Deathly Hallows Chapter 34

[montavilla.livejournal.com]

The Forest Again

The title of this chapter puzzles me, since Harry hasn’t been to the Forbidden Forest once this book. Sure, he’s been to a lot of other forests, but not to this one. So how is he going to it again? Shouldn’t the title be “Yet Another Bloody Forest”?

In case we got confused by the last chapter and took away the message that Snape’s life was more awful than anyone could have possibly conceived rather than the intended one, JKR recaps it for us. The important part of the chapter was that OMG! HARRY HAS TO DIE!

Neither would live, neither would survive. So, that pretty much makes hash out of the Prophecy. With its very carefully chosen words.

Harry hears his heart beating fiercely, valiantly, and wonders how many more beats it has before it stops forever.

He wonders if it will hurt. But, for all his fierce, valiant will to live, it does not occur to him to disobey—to try to run or escape. Why would it? We know that trying to run from Voldemort buys you one or two years at the most. And that’s if you are good at turning yourself into an armchair.

Harry starts wishing he could have died earlier—so that it would over with by now, I guess. He envies Hedwig her quick death. I think Hedwig might disagree with him about that. I’m sure that given her choice, getting killed while swinging around in a cramped little cage would not be it. I never really thought about it, but what a horrible last few minutes she had!

Or, Harry thinks, it might have been better to die while throwing himself in front of a killing curse meant for someone else. Like Lily did. That was an easy way to go.

Man! Everybody got a better death than Harry! Lily, James, Hedwig… nobody else ever had to die knowing about it beforehand! Nobody had to walk up to Voldemort, completely defenseless, and let the Dark Lord kill him for a greater cause.

Nobody except… Señor Snapo!

Harry reflects that the betrayal by Dumbledore was almost nothing. It was all Harry’s fault; he had been too foolish to question his own right of existence. He was only meant to live as long as it took to eliminate Voldemort’s Horcruxes.

So… when he was a baby, Dumbledore already knew that there were multiple Horcruxes? Or maybe just one? Dumbledore looked at baby Harry and thought to himself, As soon as I figure out where Tom has hidden his real Horcrux, the baby gets it!

Yeah, but Snape was disgusting. Because he wasn’t planning to kill a child. He just didn’t care.

How neat, how elegant Harry thinks, for Dumbledore to assign the task of destroying the Horcruxes to the last one of all!

Good try, JKR. But, no. It’s not neat or elegant. It’s idiotic to assign the task of destroying Horcruxes to a guy who doesn’t have 1) the magical knowledge or skill to detect a Horcrux, and 2) the magical knowledge or skill to destroy one.

I suppose one could call it elegant to trick Voldemort into killing the last bit of his soul by making the person holding it chase down the other soul bits. But I wouldn’t use that word. The phrase I would use is needlessly clever. It’s basically Dumbledore showing off.

Harry decides that Dumbledore knew Harry would choose to die, because Dumbledore had taken the time to understand him. No. First off, Dumbledore (with help from Voldemort) created your suicidal heroism. That’s not understanding, that’s manipulation.

He left you with the most unfriendly Muggles in the world—so that you wouldn’t have any attachments outside of the wizarding world. Then he made Hogwarts the fulfillment of any fantasies you might have had about friends, achievement, and plain old specialness. Then he trained you to become heroic and self-sacrificing (when it came to your health or life).

Moreover… sacrificing yourself so that people you care about will live? Not that big a leap. Yes, there are people who won’t die for others. But every mother in this series would die for her child, and all the people that Harry regrets dying tonight--Fred, Lupin, and Tonks—would have done the same. They did do the same, that’s why they’re dead.

And they didn’t even need to be trained.

Harry then thinks some more about dying and realizes that he messed up by not killing the snake, but Dumbledore was smart enough to know that, too, and that was why Hermione and Ron were allowed to come on his quest. That, and the fact that he wouldn’t have accomplished any of it without them.

He looks at his battered old Fabian watch and sees that he has only half an hour left before Voldemort starts killing everyone else. I guess the Prince’s Tale didn’t last that long after all.

Harry finally stands up, and his heart keeps beating wildly, as though it would like a vote in this whole dying business… isn’t it odd how disconnected Harry is from his organs? He’s great with the limbs and all—with those Seeker reflexes—but when it comes to his heart, or his penis chest monster libido, those are foreign elements.

And goodness knows his brain is like some distant relative that only shows up once a year for a visit.

Hehe. Harry puts on the Invisibility Cloak and walks through the castle, feeling like a ghost. The part that cracks me up is that he’s hoping someone will stop him—but of course, they can’t possibly see him through the most Special Invisibility Cloak in history.

At the entrance, he nearly bumps into Neville and Oliver Wood, who are carrying in the body of Colin Creevey. JKR’s explanation for how Colin, a Muggleborn who would have been kicked out of school, came to be here is that he arrived with the other D.A. members. Take that, continuity hounds!

After having Neville help him carry Colin however far it was, Oliver Wood decides he really didn’t need help. He takes the body up on his shoulders and Neville is therefore free (and alone) for Harry to assign one last task to.

Harry pulls off the Cloak, almost giving Neville a heart attack. When Neville suspiciously asks if Harry is going to give himself up to Voldemort, Harry lies in the most unconvincing way and tells Neville that the big snake Voldemort likes has to be killed.

Just in case Ron and Hermione might be too busy. By being dead or something. Harry reflects that this is how Dumbledore would have done it—there were three people originally on the quest, and, once he’s dead, there will still be three. Ron, Hermione, and Neville taking his place.

Yeah, Harry. This is why Dumbledore is an idiot. If it were me? I would have a hundred people gunning for that snake. Ever watch an army of ants take on something bigger? They may be small, but they win because there are a lot of them.

Hehe. Harry stumbles through the instructions, telling Neville that “Just in case they’re—busy—and you get the chance—“

And Neville cuts right in with, “Kill the snake?”

See. This is why Neville rocks. No emo moments for him. He goes right to what needs to be done. Kill the snake? Right. Got it. Later, Harry. I have to go haul in another ten bodies.

So Harry puts on the Cloak again, and comes upon Ginny leaning over a random girl, who is whispering for her mother. I have to tell you that this moment bugged the hell out of me, because—like everyone else in the world—I hate that characters are killed off, as Guy Fleegman says, “to show that the situation’s serious.”

So, it gave me great satisfaction to have Marietta come and play the part of the girl—complete with a heroic death. She did it for all the red shirts in the world.

“I want to go home” the girl cries. “I don’t want to fight anymore!”

As Ginny comforts her, Harry envies the girl for being able to say that. He wants to be stopped, to go home—

And then he realizes that Hogwarts was his home. His first and best home, just like Voldemort and Snape. Except for Snape it was probably more like a prison.

Snape’s family home was pretty terrible (at least, we can infer that it was), but look what happened to him at Hogwarts! Within a few minutes of getting on the train, he had acquired two enemies who used him as target practice for seven years. The culmination of that was that he was nearly killed, while his tormentors were glorified for their clever pranks. He was allowed two or three years outside of the school, then he bound himself to Dumbledore for the rest of his life. A life filled with frustration and fear. Snape seemed a lot happier in that shabby little library at Spinner’s End.

Harry passes on, and Ginny, because she’s his soul mate senses something and turns to look after him. But the specialness of that moment is eclipsed when Harry passes by Hagrid’s hut and thinks about all the great times eating rock cakes that are now gone forever…

Squirrel!

As Harry enters the forest, he comes into a swarm of Dementors and he falters. Then he realizes that he doesn’t have to walk alone and pulls out the Snitch that Dumbledore left him. He kisses it and says, “I am about to die.”

The Snitch opens and the Resurrection Stone, with its Deathly Hallows symbol appears. The stone is cracked. Now, this is the part that confuses me. Did Voldemort put the Horcrux in the stone or in the ring? The ring was cursed, but the stone was cracked… And neither appears to have been completely destroyed.

Horcrux or not, the stone works when Harry turns it over in his hands three times. Four dead people—neither ghost nor flesh—approach him. They are James, Lily, Sirius, and Remus.

I don’t exactly get why Remus is there with the others. James and Lily were, of course, Harry’s parents and they died for him. Sirius was his Godfather. Remus was merely Harry’s emotionally distant teacher for a year.

Now, if you think of Sirius and Remus as a couple, then it makes more sense.

But if they aren’t, then why not Tonks as well? Why not Moody? Why not Fred? Why not Hedwig?

And why, with all the rest, not Snape?

Okay, Harry and Snape hated each other, so maybe not.

But was Remus really closer to Harry than Fred?

And, what with all the portraits and the ghosts and everything—these James and Lily dead figures don’t seem all that different than the ones who came out of Voldemort’s wand. Except this time, they have a bit more time to talk to Harry. Oh, and this time, instead of trying to save him from Voldemort, they’re happy to have him die.

“I didn’t want you to die,” Harry tells him. “Any of you. I’m sorry—“

I guess this is why Snape showing up would be a bad idea. If he had, the line would have read something like this: “I didn’t want you to die. Any of you. Except Snape. I was fine with that one. “

Harry asks if they can walk with him as he goes to Voldemort and they agree. Sirius assures him that no one else will see them, as they are invisible to everyone but Harry. “We are part of you,” Sirius says.

Interestingly, although invisible to everyone else, the ghosties can see Harry through the Invisibility Cloak. Why is this? I don’t know. Magic. Love. Whatever.

They walk through the forest and the ghosties act like Patroni against the Dementors. Harry doesn’t actually know where Voldemort is, so it’s lucky that he stumbles on Yaxley and Dolohov. They let us know that time is nearly up and then conveniently turn around and head back to Voldemort so that Harry can follow them.

As it turns out, the Death Eaters have set up camp in Aragog’s old lair—still covered in giant cobwebs. The narrator notes that the giant spiders were driven out of the area in order to fight for the Death Eaters. Really? How exactly did that happen? Can Death Eaters control the giant spiders that no one else can? I mean, if you drive a wild animal out of its home, it generally doesn’t start fighting for you. It generally starts fighting to get you out.

But never mind. The Death Eaters are all standing around a flickering fire. Just like in every Death Eater fic ever written. Fenrir’s there, which means I ought to go back and change that DVD extra so that Ginny doesn’t kill him. Lucius is there, looking terrified. Check. Narcissa merely look apprehensive. I guess that makes her better than him. I’ll bet the Hat sorted her too soon. There are also two giants, sitting down by still towering over everyone else. Nice image. Still doesn’t justify the camping trip in OotP.

I like the description of Voldemort standing still with his hands folded over the Elder Wand. It makes him seem like a statue of a saint. Strange, perverted religious imagery. Especially since the cage with Nagini in it is floating right behind his head. JKR even describes it as looking like a “monstrous halo.”

Also, Voldemort is described as either praying or counting in his head—Harry’s not sure which. But either, the irrationality of praying or the super-rationality of counting, is apparently evil at this moment.

Voldemort admits that he was mistaken to think Harry would arrive, but Harry calls out to let him know he wasn’t, and steps into the light. The Death Eaters, like any good evil chorus, immediately start making “rabble-rabble” noises.

Hagrid’s voice cuts above the Death Eaters. Harry sees that he has been tied to a nearby tree. I hope it was Grawp who did it.

Hagrid is silenced by someone, and the only other person of note is Bellatrix, who has jumped up and now stands watching Harry and Voldemort like they’re the Williams sisters and this is Wimbleton. Her breast is heaving and I find that incredibly annoying. Good God, woman. Can’t you stop imitating a romance novel cover for a single moment? I swear, this part was written for Helena Bonham Carter.

Hehe. And Bellatrix, at her breast-heaving, open-mouthed panting, blazing-eyed worst reminds Harry of Ginny. Can you imagine? Every time Harry ever has sex with Ginny, he’s going to think of Bellatrix. Wow.

You know, if Harry had become the new Dark Lord, then this would have been Ginny. Except that Ginny, having Hermione to advise her, had dated other boys to make Harry jealous and thus excited his interest. Poor Bellatrix never got that hint, and so Voldemort barely ever looks at her no matter how much she simulates orgasm just from being in his presence.

Is just coincidence or is it another subtle dick joke when Harry thinks about the feel of Ginny’s lips on his… and Voldmort raises his wand? Perhaps this is a moment when Harry and Voldemort’s truly souls become one.

Or maybe it’s just a way to draw out the moment a little longer. Because time does seem to slow down as much as possible before Voldemort casts the inevitable killing curse. Harry sees a flash of green light, and the screen goes black.

*****

I’ve ragged as much as I can about this chapter. That’s my purpose, but I must admit that it is the best chapter in the book. It’s well written, well-paced, and, even though we know exactly what’s going to happen, there’s still tension and suspense.

Well done, JKR. I just wish that more of the chapters had been this good. And, you know, that the plot had been less stupid.

Fan Service:
Remus and Sirius together again!
James and Lily live! Sort of!
Harry dies!

Fan Slappage:
Two giants. That’s it? Where are the Inferi? The werewolves?

DVD Extras:

INT: A CLASSROOM AT HOGWARTS

The room is fairly crowded with people sitting at desks and filling in forms. Marietta Edgecombe and Colin Creevey wander in exchanging puzzled glances with each other.

A young woman with red hair approaches them. It is Lily Potter. She carries a clipboard.

LILY
Hello. Welcome to the afterlife. Please take a seat and fill in this form.

She hands each of them a piece of paper. Marietta takes one, bewildered.

MARIETTA
What’s this for?

LILY
We have to determine where you’re going to go.

Fred Weasley wanders up, his form in his hand.

FRED
Excuse me? What does this mean? “Going On”?

LILY
You have a choice, you see. Most people prefer to go on to the after life. Like it’s a new adventure.

FRED
So, what does “Wait” mean?

LILY
Some like to wait around for their loved ones to join them. I’d be careful about that one. It tends to mean doing administrative work.

She sighs and taps her clipboard.

MARIETTA
(peering at her form)
What is “Ghost”?

LILY
Oh, that’s an option where you take on the form of a ghost. Some people choose that. Cowards, mostly.

MARIETTA
I don’t know. There’s a certain person I could see haunting…

COLIN
“Portrait”?

LILY
That’s only open if you’ve had your portrait painted. Then you get to hang out and tell people what to do.

FRED
You know, the afterlife is not at all what I expected it to be.

LILY
Oh? What did you expect?

COLIN
More famous people.

MARIETTA
Less paperwork.

FRED
More fireworks.

LILY
Well, I guess we can’t always get what we want, can we?

Remus Lupin appears in the doorway, looking around curiously.

LUPIN
Lily Potter?

A joyous cry comes from the back of the room:

SIRIUS
Remus!

He comes loping up, looking young and fit. Lupin stares at him.

LUPIN
Sirius? What are you doing here?

SIRIUS
I came to greet you!

They hug and kiss.

TONKS
(disgusted)
Oh my God. I knew it.

She appears behind them, framed in the doorway.

TONKS (cont’d)
It was him all the time!

LUPIN
Yes.

LILY
(gaping at Sirius)
I thought you were straight.

SIRIUS
(proudly)
Camouflage, baby. Just more reason I couldn’t stand my family.

James Pottter appears from a door in the back.

JAMES
Lily! Sirius! Come on. It’s time.

LILY
Already? (She sighs and puts her clipboard down.) Fill out that form. I’ll be back in a few minutes.

JAMES
Lupin, you too.

The four of them join hands and Disapparate.

Marietta hands a form to Tonks, and the four of them move towards empty desks.

FRED
(starting) Merlin’s pants!

He picks something up from the floor.

COLIN
What is it?

FRED
(looking ill) It’s my brother’s ear.

FADE OUT

Comments

Part 1 of 2

[madderbrad.livejournal.com]

Great review (as usual). I particularly loved your snark/ragging in this one, it worked well for me.

Great summary too:

I must admit that it is the best chapter in the book. It’s well written, well-paced, and, even though we know exactly what’s going to happen, there’s still tension and suspense.

Well done, JKR. I just wish that more of the chapters had been this good. And, you know, that the plot had been less stupid.

Such a pity that Rowling was so useless at plotting the end to her series. Oh well.

This was the only chapter in the book which engaged me; I found myself quite moved by Harry's death march into the forest, his reunion with the spirits of his loved ones. Which surprised me at the time, because otherwise I'd been finding DH quite a joke, part of my mind watching the other part in its perusal and thinking "no, this book is SO BAD, I must be reading it wrong". You know, like when you're at the cinema watching a bad movie which just can't hold your interest, so part of you 'watches' the other part which is watching the movie.

Anyway, Harry's communion with his ghostly companions was well done. Since then, though, I've come to deplore Rowling's fatalistic view of death which permeated the book, and in particular the contradiction that Harry's parents, who had died to protect him, who had so exhorted him to escape Voldemort in GoF, would now essentially *encourage* him to walk to his slaughter. Ugh.

Neither would live, neither would survive. So, that pretty much makes hash out of the Prophecy. With its very carefully chosen words.

THANK YOU for saying that. I was a big fan of the prophecy, coming out of OotP - I thought it would prove to be a marvellous mechanism for angst and drama in the last segment of the series. Instead I was utterly confounded when Rowling deliberately did an about-face in the next book, making the prophecy a farce (when Harry reveals the secret to his two best friends Hermione gets punched in the eye by a joke telescope two nanoseconds following, defusing the moment entirely) and then having Albus ("I speak for the author, you'd better listen to me if you want to understand how you're supposed to read this story") Dumbledore poo-poo the whole idea of a prophecy. And then it is never really used again.

I've come across a couple of fans who have tried their hardest to shoehorn the prophecy into a more refined interpretation which allows them to retain their adoration of 'Jo', but no, facts are facts - after putting up the Prophecy as the foundation of the story for her fifth book, in the very next novel she proceeded to trash it, and then it never appears in DH at all. Until she throws it in for this chapter - making a further hash of it, as you say - and then has Harry nonsensically quote it in the big confrontation coming up, hoping that it will stick with the readers anyway.

I think the Prophecy is one of the best examples of Rowling chucking in every bit of popular myth which caught her fancy, only to later prove incapable of incorporating it in a meaningful or consistent way in the end game of her series. And of how she'd conjure up something to work as a one-shot wonder for just one book, unthinking or uncaring of the implications for the rest of the series.

Like others here I don't think Snape went willingly to his death. He always knew it was a risk, but didn't know, when he was summoned, that Voldemort intended to kill him there and then.

Good try, JKR. But, no. It’s not neat or elegant. It’s idiotic to assign the task of destroying Horcruxes to a guy who doesn’t have 1) the magical knowledge or skill to detect a Horcrux, and 2) the magical knowledge or skill to destroy one.

Applause. Yeah, Rowling wants - needs - us to believe that it all makes sense. But it doesn't. Her story/series is made of fairy floss ... it looks nice, but bite into it and it's empty air, nothing of substance.

Re: Part 1 of 2

[montavilla.livejournal.com]

If JKR had really trashed the prophecy, then that might have been more interesting. There was a time when I thought it would be great if the real hero had turned out to be Neville--in that he was the true prophecy boy and would end up killing Voldemort directly.

I even toyed with the idea of it being Draco Malfoy (who was born on June 6, according to JKR's website). If you want to be technical, there's an outside possibility that he could have been born "as the Seventh moon dies." Moon cycles being what they are.

Of course, Neville or Draco could possibly have undone Voldemort and fulfilled the prophecy. If JKR had wanted to junk it altogether, she could have made the solution completely different. Like having everyone swarm Voldemort like an army of ants. Or having Hermione kill him. Or Marietta Edgecombe.

But then she wanted divination to be both nonsense and powerful magic.

Re: Part 1 of 2

[madderbrad.livejournal.com]

Your ideas are great, but they're still paying homage to the power of the Prophecy, allowing it to survive as an object of respect and authority in the story. And I quite agree with the intent behind your ideas - *so much* might have been made of the prophecy! For example, everyone assumed that the object of the prophecy had already been 'marked', but Neville, say, could have been branded/scarred by something at any time in the series. And so forth.

I've read one or two brilliant stories which really went all-out with the Prophecy, really wonderful stuff. Like (a) it being assumed that Harry is safe from everyone but Voldemort, but then (b) at a critical moment, in a fight with Pettigrew, someone suddenly realises that Pettigrew has "the hand of the other". That sort of clever drama is really exciting stuff to read, in my opinion.

The actual *revelation* of the prophecy, even, is a subset of the Prophecy which really took my interest in the interstitial period between books 5 & 6 (before Rowling deliberately emasculated the scene). Harry angsting over it all - will he be murderer or murdered (a' la' his thoughts at the end of OotP before Rowling sat down to try and work out what she was going to do next and, as usual, prove unable to throw away her "every book a new story with new gimmicks" approach (SO UNSUITABLE for the closing novels of her series!!)). Telling just one or two of his friends (I'm thinking of a *lovely* short story where Ginny comforts him over it). Or a couple of stories which go to the other extreme, where he *broadcasts* the details to all and sundry. Really amazing stuff.

Fan fiction has a lot to answer for, when fans like me - people with no creativity or imagination - can still front up and see, as plain as daylight, all of the mistakes and missed opportunities that exist (or don't exist) in Rowling's work. :-(

But then she wanted divination to be both nonsense and powerful magic.

Yeah. Treated as a joke - except okay, Trelawney could also give 'real' prophecies, like her one about Pettigrew - so she gave another 'real' one - only the words made no sense at all - and Rowling herself proved unable to 'use' it - so Harry waves his hands over it, quotes it a couple of times and hopes that it will 'stick' with the kiddies. Sigh.