deathtocapslock | Deathly Hallows Chapter 19 (Reply)

The Silver Doe

The start of this chapter is a little confusing because it begins with Hermione taking over the watch from Harry at midnight. Which would mean that Harry was on watch for about 18 hours. Or maybe they did shorter shifts and this is Hermione taking over a different watch. Or maybe JKR just forgot that she set the last chapter at dawn and thought it was twilight.

So, this is pretty funny and something I completely missed on the first reading. Harry has "confused and disturbing" dreams: Nagini weaving through a giant cracked ring, and then a wreath of Christmas roses. Wow… that's pretty obvious sexual imagery. Hetero imagery. No wonder Harry finds it disturbing.

He keeps imagining that someone is calling out to him. We'll learn later on who that someone is. Ron. Who, thanks to Dumbledore, is able to Apparate to where his friends are. And, thanks to Moody and Hermione, can't find them once he gets there.

In a nice detail, Harry notices that the Sneakoscope is silent. Because Ron is a trustworthy person. This would be more meaningful if Sneakoscopes hadn't been introduced as basically junk in PoA. It's sort of like the way prophecies were introduced. And Rita Skeeter's research.

After waking up several times, Harry joins Hermione and they decide to pack up the tent and move out of the snowstorm that started up… in the period of time between the time Harry was railing at the vast empty sky and now.

They pack everything up and Disapparate under the Invisibility cloak. I can't wait for the movie to see how they manage to pack up an entire tent while the both of them are under a smallish piece of cloth.

They land in yet another forest and Harry is suddenly curious about where they are. Which allows Hermione to tell him while she has her bag open (pulling out tent pegs), which allows Phineas to finally tell Snape where they are. Amazing to think that this little moment is the most important event in the book so far.

This forest seems no warmer than their previous spot, so they huddle inside the tent around the little blue flames that Hermione is "so adept at producing." Is this a shout out to PS/SS fans, or is there some alchemical symbolism? And I should I be worried that Harry hasn't seemed to master this first-year spell?

Hehe. Harry feels "as though he was recuperating from some sort of brief, but intense illness." I don't know why he feels the need to make that into a metaphor. One day ago he was briefly and intensely ill. He was raving from being poisoned by a giant snake. Did that slip your mind, Harry?

By the way, I just want you to know that when I am working on these chapters, I feel almost as though I’m typing on a keyboard. Weird, huh?

At night, Harry takes the watch and things get very still in the Forest of Dean. He worries about Voldemort being "closer than ever." He thinks about watching Ginny's dot on the Marauder's Map, which is creepy because it's very late and her dot would be asleep. But his urge to stalk his ideal girl is squashed when he remembers that it's Christmas vacation and she'd be at home. Then he nearly nods off several times.

All of this is to slow down the pace of the book for what is to come. And I find it hard to hard to snark this part, because it is a truly lovely passage. Through the darkness comes a light that grows brighter and brighter, until Harry is filled with the wonder of it. Then, the light resolves into the shape of a doe.

As annoying as I find James and Lily as characters, as these symbolic spirits they are beautiful. It was lovely in PoA when Harry connected with the spirit of his father in Patronus form, and it's just as sweet now when he recognizes this creature of light as something familiar to him.

And for the reader, finally--finally--we are getting a story event that isn't frustrating. Harry might be foolish for following this harbinger after being led into a trap twenty-four hours earlier, but for once he isn't being stupid. This isn't a puzzle or an obstacle course, or a trap set up by a master of manipulator. This is one pure soul reaching out for another, and, by a magic that doesn't need explaining, finding him.

(Because, if I were going to be picky, I'd wonder how Snape managed to send the doe to a hidden tent. Hmm. Dumbledore said that all magic leaves traces. Maybe those protective spells aren't as clever as we thought.)

Harry follows the deer deep into the forest, certain that once she stops, she will allow him to approach. I have to quote this next bit, for it's deeply satisfying to a Snape fan: And then she would speak and the voice would tell him what he needed to know.

Isn't that what Snape has always done in this series? He's always told Harry what Harry needed to know (unlike some mentors we could mention), even if Harry wasn't able to listen to him.

But once she stops, the doe looks once at him and then disappears. Harry is afraid for the first time. Her presence meant safety to him. Again, a lovely blending of Lily, who protected Harry as a baby, and Snape, who has been protecting him ever since he arrived at Hogwarts.

Harry lights Hermione's wand and looks around, afraid that he's in another trap. Then he sees a flash of light reflecting off the black surface of a frozen pond. Drawing closer, he sees the glint of a silver cross under the "thick, misty grey carapace." I had to look up carapace, which means a hard shell, specifically a tortoise shell. Well, close enough and it's a cool word to learn.

Silver cross, though. An interesting way to invoke the imagery of the paladin. The cross is a sword is a weapon, and Harry is as close as you can get to a holy warrior in this oddly secular wizarding world.

Harry ponders the mystery of the sword. Was Hermione drawn to this spot because of it? Or was the sword drawn to them? Or… the most plausible answer: Did someone place it there because they knew Harry was nearby?

Or was it some cheap souvenir left over from the QWC?

While this is going on , Snape is standing in the shadows, mentally deducting ten points from Gryffindor for Harry's lack of initiative.

Harry tries to Accio the sword, which doesn't work. We don't even see the sword vibrate under its turtle-shell of ice. Harry decides that, yeah, that would be way too easy.

He then tries to think again and comes up with the genius idea of jumping into the water. Others have noted that there were about a dozen other things he could have tried, first. But that would mean doing something sensible and that's contrary to the Gryffindor charter. In order to get the sword, Harry realizes, he needs to demonstrate nerve, daring, and chivalry.

Harry can't see how his plan of jumping into the frozen pond demonstrates chivalry, except for the fact that he isn't making Hemione do it. Ba dum dum. Actually, I have another theory. I think the Gryffindors have been mishearing that word for centuries. It isn't chivalry that Gryffindor valued. It was shivery. Gryffindor was the founding member of the Polar Bear Club and regularly bathed in ice-cold water.

Harry would know this if he had ever read A History of Hogwarts. Hermione knows it, but she's never told Harry because she figures that the chivalry requirement is the only thing keeping Harry from beating her up.

So, anyway, Harry proceeds to undress. It is sensible to take off your clothes, but it's not—as countless people have pointed out—sensible to jump into the water with a deadly Horcrux around your neck. This would have been a good point for Harry to put the Horcrux into his special neck pouch—from which no one else could take it, and where it wouldn't be able to start choking him. But hindsight is twenty-twenty.

Harry jumps into the pool and feels for the sword with his feet before he dives, which isn’t the dumbest thing he’s done. If it were me, I would then have tried to raise the sword with my feet, but I'm adept at picking stuff up with my toes. Maybe Harry isn't. So he dives in, feels the agony of the cold water, and grabs the hilt in one hand. At that point the locket tightens on his neck and he starts to suffocate. He kicks desperately up towards the surface, but only manages to push himself towards the rocky edge of the pond. In another few seconds, he will choke to death….

Okay, here is what puzzles me: If Harry can touch the sword with his feet while his head is above the surface, then that pond is only about five feet deep. Now, that does require a dive, but once Harry got his feet back on the bottom of the pond, he'd be able to stand up and bring his head above water. Granted, that wouldn't solve the choking problem, but it would give him a chance to throw the sword onto the shore and free up both hands. So, why the desperate thrashing under water? Why doesn't he just stand up?

Because Ron has to save him and we can't let logic get in the way. Harry comes to face down in the snow, hearing the sounds of someone he doesn't recognize until Ron shouts at him, "Are you mental?"

Hehe That is a funny moment.

Harry finds the reappearance of Ron to be even more miraculous than the appearance of the doe. I'll bet Dumbledore's portrait is pretty smug about that. My miracle is better than yours, Severus!

Harry then puts his clothes back on. This consists of all the jumpers he owns (which he has been wearing in layers for weeks now). I note that, glad as he is to see Ron, he doesn't offer to share some of his sweaters, even though Ron had to jump in with his clothes on and is now in dripping, ice-cold fabric.

And, glad as he is to see Ron, glad as he is that Ron just saved his life, Harry's second question (after asking if Ron cast the doe) is that bitter, "How come you're here?" Thought you were going home to get your three meals a day, wimp!

Ron is properly humbled and shame-faced as he tells Harry he was looking to come back on the quest—if they'll have him. That's right, Ron. Never forget that you're not as good as the others. And, just to emphasize that point, Harry doesn't take him back, doesn't welcome the Prodigal Friend, even though the guy just saved his life and is standing there with the Horcrux in one hand, the sword in the other, and shivering like a true Gryffindor.

Tool.

So, Ron explains that he was looking for Harry for hours and just about to sleep under a tree (in the snowy forest!) when he saw Harry following the deer. (Did Snape deliberately lead Harry past Ron?) And… he mentions that he might have seen someone in the trees.

At this point, Harry loses interest in Ron and runs to find out who cast the Patronus doe. But Snape is far too clever to leave footprints. Unlike Harry and Hermione, as we recall from previous chapters. So, Harry settles for advancing the quest by having Ron stab the locket with the sword.

There's a bunch of mumbo-jumbo about how Harry just knows that Ron has to be the one to destroy the locket, and Harry notes that Dumbledore did teach him about the incalculable magical power of certain acts. Yeah, whatever. It's more interesting to have Ron do it, but I would rather not have it pointed out how contrived that is.

I mean, it would have been less contrived if Ron had had to stab the locket to keep it from killing Harry. But then we wouldn't have been able to see that, since Harry was losing consciousness. So, I'll take what I can get.

So, Harry opens the locket using parseltongue, and we get a dramatic confrontation between Ron and Voldemort's eyes, who use all Ron's fears and insecurities to try and manipulate him.

The eyes in the locket are a very cool image. I like the concept of Ron having to overcome his flaws and fears in order to destroy the Horcrux. But I don't like the execution.

First off—this is the third time we've had to have Ron overcome his insecurities. The fourth if you want to count the spiders in CoS. Geez. Okay, maybe JKR is making the point that you don't accomplish one thing one time and suddenly get over stuff. That's a valid point to make. But if you make your readers read the same storyline over and over again, it's going to stop seeming like a story and start seeming like a sitcom.

I think it would have been smarter to have Ron not win the big game in OotP and HBP. How more poignant would it be if Ron kept failing until this point? Or would that make him into Neville?

Well, there ought to be a way to make this work. It almost works. It really almost works until the locket decides to bring in the Harry and Hermione bubble-heads. The bubble-heads bubble into bubble-torsos and then bubble-bodies. And I can't decide it they are more creepy or comic, but if they are creepy, it's not in a way that scares me.

Actually, what they really remind me of is this annoying puzzle in Riven where you have to push a button on a machine, and then turn around and move three steps to get to a balcony that shows you a map of islands made out of water bubbles. Which takes forever. Or, I guess they might be like the water worm thingy in The Abyss, which was a really cool special effect. In 1989.

Bubble-Harry asks Ron why he bothered to return, that they were happier without him, laughing at his stupidity, cowardice, and presumption.

I think this would be more effective if Bubble-Harry were more focused on what Harry really thinks of Ron. I mean, what if he said something more like this: Why return at all? You know that I only tolerate your presence because of your family. I'll never think of you as more than that poor, dirty little boy that crawled into my train compartment, pathetically begging for my scraps!

The stuff Hermione says would work if JKR had ever established Ron being afraid that Hermione was in love with Harry. There are some very subtle hints. But not enough to make this seem even as bad as what Hermione says to him on a regular basis. If she really wanted to wound him, you'd think that she'd mention Viktor, or how he just isn't in her class in any way—not intellectually, emotionally, or socially.

Or… maybe here's another thought. What if, while they were alone in that tent, the locket tried to manipulate Harry and Hermione into "desiring" each other. I mean, if Harry had ever, ever in seven years had an impure thought about Hermione, then this might have been a great scene.

As it is, it's just stupid and icky. As Harry says later, he thinks of Hermione as a sister. So, these bubble-bodies are committing emotional incest and it's not scary in the way that a really good dramatic scene is scary. It's disgusting.

Plus, Hermione is described as "crooning," which makes her sound like Bellatrix Lestrange and the thought of Bellatrix and sex always makes me queasy. She's like the icky old aunt who hugs you too closely and kisses too wetly.

Harry yells at Ron to kill the locket—because Ron is never capable of doing things on his own initiative—and there's a mini-moment when Ron turns to Harry and his eyes flash scarlet. Maybe Voldemort is possessing Ron briefly? But it's mainly just to make us think that when the sword flashes, it could be heading towards Harry. Like when the guy is told to shot the hero, and the gun goes off, but it hits the villain instead. You know that moment. We've seen it a million times.

So, the locket is dead, and Ron's eyes are blue and "wet." Which embarrasses Harry so much that he decides to give Ron a moment by examining the locket and recapping the last two pages for us.

Ron drops the sword. Harry sees that he is shaking, but not, Harry realizes from the cold. Umm…. He might be shaking from cold, Harry. Remember that you're wearing the warm, dry sweaters, and he's still in the wet, icy-cold ones.

Harry awkwardly tells Ron that Hermione cried all the time after he left, and that she's like a sister, and… and he finally realizes that he missed Ron. And it's really a sweet moment, but I still hate Harry for the way he almost always dismisses Ron. The way he used him for seven years as a yardstick to measure his own mediocrity. Ron deserved a lot better than that.

And then Ron, as usual in these cases, apologizes to Harry for being a… a… he can't even say the word coward, that's how Gryffindor these guys are. Which makes me think that maybe Ron isn't the Sirius of the New Marauders, but the Peter Pettigrew.

They make up in a manly (i.e., sublimated) way, and head back for the tent. Hermione then does the cute thing of seeing Ron, walking toward him like she might just kiss him—and then beating the crap out of him!

Well, it might have been cute if she had stopped after a few minutes, but she keeps going and Harry is forced to break them up. We've gone from Survivors to Cops.

I mean, are we supposed to find this funny? She's punching him, then she looks for her wand to hex him—and we know that Hermione's hexes are serious business. Then, she screams and looks demented. Then she points at him like he's the villain in a melodrama, and then she laughs a high-pitched out-of-control sound. Finally, she falls back on her tried and true weapon of sarcasm.

Ron manages to out-yell her and get in the information that he was caught by "Snatchers" shortly after he left the tent. These are gangs of freelance bounty hunters who round up Muggle-borns and blood traitors for the Ministry. So…. they randomly capture anyone they find in the woods? I mean, Ron was wearing jeans and sweaters, he wouldn't have been casting any magic, and he was unlikely to have said the word "Voldemort" to himself. So, he would have looked like a Muggle, wouldn't he? Do Snatchers grab any Muggle walking by himself and check them for wood?

Ron managed to distract the Snatchers by telling them that he was Stan Shunpike. That's how pathetic a self-image he has. Stan Shunpike. But it works and he's able to get his wand back, disarm another guy, and Apparate away. Being Ron, he messes that up again, losing two fingernails. Splinching has gone back to being comic.

Hermione continues to be a harpy, sarcastically comparing his comic injuries with the creepy snake attack that she and Harry suffered. Right now, Ron is probably reconsidering destroying the Horcrux. Maybe he should have run that sword through Hermione instead. She’s worse than bubble-Hermione by a long shot.

But she has to remain bitchy so that she can sarcastically ask how he managed to find them, so that Ron can explain the Deluminator's special attribute. Apparently he was playing with it one day and he heard Hermione say, "Ron" and then something about a wand. (It was when Hermione was reminding Harry that Ron's broken wand never worked well.)

So, then the Deluminator created a blue light that went into Ron's chest and when he Disapparated, he ended up near where Harry and Hermione's tent was.

So… Dumbledore had a magical thingy that would let him know when people said his name, and, if he wanted to, would take him instantly to the place they were. Which sounds a lot like the taboo thing that Voldemort has set up. Only… Dumbledore's magical name thingy is Good and Voldemort's is Evil.

I wonder if Dumbledore created his Deluminator after Grindelwald left him. Maybe he was hoping after all those years that Grindelwald would still be talking about him.

So, Ron finally gets to the part where Harry was following the doe and Hermione learns the big news she would have known half-an-hour ago if she hadn't been too busy punishing Ron.

Her reaction to hearing that they finally, finally have made a tiny bit of progress on their quest is to turn her back and go to sleep. Harry tells Ron that that's probably the best he can expect right now. True. Knowing Hermione, she could have done anything from keep him prisoner in a jar, to permanently disfiguring him, to castrating him.

Because, while it's horrible when men physically abuse their partners, when women do it, it's hilarious.

Fan Service:
We finally get to see Snape's Patronus, even though we don't know it yet.
But Snape fans do know it! We said he'd use a Patronus to help Harry out!
Harry had a sex dream! Harry had a sex dream!

Fan Slappage:
Sadly, Harry's sex dream did not involve Draco, Sirius, Lupin, Snape, Hermione, or even Ginny. It involved Nagini, and nobody ships Hagini.
Harry/Hermione descends to even greater depths of ickiness.
Snape's Patronus is neither a cool bat nor an even cooler thestral, but something out of a Disney movie.

DVD Extras:

EXT: DAY – HILL OVERLOOKING HOGWARTS

It is an agonizingly beautiful spring morning. Twelve-year-old Lily Evans and Severus Snape ascend the slope of a hill overlooking Hogwarts. Lily picks a wildflower as they go.

SEVERUS
Explain again why we have to spend our Saturday climbing up mountains?

LILY
My favorite flowers are up here. Besides I thought you liked to get away from things.

SEVERUS
I do, but—oof!

He suddenly trips and nearly ends up rolling down the hill. Lily shrieks.

LILY
Are you all right?

Severus sits up, shaken. Then he jumps to his feet, pulling out his wand.

SEVERUS
Potter!

LILY
Oh, honestly! How could he have done that? There’s no one around for miles.

SEVERUS
He—I don’t know. He follows me around. I hear him whispering stuff. And then he’ll hex me—

LILY
I think you’re getting paranoid.

SEVERUS
(stung)
It’s true.

Lily shakes her head. She turns to climb upward again. Snape follows her, but he keeps whirling around at the slightest sound.

He’s so preoccupied that when Lily abruptly stops, he runs right into her.

SEVERUS
Sorr—

LILY
Shhh!

She points at a doe, which is quietly grazing near the path.

LILY
(cont’d, whispering:)
Isn’t she beautiful?

Severus nods, and they carefully step off the path in order to avoid frightening the shy creature.

LILY
(cont’d)
I would love to have a deer as a pet. Or a unicorn.

SEVERUS
(whispering)
Unicorns are hard, but deer can be tamed with a spell.

LILY
Really?

The deer lifts her head, sniffing the air suspiciously. Lily gasps and steps back.

SEVERUS
It’s not us. We’re downwind.

LILY
Then what is it?

Severus frowns, he holds up his wand, ready to defend them in case of bears or other wild animals.

The doe suddenly whips around and kicks out with both feet. She connects with something… something invisible….

Which turns out to be James Potter. He flies out nowhere, separating from a piece of silvery-grey fabric, which suddenly appears out of thin air and flutters to the ground. James lands and rolls to his feet, exclaiming with fear and surprise.

Lily and Severus gape at him, stunned into immobility.

JAMES
What the f—argh!

The doe turns and charges James, who doesn’t hesitate a minute. With the instincts of a future Quidditch player, he jumps aside, grabs the fabric, and runs down the slope, hotly pursued by the indignant deer.

SEVERUS
Invisibility cloak! He has an invisibility cloak! I told you!

Lily looks at Severus and then bursts out laughing.

LILY
Did you see his face?

She falls over from the laughter. She is laughing so hard, she nearly rolls down the hill and ends up having to catch herself on a boulder. Then she bursts out laughing again.

Severus is slower to laugh, but he drinks in her good mood and finally can’t help himself.

LILY
(cont’d)
That was the funniest thing I ever—oh my God! The look on his face! What a prat!

She imitates his facial expressions, cracking herself up yet again. Severus plunks down on the ground, a huge grin on his face as he watches her.

SEVERUS
(sincerely)
This is the best moment of my life.

FADE OUT