Deathy Hallows Chapter 10

[montavilla.livejournal.com]

Kreacher's Tale

The chapter opens with Harry waking up early. There’s a lovely image of Ron and Hermione sleeping with their hands nearly touching. Naturally, this only reminds Harry of how miserable and lonely he is.

Not that he’s missing Ginny, of course. It’s more about Dumbledore and those nasty rumors Aunt Muriel told him. He obsesses about Ariana being “imprisoned and hidden.” Could Dumbledore have allowed that, Harry wonders. Could Dumbledore have been like Dudley, indifferent to such a thing in his own home?

Sigh. All right, Harry, let’s forget the fact that Dumbledore stood by and watched you being stuck in a closet. Remember Lupin? Lupin was another child who was imprisoned and hidden on Dumbledore’s direct orders. Leading to another child being nearly killed and forced into silence about it. Yes, Harry. I think Dumbledore was quite capable of indifference towards imprisoned children.

And then once again, Harry starts to blame Dumbledore, not for allowing Harry to be imprisoned and neglected, but because Dumbledore never told him about living in Godric’s Hollow. Finally, Harry blames Dumbledore for leaving him and the others the stupid mysterious objects. At last! Something I agree with Harry about!

That is the major theme of this chapter: Mystery. The Black House is the House of Mystery and it’s time for Harry to channel his inner detective. A part of himself repressed for the last couple years.

To symbolize this, Harry creeps upstairs, illuminating the darkness with his penis—I mean, wand.

The upper floors of the house are laid out like a crime scene. The bedroom Harry and Ron used to share has been ransacked and Harry wonders who the perpetrator was: Snape? Mundungus? If he thought about it for half a minute, he’d realize that it was Mundungus, who was selling Sirius’s stuff back in HBP. But then, that would spoil the mystery, wouldn’t it? The Mystery of the Messy Room.

Sirius’s room was once handsome, but now is covered in several inches of dust. Sounds like Kreacher never bothered to clean it, even when Sirius was alive. And it’s not like Sirius could have done it himself. It’s not like there’s a bunch of handy magical cleaning spells. Like Evanesco. Or Scourgify.

The walls are covered with posters and pictures, all stuck on the wall with the same Permanent Sticking Charm that prevents Mrs. Black’s portrait from being removed. I think this charm should be added to the list of Unforgivables. It’s one of the most obnoxious spells in the books. And I’m including whatever spell is used to create the Puking Pastilles.

There are several posters of Bikini-clad Muggle girls on the wall. Detective Harry deduces that Sirius put them up to annoy his parents. He’s wrong, of course. The posters are there to annoy the fans who’ve been happily slashing Sirius and Lupin for the last nine years.

Then Harry finds a page from one of his mother’s letters to Sirius. This is quite a moving passage. The little detail about her making her “g”s the same way Harry does is sweet and touching.

But the real importance of the letter is that it allows Harry to start obsessing about Dumbledore again. Dumbledore had James’s Invisibility Cloak. Suddenly, Harry is fascinated by this. Why? Why did Dumbledore have the cloak? This is another mystery for Harry to solve instead of destroying Horcruxes. The Mystery of the Concealed Cloak.

Also, the letter ends with the tantalizing mention of “incredible tales” told by Bathilda Bagshot about Dumbledore. It’s this thought that drives Harry to search the room. He finds only half a photograph, starting a new mystery: The Mystery of the Purloined Second Page of the Letter (Plus Part of a Photograph)!

Harry is interrupted by Hermione, who expresses enough sympathy for Harry to confide in her his doubts about Dumbledore (The Secret of the Old Crock). But she disappoints him by echoing Doge’s statement about believing the best of people, rather than digging down for the truth. I’m sure Harry’s Mighty Fist of Integretiy ( MFI) is twitching silently. I’m surprised he didn’t throw Hermione out of the quest immediately.

Harry notices Regulus’s hand-written sign on his bedoom door, and he’s almost too distracted by comparing the pomposity of it to realize that he’s staring at a vital clue to The Mystery of the Lifted Locket. Once he realizes that Reguus Arcturus Black is R.A.B., he calls in his loyal friends Bess and George, I mean Ron and Hermione, to search for clues! (In a Nancy Drew Mystery, this would be the end of the chapter. But JKR subverts the genre in order to give us a thrilling four pages of room searching.)

Like Sirius’s, Regulus’s bedroom contains clues to his character—the first being the colors of Slytherin House. I wonder if the Wizarding World bothers selling paint in any colors other than crimson, gold, silver, green, black, blue, brown, and yellow. As far as room decoration goes, House colors rule.

There are also press clippings about Voldemort pinned to the headboard of Regulus’s bed. Wasn’t he just the cutest little fanboy? I would give anything to know what those articles on Voldemort were like. Were they the WW’s equivalent of People Magazine? (Black Heiress Leaves Husband for Dark Lord! “We’re in love!” squeals Bellatrix.; Boldemort!)

As the sun symbolically rises behind her, Hermione suddenly remembers that the locket was thrown away with other incredibly valuable dark objects in OotP. Refusing to give up, Harry summons Kreacher.

Although Kreacher clearly hates Harry (who hates him right back), Harry has the power to force Kreacher to speak—thus no torture spells are necessary. In this way, house elf slaves are superior to human slaves. A human slave is capable of lying.

Nevertheless, Kreacher is reminded that he failed orders for Regulus, and Harry has to order Kreacher to keep still to prevent the elf from punishing himself. Kreacher is described as lying flat as a poker on the ground, and then a paragraph later as having his tears flowing down his snout and into his opened mouth. There are two things that bother me about this.

One: I can’t figure out how the tears are flowing. If he’s lying flat, then they’d need to moving horizontally, or even up and over his nose in order to get to his mouth.

Two: With all that water flowing into his magically open mouth, isn’t this sort of like waterboarding?

Finally, we get Kreacher’s Tale, the answer to the Mystery of the Lifted Locket. Voldemort had used Kreacher in order to test his defenses for the locket Horcrux.

This story is so moving that it’s hard to be snarky about it. But I will point out, as others have done, that all Voldemort proved with his test was that anyone could get in and get his Horcrux, provided they were willing to sacrifice a house elf, or a child. Since Voldemort had proved himself willing to sacrifice both, it shouldn’t have been such a stretch for him to imagine someone else doing that.

Much is made of Voldemort’s arrogance in assuming that elves have no magic different from those of humans. I’m not sure that’s arrogance so much as ignorance. It’s not like Voldemort grew up with magical slaves. I’ll bet a wizard would have been surprised to learn that orphans have to make their own beds or know how to use a toothbrush or something equally obvious.

One of the things I like best about Kreacher is how he never gives in to Hermione’s attempts to humanize him. Even when she tries to hug him, he clings to his prejudices. It’s not that I endorse bigotry in any form, but it’s preferable to forcing hugs on unwilling slaves.

Then Hermione explains (as one would to a child) that Kreacher’s actions towards Sirius were based on the harsh way he was treated. He was good to people (like Bella and Narcissa) who were kind to him and disloyal to those treated him badly. It’s necessary for Hermione to do this because it’s beyond Harry to understand this on his own.

Hermione finishes up by saying, “I’ve said all along that wizards would pay for how they treat house-elves.” I don’t really remember Hemione saying this. At best, I think she said that Dumbledore said it. Which means, if I’m not mistaken, that Hermione has now internalized Dumbledore’s views to the extent that she thinks they are her original thoughts.

So, watching Hermione like a newly-trained puppy watches the Dog Whisperer for behavioral clues, Harry instructs Kreacher to look for Mundungus and bring him back for interrogation. All on his own, Harry comes up with the idea to give Kreacher the false locket—thus justifying Harry’s bringing it along on the quest, while leaving behind such unnecessary things as food, money, and a first-aid kit. We watch a touching little scene where Kreacher tucks the locket into his blanket-nest like a child and then Kreacher leaves to go kidnap someone.

Fan Service:
Awwww. A chatty letter from Lily completely with picture of baby Harry on his broomstick. It’s just like that fanfic I read the other day…
OMIGOD! I was right! Regulus is R.A.B!

Fan Slappage:
Sirius was hetero! Got that? Hetero!

DVD Extras:
INT: Day – The Leaky Cauldron

Mungdungus Fletcher sits at the bar, drinking down an ale.

MUNDUNGUS
Give us another, Tom. I’ve got the (hiccup) scratch.

TOM
I’ll believe that when I see it.

Mundungus fishes in his pocket for a coin. Behind him, we see Kreacher emerge from a darkened corridor. He tiptoes towards Mundungus. But, as he draws near, we see his dishrag toga tighten and begin drawing him back. Kreacher flings himself forwards, but he’s quickly pulled back into the dark.

CUT TO:

THE CORRIDOR

Kreacher turns furiously to see Dobby pulling on the dishrag.

KREACHER
(in a hissing whisper) What is Dobby doing here? Kreacher is on a mission for Harry Potter!

DOBBY
What mission? Why is Harry Potter using Kreacher and not Dobby?

KREACHER
Harry Potter likes Kreacher best! He has given Kreacher a locket!

DOBBY
It is a lie! Harry Potter likes Dobby best!

Dobby flings himself onto Kreacher, flailing his arms like windmills. Kreacher fights back and they turn into a hissing, screeching ball of elves.

In the background, we can see Mundungus toss his coin on the bar.

MUNDUNGUS
There you go. See you later.

TOM
Cheeers.

As Kreacher and Dobby continue to roll around, Mundungus exits through their corridor, barely giving them a glance.

FADE OUT