death to capslock

I totally forgot that key to Occlumency being grief. Wow!

I have to admit this chapter did nothing for me. But maybe it was just my Slytherin-style Occlumency making me heartless. The whole "I shall bury him by hand so we can have a cliche burial scene because it's better than magic" seemed contrived.

So, what happened again? Wormtail hesitated for the smallest, tiniest bit of time when he was trying to strangle Harry—and he got killed. Balance that against Voldemort never having come back in the first place. And all Wormtail really did was to hesitate about something he wasn’t supposed to do anyway, since Voldemort told everyone not to kill Harry. So, he was actually following Voldemort’s orders when he hesitated.

LOL! Yeah, not so much Dumbledore being right there. Harry should really just be glad that Voldemort would never give somebody a silver hand without a nasty curse that made the guy obey him.

Hermione arrives, “pale and unsteady on her feet.” She’s also wearing a bathrobe, which tells me she must have been through a lot of torture. Gryffindors only disrobe for really bad injuries.

Also Gryffindors are the only ones who really feel pain. If this were a Slytherin or a DE who'd been tortured you can bet they wouldn't be wearing a bathrobe as a mark of noble suffering.

I don't even remember Luna's eulogy, so no mocking here!

I also find Dobby's little grave weird given the complete back and forth attitude about house elf slavery. It feels like it gets all its meaning for what that epitaph would mean on the grave of a black ex-slave. Only given that slavery is actually good in this universe it's more just putting his most unique character trait on the stone. It really means "Here lies Dobby, the only house elf who ever wanted to be free" or "Here lies Dobby: House Elf freedom dies with him."

I don’t need to point out that, if people can be their own Secret-Keepers, then James never needed to trust Dumbledore, Sirius, or Peter, right?

An editor should have pointed out both of them, probably.

If Dobby hadn’t died, he’d have been obsessing for the next ten years about it. (All without actually looking for them.)And he never would have obsessed about them at all if Dumbledore hadn’t left a bunch of cryptic clues.

God yes to all of this.

Oh god, sending Bill out of the room. Yes. But remember, secret mission and all. Only for people whose pictures are on the cover of the book.

Also love that he's reminding us how off-putting swarthy creatures are in preparation for Harry's dealings with Griphook to get highlighted as Harry being totally tolerant and not racist like Voldemort.

Since he’s actually complimenting Harry, I can’t help wondering if JKR knows what the word “rancorous” means.

I assume he's rancorous because it indicates he doesn't really want to give a Wizard a compliment, but he has to because Harry's just been so impressive.

Love how Dean's not being brought in here makes it clear that Griphook, like everyone else, didn't really exist until Harry noticed him.

Wand allegiance, Ollivander explains, is a complex thing. The wand chooses the wizard, but, if the wand is taken by force, it may switch allegiance to the more aggressive wizard. So, Harry is now Master of Draco’s domain, while Ron is Master of Peter’s peter.

And so in keeping with the theme, anything that looked like "love" (such as wands choosing wizards because of natural affinity and growing and learning together) gets replaced by might is right. Also, wtf with the holly wand having power over any wand Voldemort carried? I call total foul on that one. That's ridiculous.

Also, since when does any body priori incantatum on anybody's wand? Why assume they'd do it on Hermione's?

If that’s the case—and I believe that it is—then there was absolutely no reason for Dumbledore to let Harry know about the Deathly Hallows quest at all.

Jesus, can I get an amen?

EXTRAS: ROTFL!!