Deathly Hallows, chapter 20

[anehan]

Xenophilius Lovegood

* Ron is elated, because someone is on their side! Someone is helping them! Oh, how I would love to see his face when he realized it was Snape all along.

* One Horcrux down! says Ron. If I were him, I wouldn't be quite so cheerful about it. It's past Christmas already, and they haven't made any progress beyond destroying that one Horcrux.

* The Trio gets back to discussing the possible locations of the Horcruxes, despite the fact that they have already discussed that subject to death. Only now it's somehow different, because they've got someone helping them! Rejoice!

* Oh yeah, the Taboo. One more thing in which Dumbledore did Harry a disservice was to encourage him to use Voldemort's name. He should have known it was possible to track someone by what they say. Names apparently have power.

* But if names do have power, why haven't we ever heard of magic done using names before? Or have we and I'm just not remembering it? I'm reminded of the Wizard of Earthsea that handles the power of naming things very well.

* I think Ron's hope that it was Dumbledore who was helping them with the doe and the sword is not at all consistent with Dumbledore's character. It's true that Dumbledore liked to be mysterious and not give straight answers, but he also liked to get credit for what he did. Anonymity wouldn't be Dumbledore's choice at all. No, anonymity spells Severus Snape so clearly that I'm surprised Hermione at least doesn't figure it out. It's not that Snape doesn't want recognition but that he's used to going without it.

* BTW, does anyone know whether Snape got an Order of Merlin posthumously? Has Rowling said anything about it? Or is the only tribute to him the name of Harry Potter's second son, a name he has to share with that old bastard, Dumbledore? *gags*

* Of course Hermione would recognize what Harry's new wand was made of. What wouldn't our know-it-all know. Probably she was a joiner or carpenter in her former life.

* Harry has forgotten Ron's fear of spiders. I think that's quite a feat, considering their adventure is CoS. Just goes to show how much attention Harry pays to his best friend.

* I think Harry is unfair in comparing a visit to Xenophilius Lovegood with their visit to Godric's Hollow. Hermione has a perfectly valid reason to see Mr Lovegood, whereas Harry just wanted to visit his parents' grave in Godric's Hollow. As if he couldn't have done it after the war was over. Or before it started. But no, he had to get a burning desire to do it in the middle of a war. Really, sometimes I feel the poor boy's brain has been permanently damaged by the connection to Voldemort.

* Harry asks if the symbol was important, wouldn't Dumbledore have told him about it before he died. Really, the boy is addle-brained. Has he already forgotten how many important things Dumbledore did not tell him? Like the location of the Horcruxes or how to destroy them?

* Mr Lovegood doesn't want them to come in. Warning bells ring! Except in the minds of the Trio.

* Of course the know-it-all has to make an issue of the Erumpent horn, as if she could afford to alienate Mr Lovegood.

* Oh no, Harry is getting sentimental over Ginny. And I thought we had been spared this when he passed the Burrow without getting maudlin.

* Ah, let's bludgeon us with the fact that Xenophilius Lovegood is eccentric. Wrackspurts, Gurdyroots. Plimpsies. What else? It's really getting very tiresome.

* Really, if Mr Lovegood's reluctance in helping them hadn't given them a warning, then the fact that Luna didn't immediately come to meet them should have given them a clue that not everything was as it should have been.

* Another chapter in which nothing happened. I don't really know why I bother to do these recaps when you can't even get anything juicy out of the chapters because they are so boring.

Comments

[sistermagpie.livejournal.com]

In Ron's defense, maybe he doesn't know they only have until June to do all this. For all he knows they've got years. Though I guess that's even more reason for him to be scared at how long it's taking.

I wouldn't be surprised, if Snape got any Orders of Merlin, it was because Harry got it for him. Thus Snape's accolades become symbols of Harry's being a great guy. The minute he found out Snape loved his mother Snape became like Neville to him.

[tdotm.livejournal.com]

- “One Horcrux down! says Ron. If I were him, I wouldn't be quite so cheerful about it. It's past Christmas already, and they haven't made any progress beyond destroying that one Horcrux.”

Why didn’t they stick the locket in a deserted barn in the middle of nowhere and set it on Fiendfyre? (Sorry, don’t have access to DH, so pardon my spelling). If Crabbe can create it, then Hermione the Magnificent surely could – she certainly knew about it and its properties. It might be impossible to extinguish magically, but once it had run out of fuel wouldn’t it just die out? Or is the Room of Requirement still on fire?

- “ One more thing in which Dumbledore did Harry a disservice was to encourage him to use Voldemort's name.”

I still insist that Dumbledore was hoping that Harry would get himself killed. After all, there was nothing that Harry did that couldn’t be done better by half the Order once Harry's horcrux was taken care of. Hermione was the smartest of the Trio, but she was a large fish in a *very* small pond. Remus, Tonks, Kingsley, McGonagall etc could easily surpass her. Harry’s death, the earlier the better, would have made the operation run a lot smoother. JKR would never admit (even to herself) that Dumbledore was that harsh, so she didn’t address it - making him seem either foolish (he’d never heard of the taboo?) or rather cruel. I know what I think.

- “ Harry has forgotten Ron's fear of spiders. I think that's quite a feat, considering their adventure is CoS. Just goes to show how much attention Harry pays to his best friend.”

He really is a thoughtless b*st*rd isn’t he? Still, at least Ron manages to avoid being brutally tortured when Harry doesn’t bother to remember one of the few pieces of sage advice Ron is allowed to give.

- “ Mr Lovegood doesn't want them to come in. Warning bells ring! Except in the minds of the Trio.”

Ho! Xeno has stuck his neck out for ages supporting Harry in his own way and suddenly he doesn’t want to help him? Suspicious much? Sigh. Also, were the Trio glamoured at all, I forget? It’s just that I remember that Hermione the Magnificent had to hide Ron, but show Harry (while they dribbled down their fronts and twiddled their thumbs presumably) to show the Death Eaters that Xeno wasn’t lying. What was the point of that if they looked different? Do glamours have a time limit? They *must* have been disguised - after Godric’s Hollow, wouldn’t they be even more cautious whenever they had to break cover?

Xeno’s reputation of being pro-Harry started long before the Ministry fell, and added to Luna’s support in the Ministry in Book 5, would indicate that Xeno’s house might be being watched. If I was a Dark Lord, I’d certainly be watching all the homes of Harry’s supporters, both known and suspected, plus Order members etc (anyone who fought in Books 5 and 6 for a start). Actually, I’d have arrested and executed every last one the minute the Ministry had fallen and I was in charge, but that’s just me.

-“ I don't really know why I bother to do these recaps when you can't even get anything juicy out of the chapters because they are so boring.”

I thank both you for making this sacrifice, and Merlin that I don’t have to! It’s a bit dull at the moment, the Owl’s already exploded and the giant snake has burst out of the animated corpse, but worry not! The Know-It-All is due to be tortured anytime now, because Harry is the bestest best friend forever! (Or if not forever, at least until he causes your premature death)

[seductivedark.livejournal.com]

Or is the only tribute to him the name of Harry Potter's second son, a name he has to share with that old bastard, Dumbledore? *gags*

I think there are some who would imagine Snape to be honored, or at least grateful, to have this barest nod in his direction. *joins the gagfest*

* Of course Hermione would recognize what Harry's new wand was made of. What wouldn't our know-it-all know. Probably she was a joiner or carpenter in her former life.

She probably makes superior wands even to Olivander in her spare time, only she can't find her lathe in the mess that is the bottomless purse.

* Another chapter in which nothing happened. I don't really know why I bother to do these recaps when you can't even get anything juicy out of the chapters because they are so boring.

It isn't your fault the chapters are boring. The finger points and it doesn't point to you. I'm glad you're doing these recaps. Thanks!

[lissa2.livejournal.com]

"Oh yeah the taboo. One more thing in which Dumbledore did Harry a disservice was to encourage him to use Voldemort's name"

Pre-DH JKR treated the fear of saying Voldemort's name like it was just a baseless superstition but in DH it turns out that it wasn't baseless at all.
What I don't understand is why pre-DH no death eaters suddenly appeared when someone said "Voldemort" or why no one told Harry the reason for the fear of saying Voldemort's name. I mean Surerly people have realized there's a taboo on his name by the time Harry was 11.

"I think Harry is unfair comparing a visit to Xenophilius Lovegood with their visit to Godric's Hollow"
Plus if Harry wasn't so dead in the brain he would have thought of asking Xeno about the Ravenclaw horcrux seeing as he knows Luna is a Ravenclaw.
Speaking of the Ravenclaw horcrux- according to DH its identity wasn't a mystery at all but common knowledge: Xeno, Flitwick, Mcgonagall,Ravenclaw students knew about about the diadem. There's no way Dumbeldore didn't know about the diadem.
And yet that idiot decided not to tell this to Harry.

[night-axe.livejournal.com]

* Harry has forgotten Ron's fear of spiders.

Harry "I forgot" Potter, ladies and gentlemen. We may assume Ron is his other soulmate.

* Of course the know-it-all has to make an issue of the Erumpent horn, as if she could afford to alienate Mr Lovegood.

In all fairness I'd kick up a fuss too if my host had strung the Christmas tree with hand grenades, insisting they were decorative fossil avocados.

* Ah, let's bludgeon us with the fact that Xenophilius Lovegood is eccentric Wrackspurts, Gurdyroots. Plimpsies. What else? It's really getting very tiresome.

I guess it depends on where the author was going with all this. If she's harping on his weird ways in order to depict him as a lovable kook like Luna, she failed miserably. However, it's always possible that she meant him to come across as a disturbing whackjob who's messed up his daughter and is capable of any crazy shit up to and including human sacrifices by the light of the full moon. In which case, congratulations.

first real comment

[tevye-cat.livejournal.com]

Gags with you at the lack of tribute to Snape. Although I remain firmly convinced the sneaky git's alive. There was no body, no mention of a portrait, nothing.

Harry's enlarging the spiders seemed so cruel to me. It could be a subconscious thing, but still. This is the same boy who sent his pet to peck his friends and was satisfied to see the cuts on their hands, after all.

Also, this is stupid, but Hermione knows what kind of wood Harry's wand is made of on sight, but she doesn't know what a rook is?