Deathly Hallows Chapter 16
Aug. 25th, 2009 03:47 pm![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
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deathtocapslockHi. I'm traveling again and snuck into the library to post this. I'll be around on Friday or Saturday to reply to comments!
Godric's Hollow
Oh dread! Oh horror! The light of my eyes, my bonny Ron, has gone and I am left, alone, bereft, in an Harmonian nightmare!
Harry shares my horror at this development as he wakes up to discover himself alone with Hermione. He ought to take some solace in the fact that Hermione is too heartbroken to speak and has finally stopped nagging everyone.
But, every time that Harry begins to despair, he thinks about Ron saying, “We thought you knew what you were doing,” and the depression is replaced with hard, knotted rage. The loving, compassionate type of hard, knotted rage.
Harry and Hermione Apparate to a windswept, heather-covered hillside. So, they’ve decided to take a short vacation from the book as well. But instead of going to Shell Cottage, they’re taking their holiday in Wuthering Heights.
Hermione immediately breaks down into silent sobs which Emma Watson will glory in as an actress. Harry, pausing for another shot of corrosive hatred at the memory of Ron’s face, is spurred into casting the protective spells for once in his lazy-ass career. Frankly, if Ron leaving has caused Harry to take a bit of the responsibility off Hermione, then it was well worth it.
They don’t discuss Ron, but that doesn’t stop Harry from obsessing about him. It’s kind of amazing how Harry obsesses over people who have angered him. He never obsesses over people who supposedly attract him, like Cho or Ginny. The most that happens with them is that he occasionally remembers they exist.
Anyway, Harry’s obsession with Ron takes the form of pulling out the Marauder’s Map to see the moment when Ron’s dot shows up and he can start sending hate rays to it with his eyes.
First off—what makes Harry think that Ron would actually go back to Hogwarts? He’s a known associate of Undesirable Number One. Nobody’s going to let Ron just waltz back into Hogwarts. The best case scenario has Ron cooling his heels in a Ministry interrogation room. The worst case has him doing that in Azkaban.
Secondly, it’s only after several days that Harry remembers that the love of his life, Ginny, is at Hogwarts and he starts watching her dot. Not that her dot is doing anything interesting. It would be funny if her dot was running around with various other male dots. That would be more in her character, wouldn’t it? But she just seems to be sleeping in her dorm all the time. He never even notices her in planning sessions with Neville and Luna.
Of course, Harry can only watch the Ginny dot at night. During the day, he and Hermione are too busy racking their brains to think where Dumbledore might have hid the real sword. You know where I would have started looking? The Order headquarters. You know, old Grimauld Place, which has been empty so long that probably the only Death Eater left guarding it is Stan Shunpike.
Thinking back, Harry realizes he never heard Dumbledore even mention a place he might hide something…. And Harry is back to obsessing over Dumbledore.
Harry hits a new low point as he realizes their whole quest has been pointless and meandering. Okay, story-wise it’s perfectly acceptable for your hero to reach a low point and to wonder if his quest is worth the trouble, etc. etc. But.. doesn’t that usually happen at a point in the middle of the quest? This quest still feels like it hasn’t even started. I know we had a big raid on the Ministry and all, but that was sort of going from -1 to 0, bringing us to the point of the quest we should have been at the end of HBP.
It’s not just that camping is boring. It’s not just that Dumbledore didn’t give Harry any clues about where those Horcruxes were—or what to do once Harry found them. Dumbledore actually set Harry off in the completely wrong direction. The way to find them isn’t to look in Voldemort’s psyche, the way to find them is to look at Voldemort’s followers and the structure of the Death Eater organization.
And guess who’s ideally situated to do that? Geez, Dumbledore, you really screwed up by asking Snape to kill you. It would have been smarter to invite Lupin over for tea during the full moon. Then Harry would have obsessively hated Lupin for killing you, which wouldn’t have made a bit of difference since Harry’s not letting Lupin play on his quest anyway. And maybe Harry wouldn’t be so adamantly anti-Snape.
Next best thing though. Harry becomes such bad company that Hermione starts pulling Phineas Nigellus out of her bag to talk to. From him, they learn that Snape is facing low levels of insurrection from the students. I think we know all know what that means: Random pranks. Would Snape even notice a difference after all the pranks he endured from the Trio?
Phineas Nigellus drops a few more anvils about Snape protecting Ginny (by banning her from Hogsmeade) and encouraging the underground opposition (by banning unofficial school clubs). He also asks leading questions, trying to find out where Harry and Hermione are… because Snape is probably going nuts from Dumbledore pressuring him to get Harry the sword.
Harry and Hemione keep moving around, because it’s dangerous to stay in one spot. They consider the South of England to be the most dangerous and end up moving around the frozen Northern regions. I say they ought to ditch England altogether since there’s no way to locate the stupid Horcruxes and go looking in Spain or Italy. It makes as much sense as what they are doing.
(Even more sensible would be to go to Albania—where Voldemort spent a lot of time and which would probably be lovely at this time of year.)
Harry finally broaches the idea of visiting Godric’s Hollow. Partly because he’s been wanting to visit his parents’ graves since the end of HBP. But mostly because Bathilda Bagshot lives there and she might be able to tell him about Dumbledore.
As usual, Hermione is way ahead of Harry. She figures Dumbledore might have hid the sword there because, duh, it was where Godric Gryffindor (Godric’s Hollow, geddit?) lived. Harry steps into Ron’s shoes by being too dumb to figure this out by himself.
But, Harry does have some handy information about the mysterious symbol that Hermione found inked into the Beedle Bard book. He mentions that Krum told him that it was Grindlewald’s mark.
Again, why is it that nobody in the Wizarding World knows about Grindlewald’s famous icon? It seems like the more famous someone is in the WW, the less anybody knows about them. I’ll bet that once Harry destroyed Voldemort and became Head Auror and was basically more famous than Jesus, nobody could figure out why he signed his name with a little lightning bolt on the Y.
Heh. Even Harry thinks it’s weird that Scrimgeour didn’t recognize Grindlewald’s mark in the book. Once again, the characters are commenting on the lack of common sense or logic in the story.
In reading about Godric’s Hollow (where the Muggles are tolerant and sometimes Confunded), Hermione mentions that A History of Magic doesn’t cover any of the events of the twentieth century. Which explains, I suppose, why nobody in Harry’s generation knows anything about Grindewald or Voldemort, other than that they are big and scary.
(Didn’t Hermione mention in PS/SS that she had read about Harry? Someone must have been writing about recent history.)
Like the raid on the Ministry, the visit cannot take place without extensive planning. This time it includes practice Apparating under the Invisibility Cloak and stealing hairs from middle-aged Muggles. Gee, Hermione, did you slip them a few coins to compensate for their lost DNA?
Harry transforms into a “balding middle-age Muggle man.” Two things I note: 1) It seems even crueler than usual to steal hairs from a man who has few of them left and 2) even the narrator makes a distinction between man and Muggle man. I guess we Muggles aren’t fully human. We’re more like apes who shave.
They land near the village and Hermione points out that their carefully laid plan is, once again, ruined by their lack of troubleshooting skills. There’s no point in having an Invisibility Cloak if the village is blanketed in snow and you’re leaving footprints.
There’s also no point in wearing an Invisibility Cloak when you’re polyjuiced to look like random Muggles and having an Invisibility Cloak on would tend to peg you as Harry Potter—known for owning a rare and expensive one.
Oh God. Now we come to the moment of the book that I’ve tried to repress through sheer horror. The Memorial. As Harry and Hermione pass by a war memorial, it transforms into a statue of James, Lily, and baby Harry.
I distract myself by noting that the statues have little caps of fluffy white snow on them. Now… how does that work, exactly? Is the Potter family the real statues that are charmed to look like an obelisk listing names of the WWII dead? Or is that list of names the real statue which is charmed to give an image of the Potters? I mean, how can the snow fall on both?
Oh and did I mention that it’s Christmas Eve? I hate this chapter.
Hmmm. Something I never noticed before. The graveyard is behind a church, and the church is filled with a caroling congregation. So, Harry and Hermione aren’t exactly alone in this touching scene. And, since they are leaving deep trenches in the snow, the church goers would know that someone was poking around the graveyard.
Since Godric’s Hollow is a mixed community, I suppose their caution is warranted. It could easily get back to Voldemort that a couple went looking around at graves. But that wouldn’t tell Voldemort much, since the visit is a one-time thing.
Which leads to an idea. What Harry and Hermione (and Ron) ought to have done was to blatantly show up in a lot of places. If Voldemort had to place Death Eater guards at every place they appeared, his forces would become too scattered to be effective. That’s what Robin Hood would have done.
But then, Robin Hood was smart..
They discover Ariana and Kendra’s graves, with the phrase Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also written on them. I’ll just note that Albus Dumbledore’s treasures seem to be elsewhere, since he decided to be buried at Hogwarts.
The quote is from Matthew 6:17-24. This is the full text: Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. The lamp of the body is the eye. If therefore your eye is good, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness! No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.
I think we could parse that passage pretty good for insights into Potter Philosophy. Horcruxes are the ultimate in putting your treasure on earth, aren’t they? And we have that breakdown into light and dark magic spelled out. If your eyes are light, then you are good. If they are dark, then you are dark. (Who has light eyes? Dumbledore and Harry. Who has dark eyes? Snape. Who has demonic eyes? Voldemort.)
And, of course, the man who cannot serve two masters is obviously Snape. The most interesting question throughout the entire series is which master it was that he truly served. (The one who manipulated him the most!)
After more grave searching, Hermione discovers the grave of Ignotus Peverell, with Grindlewald’s mark on it. About a page is devoted to this discovery, although it seems meaningless at the time.
You know what’s weird about this graveyard? The first grave they found was an Abbott (ancestor of Hannah Abbott?), then they found the Dumbledores, and then the Peverells. This graveyard is laid out alphabetically!
Finally, Hermione discovers James and Lily’s headstone. Fans rejoice as we get actual birthdates for both of them.
We also get the quote: The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death. Which is from Corinthians and concerns the resurrection of man through the sacrifice of Christ. Which strikes me as a pretty pretentious thing to put on any tomb—especially the parents of a baby who is already viewed by the world as its savior.
Harry immediately fears that his parents were some kind of Death Eaters, so Hermione has to explain to him the concept of life after death. This brings on an extreme moment of angst for Harry as he imagines his parents as dead to the bones.
I don’t want to snark on this, because I’m sure it’s genuine and heartfelt—but I’m afraid it’s not a feeling I really relate to. I’m sure this grief has been repressed in Harry for sixteen years and, while it’s good that he gets it out, it leaves me a bit cold.
So, I’ll note the final passage in this chapter is probably moving to most people who read it and leave it at that.
Except to say that I wish she hadn’t put Harry, Hermione, and a kissing gate in the same sentence.
Fan Service:
JKR makes it up to Harmonian fans by giving them this touching graveyard scene without Ron around to ruin it by acting normal.
OMIGOD! James was an Aries! Lily was an Aquarius! How groovy!
Fan Slappage:
Actually, Harry and Hermione are pretty dull together.
There are no important artifacts, messages, or mementos to be found in the Potter Crypt.
DVD Extras:
EXT: NIGHT – ABOVE AN ISOLATED SEASIDE COTTAGE
As a chorus of ANGELIC VOICES SINGS A CAROL, the camera swoops down like a bird to pass by one of the cottage’s lighted windows. Through the window we see Ron looking out into the night, the Deluminator in his hand.
Behind him, Bill and Fleur are opening Christmas presents.
The camera swoops away and up, into the starry night, as Ron follows it soulfully.
It passes through the air and swoops down again, on a suburban house with a pond in the backyard. Through the window, we see Lupin and Tonks, with Andromeda sitting before a fireplace draped with Christmas stockings. Tonks, holding onto Lupin’s hand, is four or five months pregnant. She looks radiant.
Lupin looks around, his eyes lighting on a photograph of Sirius. He sighs longingly.
The camera swoops away again into the night and flies by the headmaster’s office in Hogwarts. The window is slightly open and it flies into:
INT: NIGHT – HEADMASTER’S OFFICE
Snape sits with a glass of elf-made wine, his head resting on one hand as he gazes at the dust-covered half-photograph of Lily. Behind him, the portrait of Albus Dumbledore paces.
DUMBLEDORE
But where are they?
SNAPE
Don’t know.
DUMBLEDORE
What are they up to?
SNAPE
Don’t care.
DUMBLEDORE
They need the sword!
SNAPE
Shut up.
He starts rubbing his temples as the camera swoops away again, flying through the air towards
EXT: NIGHT --THE BURROW
We see the Weasleys festively throwing parsnips at each other around the table.
Then the camera swoops down to a London office, where Percy is working late into the night.
It flies off and heads toward Malfoy Manor. Although the Manor is decorated with the appropriate festivity, Lucius and Narcissa, as glimpsed through the large leaded windows, appear subdued. The other Death Eaters are carousing and dancing, with Bellatrix leading the group.
In the corner, Lord Voldemort sits quietly, his eyes far away and one hand gesturing as if to pet an absent giant snake.
The camera flies away one final time into the sky, heading towards a star that appears brighter than all the others.
As it draws closer over the tree-lined landscape, we see that, directly below this bright star is a lonely tent, pitched by itself atop a snowy hill.
The CHORUS OF VOICES SWELLS as we
FADE OUT
Godric's Hollow
Oh dread! Oh horror! The light of my eyes, my bonny Ron, has gone and I am left, alone, bereft, in an Harmonian nightmare!
Harry shares my horror at this development as he wakes up to discover himself alone with Hermione. He ought to take some solace in the fact that Hermione is too heartbroken to speak and has finally stopped nagging everyone.
But, every time that Harry begins to despair, he thinks about Ron saying, “We thought you knew what you were doing,” and the depression is replaced with hard, knotted rage. The loving, compassionate type of hard, knotted rage.
Harry and Hermione Apparate to a windswept, heather-covered hillside. So, they’ve decided to take a short vacation from the book as well. But instead of going to Shell Cottage, they’re taking their holiday in Wuthering Heights.
Hermione immediately breaks down into silent sobs which Emma Watson will glory in as an actress. Harry, pausing for another shot of corrosive hatred at the memory of Ron’s face, is spurred into casting the protective spells for once in his lazy-ass career. Frankly, if Ron leaving has caused Harry to take a bit of the responsibility off Hermione, then it was well worth it.
They don’t discuss Ron, but that doesn’t stop Harry from obsessing about him. It’s kind of amazing how Harry obsesses over people who have angered him. He never obsesses over people who supposedly attract him, like Cho or Ginny. The most that happens with them is that he occasionally remembers they exist.
Anyway, Harry’s obsession with Ron takes the form of pulling out the Marauder’s Map to see the moment when Ron’s dot shows up and he can start sending hate rays to it with his eyes.
First off—what makes Harry think that Ron would actually go back to Hogwarts? He’s a known associate of Undesirable Number One. Nobody’s going to let Ron just waltz back into Hogwarts. The best case scenario has Ron cooling his heels in a Ministry interrogation room. The worst case has him doing that in Azkaban.
Secondly, it’s only after several days that Harry remembers that the love of his life, Ginny, is at Hogwarts and he starts watching her dot. Not that her dot is doing anything interesting. It would be funny if her dot was running around with various other male dots. That would be more in her character, wouldn’t it? But she just seems to be sleeping in her dorm all the time. He never even notices her in planning sessions with Neville and Luna.
Of course, Harry can only watch the Ginny dot at night. During the day, he and Hermione are too busy racking their brains to think where Dumbledore might have hid the real sword. You know where I would have started looking? The Order headquarters. You know, old Grimauld Place, which has been empty so long that probably the only Death Eater left guarding it is Stan Shunpike.
Thinking back, Harry realizes he never heard Dumbledore even mention a place he might hide something…. And Harry is back to obsessing over Dumbledore.
Harry hits a new low point as he realizes their whole quest has been pointless and meandering. Okay, story-wise it’s perfectly acceptable for your hero to reach a low point and to wonder if his quest is worth the trouble, etc. etc. But.. doesn’t that usually happen at a point in the middle of the quest? This quest still feels like it hasn’t even started. I know we had a big raid on the Ministry and all, but that was sort of going from -1 to 0, bringing us to the point of the quest we should have been at the end of HBP.
It’s not just that camping is boring. It’s not just that Dumbledore didn’t give Harry any clues about where those Horcruxes were—or what to do once Harry found them. Dumbledore actually set Harry off in the completely wrong direction. The way to find them isn’t to look in Voldemort’s psyche, the way to find them is to look at Voldemort’s followers and the structure of the Death Eater organization.
And guess who’s ideally situated to do that? Geez, Dumbledore, you really screwed up by asking Snape to kill you. It would have been smarter to invite Lupin over for tea during the full moon. Then Harry would have obsessively hated Lupin for killing you, which wouldn’t have made a bit of difference since Harry’s not letting Lupin play on his quest anyway. And maybe Harry wouldn’t be so adamantly anti-Snape.
Next best thing though. Harry becomes such bad company that Hermione starts pulling Phineas Nigellus out of her bag to talk to. From him, they learn that Snape is facing low levels of insurrection from the students. I think we know all know what that means: Random pranks. Would Snape even notice a difference after all the pranks he endured from the Trio?
Phineas Nigellus drops a few more anvils about Snape protecting Ginny (by banning her from Hogsmeade) and encouraging the underground opposition (by banning unofficial school clubs). He also asks leading questions, trying to find out where Harry and Hermione are… because Snape is probably going nuts from Dumbledore pressuring him to get Harry the sword.
Harry and Hemione keep moving around, because it’s dangerous to stay in one spot. They consider the South of England to be the most dangerous and end up moving around the frozen Northern regions. I say they ought to ditch England altogether since there’s no way to locate the stupid Horcruxes and go looking in Spain or Italy. It makes as much sense as what they are doing.
(Even more sensible would be to go to Albania—where Voldemort spent a lot of time and which would probably be lovely at this time of year.)
Harry finally broaches the idea of visiting Godric’s Hollow. Partly because he’s been wanting to visit his parents’ graves since the end of HBP. But mostly because Bathilda Bagshot lives there and she might be able to tell him about Dumbledore.
As usual, Hermione is way ahead of Harry. She figures Dumbledore might have hid the sword there because, duh, it was where Godric Gryffindor (Godric’s Hollow, geddit?) lived. Harry steps into Ron’s shoes by being too dumb to figure this out by himself.
But, Harry does have some handy information about the mysterious symbol that Hermione found inked into the Beedle Bard book. He mentions that Krum told him that it was Grindlewald’s mark.
Again, why is it that nobody in the Wizarding World knows about Grindlewald’s famous icon? It seems like the more famous someone is in the WW, the less anybody knows about them. I’ll bet that once Harry destroyed Voldemort and became Head Auror and was basically more famous than Jesus, nobody could figure out why he signed his name with a little lightning bolt on the Y.
Heh. Even Harry thinks it’s weird that Scrimgeour didn’t recognize Grindlewald’s mark in the book. Once again, the characters are commenting on the lack of common sense or logic in the story.
In reading about Godric’s Hollow (where the Muggles are tolerant and sometimes Confunded), Hermione mentions that A History of Magic doesn’t cover any of the events of the twentieth century. Which explains, I suppose, why nobody in Harry’s generation knows anything about Grindewald or Voldemort, other than that they are big and scary.
(Didn’t Hermione mention in PS/SS that she had read about Harry? Someone must have been writing about recent history.)
Like the raid on the Ministry, the visit cannot take place without extensive planning. This time it includes practice Apparating under the Invisibility Cloak and stealing hairs from middle-aged Muggles. Gee, Hermione, did you slip them a few coins to compensate for their lost DNA?
Harry transforms into a “balding middle-age Muggle man.” Two things I note: 1) It seems even crueler than usual to steal hairs from a man who has few of them left and 2) even the narrator makes a distinction between man and Muggle man. I guess we Muggles aren’t fully human. We’re more like apes who shave.
They land near the village and Hermione points out that their carefully laid plan is, once again, ruined by their lack of troubleshooting skills. There’s no point in having an Invisibility Cloak if the village is blanketed in snow and you’re leaving footprints.
There’s also no point in wearing an Invisibility Cloak when you’re polyjuiced to look like random Muggles and having an Invisibility Cloak on would tend to peg you as Harry Potter—known for owning a rare and expensive one.
Oh God. Now we come to the moment of the book that I’ve tried to repress through sheer horror. The Memorial. As Harry and Hermione pass by a war memorial, it transforms into a statue of James, Lily, and baby Harry.
I distract myself by noting that the statues have little caps of fluffy white snow on them. Now… how does that work, exactly? Is the Potter family the real statues that are charmed to look like an obelisk listing names of the WWII dead? Or is that list of names the real statue which is charmed to give an image of the Potters? I mean, how can the snow fall on both?
Oh and did I mention that it’s Christmas Eve? I hate this chapter.
Hmmm. Something I never noticed before. The graveyard is behind a church, and the church is filled with a caroling congregation. So, Harry and Hermione aren’t exactly alone in this touching scene. And, since they are leaving deep trenches in the snow, the church goers would know that someone was poking around the graveyard.
Since Godric’s Hollow is a mixed community, I suppose their caution is warranted. It could easily get back to Voldemort that a couple went looking around at graves. But that wouldn’t tell Voldemort much, since the visit is a one-time thing.
Which leads to an idea. What Harry and Hermione (and Ron) ought to have done was to blatantly show up in a lot of places. If Voldemort had to place Death Eater guards at every place they appeared, his forces would become too scattered to be effective. That’s what Robin Hood would have done.
But then, Robin Hood was smart..
They discover Ariana and Kendra’s graves, with the phrase Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also written on them. I’ll just note that Albus Dumbledore’s treasures seem to be elsewhere, since he decided to be buried at Hogwarts.
The quote is from Matthew 6:17-24. This is the full text: Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. The lamp of the body is the eye. If therefore your eye is good, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness! No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.
I think we could parse that passage pretty good for insights into Potter Philosophy. Horcruxes are the ultimate in putting your treasure on earth, aren’t they? And we have that breakdown into light and dark magic spelled out. If your eyes are light, then you are good. If they are dark, then you are dark. (Who has light eyes? Dumbledore and Harry. Who has dark eyes? Snape. Who has demonic eyes? Voldemort.)
And, of course, the man who cannot serve two masters is obviously Snape. The most interesting question throughout the entire series is which master it was that he truly served. (The one who manipulated him the most!)
After more grave searching, Hermione discovers the grave of Ignotus Peverell, with Grindlewald’s mark on it. About a page is devoted to this discovery, although it seems meaningless at the time.
You know what’s weird about this graveyard? The first grave they found was an Abbott (ancestor of Hannah Abbott?), then they found the Dumbledores, and then the Peverells. This graveyard is laid out alphabetically!
Finally, Hermione discovers James and Lily’s headstone. Fans rejoice as we get actual birthdates for both of them.
We also get the quote: The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death. Which is from Corinthians and concerns the resurrection of man through the sacrifice of Christ. Which strikes me as a pretty pretentious thing to put on any tomb—especially the parents of a baby who is already viewed by the world as its savior.
Harry immediately fears that his parents were some kind of Death Eaters, so Hermione has to explain to him the concept of life after death. This brings on an extreme moment of angst for Harry as he imagines his parents as dead to the bones.
I don’t want to snark on this, because I’m sure it’s genuine and heartfelt—but I’m afraid it’s not a feeling I really relate to. I’m sure this grief has been repressed in Harry for sixteen years and, while it’s good that he gets it out, it leaves me a bit cold.
So, I’ll note the final passage in this chapter is probably moving to most people who read it and leave it at that.
Except to say that I wish she hadn’t put Harry, Hermione, and a kissing gate in the same sentence.
Fan Service:
JKR makes it up to Harmonian fans by giving them this touching graveyard scene without Ron around to ruin it by acting normal.
OMIGOD! James was an Aries! Lily was an Aquarius! How groovy!
Fan Slappage:
Actually, Harry and Hermione are pretty dull together.
There are no important artifacts, messages, or mementos to be found in the Potter Crypt.
DVD Extras:
EXT: NIGHT – ABOVE AN ISOLATED SEASIDE COTTAGE
As a chorus of ANGELIC VOICES SINGS A CAROL, the camera swoops down like a bird to pass by one of the cottage’s lighted windows. Through the window we see Ron looking out into the night, the Deluminator in his hand.
Behind him, Bill and Fleur are opening Christmas presents.
The camera swoops away and up, into the starry night, as Ron follows it soulfully.
It passes through the air and swoops down again, on a suburban house with a pond in the backyard. Through the window, we see Lupin and Tonks, with Andromeda sitting before a fireplace draped with Christmas stockings. Tonks, holding onto Lupin’s hand, is four or five months pregnant. She looks radiant.
Lupin looks around, his eyes lighting on a photograph of Sirius. He sighs longingly.
The camera swoops away again into the night and flies by the headmaster’s office in Hogwarts. The window is slightly open and it flies into:
INT: NIGHT – HEADMASTER’S OFFICE
Snape sits with a glass of elf-made wine, his head resting on one hand as he gazes at the dust-covered half-photograph of Lily. Behind him, the portrait of Albus Dumbledore paces.
DUMBLEDORE
But where are they?
SNAPE
Don’t know.
DUMBLEDORE
What are they up to?
SNAPE
Don’t care.
DUMBLEDORE
They need the sword!
SNAPE
Shut up.
He starts rubbing his temples as the camera swoops away again, flying through the air towards
EXT: NIGHT --THE BURROW
We see the Weasleys festively throwing parsnips at each other around the table.
Then the camera swoops down to a London office, where Percy is working late into the night.
It flies off and heads toward Malfoy Manor. Although the Manor is decorated with the appropriate festivity, Lucius and Narcissa, as glimpsed through the large leaded windows, appear subdued. The other Death Eaters are carousing and dancing, with Bellatrix leading the group.
In the corner, Lord Voldemort sits quietly, his eyes far away and one hand gesturing as if to pet an absent giant snake.
The camera flies away one final time into the sky, heading towards a star that appears brighter than all the others.
As it draws closer over the tree-lined landscape, we see that, directly below this bright star is a lonely tent, pitched by itself atop a snowy hill.
The CHORUS OF VOICES SWELLS as we
FADE OUT
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Date: 2009-08-30 05:14 am (UTC)Right. It doesn't help the reader at all when Harry starts angsting about the pointlessness. The thing was pointless from the beginning. The one hope in all the book that it wasn't going to be pointless was when Lupin asked to go along. Because, you know, he might know something. Just because he's an adult and presumably can remember stuff that happened in the first war, while Harry and the others don't know squat about Voldemort.
They could be in just as much danger by randomly apparating into a spot where DEs already are.
Now, that would make a terrific DvD extra!
Only in this book would a sword be hidden in a place just because it has the same first name as the name of the guy who owned the sword. You'd think Voldemort would have found it there if that was the case.
I don't think Voldemort is even looking for the sword--although I guess he wanted it in Bellatrix's vault. For no discernible reason.
Snape's 'shut up' was my favorite scene.
I have the feeling Snape and Dumbledore have been having that exact same conversation for weeks now...