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

[sigune.livejournal.com]

What I remember most about reading this chapter for the first time was total shock at the fact that James and Lily encouraged their son to walk to his death at age 17. I would have expected Lily to scream, "WHAT? Do you think I threw myself in front of that curse for this? Your father and I died so you can kill yourself when Dumbledore says so? The idea was for you to live, sweetie. RUN, you little idiot, RUN!" But that's me, I guess.
- Eh. This part just creeped me out.

[montavilla.livejournal.com]

I don't know that I needed them to do that. I knew that Harry was going to have to do this in order for the story to play out--so I didn't feel that Kübler-Ross stages of grief thing.

I just wanted it to be over at this point. So, we could get to the falling action.

[tdotm.livejournal.com]

HA HA HA, SUCKER!! The falling action - still waiting, huh? I know I am. One thing JKR was quite good at in the *other* books was falling action. I know it was quite formulaic, but I'm happy enough with that if I think of HP as a school series - they frequently follow a pattern. HP started at the Dursleys, there was a break for Christmas and Dumbles was wheeled out after the climax to explain what the hell had happened in each book. Fine. Then in the *last* book, the one with the most incoherent (some would say non-existent) plot - no falling action. Just when we needed resolution not just for the crappiest book, but also for the ENTIRE SERIES, JKR is schtum. When I saw '19 years later', I still remember turning back in confusion. The odds were against my accidentally turning over 25 pages at once, but surely it was even more unlikely that JKR would bring her series to a close with no resolution for her world and its inhabitants. 19 years later was rubbish (and I don't just mean in the writing style). None of it mattered - it could all have been covered with the words 'and they lived happily ever after'. That was what fan-fic was for.

JKR needed to say how Voldemort's life then death affected her world. Did it change? Did anybody learn any lessons? Did slavery remain? institutionalized? What happened to the Dursleys/Grangers/Luna/George/Hagrid (pah)/Malfoys/Andromeda/Teddy/Lavender/McGonagall/the rest of the Order/all the other teachers? JKR's covered a little of it elsewhere, but as I've said before, we can hardly print out all her interviews and staple them to the inside of our copy of DH. Not least because JKR's interview responses are sometimes less than consistent. We should have had a couple of chapters of this, their immediate plans for the future plus funeral/memorials for the dead. Then, in the final paragraph, she could have said how happy Harry was the day he married Ginny (ew), and the day he was Best Man for Ron when he married Hermione. But even after they started families and throughout their happy lives together he never forgot the war and blah blah blah. She can stick her epilogue up her nostril.

Falling action MY ARSE! I mean wtf, JKR? WTF? (Phew, I feel better now!)

[madderbrad.livejournal.com]

When I saw montavilla's sentence with 'falling action' I - honestly! - read that as 'failing action'. Both because, well, this *is* DH, and also I don't know what 'falling' action actually is? I gather, from what you're saying, it's "climactic or concluding action that provides closure"?

Nuh uh, not present in DH. Or the series as a whole. :-(

[tdotm.livejournal.com]

Failing action - you're not kidding! Though Failed Action might be more apt - it was an ongoing problem.

From Wikepedia: 'The falling action is the part of a story, usually found in tragedies and short stories, following the climax and showing the effects of the catastrophe.'

Followed by the Denouement (also from Wikipedia!): 'a series of events that follow the climax of a drama or narrative, and thus serves as the conclusion of the story. Conflicts are resolved, creating normality for the characters and a sense of catharsis, or release of tension and anxiety, for the reader.'

JKR went from Voldie going mouldy, to 19 years later in about 5 pages - and one of them was the title page for the epilogue. In a series of thousands of pages that was ridiculous. I also don't accept that the epilogue was a denouement as she managed to say nothing about what happened - we had no idea how they got to where they were. We learnt nothing of the world they were living in, what they did etc. Just that Harry was seriously unimaginative about naming children. It was total pants.

I do think that she managed it quite well in earlier books. In OotP (otherwise not the best effort) after the Ministry kerfuffle, Harry 1) went all Rambo on Dumbles' office, 2) learnt about the Prophecy, 3) headed back to King's Cross, 4) the DA hexed various foes, 5)the Order threatened the Dursleys and 6) Harry went back to Surrey feeling that he wasn't alone - unlike how the book started. In Deathly Hallows - the conclusion to the whole series -nothing. JKR had done it before several times, there was no excuse for this failure.

[oryx_leucoryx]

She could have even done it in the epilogue: Have Neville be the ethics teacher, have Harry be the founder of a school for werewolves (in memory of his godson's father), talk about what Hermione has or hasn't achieved for house-elves and how they responded. That tells me a lot more about a society that recovered from wars and has learned something from them than how many children any of them had.