe and give way. Hermione never acts as if she fancies him, she acts as if she's in awe, almost scared of him. Does he beat her - surely we'd know? She was the same during the whole 'Sirius *is* at the Ministry' sh*te, too scared of upsetting him to be a true friend and really restrain him, once it was obvious he wasn't going to listen to her. Plus some action on her part when he and Ron were rowing, could have stopped Ron walking out in this book, but it wasn’t conducive to the plot. The Hermione who told McGonagall about the mysterious broom and risked his displeasure by doing the right thing and saving him from himself is no more.

In Book 5, this Hermione would have thought of Snape, then gone to him with or without Harry. 'Petrificus Totalis' worked on the worthy Neville, why not use it on this gobsh*te while she sorted him out - again? Instead she’s trapped in a constant cycle of letting him f*ck things up then getting him out of trouble. Yet he never learns from his constant mistakes - he’s an idiot to the end – he just persists in his right to mess things, and people up. Hermione, who does (usually) have brains, completely enables him, so why should he have matured since Book 4? Why *do* people ship this pair, it comes across as really creepy? However, I disagree that Draco is a better match for Harry. I think The Grim Reaper would be better. Heh.

Harry should have been a squib, whose powers were due to his not-horcrux. When he ‘died’, his magic would be left at ‘Kings Cross’ with the crying-baby-soul-fragment-mutant, and he could be whisked to a new life, to fade into legend. (He’d be too vulnerable to endless reprisals, otherwise). I’ll bet a lot of H/H shippers wouldn’t want him and Hermione together if he was a squib. The way JKR writes romance, I’m glad I’m not a shipper.

Re: Rant 2

[jodel-from-aol.livejournal.com]

I'm beginning to wonder whether the whole flasback was just sheer indulgence so she could cram in the bit about Tom meeting that pair of trick-or-treaters.

Re: Rant 2

[eir-de-scania.livejournal.com]

All this flashback did was made James and Lily look like fools. Where was James wand?
***Word. In GoF, Voldie says to Harry, before duelling him: "And now you face me like a man...straight-backed and proud, the way your father died..." It does sound more like a proper duel than an unarmed man doing...what? Flailing his arms? Kicking Voldie on the shins? Or did he just stand there, straight-backed and so on? What's wrong with him putting up a proper wizard fight but losing?

Re: Rant 2

[tdotm.livejournal.com]

"Flailing his arms? Kicking Voldie on the shins?"

James was such a Mean Girl at school, I can just imagine him biting and scratching. Voldie's lucky he didn't have any hair to pull.


"Or did he just stand there, straight-backed and so on?"

Or did JKR completely forget what she'd written before?

Re: Rant 2

[anehan]

The whole flashback is so disappointing. I was so sure that Lily's love for him couldn't possibly have been the real reason why Harry survived. Lily must have done something else, otherwise why had no one else ever survived the Killing Curse. You can't make me believe that Lily was the first one ever to die for her child. But noooooo, apparently she was. (And of course Neville's mother couldn't have done it, so it's a good thing Voldie chose Harry as the Chosen One.)

I could go on and on about the terrible things Rowling does to Hermione, but I think you have successfully summed them up.

Re: Rant 2

[the-bitter-word.livejournal.com]

Actually, I think it was Snape's love that got Voldemort to make an offer to Lily to spare her life, an offer which, when countered as many times as Lily countered it (3?) and then disregarded by VM against his promise to Snape, set up the "your magic backfires" trick... or something. *head hurts* So Snape's love was the key to Harry's surviving the curse, not Lily's "spare him" love. I bet Snape appreciated the irony.

Hermione's whole sense of self-worth was tied up with being necessary to Harry. It was sad, but the author probably felt she had to reinforce Hermione's place in the story. Independent and feisty? That's Ginny -- except around Harry. Sullen enabler (http://www.asktheinternettherapist.com/counselingarchive-enabler-and-codependency.asp) to the Boy Who Lived? That's our girl!

Re: Rant 2

[jodel-from-aol.livejournal.com]

Uh huh. It was being an *oathbreaker* that nailed him the first time. If he hadn't made Horcruxes, that would have been the end of him.