Deathly Hallows, chapter 19

[anehan]

The Silver Doe

* What is it with the Potters and animals of the deer family? James's Animagus form is a stag, and now we find out that Snape associates Lily with a doe. Though according to Dictionary.com, a doe can be the female of, among others, deer, antelope, goat and rabbit. I think I prefer to think Lily is a female rabbit. Or a goat. So that she can be paired with Aberforth's goat.

* A wreath of Christmas roses? What's that? Is it some kind of English custom to have roses on Christmas?

* Harry imagines someone is calling out to him in the distance. It is Ron, of course, who would rather call out to Harry than Hermione, because he is so much more important to Ron than her.

* Why is Hermione reading A History of Magic? Doesn't she remember it by heart already?

* Why is Harry wearing the Horcrux again? Wouldn't it be safer in his pouch? I would have imagined that Harry and Hermione would have realized how stupid it was to wear the Horcrux around your neck. But I need not wonder. Whatever stupid thing Harry can think of doing, he will do it.

* Oh, so it's bitterly cold in the Forest of Dean, is it? As someone who hails from Lapland, I snap my fingers at your bitter coldness. Apparently wizards can manufacture tents that are as spacious as a real house but not tents that are warm.

* Harry feels as though he is recuperating from some brief but serious illness, an impression reinforced by Hermione's solicitousness. That's because he must turn everything into high drama. One would think that after meeting Voldemort so many times, another confrontation would not faze him, but apparently it was enough to make him lose his sleep.

* Harry is wearing all the sweaters he owned, but he is still shivery. Apparently wizards can't make warm clothes either. Or maybe they are Dudley's cast-offs, which makes me wonder why Harry has continued to wear them even after he came to money? Or is it fanon that he wears them? I can't remember.

* Or maybe it's not wizards who can't make warm clothes. Maybe it's the English. At the very least they can't make warm houses. I once read a Finn who had lived in England write that he had never felt so cold in Finland as he had felt in an English house.

* Harry was on the point of taking out the Marauder's Map, so as to watch Ginny's dot for a while. Creepy, or what?

* So Harry follows the deer. Without telling Hermione where he is going. Is the boy stupid, or what? Oh, but he knows this is no Dark Magic. Of course it isn't, it's a Patronus. Doesn't mean a Death Eater couldn't have cast it.

* By the way, how does Snape know where Harry and Hermione are?

* He thinks the doe is going to speak to him. Which she would do only once she had led him deep into the forest.

* Oh, now Harry considers whether the doe has led him into an ambush. Our glorious hero. Stupid as a sock. (And possibly quite as smelly, too, if he has continued to bathe as often as he did at Hogwarts.)

* I'd like to know why the sword must be at the bottom of a pool.

* Harry remembers that "their daring, nerve and chivalry set Gryffindors apart". Well, if you consider foolhardiness to be daring and nerve, then it's true, as far as that goes. But chivalry? Maybe from someone like Neville, but Harry? Our resident drama queen?

* The description of Harry drowning? Well, let's just say that Rowling reveals another kind of scene she can't write to save her soul.

* Even Ron realizes how stupid it was to dive while wearing the Horcrux. You know, the stupider Harry acts, the more Ron grows on me. Not that he is much better, but at least no anvils of how great and noble he is are dropped constantly on me.

* Harry thinks Ron is supposed to be the one to destroy the locket. "Supposed to"? So now Harry wants to abandon being a hero. Of course, JKR only wrote it this way so that we could have the affecting scene of Ron's insecurities being thrown on his face. Puh-leeeze. As if the readers weren't already perfectly aware of what Ron's insecurities are. Must it always be anvils, JKR? They are so heavy.

* Please, no more Harry intuiting (is that a word?) things.

* Harry shouts and bellows and yells at Ron to stab the thing, but Ron does not listen. Yet he still stubbornly insists it's got to Ron who destroys the locket.

* Okay, so I don't really understand why Ron is so fazed with the locket-Harry and Hermione. Surely he has got the two brain cells that are required for him to realize the locket is preying on his fears.

* Now this Hermione I like. Looking demented, putting Harry and Ron in their places. "Don't you tell me what to do, Harry Potter!" Sweet, sweet words. If only she remembered them when Harry was being his usual self. *cheers Hermione on*

* Ah, the magical Deluminator appears. Or rather, Deus Ex Machina, as I prefer to call it. One of many in the series. And of course Dumbledore would know Ron would need it. The man can't stop meddling even after he is dead.

* Ron's pyjamas are maroon. Somehow I'm not surprised. Molly must really hate him, only she can't admit it to herself, so she takes it out in this passive-aggressive way. (I think this last piece is the most interesting bit of the chapter.)

Comments

[seductivedark.livejournal.com]

* Harry feels as though he is recuperating from some brief but serious illness, an impression reinforced by Hermione's solicitousness.

People often treat the dangerously insane or downright crotchety with kid gloves. But there's no reason not to turn this into a fanfic:

**Harry opened his eyes. The months - perhaps years - of illness suddenly drained away. Hermione smiled down at him.

"Hermione..."

A hulking nurse shoved her out of the way. "He's come 'round. Dr. Wellesley!"

Ron hove into view. "Ron!" Harry smiled, pleased to see him.

"Still hallucinating," the doctor said. "I do wish he'd get my name right."

He checked his clipboard and left. The massive nurse left.

Hermione gave Harry a sympathetic smile. "I'll be back to give you your pablum, Mr. Potter," she said before she secured his arms and left.**


* Harry thinks Ron is supposed to be the one to destroy the locket.

It's those voices in his head. They tell him things.

* Please, no more Harry intuiting (is that a word?) things.

Yes, it's a verb. To intuit means to know things through intuition. It isn't used a lot.

* Harry shouts and bellows and yells at Ron to stab the thing...

Which is why, in the fic, he's in restraints.

It really was stupid, not brave, for him to go wandering off after a questionable Patronus. I kept thinking that he was going to get himself into trouble for believing every little thing he imagined to be true - Stan Shunpike under Imperius, the doe being benign. But, no, he had to be just that awesome. *grumble*

[anehan]

There was this fic where Harry was a patient at a mental hospital, because he kept hallucinating that he was a wizard.

I kept thinking that he was going to get himself into trouble for believing every little thing he imagined to be true - Stan Shunpike under Imperius, the doe being benign. But, no, he had to be just that awesome.

I guess his intuition is supposed to be super-awesome, but it would have made so much better a story if he had been wrong.

[seductivedark.livejournal.com]

I've seen a couple of fics where Harry's insane. I think at least one followed after a Buffy episode where she was insane and locked in an asylum because she thought she fought vampires. I just had to drabble about Hermione treating Harry delicately. It's fun.

I think intuition is supposed to trump planning where Our Hero is concerned. I don't care for that message if that's what it is. It smacks of Divine Guidance, removing the heroism from the story.

[anehan]

I really don't like it that the hero Just Knows things. It makes him the arbiter of what is and isn't right (or who is and isn't a Death Eater).

[mary-j-59.livejournal.com]

Oh, one of the best and most chilling fics I read was Harry's conversations with his psychologist. He was not locked up - was in school, and visited after hours; Snape was his chemistry teacher, for example. But you could see that the whole saga was something he was making up to make himself more important - and, from that pov, the narcissism that is so prevalent in these stories makes a scary amount of sense.

As for his intuition - I do think it's canon that a Patronus is powerful light magic, so I suppose, even if a Death Eater threw one, it couldn't be used for an evil purpose? But the thing about Stan is plain annoying. He strikes me as natural Death Eater material. By this, I don't mean that he's evil, but it does seem that he would like to be more important than he is, and, for all we know, he could be a pureblood supremacist. Who says all the purebloods are rich?

[aasaylva.livejournal.com]

Who says all the purebloods are rich?
Exactly. As Rowling avowedly tried to draw parallels between DE and Nazis, she should have been aware that it was not the old aristocracy and Big Money who were the most ardent supporters of Hitler but the Lower Middle class. In fact, the typical Nazi family would have been the Weasleys. But, of course, that would have clashed with her poor = good, rich = evil simplicism...

[tdotm.livejournal.com]

Exactly. Hitler was elected at first after all. Universal suffrage means that there'd have to be an awful lot of lower and middle class people who voted for him. Though whether they understood the extent he'd go to is debatable. It's like the racist BNP in Britain today. Their current success is due to the percieved lack of control over immigration over the past 10 years, and the whole 'They come over here, take our jobs' argument that is particuarly loud during a recession. The rich and upper classes aren't going to worry about that too much.

Stan Shunpike is exactly the sort of person who has a dead end job, then becomes resentful of Muggleborns (foreigners) who become lawyers and mediwizards.

I wish Stan had killed Remus or Tonks - then Harry would have to accept that his intuition was fallible. Except it wasn't, because JKR didn't write it that way. Sigh.

[mary-j-59.livejournal.com]

yes - except that the Weasleys are not lower middle class, and certainly not working class. They are landed gentry fallen on hard times. In other words, they are the Bennetts from Pride and Prejudice.

Otherwise, I'm in total agreement (and, actually, Molly Weasley, with her insularity and prejudice and ambition, does strike me as natural Death Eater material, too. How I wish Rowling had thought out better what "ambition" really is! By which I do not mean to say that ambition in itself is wrong or evil. It's not, particularly not the healthy ambition shown by little Severus, who wants to learn and belong somewhere. But the type of ambition we see in Stan and Molly is exactly the type that might reasonably lead to "Death - Eaterdom".)

[anehan]

the Weasleys are not lower middle class, and certainly not working class

*nodnod* Especially not Arthur. Molly, on the other hand, strikes me as someone who married up.

[aasaylva.livejournal.com]

the Weasleys are not lower middle class, and certainly not working class. They are landed gentry fallen on hard times. In other words, they are the Bennetts from Pride and Prejudice.
Guilty as charged. I admit that when thinking about "the Weasleys", Molly, Ron, Ginny, and the twins are predominant in my mind, meaning the vulgar part of the family.
As to ambition - yes. I'll never understand why, Rowling went as far as creating the four houses alongside the four elements (good idea, IMO) but then neglected to match the "elemental psychology" to the respective houses. I mean, water, for example, is associated with (unchecked) emotions - whereas an ambitious person has to reign in his/ her emotions, as it's generally not conducive to one's success to piss off the wrong person etc.

[mary-j-59.livejournal.com]

I wish I could give you a link! I was actually hoping someone else might remember it. Though I'm almost positive I first read it on genfic_hogwarts (a livejournal community), when I looked for it again, it wasn't there. I hope it's still online somewhere and that the author hasn't taken it down. Will try to find it again and let you know.

[anehan]

it does seem that he would like to be more important than he is

Exactly. I think this is very consistent with his characterization, and it's one of the main reasons I think he really is a Death Eater.