The Harry Potter Reread has not yet said how pleased it is that we have made it to the final book together. We are all deserving of a party of some sort. Please have a party wherever you are.
This week we’re going to say goodbye to a place of safety and suffer some shocking casualties. It’s chapters 3 and 4 of The Deathly Hallows—The Dursleys Departing and The Seven Potters.
Index to the reread can be located here! Other Harry Potter and Potter-related pieces can be found under their appropriate tag. And of course, since we know this is a reread, all posts might contain spoilers for the entire series. If you haven’t read all the Potter books, be warned.
Chapter 3—The Dursleys Departing
Summary
Vernon is calling Harry downstairs, so he puts the mirror fragment with the things he’s taking on his journey and heads down. The Dursleys are dressed to travel, but Vernon wants Harry to sit down. He says that he doesn’t believe any of the nonsense they’ve been told about their home no longer being safe, that they’re staying. (Apparently this has been a regular occurrence for the past month.) This time he tells Harry that he thinks it’s a plot to get their house. Harry laughs him off and reminds him of the house Sirius left him. Harry reexplains the situation to him, but Vernon thinks they should qualify for Ministry protection. Harry explains again that they think the Ministry has been infiltrated. Vernon says that if they do accept the protection they’ve been offered, he wants Kingsley. Harry explains again that Kingsley is protecting the Muggle Prime Minister, and that Hestia Jones and Dedalus Diggle will be sufficient for the job.
When Vernon continues to fret, Harry goes off at him, reminding him that the accidents they’re seeing on television aren’t accidents, that Voldemort likes to kill Muggles, and that there are plenty of other terrifying beings at his disposal, including dementors. The mention of them frightens Dudley, who hadn’t thought there could be more than the two who attacked them. Vernon asks about work, about school, but Dudley says that he wants to go with the Order. Harry knows the argument is won and leaves to finish packing. The doorbell rings and Harry heads downstairs to greet Hestia and Dedalus. They explain the plan to the Dursleys—to have Vernon drive them all ten miles from the house, then Disapparate to a predetermined destination. They tell Harry to wait briefly for his guard; Moody was going to take him by Side-Along Apparation, but the plan has changed. They are trying to time time Harry’s departure with the Dursleys Apparation exactly, so that the protection breaks at the same time.
Hestia makes to wait in the hall to give Harry and the Dursleys privacy, but Harry assures her that it’s not needed. Vernon gives a stilted goodbye, Petunia won’t look Harry and the eye and merely asks if Dudley’s ready. By the time his aunt and uncle reach the living room entrance, Dudley expresses his confusion—he can’t understand why Harry isn’t coming with them. Vernon insists that Harry doesn’t want to, which Harry confirms, but still Dudley won’t leave—he wants to know where Harry is going to go. When it’s clear that Petunia and Vernon don’t know, Hestia and Dedalus are appalled. Hestia can’t believe that they don’t realize his importance, but Harry explains that they thinks he’s a waste of space… which Dudley denies. Harry is shocked by the admission, and thanks his cousin. Dudley then reminds Harry that he saved his life. Harry suddenly realizes that the cup of tea he stepped on might not have been a booby trap after all, and he isn’t quite sure how to react to this outpouring of emotion from his cousin.
Petunia begins to cry over her son’s sweetness, and his gratitude (at which points Hestia mentions that he didn’t actually thank Harry, only said he wasn’t a waste of space, but Harry knows that’s a practical declaration of love from his cousin). Vernon presses everyone about leaving, so they begin their exit. But Dudley approaches Harry and makes to shake his hand. Harry asks if the dementors turned him into a different person, and Dudley claims he doesn’t know. They shake hands and say goodbye. Petunia is the last to leave, not realizing that her husband and son have already made their way to the car. She bids her goodbye, but stops and looks back. Harry gets the feeling that she wants to say something to him, but she doesn’t manage it, and heads out the door.
Commentary
I feel sometimes as though the book is trying to reassure of us certain unsinkable truths; in a universe where the true depths of a person’s character is often brought to light no matter how much you personally come to dislike them… Vernon Dursley will always be the worst. Because really, there’s not a single thing he says in this chapter that makes me feel bad for the guy, even knowing that he’s being forced to uproot his life for the foreseeable future.
There’s that point in the chapter where Harry explains (again) that they have to hide because Voldemort would probably torture them for information, or use them as bait to get Harry to come and rescue them, and Harry and Vernon both look at each other—and Harry wonders if they’re thinking the same thing. My assumption is that they’re both either thinking that he’d never come to their rescue in a million years… or that they’re simply wondering if he would. Which is sad, either way.
There are plenty of readers who didn’t like the final appearance of the Dursleys, mostly because we get nothing from Petunia after all these years. On the one hand, I get it—after years of silence, it would have been nice to get some closure, some small gesture. (I think it’s pretty telling that the movie does give that a moment to Petunia, almost like an apology.) On the other hand, there’s an aspect of realism to this departure that I appreciate. Petunia has worked very hard all her life to stay detached from Harry; it would be a poor choice to start caring, to try opening up even a little now. In fact, I’d argue that her hysterical weeping over Dudley’s gesture to Harry is Petunia dealing with it. That outburst of emotion directed toward her son rather than her nephew is honestly all she can manage. It’s not what we’d like to see, but it makes more sense than a sudden confession, a teary anecdote about Lily, a hug.
With Dudley, the change makes sense and also plays into Rowling’s theme of each generation improving on the one before it. Harry and Dudley are going to do better than their parents did, and this doesn’t actually come out of nowhere for Dudley—he’s had two full years to think about what happened during that dementor attack, to fully metabolize the fact that his cousin’s ability to do magic (the very thing his parents are terrified of) is the only thing that saved him. He has the chance to consider what it means that Harry is accustomed to these sorts of terrors, and to wonder what that says about his life. And Dudley doesn’t overdo it, doesn’t try to be Harry’s pal or tell him he cares about him. He just acknowledges that his family should ask about what’s coming for Harry, about where he’s going. He knows very little about Harry’s position in this other world, what he’s meant to do. But he’s not going to pretend that his cousin is invisible anymore.
And Harry, poor Harry, has no means to handle this sudden shift. It’s telling that his sarcasm comes through in the discomfort:
Again, Dudley appeared to grapple with thoughts too unwieldy for expression before mumbling, “You saved my life.”
Not really,” said Harry. “It was your soul the dementor would have taken. . . .”
I mean, I love Sassy Harry, but this is a coping mechanism. How do you respond to concern and respect from someone who treated you like a mat for wiping dirty shoes on your entire life? He just barely manages a real reply before Dudley walks out the door. And while we know that Harry and Dudley do keep in touch (Rowling has said that they exchange Christmas cards and occasionally get together so their kids can play), this easily could have been the last time they spoke. He’s protected himself so well against their abuse that it never occurs to him that one of them might have something kind to say. He’s not prepared.
Then we get that final moment with Petunia, where it almost seems that she’d like to say something to him. And it’s such a painful ending, but it still feels correct. For all that Petunia wants to reach out, she’s made it a job to keep Harry away. Breaching that gap is too much, is not something that she prepared herself for either—it’s surprising enough that Dudley does it on her behalf. So she leaves without a word, knowing that her nephew is being hunted down by the very same wizard who murdered her sister.
His odds aren’t exactly good, and she knows it. And in that moment, I can’t really fault Petunia for staying away.
Chapter 4—The Seven Potters
Summary
Harry heads upstairs to watch the Dursley’s car disappear from the window, then takes his belongings downstairs. Looking about, Harry thinks of the times he had in the house whenever the Dursleys went out without him and he was allowed some fun time to himself. They seem like memories that belong to another person. He talks to Hedwig about it, about the time he’s had in the house; saving Dudley from dementors, Dumbledore’s visit last year, the cupboard under the stairs where he used to sleep. He hears a noise outside and looks out the window to see figures appearing as they lift their Disillusionment Charms. Hagrid’s there with a motorbike that has a sidecar, and several others have thestrals and brooms. Moody has Harry retreat inside to explain the new plan to him.
Once in the kitchen, Harry observes the whole group: Ron, Hermione, Fred and George, Bill, Mr. Weasley, Moody, Tonks, Lupin, Fleur, Kingsley, Hagrid, and Mundungus. Tonks flashes her wedding ring at Harry, but Moody cuts him off in the middle of his congratulations to get things moving. He explains that Pius Thicknesse has made it an imprisonable offense to use magical means of leaving the Dursley house, in the name of “protecting” Harry. Since he’s still got the Trace on him as well, it’s down to using magic transportation that the Ministry can’t track. Lily’s charm on Harry will break as soon as he gets outside the house’s radius, but they’ve chosen to break it early to get the jump on Voldemort. Moody tells Harry that they left a fake trail at the Ministry, insisting that he would be moved on the 30th, but they presume that he’s got Death Eater’s patrolling just in case. To help, they’ve placed crazy protections on a dozen houses, all potential hiding spots.
He explains that Harry will be heading to Tonks’s parents, and from there can use a Portkey to the Burrow. Harry asks how the Death Eaters could be fooled when so many of them will be flying to the Tonks house. Moody tells him the crux of the plan—there will be seven Harrys with seven traveling companions acting as escorts, and each pair will head to a different safe house. Moody withdraws a flask of Polyjuice Potion, and Harry freaks out; he’s not all right with six people risking their lives. Hermione isn’t surprised he’s taking it this way, Ron insists that they’ve risked their lives for him before, and when Harry threatens not to cooperate, George points out that it won’t be hard for thirteen wizards to subdue him. Moody demands the hair, and Harry eventually acquiesces. The potion turns gold, and Hermione makes the comment that Harry looks much tastier than Goyle did back in second year, which gets nothing but eyebrows from Ron.
Ron, Hermione, Fred, George, Fleur, and Mundungus are lined up to be fake Harrys. (Mundungus requires some forceful handling in that regard.) Everyone takes their Polyjuice Potion and turns into Harry—the twins have fun exclaiming that they’re identical. Moody hands out better fitting clothes, tells everyone to retrieve luggage and not forget their glasses. Harry finds it entirely unsettling, but eventually he’s staring back at six more of himself. The pairs for the flight are as follows: Moody and Mundungus, Arthur and Fred, George and Remus, Fleur and Bill, Hermione and Kingsley, Ron and Tonks, and Harry with Hagrid. Harry is less-than-happy to be traveling by motorbike than broom, but Moody tells him that the Death Eaters will probably assume that he’s traveling that way. Everyone heads out back—Harry asks Hagrid if the motorbike he’s using is Sirius’, which Hagrid confirms. He also tells Harry that Mr. Weasley added a few modifications, and Arthur reminds Hagrid that he’s not sure of those and they’re only to be used in emergencies. The group kicks off, Harry feeling uncomfortable crammed into the sidecar. He forgets to get a last look at Privet Drive and by the time he looks down, he can’t tell which house it is.
Suddenly, the group is surrounded by over thirty hooded figures. Everyone starts screaming and shouting, green light is flying everywhere, and Hagrid flips the motorbike upside-down. Harry is hanging onto the sidecar, but all of Harry’s things start to slide out of the car; the broom falls, but Harry manages to hold onto his rucksack and Hedwig’s cage as the motorbike flips back right side up—
—and then Hedwig is hit by the Killing Curse.
Harry cannot fully process the death and his concern for the rest of the party takes hold. He starts telling Hagrid to turn around and go back, but Hagrid won’t endanger Harry any further. Four Death Eaters are on their tail, narrowly missing Harry with curse after curse. Hagrid hits a button and a brick wall emerges from the exhaust pipe, hitting one Death Eater square and slowing another. The other two are still in pursuit, and Harry responds to their curses with Stunning Spells. Hagrid hits another button and throws out a net, but the Death Eaters avoid it, and the third from their party catches up to them. Hagrid presses the purple button (an addition that he earlier claimed was his idea) and dragon fire shoots from the back of the motorbike. The acceleration jostles the sidecar from the bike, and Hagrid tries to repair it with his pink umbrella, but it breaks the sidecar off entirely. Harry uses a levitation charm to keep the car airborne, then hits one Death Eater with a jinx, but the next curse come so close that Harry ducks into the car and knocks out his tooth on the seat. Hagrid gets to Harry and manages to pull him from the sidecar with his rucksack. facing backward on the bike. Harry explodes the sidecar and stops one of the Death Eaters. Harry keeps shooting Stunning Spells at them, until one gets his hood knocked off and he finds Stan Shunpike, looking utterly blank. He tries to disarm Stan, and immediately afterward one of the Death Eaters shouts that he’s the real Harry.
The other two Death Eaters disappear then, and Harry cannot figure out where they’ve gone. He turns on the bike so that he can grab hold of Hagrid’s jacket, then tells him to use the dragon-fire again for speed. Hagrid thinks they’ve finally lost them, and tells Harry they’re almost to the safe house. But Harry’s scar begins to burn, and two Death Eaters appear on either side of the bike. Then Voldemort appears, flying without aid, shooting Killing Curses at Harry in earnest. Hagrid takes the motorbike into a vertical dive, Harry throws out Stunning Spells at random and manages to hit one of the Death Eaters. Another one tries to get to him, but Hagrid leaps onto the Death Eater and they disappear. Voldemort is upon Harry, and he’s sure he’s about to die when his wand suddenly acts on his behalf—a golden jet of fire emits from the end, a Death Eater yells, Voldemort screams “No!” and Harry presses the dragon-fire button again. He tries to call from Hagrid, sees the earth speeding toward him and knows he’s going to crash the bike. He hears Voldemort order for another Death Eater’s wand, sees him and thinks it’s the end… but Voldemort vanishes.
Then Harry sees Hagrid laid out on the ground below and crashes into a pond.
Commentary
Harry’s incredulousness at Dudley’s farewell comes through in the nearly panicked narration he gives to Hedwig as he says goodbye to Number Four Privet Drive. And again, we get slammed with Harry’s lack of preparation, his assumption that this would be the simple part. He’s been so focused on doing, on readying himself for the war, that he doesn’t really think about bidding farewell to the only home he’s ever known, flawed as it was. Harry thinks back on the times he was able to enjoy himself in the house when it was empty, pokes his head into the cupboard under the stairs and remembers that he was small once, that he grew up here whether he likes the thought or not. Try as we might, all the places we occupy leave some kind of imprint on us, and Harry realizes it right as he’s about to walk out the door.
The crew arrives to take him away, and this line got me again:
Harry’s heart seemed to expand and glow at the sight: He felt incredibly fond of all of them, even Mundungus, whom he had tried to strangle the last time they had met.
Moody explains the plan, and we get that awkward on-the-nose comment where he says that they’re using decoys because “even You-Know-Who can’t split himself into seven” and Harry and Hermione look at each other in what I assume is an aaahahahahaa, that’s hi-LAR-ious way. (They don’t, they just meet eyes quickly, but in my mind that’s what it looks like.) Harry is very cross with the idea of all these people risking their lives for him, but everyone insists, so he has to offer up some hair, and then we get that wonderfully awkward moment where Hermione is like you’re gonna taste way better than Goyle and Ron’s all O RLY? It’s just a funny slip-up that reminds us to have a laugh regardless of the dire stakes.
Then there are seven Harrys, and we finally touch on how creepy the Polyjuice Potion is when we consider it essentially gives you sudden ownership over someone else’s body. It’s understandable that it took so long for the books to get here because the narration is primarily concerned with Harry’s POV, and it’s only once he’s the subject of the potion that he realizes that all these people are being pretty cavalier about showing off his body in a way that makes him super uncomfortable. I’m glad it’s addressed, even if it has been a long time coming. And I’m also glad that even in the midst of all the turmoil, the narrative never loses sight of the fact that chosen-or-no Harry is a teenager, and most teenagers are hyper body-conscious, so yeah, this would bother him.
The symmetry here is very deliberate; Harry arrived at Privet Drive on Sirius’ motorbike with Hagrid. Now he will depart on that same motorbike with Hagrid. When Harry was brought here, it was following a massacre by Voldemort in his family’s home where he was the intended target. Now he’s flying straight into a massacre orchestrated by Voldemort where, again, he is the intended target. Harry’s nervousness about the bike aside, assigning him to Hagrid is a smart move; it’s later pointed out that Voldemort assumed that Harry would be with the toughest Auror of the group, which is why he goes for Moody first. Yet again, Voldemort fails to understand the emotional connections at play—nervous or not, Hagrid is the guard in this group who Harry considers to be family above all. Harry is being protected by the person here who loves him most. It’s the kind of error we expect Voldemort to make, refusing to place importance on that.
I keep thinking about Snape’s position in this, how difficult it must be to toe the line; it’s not just that he has to give Voldemort valuable information (he’s got the real plan about moving Harry and Yaxley got the decoy plan, which continues to make him valuable on Voldemort’s eyes), he also has to be useful in this battle. It takes a lot of skill to hurt people, but not kill them. You can’t help but wonder what the thought process is, how he’s handling it in his mind, separating out what to say, how to behave, when to give away the important details and when to hold back. In addition, we know that Snape has not underestimated the skill of the group—we have to assume that he only gave away the real information about Harry’s moving date because he assumed that most of the Order would be able to survive the encounter, that they were skilled enough to handle the ambush. Not because he cares about any of them, but because he knows they need numbers if they’re going to win the war.
Even though we know this plan is going to hell, it’s still horrible to experience the train wreck. And we’re smacked straight out of the gate with Hedwig.
Ugh. From a narrative standpoint, of course; they won’t really have use for her on their upcoming journey, her death will only truly matter to Harry, and Rowling even said that offing her first was meant to be a sort of symbolic gesture—the end of Harry’s childhood, full stop. But like all death in war, in the midst of a battle, it’s too sudden. I remember when I first read it, thinking that Rowling would wait a little longer before she hit us with a character death. And then Hedwig is gone, and you know instantly: We’re not going to play around anymore. Kid gloves off. It racks up tension when we’re already at a breaking point, already know they’re screwed. In a weird way, Hedwig’s death feels more personal than I ever expected. You instantly translate her into your own pets, your faithful companions who are with you every step, who never burden you. Suddenly you’re weighed down by her absence.
It’s all down to Harry’s considerable strength, down to the fact that he’s suffered so much loss already, that he’s able to turn his denial into concern for the rest of his friends, to act when another person would be paralyzed. This whole sequence really does prove that Harry is far more battle-ready than we may have perceived, as he instantly launches himself into the thing, stunning and jinxing as many Death Eaters as he can. Harry’s mercy for Stan is the thing that identifies him, and it’s almost funny that he doesn’t realize it, that he can’t figure out what gave him away.
We get Harry’s wand acting of its own accord, and this might be the one thing that bugs me here? It doesn’t seem to really serve the plot to have Harry’s wand acting on Voldemort because it “recognizes” him or whatever. It just seems like a clever, instant way to get Harry out of a tough spot. The only real reason that it’s relevant is because Voldemort needs to know that using another wand on Harry won’t solve his problem, but even then, I feel like there could have been a clue to lead Harry to this weird spell, something. Have Harry hear phoenix song on the air and then the idea just hits him. Don’t make the wand do a thing. It just feels kinda lazy. That said, the whole sequence isn’t short of thrills, and Harry speeding toward the ground on Sirius’ motorbike creates some armrest-gripping tension.
The fake out with Hagrid is SO MEAN. The next chapter is called Fallen Warrior, and we don’t find out Hagrid is alive until the next page. A nasty little trick, made worse by the fact that we instantly realize—if it’s not Hagrid, then it has to be someone else.
Emmet Asher-Perrin remembers that her friend got to Hedwig’s death before she did and kept making horrible noises and telling her to hurry up reading. You can bug her on Twitter and Tumblr, and read more of her work here and elsewhere.
I think the whole parting with the Dursleys is just right. We see some real growth out of Dudley and we at least can understand Petunia and what’s going through her head at that moment. Harry might not really understand it at this point, but somewhere down the line he will. Empathy is one of his strong suits and if he really thinks about it he’ll understand someday.
Hedwig’s death is a real gut punch, but it does feel a bit contrived. Just a convenient way to remove a character who no longer has a role to play. OTOH, it does warn us that characters we love are going to die in this book (cue the JKR/GRRM meme) and gives us a reason to be really worried about Hagrid at the end of the chapter.
I agree that having Harry’s wand just act on its own is lazy. Unfortunately, this isn’t the last or even the most egregious bit of lazy writing in this book.
How does Vernon explain his absence to his company? It would be funny to read about him trying to explain about a magical threat.
Maybe it’s a cultural thing, because I know a lot of people following this re-read are from the US and I’ve seen a lot of comments/interpretations that just jar when I read them and I know for a lot of them it arises from the fact that while the British grow up with a lot of US culture, the reverse is definitely not true (the number of times, not in this re-read admittedly, I’ve seen references to kids “graduating” from Hogwarts… just, ouch…), but I don’t read Harry’s comment to Dudley as sarcasm. Sarcasm just doesn’t fit the tone. To me, that’s a slightly awkward (and as a nation we definitely know how to do awkward) correction – Harry’s being thanked for something he didn’t technically do, and he can’t let that stand, so he has to correct it, because being thanked for something you didn’t do and not correcting it is as high on the list of Wrong Things as not apologising when someone steps on your foot on the Tube.
I think the lines the movie gave Petunia worked better than her saying nothing. She was not emotional in the movie. Rather, just a statement that Harry was not the only one who lost a relative that Halloween night. Petunia’s comment gives more perspective to her flashbacks. That no matter how much Petunia claimed that her sister was a freak, Petunia still loved Lilly. In some ways, her mistreatment of Harry (or at least her lack of affection towards Harry when he was growing up) is similar to why Snape so dislikes Harry. Every time Snape sees Harry, Snape does not see Harry the boy. Rather, he sees James Potter — the boy who bullied Snape at school and (in Snape’s mind) stole his only friend: Lilly. Likewise, Petunia does not see Harry; she sees her sister (everybody says that Harry has her mother’s eyes). Seeing Harry reminds Petunia of her loss.
Emily, interesting analysis about Harry riding with Hagrid. I understand not placing Harry with Moody or Kingsley. That said, I am not sure Hagrid was appropriate. In my mid, Hagrid was one of the weaker wizards (in terms of magical abilities, obviously). A better choice might have been Remus. He is a more proficient wizard. As an aside, I wonder who the Order would have used instead of Remus if they had to move Harry during a full moon.
Thanks for reading my musings.
AndrewHB
Poor Hedwig. It didn’t affect me much when I read it, possibly because I was an adult who never owned a pet, but now that I’ve had a cat for a few years, the mere mention of Hedwig dying can make me burst into tears.
I find Petunia’s ‘almost’ exit much more poignant than having her give Harry a warm(ish) farewell. Btw, there is not one admirable trait I can identify in Vernon – even Voldemort has a few.
The wand thing at the end totally bugged me too. Like TOTALLY. It’s the single thing in the entirely series that I find explained in an unsatisfactory way and I presume it was only to give Voldemort the motivation to seek the Elder wand. To my mind, Voldemort was the kind of person who’d go looking for the most powerful wand in the world as soon as he heard it exists so there was no need for this. Harry could have escaped by breaking into the safe barrier. The explanation just doesn’t hold water; nor has something similar been repeated by Harry or anyone since. Very Deus Ex Machina. /rant
I didn’t get it was the disarming that revealed who the real Harry was until we were told later, presumably because I’m as obivious as Harry.
The fact that the first illustration of this book, is Hedwig in her cage, never fails to gut me emotionally.
I completely disagree about the wand. It serves to increase Harry’s anxiety, because he doesn’t feel prepared to face off with Voldemort, that it’s only “luck” that saves him here. It’s the first interesting tidbit about wand lore that we’re going to be given in this book. And it definitely increases Harry’s anxiety further when his own wand is destroyed.
The escape never made much sense to me. Let’s start with the Ministry restrictions. Suppose Hermione apparated out of the Dursley house and took Harry along. Ok, they violated the rule. How does the Ministry trace them? And since both are soon to be fugitives, why would that matter? Or what if Dobby took Harry by elf apparation?
A second possibility is just to have Harry walk away from the Dursley house under the invisibility cloak with Hermione, and have Hermione apparate them both from some point in the distance (as Mundungus did when Voldemort showed up). It won’t do to claim that the death eaters might get them — this was true for the Dursleys and Mundungus too, but more important it’s been true for Harry since Voldemort returned.
Then there’s the cloak issue. Harry could simply leave under the cloak and go wherever he wanted without needing to apparate. He could have worn the cloak on the motorcycle. If just Hagrid came in on the motorcycle (without being attacked), and “just Hagrid” left, there’d be little reason to attack him. As an alternative, they could have used 7 riders, but had each passenger under a disillusion charm so as to be invisible like Harry under his cloak.
Anyway, it seems to me there must have been better ideas.
Hedwig’s death should have been a clue to all of us that JKR was not only going to start killing off characters that we cared about, they were going to die abruptly, unexpectedly, and with no heroic last stands. So as well as being really convenient for her (You can’t travel with an owl all year, they don’t always know when not to make noise) for her not having to figure out something to do with Hedwig, and being symbolic and all that, it’s still the first really random death of the series. Everyone else on Harry’s side who died so far died as a hero, with the exception of Cedric, who at least got a final moment of good sportsmanship for us to remember him by.
Polyjuice potion not having been addressed in this way before really strikes me as Jo having invented it for the one shenannigan way back in CoS, then realizing how incredibly useful it was and bringing it back again and again, and only thinking more about the ick factor in these later two books. That and when the kids used it in CoS, they went out of their way to pick people of the same sex to transform into, so that probably helped people not think about it so much.
As far as Petunia goes, now that I’m looking at her from the perspective of someone who is no longer a teenager, her whole character arc is pretty reminescent of Snape’s. She took out a lot of her anger and loss on Harry without maybe even realizing it, her idea of what was “for his own good,” (discouraging asking questions, all the other things she did seemingly to try and squish the magic out of him,) really inhibited his ability to learn and grow over the course of the books, and she never really does come around to seeing him as a person.
… Good thing Harry never thought to name his daughter after her. :)
I always thought it was the Horcrux within Harry that protected its vessel through the wand rather than the wand that acted by itself…
You can find some pretty smutty fanfic based on polyjuice. One could find. If one were so inclined. I’m told.
Aside from Hagrid being an unexpected choice, he’s also half-giant, and can shrug off stunning spells and jinxes up to a point. Remember in Phoenix that it took 4 Aurors to bring him down, and they never did capture him, just drove him into the hills until Umbridge was gone.
Always glad to read the HP posts!
Dedalus taking calmly all of Vernon’s hostility was amusing :).
I hadn’t read where Rowling said that Harry and Dudley kept in contact and even visited some; I’m imagining James or Albus or Lily taking their cousins for broom rides.
As someone who’s nearsighted and who has worn glasses for forty-one years (no contacts! Eyeliner/mascara is as much as I can manage!), Hermione’s comment about Harry’s eyesight struck a chord with me :).
Interesting about parallels in Harry’s arrival and departure from the house on Privet Drive.
Harry’s mercy always stands him in good stead, even tho’ it can cause problems in some situations, like Frodo’s does in LOTR.
I’d wondered about the wand situation too during the escape.
This does further my theories about The Trace not working like the Ministry says it does, because if it did, they would be able to track Harry’s spells during the escape.
also @2 he’s the Boss of the firm so he can proly take whatever time he likes
And, with the major lesson of this book being Wandlore (which totally should have been an elective, or at least seminar at Hogwarts) they had to start it off with wands acting weird, and there are no experts to tech support it.
The farewell with the Dursleys is by far my favourite scene in the whole series. I can see that some might have wanted more of a reconciliation, but that would have just undercut who the Dursleys are as characters. Instead, we get this perfect encapsulation of how much the characters have developed, but just how huge the weight of personal history is holding them back. Not to mention how Dudley’s confused, awkward processing of the idea Harry isn’t going to be around any more (which kind of put me in mind of a dog’s reaction when you take their favourite chew-toy away) ties in which Rowling’s running theme that the negative dynamic in the Dursley household has ultimately left Dudley more messed up than Harry.
And then…Hedwig. God damn it, Rowling, I still remember how pissed off this left me when I first read it. Sure, in hindsight I can see the narrative reasons for it (in addition to what’s already been mentioned, it’s important that Harry et al. are left without a means of communicating with the outside world) but at the time… Not only am I usually a bit sensitive about books and films harming animals (I know I’m not the only one who gets more upset about battle scenes in movies showing horses getting hurt than anything that happens to the humans) but Hedwig had always been a bit of a sore spot because I kind of felt that she never got adequate respect. She spends six books being overlooked and taken for granted, and then practically ends up getting a piano dropped on her.
I agree with the random wand action just falling flat. Here and throughout the rest of the book, I don’t feel like the heroes are really fighting. They don’t learn to confront Voldemort or Belatrix on their own terms. They also never learn how to disable someone without a quick counter jinx bringing them back online. Its a war of attrition they can’t win because they don’t take anyone out until the very end. It felt like this was leftover from the G rating the books start with. Our heroes can’t use any damaging or permanent magic.
It might have been fun to watch the Dursleys with Dedalus and Hestia. Looks like the most good-natured people in the Order were chosen for that tricky task.
Dudley’s actions here took me completely by surprise. But it could fit with the upcoming theme that wonderful people can do terrible things and nasty people can occasionally do decent things. That message sounds foolishly obvious when put that way (“newsflash — people are human “), but previous books haven’t emphasized it as much.
Dudley’s actions also didn’t affect me as much as they might have, possibly because he’s dwindled from the leading terror early in Book 1 to virtually a non-entity in Book 6, in accordance with Harry’s experience.
IMO, Polyjuice Potion has already become an overused plot device at this point and will continue to be. But I approve of its use in this chapter, even if Harry nullified its concealing effect.
Harry thinks it was his wand. But it could have been his horcrux wanting to preserve itself.
“It takes a lot of skill to hurt people, but not kill them. “
Yep. Lots of skill to only hurt them a little, rather than doing heavy damage, while remaining unharmed yourself. Learned that in a few barroom brawls, before I stopped doing bars, and fighting.
The wand fighting by itself is just the first of the things that just show up, out of the blue, that should at least have been hinted at in earlier books.
All that said, I still like the book.
The ambush turning into a heated battle was a shock to me when I first read the book. We’re so used to near escapes during the course of the books, like the Triwizard tasks, Dementor attack on Dudley, etc. Action usually happens at the end of the book and I was surprised when this did not turn out to be merely Advance Guard part 2. Nevertheless, it’s a gripping start to my favorite HP book
Also, the wand?
Wow.
That moment is the basis for so much important characterization in the book. It deeply effects Harry’s anxiety before and after it’s broken, because being saved by his wand only confirms to Harry that he’s not good enough on his own.
It’s also the entire impetus for Voldemort’s search for the Elder Wand. The destruction of Lucius’ wand doesn’t tell Voldemort “ that using another wand on Harry won’t solve his problem,” it tells him that using just any other wand on Harry won’t solve his problem.
It’s this moment here that ensures Harry’s victory in the duel against Voldemort more than any other. Without Voldemort going to search for the Elder Wand, he catches Harry much sooner.
And Hagrid as Harry’s protector? People have obviously forgotten why Dumbledore has always assigned Hagrid as Harry’s protector, and while Hagrid’s love for Harry is a part of that, Hagrid is also impervious to most spells, which makes him an EXCELLENT bodyguard. Him trying to use magic to repair the sidecar was the problem, not Hagrid himself. Some people said he should have been with Lupin. Let’s remember what happened to the person Lupin was guarding, because he was the 3rd choice. This also demonstrates another reason why Hagrid was genius. The superiority of the Death Eaters means they overlook how very valuable Hagrid is.
Also, touching on Snape’s behavior here, we also learn he wasn’t aiming for Fred when he injured him, he was trying to stop Yaxley from casting Avada Kedavra at Lupin.
@sophist, The idea about Dobby is brilliant. But the Death Eaters know about the cloak, they would be suspicious of anyone leaving Harry’s whether Harry was seen leaving or not. And they don’t actually KNOW they are about to become fugitives.
@13 They were able to Trace Harry’s spells. They didn’t punish him because he was protecting his own life, which is allowable. Remember the “idea” for restricting magical travel was to protect Harry, they can’t publicly punish for protecting himself. Once they arrive at Tonks’ parents’ home, Harry doesn’t use any magic, therefore not revealing his location to the Ministry.
@15 Our heroes can’t use any damaging or permanent magic.
So that part where Harry commands a Death Eater to permanently lose himself in the Gringotts vaults doesn’t happen? They use plenty of damaging or permanent magic, Harry even uses an Unforgivable curse, they just don’t cross the lines into being villains, because they are heroes.
As always in my first reads of books like this, I completely missed the fact that Hedwig was killed because I was reading so fast. It took til the next chapter when someone mentions it for me to go back and reread, which was a weird way to emphasize how random and tragic it was.
Fun fact: same thing happened to me with Tonks and Lupin at the end. I think the narration says they are laid out like they’re sleeping, and I legit thought they’d been stunned or something because I was so keyed up and trying to get to the next page so fast at that point.
Wouldn’t the Trace still be set off if people did magic around him, though? I can’t remember if any magic was used at Tonks’ place before he left for the Burrow (where the Trace would definitely be set off but ignored due to Ginny’s presence).
The motorcycle shooting out a brick wall was kind of awesome. Reminded me of a certain computer game where you fly around trying not to hit an assortment of improbably-airborne things as well as brick walls extending up from the ground.
I can’t remember if any magic was used at Tonks’ place before he left for the Burrow
Mr. Tonks healed Harry, who was injured in the crash.
Even if Vernon is the boss in his company, he still has to tell at least some employees that he will be gone for an unknown time, and someone might want to know why.
I love the scene with the Durlseys for the reasons people have already outlined. I think it hits the perfect beat that Petunia wants to say something but after all those years she really can’t. I never really thought about the paralells between her and Snape and their inability to move past the past. I also love Dudley’s inch towards decency, which is a lot easier to swallow than them suddenly becoming best buds. I always loved the post-narrative bit of info that they kept in touch afterwards. Apparently JK Rowling also said she thought about having one of Dudley’s kids at Platform 9 3/4 during the epilouge but decided Vernon’s ‘muggle’ genes were too strong. The implication that Vernon’s ‘muggleness’ somehow impacts his genetics is a bit irritating to me, but I also think that would have been a really hilarious ending and there would be so much to explore regarding how Petunia and Vernon react to that…
As for the wand stuff…I think Aeryl makes a lot of good points but something about it still niggles at me. Something about the way everything comes together in this last book – wand lore, hallows, horcruxes – something about it is just a bit too much/convoluted, although I can’t really put my finger on it. It might just be my first impression of the book is still sticking with me and feeling like I could barely figure out what happened and how it all fit together.
I wish I could say I was more impacted by Hedwig’s death, but it didn’t really phase me much. It seemed very much like a ‘getting rid of a loose thread’ writerly action, and since I was never really particularly attached to Hedwig in the first place, it wasn’t a huge thing to me.
True, but the Dursleys were going in and out of the house all the time. Harry could have walked out with them, even on the last day, and the death eaters would have had no way to know.
He actually uses 2: Imperius (Travers) and Crucio (Amycus). He also attempted Crucio on Bellatrix in the Ministry of Magic. I think it’s a fine line between “not crossing the line” and “those guys deserved it anyway”.
RE: Ministry Trace
My understanding about the ministry trace was that they could tell magic had been done in a location where a minor was present, but not who had done the magic. Thus Harry getting in trouble for Dobby’s magic in CoS. Or am I remembering it wrong?
My girlfriend hasn’t read the books, but had seen all the movies and always commented on how pretty Hedwig was and how she loved her (she generally loves critters more than people, so there is that). I didn’t know how she would take her death in the film.
So in the movie when Harry lets her go, I was relieved, thinking that she was going to be spared the sight of Hedwig’s death.
Yeah, no. The bird gets it anyways.
@28 – that’s correct. The Trace is triggered whenever magic is used around a minor. So, when Harry landed at Tonks’ place, if he used magic or if anyone else there used magic, the Trace would be triggered and the Ministry would likely NOT ignore it because there are no minor children at Tonks’ parent’s house. The Ministry assumes parents will enforce the rule for their own children, so if the Trace were triggered at the Weasley’s household the Ministry would assume that Molly or Arthur used magic around Ginny and they would not investigate.
Since Dobby used magic around Harry in a location without adult wizards in CoS, the Ministry investigated.
There are, of course, a lot of gaps in the Trace logic – such as why the Trace was not set off/investigated when Tom Riddle killed his parents and modified Morfin’s memory while Tom was still underage. Another example is when the Order came and got Harry in OOTP.
@@@@@27. Sophist
I haven’t read the book for a while, but doesn’t his interaction with Bellatrix help his case, doesn’t she say something about how you have to really mean it, and despite the fact this is the woman that killed his surrogate father, he still can’t get to the place where he legitimately wants her to suffer.
So, ya hero, who grew up in a world where people are sent to jail forever essentially their entire life (in Canada and I think the Britain, a lifetime sentence is exactly that). So, telling someone to f off into Gringotts, is fine in an brutal kind of way.
That is my understanding as well, though this seems to be forgotten every time the trace comes up. The Ministry would have had a veritable chorus of alarms going off once the ambush started, as all the magic done in Harry’s vicinity would have registered. One would think that a bunch of AK’s going off in the area of Harry’s home would have invited a quick response from the Ministry, but maybe the Death Eater penetration had gone far enough by that point to somehow muffle this response.
What I am not sure of is if the Trace actually reports the identity of the minor in question as well as the location and type of magic used. The story seems to work much better if it does not (Young Tom Riddle’s murder spree comes to mind here), but later on the trio seem to consider the Trace still being active as a reason why the Death Eaters find them so soon on the run. This fear would not make sense if the Trace did not report the identity of the under age person, but maybe the trio were just as ill informed as we are.
@31: Yeah, the curse on Bellatrix didn’t work. I’m not sure where the Ministry stands on “failed attempted Crucio” (which, of course, would also apply to Draco in his fight with Harry in the bathroom).
Unless the Trace is negated by the Fidelis charm.
Then why wouldn’t Dumbledore be a Secret Keeper for Privet Drive? Does it also effect Muggles, or does the location to be Fidelused have to be under other muddlement charms, and he couldn’t very well hide a Muggle home.
I forgot: Draco used Imperius on Rosmerta. Worse yet he did it for the express purpose of committing murder. Somehow he escaped without any life sentence in Azkaban. Maybe we need to assume a general amnesty.
Re: the trace and the Death Eaters finding the trio so quickly. If I remember correctly, I think that they they said that the reason the death eaters found them was because they had actually placed some sort of spell that allowed them to know when someone was using Voldemort’s name. Since Harry used it all the time and they did not find out about this until after Ron came back to them and told them about it.
Regarding the trace, one thing that the trio didn’t consider, but which was possible, is the Death Eater corrupted ministry abusing the trace. Or even the earlier anti-Harry ministry.
Certainly, paying closer attention to Harry’s trace than that of a typical student.
Perhaps leaving the trace on Harry after he’s of age, as well.
The protective spells may have blocked him from view when they were in hiding.
But when they approached the magical community, or were using magic openly while on missions, keeping the trace on Harry would mean he would be quickly detected if he was around magic at all.
@37
Yes, the Death Eaters found them so quickly due to the taboo put on saying aloud the name ‘Voldemort’, but the trio did not know that at the time. Thus their (incorrect)speculation about the trace. It is merely noteworthy for the fact that their speculation seems to assume the identity of the minor in question to work, but, as I said, they may be ill-informed on all aspects in this case.
The impressive thing about the Taboo is that Harry never actually used it the whole time Ron was gone.
I would have liked a simple line from Petunia before leaving – “You won’t know this since I never told you, but you have Lily’s eyes.” Harry replies simply with “Thank you”
It would have said a great deal about Petunia not knowing about the wizarding world, Harry’s role or indeed Lily’s popularity. It also would have provided a touching moment, with Petunia telling Harry she cares for him without getting uncharacteristically emotional.