Deathly Hallows Chapter 3

[montavilla.livejournal.com]

The Dursleys Depart

There’s just one word for this chapter. Awkward.

For one thing, Harry and the Dursleys actually have to converse. This is not something we’re used to, nor are they.

I think the main reason we even have this chapter is exposition for those who never read the first six books—or have forgotten the main storyline. I’m clued into this when Harry reminds us about seeing Dumbledore’s eye in the mirror the chapter before. Just in case we forgot that in the time it took to turn the page.

Vernon can’t make up his mind whether or not to accept the Order’s offer of protection. I can’t say I blame Vernon for being suspicious. Every encounter he’s had with wizards has involved them doing something nasty to him, his house, or his family.

Harry is torn between exasperation and amusement at Vernon’s dilemma. Those Muggles. So amusing when they are forced into relocation camps! Still, this is probably the most positive Harry’s ever been about his Muggle relatives. Even if Vernon’s eyes are still piggy and small and Aunt Petunia’s voice is shrill and squealing.

Harry’s favorite moment is when Vernon hurts his back trying to lift an unexpectedly heavy suitcase. Those Muggles! They are so amusing when they injure themselves!

There are plenty of timeline clues in this chapter and the one before. It’s four days before Harry’s birthday. Vernon has been changing his mind for the past four weeks, after Kingsley Shacklebolt and Arthur Weasley visited “a few days” after Harry arrived. This puts Dumbledore’s funeral about five weeks before July 31st. Shout out to timeline fans!

I’m still really curious why Harry bothered to come back to the Dursleys’ at all. I know Dumbledore asked them to let him, but I don’t see why that means he had to. Wouldn’t it have been simpler to move him to a safe house directly from Hogwarts? With all the people leaving the funeral, no one would have been able to track him if he portkeyed or side-Apparated.

The only thing I can think is that it took all this time to set up the protective wards. Which doesn’t make sense to me since it later takes Hermione about two minutes to do that sort of thing.

Also, I don’t really buy that Voldemort would go after the Dursleys. If he spent any time in Harry’s head (as he did in OotP), he’d know that Harry hates his relatives. Tom hated his relatives, too, so it’s something he could really understand. Plus, they’re Muggles. No one ever tells Muggles anything.

Harry tells Vernon that Voldemort tortured and killed Harry’s parents. Harry’s projecting a little here. Voldemort didn’t’ torture his parents. He only killed them. It’s a small distinction, I know.

Luckily, Dudley ends the argument by taking the offer for protection. Relieved, Harry goes back upstairs to remind us that Hedwig exists. She ignores him, reminding us that she hates Harry (it’s in the book!).

Now I’m wondering why Harry didn’t just let her go with Ron after the funeral—or send her to Ron at any time in the past five weeks. Surely that would be better than keeping her in a cage so she can stare at him resentfully?

Daedelus Diggle greets the Dursleys as “Harry Potter’s relatives.” Harry suspects that the Dursleys find this greeting annoying. I don’t blame them. Who would want to be addressed like that? “Hello, I’d like to introduce you to the new Secretary of State, Bill’s wife!” Yet again, the Dursleys are ridiculed for acting like normal human beings.

Daeleus Diggle tells us that they can’t use magic because the Ministry might think it was Harry doing it and arrest him. Just keep that in the back of your mind. It might come in handy later on when we take a look at the “Trace.” Then again, with this book, it might be utterly meaningless.

Vernon reacts with alarm when he learns that Daedelus can’t drive. Those Muggles! So amusing with their expectations of conventional skill sets!

Then we have a long and very awkward passage where Dudley must first realize (this takes a few paragraphs) that Harry isn’t coming with them, and then have Hestia realize that the Dursleys don’t realize that Harry is the Chosen One and then have Harry use the phrase “waste of space” so that Dudley can refute that. Man! That took forever, but we finally have the pay-off for Harry saving Dudley’s life back in OotP.

No pun intended, but this is one dud of a payoff. I guess it’s asking too much for something more, but “you’re not a waste of space” is more hmmm than ha! It’s like we just wandered into an episode of The Office. Maybe that’s it. JKR is channeling Ricky Gervais in this chapter.

I’m wondering… is Dudley actually mentally challenged? If so, that’s a pretty tricky twist by JKR. You know, she charmed us into laughing at Dudley for six books, only to reveal in the last one that Dudley is seriously handicapped and Harry just never realized it. That’s rather sad and touching now that I think about it.

It would also help explain why Petunia overreacts so whenever Dudley does anything at all.

The chapter ends with an odd moment between Petunia and Harry—a hint that maybe she’ll miss Harry? That she does feel something for him? Or that she wants to clear up that misunderstanding about who the “awful boy” was? We’ll never know, because she walks out the door and that’s the last we’ll ever see of the Dursleys.

Fan Service:
Dursleys go into hiding! Imagine the hijinks and hilarity to follow!
Dudley finally thanks Harry for saving his life two years later.

Fan Slappage:
The Dursleys are not eaten by dragons for abusing Harry all these years.

DVD Extras:
INT. DAY – THE DURSLEYS’ CAR

The DURSLEYS, HESTIA, and DAEDELUS are all scrunched into the rear seat of the car. Behind them, bluescreen footage shows a seaside road that they are currently driving on. CHEERFUL, BOUNCY MUSIC plays. Vernon, brow furrowed, glances from Daedelus to the driver of the car—a grey tabby cat.

VERNON
Explain to me again why a cat is driving the car?

DAEDELUS
That is Professor McGonagall. She kindly volunteered to chauffeur.

VERNON
But she’s a cat!

HESTIA
Actually, she’s an animagus—

VERNON
I don’t care if she’s an Anabaptist! I don’t want a cat driving my car!

DUDLEY
(pointing) Ha ha. Kitty!

PETUNIA
Perhaps we shouldn’t complain, Vernon. She’s doing very well.

VERNON
But she’s a cat!

PETUNIA
I know, but you’re making her nervous.

VERNON
How can you tell?

PETUNIA
Her tail is twitching.

The car suddenly starts swerving.

HESTIA
Professor! Keep your eyes on the roooooooooaaaaaa---

EXT. DAY –WHITE CLIFFS OF DOVER

As the passengers SCREAM, the car drives off the road and over the cliff. It falls down onto the beach and bursts into flames.

The music swells as a chorus brightly sings:

CHORUS
MCGONAGALL, THE DRIVING CAT!

Comments

[sistermagpie.livejournal.com]

It's funny that Voldemort does go after the Dursleys, because it sort of undermines the whole concept. Like, we know he goes after them only so that we can set up the whole "Snape's a traitor, seriously guys, he is!" in the beginning, but that just begs the question of why put him there at all since he's safer at the Weasleys.

The actual reason he's there canonically I think *is* the thing with Snape--Dumbledore set Harry up so that Snape could prove to Voldemort that he was a spy, even though Snape's spy cover was already blown by this point *and* he'd already proved his loyalty by killing Dumbledore. I don't remember the Mundungus as a spy ever coming in useful again.

But then there's the bigger question of why Voldemort doesn't ever go after anybody Harry's close to if that's the plan here. Why not ever go after Ginny? Or more obviously, why not go after Hermione, the brains behind anything Harry does? I guess you could make a case for Voldemort not lowering himself to respect a Muggleborn, but that's a big stretch even for Voldemort.

Nice that Harry's subtly incorporated Neville's story into his own. Just in case anybody might have started feeling more sympathy for Neville.

If you're going to start asking why Harry kept Hedwig around to glare at him it might lead you to wonder why he didn't let her fly safely to the Weasleys on their own.

Dudley does seem pretty dim here, doesn't he? Like borderline retarded. Setting us up for Crabbe and Goyle, I guess. Not that what someone looks like on the outside in any way can predict what their personality will be.

Nothing like a well-timed Toonces joke! Extra points for working in an anabaptist reference!

[montavilla.livejournal.com]

But the thing is, Voldemort doesn't go after the Dursleys at all. Just like he doesn't look up Hermione's relatives, and he doesn't do anything to the Weasleys. (Meanwhile, Luna randomly gets hauled off the train and sent to live in the Malfoy cellar.)

The only reason the Death Eaters are waiting outside Privet Drive at all is because Snape told them to be there. Because Dumbledore told Snape to tell them to be there.

If Harry hadn't returned to Privet Drive five weeks earlier, Voldemort wouldn't have bothered showing up at all--or sending his Death Eaters there.

Nothing like a well-timed Toonces joke!

Thanks! This extra was easy because it's was the most logical outcome I can think for the Dursleys. I simply cannot visualize the Dursleys being somewhere in hiding.

[jodel-from-aol.livejournal.com]

I think maybe the reason Harry didn't send Hedwig off to Ron is that Ron and Hermione seem to have been staying there with the Dursleys with Harry, as they threatened to do at the end of HBP. And of course he had conveniently broken up with Ginny. (*That* must have made for a wonderful month at Privet Dr.)

[montavilla.livejournal.com]

Huh. I didn't get any inkling that Ron and Hermione were staying with Harry at Privet Drive. I had completely forgotten that they had said they'd come with him.

Where are you seeing signs of their visit?

[jodel-from-aol.livejournal.com]

I'm pretty sure that Hermione is on the spot and has something to say as soon as Harry comes downstairs and starts interacting with anything but broken mirrors and teacups (before the rest of the Order show up anyway). But at this point I'm no longer even certain of that much.

[montavilla.livejournal.com]

Oh. No. She isn't there. The closest thing to her actual presence is Harry thinking that she'd know how to heal his cut finger and that he ought to ask her how to do that.

Not that he ever does ask her.

She shows up in the next chapter with the rest of the Order. She's the one with the brown hair.

[jodel-from-aol.livejournal.com]

Okay then, I misremembered the exchange.

Rather like JKR misremembered that they said that they *would* be there to give Harry support until he could leave.

I thought that blowhard Lockhart was supposed to be a portrait of someone Rowling had once known, not a self-portrait.

[tdotm.livejournal.com]

If Ron went home for a bit after Book 6, just to drop some things off, he could have left Hedwig at The Burrow - surely a nicer enviroment for an owl anyway. Errol (and Pig?) could keep her company.

Did Ron and Hermione stay at Privet Drive? I can't remember it being mentioned. Would they be able to do magic? They'd have to inform the Ministry that other wizards were staying there - would they want to do that? Plus if Ron and Hermione were with the Seven Potters, they must have left at some point previously, so Ron could have taken Hedwig then. Actually, he could have stuck an invisibility cloak on Harry and taken him as well!

I don't know why I think about this so much, JKR never did.

[eir-de-scania.livejournal.com]

I think the main reason we even have this chapter is exposition for those who never read the first six books—or have forgotten the main storyline.
***Probably a request from the publishers, they tend to insist on recaps in series. Or JKR have seen those in other series and thought that is how it's done.

Harry’s favorite moment is when Vernon hurts his back trying to lift an unexpectedly heavy suitcase. Those Muggles! They are so amusing when they injure themselves!
***Wizarding humour. Just be grateful the books are labelled "children's books" or JKR would have dressed them in drag, with enormous fake boobs. Most Brits find that hilarious.

There are plenty of timeline clues in this chapter and the one before.
***Forget them. Just forget them. If it makes sense it's just by accident. Our Jo does not, I repeat not, make timelines.

Vernon reacts with alarm when he learns that Daedelus can’t drive. Those Muggles! So amusing with their expectations of conventional skill sets!
***Poor Verne probably thought they would go by broomsticks.

[montavilla.livejournal.com]

There are plenty of timeline clues in this chapter and the one before.
***Forget them. Just forget them. If it makes sense it's just by accident. Our Jo does not, I repeat not, make timelines.

I was fascinated to find her being so specific in this one instance. I remember people going nuts trying to figure out how long Harry stayed with the Dursleys in HBP.

[beatnikspinster.livejournal.com]

Those Muggles. So amusing when they are forced into relocation camps!

Thank you! That's one of the creepiest things about these books. So much hubris about the glorious anti-discrimination statement made by the blood status war, but the books actually invent a division between people to generate hatred, resentment, and condescension that wouldn't have otherwise existed without them. *boggles*

(And that's aside from the house elves and centaurs and goblins and all the ugly subtext they make.)

[montavilla.livejournal.com]

It is bizarre. Dumbledore is the "epitome of goodness" in large because of his tolerant attitude towards Muggles (which isn't at all tolerant when you see him actually interacting with any Muggles).

But then the Muggles are portrayed in the books as either abusive buffoons (the Dursleys) or powerless victims (everyone else).

[tdotm.livejournal.com]

- “I’m still really curious why Harry bothered to come back to the Dursleys’ at all. I know Dumbledore asked them to let him, but I don’t see why that means he had to.”

You think? YOU THINK? Do you want to know the worst thing about Deathly Hallows? (Well, one of the worst.) It was filled with pointless, insubstantial fluff. What was the point of this chapter? WHAT? I remember a friend predicting that Harry and Petunia would be reconciled as she handed over vital belongings of his parents, destined to play a pivotal role in the book, and also told him more about his background. I thought it unrealistic that he’d salvage a relationship with the Dursleys, but he might get a clipped “Good Luck” after she filled missing pieces of the jigsaw. What did we get? Dudley succumbed to Harry worship, Daedelus and Hestia balked that the Senior Dursleys didn't do the same, then the family left - forever. A complete fizzling out of characters who should have had a better part (or any part)to play.

You’re 1,000% right, Harry should have gone straight back to the Burrow. The Dursleys, as they apparently had no further part to play in the story, could refuse to leave their house and be killed by a thwarted Voldemort. A Dark Mark over Privet Drive is a pet theory of mine. I do understand why he’d kill them – Petunia, however unwillingly, had kept Harry safe from him. Also a falsely accused Harry as a fugitive from muggle justice, would kill two birds with one stone. Harry couldn’t as easily hide from him in the muggle world. And you only have to know Harry in passing to know what a self-indulgent martyr he is - so heap on the guilt. (And hope he doesn't just shrug it off in the way he did Sirius)


- I agree 100% with Sistermagpie. Why not go after Hermione during that long weekend she stays with her parents every year? It doesn’t have to be about respect, just that she’s the easy target. Or kill her parents, making it publically known that they died because of her link with The Chosen One. (Pardon me if I'm unconvinced of the efficiency of any 'protection' that had been arranged for them) Even Hermione would take it as a body blow, and the golden Trio would grind to a halt immediately. Ron and Ginny would be too difficult to get to at first, but once the Ministry had fallen, Ginny was at a school run by Death Eaters, for crying out loud! In fact, why take Luna off the train and not do a search for other useful bargaining tools? Where was Ginny, hiding on the luggage rack?


- “Now I’m wondering why Harry didn’t just let [Hedwig] go with Ron after the funeral—or send her to Ron at any time in the past five weeks.”

So she can DIE! Mwah ha ha ha!! Seriously, though, it was bad enough Harry went back to Privet Drive, so obviously he should have let Ron take Hedwig at the end of Book 6. Her nonsensical death was a true highlight though, so I’ll let this 3627453th example of his idiocy pass. (I’m killing myself laughing, just thinking about it. Hee!)


- “I’m wondering… is Dudley actually mentally challenged? If so, that’s a pretty tricky twist by JKR. You know, she charmed us into laughing at Dudley for six books, only to reveal in the last one that Dudley is seriously handicapped and Harry just never realized it. That’s rather sad and touching now that I think about it.”
I think we all know that this beyond JKR. I think she was aiming for ‘comedy thick’. Dudley is the muggle Crabbe, destined for pratfalls, bullying, being fat and other such elements of comic relief. However, because he realised Harry’s innate nobility and goldenpolyjuicepotionness in the nick of time, he was spared being horribly burned to death in unquenchable flames of plot contrivance.


- DVD Extras – I approve, as long as McGonagall jumps free at the last moment. We don’t want to deprive Harry of his moment of chivalry near the end of the book.

[montavilla.livejournal.com]

- I agree 100% with Sistermagpie. Why not go after Hermione during that long weekend she stays with her parents every year? It doesn’t have to be about respect, just that she’s the easy target. Or kill her parents, making it publically known that they died because of her link with The Chosen One. (Pardon me if I'm unconvinced of the efficiency of any 'protection' that had been arranged for them) Even Hermione would take it as a body blow, and the golden Trio would grind to a halt immediately. Ron and Ginny would be too difficult to get to at first, but once the Ministry had fallen, Ginny was at a school run by Death Eaters, for crying out loud! In fact, why take Luna off the train and not do a search for other useful bargaining tools? Where was Ginny, hiding on the luggage rack?

I don't know. I suppose one could fanwank that Snape was spreading disinformation in the DE group about Harry's ties to other people. But he'd have to have Draco in on it, at the very least, and probably Lucius as well. And he'd have to count on neither Crabbe nor Goyle having enough smarts to ask their sons about the Chosen One.

I wrote a snippet once in which Headmaster Snape was conducting private interviews with all the returning Hogwarts students and methodically oblivating anyone who remembered Harry and Ginny canoodling all over the school last term. That's the only explanation I can come up with for why no one ever bothered to kidnap Ginny.

I mean, come on. Even Diary!Tom knew he could manipulate Harry by using a sassy red-haired girl.

[eir-de-scania.livejournal.com]

And he'd have to count on neither Crabbe nor Goyle having enough smarts to ask their sons about the Chosen One.

***That would be very likely, though. Wizards do NOT gossip, not even within the family. No-one at school with Snape&Lily told their children about it so their kids could spread word about it at Hogwarts. Not that Harry would know it, but at least Hermione talks to students in other years and houses.

[mmmarcusz.livejournal.com]

***That would be very likely, though. Wizards do NOT gossip, not even within the family. No-one at school with Snape&Lily told their children about it so their kids could spread word about it at Hogwarts. Not that Harry would know it, but at least Hermione talks to students in other years and houses.


Ugh. Plot hole #3245.

[sunnyskywalker]

Maybe Snape has Obliviated EVERYONE. Every single character. That would explain why they're acting a bit off.

[merrymelody.livejournal.com]

Why not go after Hermione during that long weekend she stays with her parents every year? It doesn’t have to be about respect, just that she’s the easy target...Ginny was at a school run by Death Eaters, for crying out loud! In fact, why take Luna off the train and not do a search for other useful bargaining tools?

I fanwank it that Hermione and Ginny would be too annoying even for the Death Eaters. I mean, Luna would work my nerves, especially after a few months, but would anything, even world domination, really be worth having Hermione and/or Ginny in a confined space? Could JKR even plot out such a horror? Voldemort would probably fall in love with Ginny instantly (I hear she's very pretty and her hair dances like wildfire!) and Hermione would be running the whole operation by day 2.

[montavilla.livejournal.com]

And she was sorry that she couldn't love him, but it was her problem, not his. Something *human* perhaps...

I actually think that odd moment at the end is Petunia trying to do something like this. Maybe JKR tried to write a Petunia//Harry moment and nothing worked, so she just left it ambiguous.

But it's like Godric's Hollow (which Helkamaria so excellently sporked), the whole scene with the Dursleys is almost completely pointless. The only thing we learn in it is that Dudley doesn't despise Harry. Woo. Hoo.

The other thing it does is set up the Prince's Tale by reminding us know that Petunia exists. But the whole chapter ends up feeling like a.... waste of space.

[the-bitter-word.livejournal.com]

Harry tells Vernon that Voldemort tortured and killed Harry’s parents. Harry’s projecting a little here. Voldemort didn’t’ torture his parents. He only killed them. It’s a small distinction, I know.

Harry's either Muggle-baiting, or engaging in a little wishful thinking, as in, "Boy, won't it be cool when I can torture a Death Eater back?"

...and then have Harry use the phrase “waste of space” so that Dudley can refute that.

Keep in mind that Dudley doesn't know for sure if Harry is a waste of space or not. Dudley only sees Harry in the summers, when Harry mostly stays in his room with his resentful owl to remind him of home, like a... well, like a waste of space.

I’m wondering… is Dudley actually mentally challenged?

Nah, it's just how JKR writes those big lugs who are inferior to Harry -- Crabbe, Goyle, Dudley, ah, Hagrid. Most of them even forgot how to talk in DH, Harry is that amazing in comparison.

Ha ha. Kitty!

;D

[montavilla.livejournal.com]

I'm glad you like that line. I laugh every time I read it. (Which makes me pathetic because you're never supposed to laugh at your own material.)

[anehan]

engaging in a little wishful thinking, as in, "Boy, won't it be cool when I can torture a Death Eater back?"

Sadly, this sounds too much like something Harry would think.

[aasaylva.livejournal.com]

I know Dumbledore asked them to let him, but I don’t see why that means he had to.
You are kidding, right? Of course, that's why. For reference check the rest of DH or the whole series, really. Examples: Everybody thought Snape was a very shady character, but they trusted him because Dumbles said so. There is no earthly reason why the weird legacies the trio inherit from Dumbles would make any sense at all - but dumbles did it, so there MUST be some deep reason behind it and although that never gets explained in any way, the assumption still never is negated.

The only thing I can think is that it took all this time to set up the protective wards.
In fact, there might have been an easy explanation for the whole humdrum which even would have been consistent with the whole "the government are idiots" policy of the books: why not write it off as something idiotic and dangerous they HAD to do because of bureaucratic reasons? McGonagall saying: "Harry, it really would be much better for you to go straight into hiding in one of the order's safehouses, but the Ministry insists on you spending your time with your relatives until the day you turn 17". Even the idiotic rescue mission would make a lick of sense, showing the Order's attempt to get Harry out of Privet Drive before the ministry approved date to thwart the expected DE attack.

Also, I don’t really buy that Voldemort would go after the Dursleys.
Worse - the possibility of Voldemort going after the Dursleys opens up another glaring plot-hole because it begs the question why he hadn't done it before, thus destroying Harry's blood protection.

Surely that would be better than keeping her in a cage so she can stare at him resentfully?
Don't you get it? The poor little orphan couldn't bear to be separated from his beloved pet, especially not in the unloving environment of his relatives. I mean, that's why her death is so tragic!!!

Ah the chosen-waste-of-space scene! Like straight out of a daily soap with all its emotional depth. In a sense, it's Harry's Cinderella moment - you know, when the whole High school realizes the ugly duckling really was Angelina Jolie in disguise - only here it's not about beauty but about importance!

Good point about the mentally challenged versus stupid Dudley, which makes me wonder in general: holding someone's looks against them is generally thought of as wrong (unless, of course, they are FAT!). But why is it different with their levels of intelligence?

The Dursleys' departure was the first incidence of an unfulfilled storyline. Yep. No meaning, no development (unless you count Dudley's kitsch moment)- just comic (?) relief.

[montavilla.livejournal.com]

Even the idiotic rescue mission would make a lick of sense, showing the Order's attempt to get Harry out of Privet Drive before the ministry approved date to thwart the expected DE attack.

That's sort of hinted at. But, with all the recapping, the relationship of the DEs to the Ministry and vice-versa becomes horribly confusing.

If I hadn't read the previous book, I might have thought the DEs and the Ministry were the same thing at this point.

[eir-de-scania.livejournal.com]

No pun intended, but this is one dud of a payoff. I guess it’s asking too much for something more, but “you’re not a waste of space” is more hmmm than ha!
***I actually liked that part. Awkward and hesitant, like a couple of 17-y-o in RL. And perhaps a bit of British understatement as well. ;-)

[sunnyskywalker]

You know what would have been great? If Voldemort did go after the Dursleys, and Harry had to actually contemplate rescuing people he disliked. I mean, not as a split-second decision like with Draco and the Fiendfyre, but actually plan to.

Even failing that, Voldemort should have captured and tortured half the Weasleys. Perhaps giving "covering for delinquent child not in school and not, actually, sick with spattergoit" as an excuse to arrest them all. Why aren't there consequences for anything these kids do? Umbridge should have teamed up with Rita to label Hermione Public Enemy #2 and bring her down, too.

If Harry had Apparated to a safe house right after the funeral, we could have started this book with the actual story. Imagine.

[tdotm.livejournal.com]

"If Harry had Apparated to a safe house right after the funeral, we could have started this book with the actual story. Imagine."

- the *actual* story !?!? Four less chapters to wait before we get to the camping?

Seriously though, I agree with your post, I just think it would work best if the rest of the book had been re-written. If he went to a safe house after 6th year, (or Grimmauld Place, once Moody had set up his excellent anti-Snape measures!) then JKR just spewed out her usual rubbish, it would still be a crap book. And I wouldn't get my exploding owl. Pout. Still, I'd make that sacrifice to get a 7th book of the quality of the first three.

I really, really agree that the Weasleys were an obvious target, in fact it drives me mad. If it was possible, why did the DEs not attack the Burrow years before, when people were more relaxed? Why did the Ministry have to fall before they were able to? Did they use Ministry approved spanners and hammers to get in or something? I don't remember Arthur granting them access as his new leaders, they just burst in. Why not do that the summer after 5th year, or the summer before 4th year, thus sparing Barty Crouch Junior a *lot* of hassle. Instead of sending them in to the World Cup, do something practical.

I can understand that The Burrow would be surrounded by protection - Bill was a curse breaker for crying out loud, he must have known some good ones, but why was it suddenly possible in the Summer before 7th year? It should have been accepted that The Burrow was too difficult, also explaining why Ron and Ginny were safe when on holiday, and the Ministry should have fallen later. The patronus warning could arrive when they were at Grimmauld Place.

"Why aren't there consequences for anything these kids do?"

Too right! The lack of consequences for the actions of *only* the 'good guys' is a characteristic of poor fan-fiction. I rest my case.

[sunnyskywalker]

Well, we'd get to where the actual story should be quicker, anyway. And if that were cut down by about 85%, it wouldn't feel quite as pointless, being just a short side trip showing how ill-prepared they are before they buckle down and figure out what they really have to do. But yes, massive rewrites are needed.

But failing the time to fix major plot holes, her editors could at least have done us the favor of making the pointless sections shorter. Like so:

Harry stared at the front page of the Daily Prophet, unable to focus on the eulogy of Dumbledore by someone called Elphias Doge. "Brilliant... always ready to help other students... corresponded with the best minds of the day... tragic death of his mother... famous defeat of the dark wizard Grindlewald." Harry crumpled the paper and hurled it toward the bin. Dumbledore had known how to fight dark wizards, but he was gone, murdered before he'd had a chance to finish teaching Harry what had to be done.

Goodbye, most of chapter two! (I was tempted to throw in a "he, Harry," for that authentic Rowling style, but bleh.) Of course, if everything had been suitably snipped, there wouldn't be much book left.

I also don't know why Harry wasn't accused of Cedric's murder in OotP.Fred and George, who financially profited from it, could have been tried too. Fun times for all! A genuine threat of going to Azkaban (which we might reasonably suspect would lead to plot developments if it did happen, being full of both DEs and the wrongly accused). And Harry as a liability to the Weasley family could have made for some interesting drama. It would have made Percy's mistrust of Harry a genuine point of contention in the family rather than a one-off joke in a letter. (I thought he had some good points - Harry is a bit unstable - but nothing ever came of it.) But then the Weasley family rift couldn't be healed by authorial fiat so easily, and we can't have that. One side has to be shown as Wrong In Every Way.

[jodel-from-aol.livejournal.com]

Oh but instead Dolores waited a few weeks and sent the Dementors after him instead so we could have that stupid hearing. Heaven forfend that Harry could be brought under question for something he *didn't* do...

That would have been far too exciting.

[jodel-from-aol.livejournal.com]

Actually, now that I think of it, the death of Cedric Diggory (with no witnesses) was handing Dolores a gift from heaven, since neutralizing Harry seems to have been what was behind the Dementor attack in the first place.

I'll bet that Rowling just plain forgot that normal suspicious human beings might have thought that there was something off about two boys disappearing and one of them later returning with the other's dead body.

Instead all we do is paint the kid a liar and an attention seeker, rather than a dangerously unstable nutcase, who needs to be locked up for his own, and possibly other peoples' protection. WTF?

[tdotm.livejournal.com]

JKR dropped the ball on this one. Strange, when you consider the fine tooth-comb with which she made the Aurors investigate Dumbledore's death....Pah.

I mean, whatever we think of him, Dumbledore was as famous as Harry, held in as much awe as Voldemort and perhaps more respected than any other living Wizard. 6 to 8 weeks (?) between his death and the fall of the Ministry and they did nothing. Not in a lazy, incompetent investigation way, but literally nothing.

I know Harry's inert, but he didn't even mention that he knew what happened. JKR could have written that he didn't dare, because an investigation would have compromised the Order's work.(!) She could have briefly said that the Aurors had immediately accepted Dumbles as a high profile victim of the invading Death Eaters and closed the case. Nothing. PAH.

As for Cedric, I'm sure Dumbledore told Harry that when the Ministry inspected Harry's wand (and Cedric's, if it was still grasped in his cold dead hand) which they *obviously* did, they knew that neither had performed anything stronger than 'expelliamus'. Seeing as Cedric had been killed by a Killing Curse, Fudge knew someone else had been involved. He knew that a trial would lead to Harry blabbing endlessly in front of the press about Voldemort being back and ordered the case closed to protect his reputation and avoid panic. A line he would stick to until the end of Book 5. I'm *sure* that's what Dumbles carefully explained. (All this fan w*nking is giving me a headache.)

95% of Harry Potter plotholes could be easily filled with any old rubbish, so why didn't JKR bother?

[sunnyskywalker]

Wizards just don't know what to do with suspicious deaths, do they? Or even suspicious disappearances - sorry, Bertha Jorkins, sorry, Ludo Who? Bagman. (Did the goblins hunt him down? Was he a DE trying to flee, like Karkaroff? Who the hell knows?) And then there was that little incident once where a student almost got eaten by a werewolf, and that other time a student got killed by an unknown monster in the bathroom, and the time the Chosen One nearly exsanguinated his Quidditch rival in the bathroom... but of course, near-death experiences are just a normal day at Hogwarts. Toughens them up.

Muggles, on the other hand, at least try, even if they can't solve the case because they don't know about killing curses. The Riddles probably got a better investigation after their deaths than anyone else in the series.

ETA: Wait, I take that back. Dumbledore did think to ask what happened to Crouch Sr., so at least one death in the ww got solved. Although since Veritaserum testimony isn't necessarily reliable, maybe it doesn't count as far as the courts are concerned. At least this Tuesday.

[eir-de-scania.livejournal.com]

The only thing her editors did was a quick check to see nothing overtly rude was in the books to affront the little kiddies. Or their parents, more likely.

If JKR hadn't talked about being surprised they didn't veto Ron's "Uranus" joke I would never have guessed the editors even read the MS. They certainly didn't do any common editing job.

[jodel-from-aol.livejournal.com]

And the Uranus joke was back in PoA, iirc, when the books were still being at least lightly edited. I swear that nothing after GoF was more than proofread.

[eri1980b.livejournal.com]

The point re Cerdic's mysterious death is an excellent one. Normal people would ask questions. Cedrics grieving parents would ask for certain. If we hadn't seen in through Harrys eyes, *we* would have asked questions!! Its a big plot hole for sure, but with so many in the last three books its one many have forgotten about.

On the other hand, we are talking about wizards here, a bunch of people who are by and large illogical and irrational at the best of times. Ho hum...

[sunnyskywalker]

Hermione was right back in book one about wizards and logic. Pity it seems to be contagious and all the Muggle-raised kids are no better after a few years.

Seriously, even if they weren't rivals in a competition people would ask questions. And it's so easy to check their wands for the last spells cast, too! Why not do it, or at least mention it's been done later?

I still want to know what happened to Ludo Bagman, too, speaking of plotholes. I guess no one in the WW cares what happens to a washed-up Quidditch star.