Deathly Hallows Chapter 11
Jul. 22nd, 2009 08:58 pm![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
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deathtocapslockApologies again for the late entry. I was out of internet range again this week.
The Bribe
I hate this chapter. I’ve tried in my snarkiness not to negative for the sake of being negative, but I just hate this chapter.
To begin with, I hate that the forward momentum of discovering who took the locket is halted while Harry waits for Kreacher to come back.
I hate that the Trio eat moldy bread. Since the last time anyone would have put bread in that house was over a year ago, I’m imagining a loaf that is hairier than Crookshanks and it just makes me ill.
Did Sirius have no tins in his home? No sardines? No tuna fish? No crackers? Or did Mundungus nick those, too?
Are these kids so terrified of Death Eaters that they can’t sneak out for a pizza? This is London! I know they have restaurants! Ron, go get some curry!
They can’t, of course, because there are Death Eaters watching the house. This doesn’t stop them in the next chapter from going in and out, but for now, it’s moldy bread and bickering.
Remus Lupin comes into the house. He seems very unsurprised by Moody’s wards, although that doesn’t stop them from going off. Not that they do much except deposit a lot of grey dust on his already grey and dusty cothing. Stupid wards.
But JKR gamely tries to create some suspense out of his entrance by concealing him behind the dusty cloud and having Harry demand Lupin give proof of his identity.
Lupin then rattles off a number of facts about himself. All of which Snape would know. Wouldn’t it be fun if this really were ESE!Snape using polyjuice? Oh, but wait. Lupin is a werewolf. Wouldn’t work. I hate this chapter.
Lupin does let them know how to get in and out of the house without being detected by the Death Eaters (Apparate precisely onto the top front step). Better yet, he brings beer with him. Now see, kids? This is the way you do a quest!
Lupin confirms that the Death Eaters weren’t using the Trace to locate Harry. According to him, it’s impossible to follow someone who Apparates, unless you can grab onto them. He also brings in the logical argument that, if Harry still had the Trace on him, the Death Eaters would know for sure he was in Grimauld Place.
Lupin can’t figure out how the Death Eaters found Harry so fast (The Mystery of the Compromised Café), so I suppose Voldemort has yet to institute the taboo? No, wait, he did it before Hermione spoke his name. So, he’s put it into place, but the general population hasn’t figured it out yet. Got it.
Lupin also tells them the rumor that Scrimgeour was tortured before he was killed and died protecting Harry’s whereabouts. Harry reflects that he “never liked Scrimgeour much.” Excuse me a moment while I laugh myself silly.
While a dozen Death Eaters crashed the wedding, others were breaking into all the other Order-associated homes. Which makes it sound like there are hundreds of Death Eaters. Where did all these Death Eaters come from?
And where did all the protective charms go to? Lupin explains that, now that the Ministry has fallen, the Death Eaters are able to cast brutal spells “without fear of identification or arrest.” They were scared of this prior to the Ministry falling? When was anyone, besides Stan Shunpike, ever arrested? I thought the Ministry spent all of its time chasing down fake amulets and harassing Harry Potter!
Plus, the Daily Prophet is now re-opening the question of Who Killed Albus Dumbledore? with Harry as the prime suspect. You know, this is why it would have been a good idea for the Aurors to have investigated the murder three months ago, when it took place. It wasn’t like Harry wasn’t eager to tell everyone about Snape killing Dumbledore.
By the way, Lupin tells us that the taken-over of the Ministry has been smooth and virtually silent. Except for those hundreds of guests running around screaming at the Weasley wedding.
Lupin says that Voldemort is clever by not declaring himself Minister of Magic. He can run things without people openly rising up against him. Likewise, Lupin remarks, it’s clever to target Harry. Otherwise people would naturally rally around Harry as a symbol and resist the Death Eaters.
That was exactly what Scrimgeour was trying to do, wasn’t it? Use Harry as a symbol for people to rally behind? In which case, the Death Eaters might have been stopped in their tracks and Voldemort’s immortality might have been moot.
And this would have cost Harry and Dumbledore what? Distraction from the task of taking out Horcruxes. Which could have been done by any number of Order members. Ones who know things like 1) how to identify the traces of magic, 2) how to identify dark objects, and 3) how to order pizza.
The next bit of exposition is that the Ministry has started moving against Muggle-borns, with a Muggle-born registry. We’ll learn about that in a few chapters, but as I’m reading this, I’m remembering that Dolores Umbridge had previously created a Werewolf registry in OotP. Let’s remember that later.
As Lupin speaks, Ron remembers that Hermione is a Muggle-born and suggests trying to sneak her into his large family as a cousin. Thanks, Ron. That’s sweet. Idiotic, but sweet.
Attendence at Hogwarts is mandatory, which has the added diabolical benefit of allowing the Ministry to “weed out” Muggle-borns. Presumably, they are shipped by train to a Death Camp (although this is never mentioned in the text).
Harry is sickened and angry at the idea of the excited 11-year-olds, who may never see Hogwarts—or their parents—again. Not sickened and angry enough to do anything about it, of course. But then, neither is anyone else.
Speaking of actually doing things, Lupin asks Harry to confirm that the Trio is on a mission for Dumbledore and then offers to accompany them and help. Harry is tempted, until Lupin reluctantly admits that Tonks is pregnant. Whereupon, Harry suddenly turns into the ultimate arbitrator of marital relationships and demands to know why Lupin would leave his wife alone at a time like this.
There’s a funny image of Ron staring around at the room, and Hermione’s eyes “swiveling backward and forward from Harry to Lupin.” I can’t help imagining then both as crustatceans. Or Hermione as that crab from The Little Mermaid while Ron is more like the fish sidekick.
Under Harry’s prodding, Lupin begins shouting about how he ruined Tonks by marrying her and she’d be better off without him. At this point, I’d like to bring up that whole registry thing. As we see later, it is extremely dangerous to be married to someone on a Ministry register. We’ll see even later on that Muggle-born Ted Tonks thought it a good idea to leave his wife and daughter. (By the way, the Death Eaters already tortured the Tonkses, looking for Harry.)
I hate this fight. I hate the way that Harry gets so righteous about Lupin leaving Tonks to help destroy Voldemort. For one thing, what kind of a future is there for anyone if Voldemort isn’t stopped? Dumbledore has left Lupin no information or instructions about stopping Voldemort other than some vague advice to trust Harry’s instincts.
Second, no one is apparently interested in what Tonks thinks about all this. Maybe she’s sick of Lupin sitting around trying to pretend she isn’t a Sirius substitute and moaning about all the trouble he’s brought her. For all we know, she could have said, “Stop complaining and go help Harry for Merlin’s sake!” Or, less dramatically, she could have understood, as millions of pregnant women did during WWII, that the world needs their husbands to do something else for a while.
And, here Harry goes again, calling yet another person who has pretty much devoted himself to Harry’s wellbeing a “coward.” I guess if you haven’t died for him, you just don’t meet that Gryffindor standard.
At this point, I hate the fact that Lupin isn’t quite as good a duelist as Snape and only manages to knock Harry’s head against the wall before he runs out. Frankly, I think another humiliating defeat would have been good for Harry and highly satisfying to me.
Harry’s tumultuous emotional state can only be soothed by distraction. Oh good, the Daily Prophet has another story about Dumbledore’s biography! What with all the taking-over of the Ministry and killing of Muggle-borns, people are hungry for news about that old dead headmaster guy.
Here’s a photograph of the family! Percival looks exactly like his son? Check. Two brothers look exactly alike? Check. Keeping with the Disneyesque family themes, Dumbledore’s mother appears to have been Pocahontas. Check out this image: Pocahontas
By the way, Ariana is described thus: “… a little longer than a loaf of bread and no more distinctive-looking.” I find that an odd way to describe her. Is it that, to Harry, babies are indistinguishable? I know that babies are kind of that way to people who don’t care for babies, but it makes her sound a bit non-human. Like… well, a loaf of bread.
In the article, we find that Kendra moved the family to Godric’s Hollow, following the imprisonment of Percival. Ariana was only ever glimpsed as she was being exercised by her mother at midnight in the garden.
You know, as a tell-all, Rita’s book really lacks punch. I just plain don’t care what is going on with Pocahontas and her dough-shaped daughter. Unless Ariana turns out to be Arabella Figg… which would just be sad, I don’t see how this is relevant at all to this series. A dead guy may or may have not ignored his dead mother who may have been mistreating his dead sister, or may have genuinely needed to restrain his dead sister in some manner. Either way, they’re all DEAD! None of them can feel pain or pity any more.
And meanwhile, those Muggle-born children are still being shipped off to Auschwitz.
At that moment, Kreacher arrives back at the house with Mundungus Fletcher. Hermione disarms Mundungus with Expelliarmus. I guess that makes her master of Fletcher’s wand. Note that Muggle-born Hermione disarms Fletcher with a wand. Wizard-born Ron tackles him rugby style.
Mundungus explains that he never volunteered to die for Harry. He must be a Slytherin with an attitude like that.
Actually, I think Mundungus must be from the never-talked-about Fifth House of Hogwarts: Scumblecrumb. It’s where they stick all the students who have absolutely no aptitude for anything. The House colors are grey and dark grey, and the mascot is a sloth. The common room is found through a secret passage behind the school dumpster. You know Stan Shunpike was in that House, too.
Mundungus delivers the information that the locket is in the possession of Dolores Umbridge. Which means that, after waiting two years and ten chapters to find out where the stupid locket Horcrux is located, we now get to spend another two chapters tracking down a character whose story ended two books ago. Even reading this the first time, I realized that Harry would learn nothing useful from another encounter with Umbridge. Plot-wise, it will move things forward because they’ll obtain the Horcrux. Story-wise? It’s padding.
I hate this chapter.
Fan Service:
Lupin! It’s always a good chapter when Lupin shows up!
Hooray! We’ll get another delightful interlude with Dolores! I hope she wears her pink sweater!
Fan Slappage:
Wow. Snape was right about Lupin all along. He is a weenie!
Wait a minute… we hated Dolores the first time!
DVD Extras:
INT: NIGHT – LEAKY CAULDRON
Remus Lupin storms into the bar, visibly shaking. He lands with both palms flat against the bar.
LUPIN
Tom! Firewhiskey!
TOM
We don’t serve your kind here.
VOICE (off-screen)
Give the man a drink. I’ll vouch for him.
Tom glances toward the voice, then, cowed, pours out two glasses.
Severus Snape, owner of the voice, steps out of the shadows and slowly moves to take the second drink. Lupin reacts with wary distaste.
LUPIN
Aren’t you a fugative?
SNAPE
Not any more. The Ministry seems to be chasing a different suspect. What has ruffled your fur?
LUPIN
(glowering)
I had a fight with an old friend. He thinks I’m a coward.
SNAPE
That narrows things down. I take it he turned down your offer of help?
LUPIN
How do you know about that?
SNAPE
It’s obvious. Dumbledore left you without instructions. You don’t have the initiative to do anything on your own.
LUPIN
Like killing someone.
SNAPE
I have my instructions, too. So, what did you do when our mutual acquaintance insulted you?
LUPIN
I shot a spell and then left. (sighs) He’s right. I am a coward.
SNAPE
There you are, then. It’s back to Miss Tonks with you.
With a sweep of his cloak, Snape moves to to the door.
LUPIN
(into his glass)
Dick.
SNAPE
(under his breath)
Pussy.
FADE OUT
The Bribe
I hate this chapter. I’ve tried in my snarkiness not to negative for the sake of being negative, but I just hate this chapter.
To begin with, I hate that the forward momentum of discovering who took the locket is halted while Harry waits for Kreacher to come back.
I hate that the Trio eat moldy bread. Since the last time anyone would have put bread in that house was over a year ago, I’m imagining a loaf that is hairier than Crookshanks and it just makes me ill.
Did Sirius have no tins in his home? No sardines? No tuna fish? No crackers? Or did Mundungus nick those, too?
Are these kids so terrified of Death Eaters that they can’t sneak out for a pizza? This is London! I know they have restaurants! Ron, go get some curry!
They can’t, of course, because there are Death Eaters watching the house. This doesn’t stop them in the next chapter from going in and out, but for now, it’s moldy bread and bickering.
Remus Lupin comes into the house. He seems very unsurprised by Moody’s wards, although that doesn’t stop them from going off. Not that they do much except deposit a lot of grey dust on his already grey and dusty cothing. Stupid wards.
But JKR gamely tries to create some suspense out of his entrance by concealing him behind the dusty cloud and having Harry demand Lupin give proof of his identity.
Lupin then rattles off a number of facts about himself. All of which Snape would know. Wouldn’t it be fun if this really were ESE!Snape using polyjuice? Oh, but wait. Lupin is a werewolf. Wouldn’t work. I hate this chapter.
Lupin does let them know how to get in and out of the house without being detected by the Death Eaters (Apparate precisely onto the top front step). Better yet, he brings beer with him. Now see, kids? This is the way you do a quest!
Lupin confirms that the Death Eaters weren’t using the Trace to locate Harry. According to him, it’s impossible to follow someone who Apparates, unless you can grab onto them. He also brings in the logical argument that, if Harry still had the Trace on him, the Death Eaters would know for sure he was in Grimauld Place.
Lupin can’t figure out how the Death Eaters found Harry so fast (The Mystery of the Compromised Café), so I suppose Voldemort has yet to institute the taboo? No, wait, he did it before Hermione spoke his name. So, he’s put it into place, but the general population hasn’t figured it out yet. Got it.
Lupin also tells them the rumor that Scrimgeour was tortured before he was killed and died protecting Harry’s whereabouts. Harry reflects that he “never liked Scrimgeour much.” Excuse me a moment while I laugh myself silly.
While a dozen Death Eaters crashed the wedding, others were breaking into all the other Order-associated homes. Which makes it sound like there are hundreds of Death Eaters. Where did all these Death Eaters come from?
And where did all the protective charms go to? Lupin explains that, now that the Ministry has fallen, the Death Eaters are able to cast brutal spells “without fear of identification or arrest.” They were scared of this prior to the Ministry falling? When was anyone, besides Stan Shunpike, ever arrested? I thought the Ministry spent all of its time chasing down fake amulets and harassing Harry Potter!
Plus, the Daily Prophet is now re-opening the question of Who Killed Albus Dumbledore? with Harry as the prime suspect. You know, this is why it would have been a good idea for the Aurors to have investigated the murder three months ago, when it took place. It wasn’t like Harry wasn’t eager to tell everyone about Snape killing Dumbledore.
By the way, Lupin tells us that the taken-over of the Ministry has been smooth and virtually silent. Except for those hundreds of guests running around screaming at the Weasley wedding.
Lupin says that Voldemort is clever by not declaring himself Minister of Magic. He can run things without people openly rising up against him. Likewise, Lupin remarks, it’s clever to target Harry. Otherwise people would naturally rally around Harry as a symbol and resist the Death Eaters.
That was exactly what Scrimgeour was trying to do, wasn’t it? Use Harry as a symbol for people to rally behind? In which case, the Death Eaters might have been stopped in their tracks and Voldemort’s immortality might have been moot.
And this would have cost Harry and Dumbledore what? Distraction from the task of taking out Horcruxes. Which could have been done by any number of Order members. Ones who know things like 1) how to identify the traces of magic, 2) how to identify dark objects, and 3) how to order pizza.
The next bit of exposition is that the Ministry has started moving against Muggle-borns, with a Muggle-born registry. We’ll learn about that in a few chapters, but as I’m reading this, I’m remembering that Dolores Umbridge had previously created a Werewolf registry in OotP. Let’s remember that later.
As Lupin speaks, Ron remembers that Hermione is a Muggle-born and suggests trying to sneak her into his large family as a cousin. Thanks, Ron. That’s sweet. Idiotic, but sweet.
Attendence at Hogwarts is mandatory, which has the added diabolical benefit of allowing the Ministry to “weed out” Muggle-borns. Presumably, they are shipped by train to a Death Camp (although this is never mentioned in the text).
Harry is sickened and angry at the idea of the excited 11-year-olds, who may never see Hogwarts—or their parents—again. Not sickened and angry enough to do anything about it, of course. But then, neither is anyone else.
Speaking of actually doing things, Lupin asks Harry to confirm that the Trio is on a mission for Dumbledore and then offers to accompany them and help. Harry is tempted, until Lupin reluctantly admits that Tonks is pregnant. Whereupon, Harry suddenly turns into the ultimate arbitrator of marital relationships and demands to know why Lupin would leave his wife alone at a time like this.
There’s a funny image of Ron staring around at the room, and Hermione’s eyes “swiveling backward and forward from Harry to Lupin.” I can’t help imagining then both as crustatceans. Or Hermione as that crab from The Little Mermaid while Ron is more like the fish sidekick.
Under Harry’s prodding, Lupin begins shouting about how he ruined Tonks by marrying her and she’d be better off without him. At this point, I’d like to bring up that whole registry thing. As we see later, it is extremely dangerous to be married to someone on a Ministry register. We’ll see even later on that Muggle-born Ted Tonks thought it a good idea to leave his wife and daughter. (By the way, the Death Eaters already tortured the Tonkses, looking for Harry.)
I hate this fight. I hate the way that Harry gets so righteous about Lupin leaving Tonks to help destroy Voldemort. For one thing, what kind of a future is there for anyone if Voldemort isn’t stopped? Dumbledore has left Lupin no information or instructions about stopping Voldemort other than some vague advice to trust Harry’s instincts.
Second, no one is apparently interested in what Tonks thinks about all this. Maybe she’s sick of Lupin sitting around trying to pretend she isn’t a Sirius substitute and moaning about all the trouble he’s brought her. For all we know, she could have said, “Stop complaining and go help Harry for Merlin’s sake!” Or, less dramatically, she could have understood, as millions of pregnant women did during WWII, that the world needs their husbands to do something else for a while.
And, here Harry goes again, calling yet another person who has pretty much devoted himself to Harry’s wellbeing a “coward.” I guess if you haven’t died for him, you just don’t meet that Gryffindor standard.
At this point, I hate the fact that Lupin isn’t quite as good a duelist as Snape and only manages to knock Harry’s head against the wall before he runs out. Frankly, I think another humiliating defeat would have been good for Harry and highly satisfying to me.
Harry’s tumultuous emotional state can only be soothed by distraction. Oh good, the Daily Prophet has another story about Dumbledore’s biography! What with all the taking-over of the Ministry and killing of Muggle-borns, people are hungry for news about that old dead headmaster guy.
Here’s a photograph of the family! Percival looks exactly like his son? Check. Two brothers look exactly alike? Check. Keeping with the Disneyesque family themes, Dumbledore’s mother appears to have been Pocahontas. Check out this image: Pocahontas
By the way, Ariana is described thus: “… a little longer than a loaf of bread and no more distinctive-looking.” I find that an odd way to describe her. Is it that, to Harry, babies are indistinguishable? I know that babies are kind of that way to people who don’t care for babies, but it makes her sound a bit non-human. Like… well, a loaf of bread.
In the article, we find that Kendra moved the family to Godric’s Hollow, following the imprisonment of Percival. Ariana was only ever glimpsed as she was being exercised by her mother at midnight in the garden.
You know, as a tell-all, Rita’s book really lacks punch. I just plain don’t care what is going on with Pocahontas and her dough-shaped daughter. Unless Ariana turns out to be Arabella Figg… which would just be sad, I don’t see how this is relevant at all to this series. A dead guy may or may have not ignored his dead mother who may have been mistreating his dead sister, or may have genuinely needed to restrain his dead sister in some manner. Either way, they’re all DEAD! None of them can feel pain or pity any more.
And meanwhile, those Muggle-born children are still being shipped off to Auschwitz.
At that moment, Kreacher arrives back at the house with Mundungus Fletcher. Hermione disarms Mundungus with Expelliarmus. I guess that makes her master of Fletcher’s wand. Note that Muggle-born Hermione disarms Fletcher with a wand. Wizard-born Ron tackles him rugby style.
Mundungus explains that he never volunteered to die for Harry. He must be a Slytherin with an attitude like that.
Actually, I think Mundungus must be from the never-talked-about Fifth House of Hogwarts: Scumblecrumb. It’s where they stick all the students who have absolutely no aptitude for anything. The House colors are grey and dark grey, and the mascot is a sloth. The common room is found through a secret passage behind the school dumpster. You know Stan Shunpike was in that House, too.
Mundungus delivers the information that the locket is in the possession of Dolores Umbridge. Which means that, after waiting two years and ten chapters to find out where the stupid locket Horcrux is located, we now get to spend another two chapters tracking down a character whose story ended two books ago. Even reading this the first time, I realized that Harry would learn nothing useful from another encounter with Umbridge. Plot-wise, it will move things forward because they’ll obtain the Horcrux. Story-wise? It’s padding.
I hate this chapter.
Fan Service:
Lupin! It’s always a good chapter when Lupin shows up!
Hooray! We’ll get another delightful interlude with Dolores! I hope she wears her pink sweater!
Fan Slappage:
Wow. Snape was right about Lupin all along. He is a weenie!
Wait a minute… we hated Dolores the first time!
DVD Extras:
INT: NIGHT – LEAKY CAULDRON
Remus Lupin storms into the bar, visibly shaking. He lands with both palms flat against the bar.
LUPIN
Tom! Firewhiskey!
TOM
We don’t serve your kind here.
VOICE (off-screen)
Give the man a drink. I’ll vouch for him.
Tom glances toward the voice, then, cowed, pours out two glasses.
Severus Snape, owner of the voice, steps out of the shadows and slowly moves to take the second drink. Lupin reacts with wary distaste.
LUPIN
Aren’t you a fugative?
SNAPE
Not any more. The Ministry seems to be chasing a different suspect. What has ruffled your fur?
LUPIN
(glowering)
I had a fight with an old friend. He thinks I’m a coward.
SNAPE
That narrows things down. I take it he turned down your offer of help?
LUPIN
How do you know about that?
SNAPE
It’s obvious. Dumbledore left you without instructions. You don’t have the initiative to do anything on your own.
LUPIN
Like killing someone.
SNAPE
I have my instructions, too. So, what did you do when our mutual acquaintance insulted you?
LUPIN
I shot a spell and then left. (sighs) He’s right. I am a coward.
SNAPE
There you are, then. It’s back to Miss Tonks with you.
With a sweep of his cloak, Snape moves to to the door.
LUPIN
(into his glass)
Dick.
SNAPE
(under his breath)
Pussy.
FADE OUT
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2009-07-25 06:25 pm (UTC)No cause for the mighty fist of integrety or stern lectures about being a proper husband and prospective father, just a perfectly reasonable objection to the logistics.
Speaking of which; is it, or is it not, a perfect metaphor for this whole bloody book to reintroduce a device which is designed to keep its holder in the dark?
no subject
Date: 2009-07-25 08:08 pm (UTC)