Chapter Twenty-Eight -- The Missing Mirror
In which the Trio has a run-in with Dementors, Death Eaters can't tell stags from goats, Aberforth reveals some unpleasant truths about his brother, and the other Prophecy Boy finally makes an appearance.
Note: This is from the British edition. Readers of the American edition may notice some differences in the text.
Chapter Twenty-Eight -- The Missing Mirror
It took honest-to-God effort for me to spork this chapter. At this point, I was tired of HP7 in general, weary of the blatant stupidity of wizards in particular, and sick of the fact that about half the book could have been thrown in the trash bin without any change in the actual events.
The chapter starts with this line:
Harry's feet touched road.
I've heard of feet touching ground before, but never "road." The American edition makes slightly more sense, as Harry's feet there touch THE road. For my part, I wondered why Harry didn't merely land or materialize. It would have made more sense...oh. Wait.
We then get a long line. A ninety-word-long line. I want you to see the whole thing in its entirety, so that you'll get the full impact.
He saw the achingly familiar Hogsmeade High Street: dark shop fronts, and the outline of black mountains beyond the village and the curve in the road ahead that led off towards Hogwarts, and light spilling from the windows of the Three Broomsticks, and with a lurch of the heart, he remembered with piercing accuracy, how he had landed here nearly a year before, supporting a desperately weak Dumbledore, all this in a second, upon landing -- and then, even as he relaxed his grip upon Ron's and Hermione's arms, it happened.
Now, let's examine this, bit by bit.
He saw the achingly familiar Hogsmeade High Street:
First, it's never been called the Hogsmeade High Street before. Second-let us be fair-Harry hasn't seen the village all that often. Students aren't allowed into Hogsmeade until third year, and Harry didn't have a signed pass at first, or the Map, so he didn't start attending when everyone else did. Hogsmeade outings have been canceled now and again from Book 3 through Book 6, thanks to crises at the school. So, all in all, Harry's seen Hogsmeade, what, ten, twelve times in his whole life? That's not the same as something he grew up with, or that he saw every day for six years of schooling. Ten times in four years really doesn't seem frequent enough to create "aching familiarity."
dark shop fronts
I can see the shop fronts being familiar, but dark shop fronts shouldn't be unless all the Hogsmeade stores are shutting down due to a recession.
and the outline of black mountains beyond the village
Keep in mind that this is the same boy who, in Chapter 7 of DH, insisted that Voldemort couldn't be in a village in England because a village with "a mountainous horizon and the outline of the little village cradled in a deep valley" "didn't look like anywhere in England."
and the curve in the road ahead that led off towards Hogwarts
I'm really not certain why the road is being described, especially as Harry and his friends aren't going to end up using it.
and light spilling from the windows of the Three Broomsticks,
Making it the only place in the whole village that's lit up. Gee, could the bad guys be there, do you think? Especially as they don't seem to be familiar with the spell Nox, or with the concept of blackout curtains.
and with a lurch
"You rang?"
of the heart,
Oh.
he remembered with piercing accuracy,
Interestingly, Rowling has Dumbledore say something similar about his memory in Chapter 13 of HBP: "This time," said Dumbledore, "we are going to enter my memory. I think you will find it both rich in detail and satisfyingly accurate.
I believe both of these lines are responses to fan criticism of her errors, which have grown more egregious as the books have progressed. I repeat what I said last time:
"You know, Rowling, if the memory is detailed and accurate, you won't have to tell me. I'll notice on my own. The fact that you're telling me this ahead of time makes me suspect that you know it's neither, but that you hope I'll believe you and not the evidence of my own eyes."
how he had landed here nearly a year before, supporting a desperately weak Dumbledore,
A flashback to the end of Chapter 26 and the beginning of Chapter 27 of HBP. Just in case there's someone who's starting the series at the seventh book, you know.
all this in a second, upon landing
It's certainly taken more than a second to figure out what's going on, though, hasn't it?
-- and then, even as he relaxed his grip upon Ron's and Hermione's arms, it happened.
We get all the way to the end of this torturously long sentence, and the only thing we find out at the end is that "it happened"? WHAT happened?
The air was rent
Last year's rent!
This year's rent!
Next year's rent!
Rent rent rent rent rent
We're not gonna pay rent!!
'Cause everything is RENT!!!
by a scream that sounded like Voldemort's when he had realized the cup had been stolen:
Delete colon. Replace with a full stop. Using colons does not make you cooler, Rowling. Especially when 99% of the time, you don't use them properly.
Also, how does Voldemort sound when he realizes that a Horcrux-cup has been stolen?
It tore at every nerve in Harry's body, and he knew that their appearance
What appearance? The appearance of the nerves? That's what it should mean, according to the sentence structure.
had caused it.
SNIP! as a dozen or so "cloaked and hooded Death Eaters " run out of the Three Broomsticks. There are only two things wrong with this. One-cloaks, hooded or not, are normal attire for wizards. Two-wouldn't most people want to know what was causing the screaming noise? Harry's right, as it turns out..but assuming that Death Eaters are Death Eaters because they wear cloaks is hardly logical.
Harry prevents Ron from trying to cast a Stunning Spell, as they are outnumbered, and even a Death Eater could figure out that a Stunning Spell coming from nowhere means "Invisibility Cloak." One of the DEs tries casting, "Accio Cloak," but as everyone in the vicinity is wearing a cloak of some kind, the spell isn't specific enough and doesn't work.
That's my theory, anyway. That theory may be wrong, however, because it makes sense.
The Death Eaters figure Harry's not using his Invisibility Cloak-which is logical, as not using the Cloak would be abysmally stupid, and Harry has always been a prime example of the House of the Bold and Stupid, as minkhollow calls it. So they split up and start doing a street-by-street search.
Hermione suggests Disapparating NOW, which indicates to me that she is the single member of the Trio with any brains. Harry says no, as the Death Eaters must have done something to trap them here. Um, Harry? I know your mentor was Dumbledore, but jumping to conclusions without actual proof didn't serve him too well in the end, did it? You could try to escape, at least!
One of the Death Eaters suggests letting loose the Dementors, because who cares if Harry's soul gets eaten? A mindless, soulless husk will just be that much easier for Voldemort to kill.
Harry is upset by this. Oh, not because of the prospect of being soul-sucked and having his mind and personality stolen. He already has Hermione to do his thinking for him and he never had much personality in the first place, so this is just life as he knows it. What does upset him is the notion that they'll have to cast the Patronus Charm, which will betray the fact that they're here to cast it.
Hermione tells Harry yet again that they need to Disapparate. Good girl, Hermione. You know, I honestly believe that this is why the pureblood racists hate Muggleborns so much; Muggleborns retain the ability to reason for longer than purebloods or halfbloods. Hermione has come up with every goddamned idea in this book, while the boys have just been sitting on their thumbs.
But alas, Harry's decision to follow Hermione's advice comes too late, for here are the Dementors, and either they or the Death Eaters have made the air turn solid. Despite this, the kids have no problem moving. Or breathing. Neat trick.
Also, it appears that the Dementors are all natural Deluminators, because look what happens next:
Light was sucked from the environment right up to the stars, which vanished.
That's right, y'all. Dementors can suck the light away from stars that are millions, billions, even trillions of light-years away. Rather like the way that they suck all sense out of this scene, in fact. I mean, anything that can suck the light out of something that far away has to be either the most powerful entity in the universe or an ambulatory black hole. Why are they following Voldemort again?
Hermione then grabs Harry's arm and they turn toward something unspecified. I'm not sure why they can do this. The air is SOLID. Shouldn't they be frozen like flies in amber?
Despite the solidity of the air which should paralyze all and sundry, as well as the utter blackness of a world in which the sun has turned into an extinguished cinder and all life as we know it dying, the three kids soldier on, groping their way down a side street. The Dementors, who evidently aren't stopped by solid air either, glide down the street toward the Trio.
And how do these brilliant young adults know the Dementors are there? By the rattle of their breath? By the bone-chilling fear seeping into the three of them? Oh, no. The teenagers know that the Dementors are here in this completely lightless world because-that's right-they can SEE them.
Then, around the corner, gliding noiselessly, came Dementors, ten or more of them, visible because they were of a denser darkness than their surroundings, with their black cloaks and their scabbed and rotting hands.
Yeah. Because black clothes are extremely visible in complete darkness. They're practically phosphorescent. And what, exactly, is "denser darkness"? Thicker darkness? More stupid darkness?
Harry deduces that the Dementors can sense fear. It's not really necessary to deduce this, as it was established back in PoA, but then so much continuity has been murdered, chopped up and danced upon by now that I really shouldn't complain. It's just that...I've read stories where continuity could actually be presumed to exist. Shocking, eh?
In any event, Harry decides, after several paragraphs describing the Dementors, that he doesn't want to be Kissed by a soul-eating demon, no matter what happens. That he actually has to ponder this consciously for any length of time is amazing. I think that your average Muggle would have reached that conclusion the instant the Dementors appeared and would be speeding toward Madagascar by now.
It baffles me that Harry doesn't think of simply walking out of Hogsmeade and, once he and his friends are outside of the village boundaries, Apparating to, say, in front of the gates of Hogwarts. But then, where would we be if more than 0.01% of this book made sense? Aside from reading a much more enjoyable book, that is.
Finally, he casts his Patronus. The Dementors scatter, and the Death Eaters are delighted; they have a rough idea of where Harry is now. Especially since the Dementors have retreated and the stars are re-kindling.
Because it is impossible that Harry be able to save his friends himself OR think of a way out of this, it is now time for a deus ex machina. That particular role has been assigned to Aberforth Dumbledore, who opens the door to the Hog's Head bar just as Harry and company are passing, and calls out, "Potter, in here, quick!" After all, there's no way that Harry could possibly know that anyone was trying to save him if that person didn't endanger himself by using Harry's name.
He obeyed without hesitation: the three of them hurtled through the open doorway.
All right. I don't mind that Harry took a chance and bolted for the nearest door. I really don't. I don't even mind that he dragged Ron and Hermione along for the ride. I think that the word that bugs me is "obey"--because seriously, who does Harry think he's obeying? That's right. He doesn't know.
Aberforth, whom I'm going to call Abe because Aberforth is too long and any attempt to call him Dumbledore will just get him mixed up with his brother, tells the kids to go "Upstairs, keep the Cloak on, keep quiet!". He then goes out on the street where the Dementors are. I confess my first thought was, "Oh, no, not ANOTHER one who's going to die for Harry."
Anyway, the kids go up to a very poor sitting room. There's a "rickety staircase" that leads up to it, and a "threadbare carpet" so I guess we're supposed to deduce that Abe is poor. Apparently working for the Order of the Phoenix doesn't pay-well, anything. Harry also notes the existence of a single lit candle-WHY don't wizards use things like gaslight or kerosene lamps if they can't use electricity?--and a picture of a little blonde girl who's staring at the room "with a kind of a vacant sweetness."
What follows is idiotic, so I'm just going to condense it.
Abe: That's my Patronus you're following, you oiks! Hey, what do you think I'm going to do if you bring Dementors round?
Death Eaters: That was a stag.
Abe: That wasn't a stag, it was a goat! *zaps up goat Patronus*
Death Eaters: *cannot tell a stag from a goat*
Readers With Dirty Minds: *wonder just why Aberforth's Patronus looks like a goat*
Death Eaters: Well, someone was out on the street after curfew...
Abe: Uh, that was my cat?
Death Eaters: So you or your cat set off the alarm?
Abe: So what're you gonna do about it? You want a piece of me? Huh? Huh? You gonna send me to Azkaban?
Death Eaters: *completely forget how to cast Imperio, Crucio and Avada Kedavra at their opponents*
Abe: And where are you gonna make your drug deals if not in my pub?
Death Eaters: Everywhere?
Abe: *sneers*
Death Eaters:*exit stage left, pretending it was their idea all along*
Abe comes back in and calls the three of them bloody fools for coming to Hogsmeade in the first place. I think that it was at this point that I began to love Aberforth.
Then, in the light of that single spluttering candle, Harry discerns that "[b]ehind the dirty lenses, the eyes were a piercing, brilliant blue." Go on. Try to tell the color of someone's eyes by the light of no more than a single candle in a dark room. I dare you. I double dog dare you.
Harry immediately deduces, based on the color of the man's eyes and the existence of a small hand mirror on the mantelpiece, that he's been seeing Abe's eye in the shard of mirror, not Albus's. He also leaps to the conclusion that Abe sent Dobby. Hey, I thought that Dobby was a free elf who didn't obey anyone's commands. What happened to that?
Harry gives Abe the news that Dobby is dead, and that Bella killed him. Abe is apparently one of the seven fans in the multiverse who liked Dobby, for he's sorry about this.
We then get dialogue that's rather like an FAQ:
Q. For the benefit of those fans who don't read your interviews, Ms. Rowling, who IS this guy?
A. This is Aberforth Dumbledore, the barman of the Hog's Head.
Q. Where did Aberforth get Sirius's mirror?
A. He bought it from Mundungus Fletcher at Albus's instruction.
Q. Did Aberforth send the silver doe?
A. "Brains like that, you could be a Death Eater, son. Did you just not notice that his Patronus is a goat?
Abe gives the kids food (bread, cheese and mead), because Ron is hungry. After everyone has eaten and the two boys are sitting "slumped dozily in their chairs," Abe brings up the problem of what to do to get the kids out of town. He suggests waiting till dawn, donning the Invisibility Cloak, walking out of Hogsmeade, heading into the Mountains-That-Should-Not-Exist-According-To-Harry, and Disapparating from there. He informs that they might see Hagrid and his annoying brother in the process, which may be why Harry doesn't want to do this. Grawp is a good incentive for not bothering.
Harry says that they aren't budging, and that they have to get to Hogwarts. Abe says that this is stupid-which it is, but when did that ever stop Harry?--and that what Harry really has to do is get the hell out of Dodge. Harry tells Abe that Albus wanted them to do this, which gets Abe quietly pissed off. After a rather odd description in which Aberforth's "momentarily opaque" glasses are compared to "the blind eyes of the giant spider, Aragog," Abe tells the kids the facts:
"My brother Albus wanted a lot of things," said Aberforth, "and people had a habit of getting hurt while he was carrying out his grand plans.
Have I mentioned that I love Aberforth? Seriously, this has been true since the first book and this is the first time anyone has had the balls to say this to Harry's face.
Abe reiterates that what Harry needs to do is flee the country, and to forget about Albus's plans and schemes. Harry insists that Abe just doesn't understaaaaaaand, and that Albus left him a job.
"Did he now?" said Aberforth. "Nice job, I hope? Pleasant? Easy? Sort of thing you'd expect an unqualified wizard kid to be able to do without overstretching themselves?"
I love Abe for saying this. On the other hand, we're less than ten chapters from the end. Shouldn't I feel by now that Harry IS qualified, rather than thinking that he's just blundering his way through this book and that if he succeeds, it'll be purely by accident?
Harry says that it's not easy and that he can't give it up. He also can't explain why he can't. He protests that Abe is in the Order so he's fighting Voldemort. Abe says that he was in the Order but that that's over with now that Voldemort's won, and repeats that Harry needs to run now, and take his friends with him. There's more, but it's all pretty repetitious.
Hermione breaks up the monotony by asking if the little blonde girl in the picture is Ariana. Abe doesn't want to talk about it and makes a comment about her reading Rita Skeeter's book. Harry says that Elphias Doge spoke of Ariana. Abe comments about Doge:
"Thought the sun shone out of my brother's every orifice, he did. Well, so did plenty of people, you three included, by the looks of it."
Best two lines in the book.
Harry then thinks about how he doesn't want to doubt Dumbledore:
He had made his choice while he dug Dobby's grave, he had decided to continue along the winding, dangerous path indicated for him by Albus Dumbledore, to accept that he had not been told everything that he wanted to know, but simply to trust.
I'd rather have a hero who can think as well as act, instead of one who merely trusts blindly without understanding what he's trusting in.
He had no desire to doubt again; he did not want to hear anything that would
Make him think?
deflect him from his purpose.
Same difference.
Hermione proclaims that Dumbledore loved Harry a lot, even though there's no proof of that. Seriously, what did DD ever do that displayed disinterested affection for the boy? Everything he did was calculated to create a hero who was willing to die.
Abe says that lots of people that Albus loved ended up worse off than if he hadn't bothered with them. Then he begins telling Ariana's story:
"When my sister was six years old, she was attacked, set upon, by three Muggle boys. They'd seen her doing magic, spying through the back garden hedge: she was a kid, she couldn't control it, no witch or wizard can at that age. What they saw scared them, I expect. They forced their way through the hedge, and when she couldn't show them the trick, they got a bit carried away trying to stop the little freak doing it."
Now, at this point, I have to mention a book called My Sweet Audrina by V.C. Andrews, © 1982. (I urge you to click on the link. There's an excerpt from the first chapter about halfway down the page.)
In My Sweet Audrina, the title character, who is nine at the time, is ambushed and attacked by three boys on a shortcut home. Audrina tries to get away but can't; the boys are older and stronger than she is. Eventually, the three boys rape Audrina and leave her unconscious and bleeding under a tree. Audrina loses her memory, not only of the beating and rape but of her whole life, and her parents build up a false set of memories for her so that she will believe she's the second Audrina in the family and that her former self is an older sister of the same name who died.
Let's examine the similar characteristics in these stories:
My Sweet Audrina
Deathly Hallows
The character's name is Audrina.
The character's name is Ariana.
The character has "chameleon hair" of many shades that nevertheless looks blonde.
The character is blonde.
The character is a small girl (aged nine).
The character is a small girl (aged six).
The character was attacked by three boys.
The character was attacked by three boys.
The character was attacked in a forest near her home.
The character was attacked in the back garden of her home.
The boys rape the character, in addition to beating her.
The boys "got a bit carried away trying to stop the little freak."
The character is kept home and not allowed to go to school until she can function as a different girl from the one who was raped.
The character is kept home and not allowed to go to school.
The character's father feels his daughter has been murdered by the beating and rape.
The character's brother Aberforth says that the assault "destroyed her."
Now, if this were a fanfic on Fanfiction.net or on LiveJournal, I'd say that having such a similar character having such similar experiences to another such character in a similar plot was, at the very least, titchy. But since Rowling has more money and more attorneys than God, I'll satisfy myself and her lawyers by saying that the story of Ariana Dumbledore is "derivative." Highly, highly, HIGHLY derivative.
Aberforth continues with the story.
"It destroyed her, what they did: she was never right again.
I think we can all agree that something worse than your average beating went on. Western society doesn't have a widely accepted concept of "beaten until you lose your mind." The motif of the girl or woman who loses her mind due to the trauma of rape, however, is common. I think that's the motif Rowling's using here-even though she's being painfully coy about it. For God's sake, Rowling, I think that most kids have heard of rape. And how controversial is it to indicate that rape is a bad thing?
She wouldn't use magic,
Er...Rowling? You've been at some pains ever since PS/SS to tell the audience that little kids don't have all that much control over their magic. Even the stuff they can consciously do can easily go wrong-like a slug that grows much larger than intended. And plenty of other magic is involuntary-like Harry making an ugly jumper shrink, or making his hair grow back after a bad haircut.
So saying that Wee Ariana had the ability to consciously choose not to use her magic-unlike every other wizarding kid in the world-is annoying. And dead wrong. And shatters continuity.
But hey, when did you give a damn about things like that?
but she couldn't get rid of it;
Well, duh, of course not, since magic is something you're born with. Either you're a witch or wizard, or you're not.
it turned inward and drove her mad, it exploded out of her when she couldn't control it,
You mean like, oh, EVERY OTHER MAGICAL KID who can't control it?
and at times she was strange and dangerous.
Somehow, I think that Molly Weasley might think that that was a perfect description of her twins as children. And not only as children.
But mostly she was sweet and scared and harmless.
A sweet and innocent victim who is also a serious threat. Does not compute, Rowling. Does. Not. COMPUTE.
Aberforth says that his father found and attacked the boys who "destroyed" his daughter. Despite being imprisoned in Azkaban, he never told anyone the motive for the crime:
if the Ministry had known what Ariana had become, she'd have been locked up in St. Mungo's for good.
*blink*
So WHAT?
Why is this even an issue? I could see Muggles fearing hospitals and asylums in the nineteenth century. Witches and wizards, not so much. Mediwizards and Healers could mend broken bones even during eras when a compound fracture was a death sentence, so I'm thinking that just maybe their mental wards weren't torture chambers. And unlike, say, the unfortunate Longbottoms, Ariana wasn't the way she was because of a curse. She was traumatised because of physical injury, not mad as the result of a torture spell. The Healers might well have been able to do more for her than her own family could.
They'd have seen her as a serious threat to the International Statute of Secrecy, unbalanced like she was, with magic exploding out of her at moments when she couldn't keep it in any longer.
As opposed, say, to Harry Potter, who inflated Great-Aunt Marge and made her float away into the sky? Or the Trio riding a big freaking DRAGON?
Aberforth goes on, telling the Trio that he and their mother tried to keep Ariana relatively placid and happy. Abe could get her to eat, and could calm her down, and let her help him feed the family's goats when she was in a more peaceful mood.
"Not Albus, he was always up in his bedroom when he was home, reading his books and counting his prizes, keeping up with his correspondence with 'the most notable magical names of the day,' Aberforth sneered, "he didn't want to be bothered with her.
What a wonderfully active and helpful kid. Not. Keep in mind that Harry will later tell Dumbledore that he was all brave and noble and good, and will name his second son after him.
Then Ariana turned fourteen (making Abe fifteen and Albus seventeen), and she and Kendra had a quarrel. Ariana lashed out, and killed her. I kind of wonder what a kid, even a crazy magical kid, could do against a fully-trained adult witch. Also, given that Ariana's mother knew that her daughter's magic could go violently haywire at any time, why wasn't she using Shield Charms 24/7? You'd think that would be basic protection-the equivalent of a padded helmet--but this question, like so many others, is cast aside as so much rubbish.
Harry doesn't want to hear anything about Ariana's arguments or Kendra's Unfortunate Demise, of course. No, really, it says that in the text.
Harry felt a horrible mixture of pity and repulsion; he did not want to hear any more, but Aberforth kept talking
My guess is that Harry doesn't want to hear it because it's Not All About Him.
Aberforth then explains that Albus couldn't go gallivanting all over the world now that Mumsie was dead, and that he decided that he was going to be the head of the family now. Keep in mind that Albus was seventeen, while his brother and sister were fifteen and fourteen, respectively, so this "head of the family" business went over about as well as Percy's siding with the Ministry rather than Harry did with the Weasleys. I can just hear Aberforth yelling, "You're not the boss of ME!"
After a few weeks of this, Grindelwald showed up at Godric's Hollow, visiting his Great-Auntie Bathilda, and hit it off with Albus instantly.
And looking after Ariana took a backseat then, while they were hatching all their plans for a new wizarding order and looking for Hallows, and whatever else it was they were so interested in.
That's an odd phrase for a wizard to use, isn't it? Brooms don't really have a front or a back seat.
Grand plans for the benefit of all wizardkind, and if one young girl got neglected, what did that matter when Albus was working for the greater good?
Honestly, I wish that I could turn Albus into a toad now, so that he could be in body what he is in soul. Selfish prick. He never changed, either. Whether the person was Ariana, James, Lily, Harry, Snape, Sirius, Cedric Diggory or Moaning Myrtle, Albus Dumbledore was always more than willing to let someone else suffer for his ideals.
Shortly before Abe had to return to Hogwarts, he had it out with his brother, telling him that Ariana couldn't be moved from place to place while Albie and Grindy scurried from town to town, speechifying. He was absolutely right, too; a mentally ill child would need structure and constant care. She'd need it all the more after accidentally killing her mother. But neither Albus nor Grindelwald liked that notion. Too much work that didn't fulfill their personal ambitions. Grindy, of course, dressed that up in prettier words:
He told me what a stupid little boy I was,
"Little boy." Oh, yeah, I'm sure that went over very well with fifteen-year-old Aberforth. Especially since Grindelwald was no more than sixteen.
trying to stand in the way of him and my brilliant brother...didn't I understand, my poor sister wouldn't have to be hidden once they'd changed the world, and led the wizards out of hiding, and taught the Muggles their place?
Which makes absolutely no sense whatsoever, because it sounds like the Muggles are in charge, tyrannizing over wizards. And that simply isn't true. Muggles don't know that wizards exist. Even the International Statute of Secrecy, which everyone is so unaccountably afraid that Ariana will violate, is imposed by wizards. It's the wizards who are choosing to remain in their little ghettoized world, hiding from people who vastly outnumber them and whose technology is just as powerful as magic, in its own way.
I had to read this next bit several times before I realized what had happened.
"And there was an argument...and I pulled out my wand, and he pulled out his, and I had the Cruciatus Curse used on me by my brother's best friend---and Albus was trying to stop him, and then all three of us were dueling, and the flashing lights and the bangs set her off, she couldn't stand it--"
Okay. Now. Reconstruct the crime scene. Aberforth was lying on the floor, being tortured by the worst pain in existence, one that can drive you insane in a couple of minutes. Grindelwald was doing the torturing, which means that all of his focus, attention and magic are on Aberforth. Albus is...well, let's be honest. He wasn't trying very hard to stop Grindelwald, because all that it would take to stop Grindy would be the Full-Body Bind, a Stunning Spell, or Expelliarmus. And Mr. Brilliant, winner of all the prizes for academic excellence, would know that.
Doesn't really fit the "the three of us were dueling" scenario, does it? I suspect that's a lie Aberforth told himself to make life more bearable, because look what happened next.
Ariana, upset by the noise and the lights, did something-we're not told what--to try to stop what's going on.
The only person free to do anything to her was Albus Dumbledore.
And it's already been established that, unlike the other two, Albus had good reason to want his sister dead. Aberforth only had a couple of years to go until he was of age; Ariana was going to be mentally ill, and dependent on her brothers, for what could be a very, very long life. Furthermore, mentally ill relatives do not look good when you're a politician. Mentally ill relatives who have been concealed from public eye for years can develop into scandals.
I think that DD saw his baby sister as the ruination of all his hopes and dreams. Not only was her life blighted, but his would be too, because of her.
And so he murdered her.
Small wonder Grindelwald left the next day. He could see the handwriting on the wall; if he stayed, there was a good chance that he-who'd already earned a bad reputation--would be blamed for the girl's death. Not to mention that DD, like any wizard, could easily muck about with his memories, implanting a false memory that Grindelwald had killed Ariana. DD could even implant the compulsion to confess, as young Tom Riddle did to Morfin Gaunt.
And after that, Aberforth says, his brother was free. His burden was dead, and he could do what he wanted.
Harry, who is, in the words of Blackadder, "as thick as a whale omelet," still does not get it. He says that when Dumbledore unnecessarily drank the potion in Cave Horcrux, he started screaming, 'Don't hurt them, please...hurt me instead.'
I recall nothing of the kind-just Generic Angsty Muttering and Screaming(TM), for the most part. However...examination of my spork of the Cave Chapter reveals that Dumbledore spoke the following rather telling words:
"Its all my fault, all my fault," he sobbed. "Please make it stop, I know I did wrong, oh please make it stop and I'll never, never again ..."
Not words of blame. An admission of guilt.
Harry insists that the words that Dumbledore did not speak indicate his pain and suffering at seeing Grindelwald torture his brother and sister.
"He thought he was watching Grindelwald hurting you and Ariana...it was torture to him, if you'd seen him then, you wouldn't say he was free."
Now, there's nothing in either the words that Dumbledore spoke or the ones that Harry made up to indicate any of those details. Harry should write novels. He seems to have far more imagination than his creator.
Aberforth, who knows that Harry is currently starring in Clueless, asks him how he can be certain that he wasn't every bit as expendable as Ariana, in Double-D's eyes?
Hermione repeats that Dumbledore loved Harry. Aberforth doesn't buy it. He demands to know why Dumbledore didn't warn Harry about danger, or advise him to hide to keep himself safe.
I'm with Aberforth. Even if you think that one person might be the key to solving everything, if you cared about them, you'd still want to keep them safe. And you would try to find a way to solve the problem AND keep that person safe. It's human nature.
Harry starts channeling Albus at this point.
"sometimes you've got to think about more than your own safety!
Harry, you've NEVER thought about your own safety. Or anyone else's. Which is, you know, not a good idea in war. There are a couple of things called strategy and tactics. Maybe Ron could explain them to you?
Harry babbles about "the greater good" some more. I swear that Rowling became addicted to Charmed on her last tour of the United States. He also accuses Aberforth of having given up, which is rather stupid, as Aberforth already told him that. He then starts lying through his teeth:
"Your brother knew how to finish You-Know-Who
He did? All I recall is his mentioning Horcruxes. There was nothing in there about how to find, identify and destroy Horcruxes. (Horcruces, it should be, in proper Latin.)
and he passed the knowledge on to me.
Liar. So, Harry, if "he passed the knowledge on" to you, how come you've had such a tough time finding and destroying Horcruxes for, oh, THE WHOLE BOOK?
Harry proclaims that he'll continue on this course until he wins or dies. Evidently the concept of victory bought with self-sacrifice is completely alien to him. He also says that he knows that this could end in his death, which the readers figured out back when he was eleven.
Harry then basically orders Aberforth to help him.
"If you can't help us, we'll wait 'til daybreak, leave you in peace, and try to find a way in ourselves. If you can help us - well, now would be a great time to mention it."
Which leaves Aberforth with no choice, really. I mean, if he doesn't do anything, these three will go out at dawn, do something pointlessly stupid, and get captured by the Death Eaters. Again.
So he walks up to the painting of Ariana and tells her "You know what to do." Ariana walks down a long tunnel painted behind her until finally she vanishes from sight. Aberforth tells the kids that everything is guarded now-secret passages, walls, the school itself. Dementors and Death Eaters everywhere. Aberforth also wants to know how they're going to do anything with Snape, Amycus Carrow and Alecto Carrow running the school, but he seems to feel that that's the Trio's lookout at this point.
At this point Ariana reappears, and now there's someone else in the painting with her-someone with long hair, ragged clothes and wounds on his face. I think this was supposed to harken back to PoA Sirius, actually. Ariana and Random Portrait Person walk closer and closer and closer to the canvas until finally all Harry can see are their heads.
And then, unaccountably, the portrait swings open like a door, revealing a tunnel. Also, the Random Portrait Person turns out NOT to have been a talking portrait at all, but an image of Neville Longbottom, who was walking through the tunnel beneath the portrait. Why he turned into a figure in a portrait is anyone's guess. I'm more puzzled by the fact that it was necessary to send Ariana to Hogwarts on the grounds that Neville might be there by her portrait, waiting for her to appear, and then have him come back with Ariana to the Hog's Head, when all Aberforth really had to do was open the portrait, show the Trio the tunnel, and tell them to follow it to Hogwarts But I guess that would have made way too much sense.
At any rate, Neville climbs out of the tunnel, jumps from the mantel and starts shouting enthusiastically, "I knew you'd come! I knew it, Harry!"
*rolls eyes* Yeah, Neville. Harry's here. And he had to have his incompetent ass saved-yet again-by someone else.
You, on the other hand, rock. You've been taking a stand against evil, been leading an underground student movement, withstanding torture, and going into hiding when it seemed that you would be killed or bundled off to Azkaban.
You are a hero. Harry is a zero. See, Rowling? You used to be able to tell the difference.
Note: This is from the British edition. Readers of the American edition may notice some differences in the text.
Chapter Twenty-Eight -- The Missing Mirror
It took honest-to-God effort for me to spork this chapter. At this point, I was tired of HP7 in general, weary of the blatant stupidity of wizards in particular, and sick of the fact that about half the book could have been thrown in the trash bin without any change in the actual events.
The chapter starts with this line:
Harry's feet touched road.
I've heard of feet touching ground before, but never "road." The American edition makes slightly more sense, as Harry's feet there touch THE road. For my part, I wondered why Harry didn't merely land or materialize. It would have made more sense...oh. Wait.
We then get a long line. A ninety-word-long line. I want you to see the whole thing in its entirety, so that you'll get the full impact.
He saw the achingly familiar Hogsmeade High Street: dark shop fronts, and the outline of black mountains beyond the village and the curve in the road ahead that led off towards Hogwarts, and light spilling from the windows of the Three Broomsticks, and with a lurch of the heart, he remembered with piercing accuracy, how he had landed here nearly a year before, supporting a desperately weak Dumbledore, all this in a second, upon landing -- and then, even as he relaxed his grip upon Ron's and Hermione's arms, it happened.
Now, let's examine this, bit by bit.
He saw the achingly familiar Hogsmeade High Street:
First, it's never been called the Hogsmeade High Street before. Second-let us be fair-Harry hasn't seen the village all that often. Students aren't allowed into Hogsmeade until third year, and Harry didn't have a signed pass at first, or the Map, so he didn't start attending when everyone else did. Hogsmeade outings have been canceled now and again from Book 3 through Book 6, thanks to crises at the school. So, all in all, Harry's seen Hogsmeade, what, ten, twelve times in his whole life? That's not the same as something he grew up with, or that he saw every day for six years of schooling. Ten times in four years really doesn't seem frequent enough to create "aching familiarity."
dark shop fronts
I can see the shop fronts being familiar, but dark shop fronts shouldn't be unless all the Hogsmeade stores are shutting down due to a recession.
and the outline of black mountains beyond the village
Keep in mind that this is the same boy who, in Chapter 7 of DH, insisted that Voldemort couldn't be in a village in England because a village with "a mountainous horizon and the outline of the little village cradled in a deep valley" "didn't look like anywhere in England."
and the curve in the road ahead that led off towards Hogwarts
I'm really not certain why the road is being described, especially as Harry and his friends aren't going to end up using it.
and light spilling from the windows of the Three Broomsticks,
Making it the only place in the whole village that's lit up. Gee, could the bad guys be there, do you think? Especially as they don't seem to be familiar with the spell Nox, or with the concept of blackout curtains.
and with a lurch
"You rang?"
of the heart,
Oh.
he remembered with piercing accuracy,
Interestingly, Rowling has Dumbledore say something similar about his memory in Chapter 13 of HBP: "This time," said Dumbledore, "we are going to enter my memory. I think you will find it both rich in detail and satisfyingly accurate.
I believe both of these lines are responses to fan criticism of her errors, which have grown more egregious as the books have progressed. I repeat what I said last time:
"You know, Rowling, if the memory is detailed and accurate, you won't have to tell me. I'll notice on my own. The fact that you're telling me this ahead of time makes me suspect that you know it's neither, but that you hope I'll believe you and not the evidence of my own eyes."
how he had landed here nearly a year before, supporting a desperately weak Dumbledore,
A flashback to the end of Chapter 26 and the beginning of Chapter 27 of HBP. Just in case there's someone who's starting the series at the seventh book, you know.
all this in a second, upon landing
It's certainly taken more than a second to figure out what's going on, though, hasn't it?
-- and then, even as he relaxed his grip upon Ron's and Hermione's arms, it happened.
We get all the way to the end of this torturously long sentence, and the only thing we find out at the end is that "it happened"? WHAT happened?
The air was rent
Last year's rent!
This year's rent!
Next year's rent!
Rent rent rent rent rent
We're not gonna pay rent!!
'Cause everything is RENT!!!
by a scream that sounded like Voldemort's when he had realized the cup had been stolen:
Delete colon. Replace with a full stop. Using colons does not make you cooler, Rowling. Especially when 99% of the time, you don't use them properly.
Also, how does Voldemort sound when he realizes that a Horcrux-cup has been stolen?
It tore at every nerve in Harry's body, and he knew that their appearance
What appearance? The appearance of the nerves? That's what it should mean, according to the sentence structure.
had caused it.
SNIP! as a dozen or so "cloaked and hooded Death Eaters " run out of the Three Broomsticks. There are only two things wrong with this. One-cloaks, hooded or not, are normal attire for wizards. Two-wouldn't most people want to know what was causing the screaming noise? Harry's right, as it turns out..but assuming that Death Eaters are Death Eaters because they wear cloaks is hardly logical.
Harry prevents Ron from trying to cast a Stunning Spell, as they are outnumbered, and even a Death Eater could figure out that a Stunning Spell coming from nowhere means "Invisibility Cloak." One of the DEs tries casting, "Accio Cloak," but as everyone in the vicinity is wearing a cloak of some kind, the spell isn't specific enough and doesn't work.
That's my theory, anyway. That theory may be wrong, however, because it makes sense.
The Death Eaters figure Harry's not using his Invisibility Cloak-which is logical, as not using the Cloak would be abysmally stupid, and Harry has always been a prime example of the House of the Bold and Stupid, as minkhollow calls it. So they split up and start doing a street-by-street search.
Hermione suggests Disapparating NOW, which indicates to me that she is the single member of the Trio with any brains. Harry says no, as the Death Eaters must have done something to trap them here. Um, Harry? I know your mentor was Dumbledore, but jumping to conclusions without actual proof didn't serve him too well in the end, did it? You could try to escape, at least!
One of the Death Eaters suggests letting loose the Dementors, because who cares if Harry's soul gets eaten? A mindless, soulless husk will just be that much easier for Voldemort to kill.
Harry is upset by this. Oh, not because of the prospect of being soul-sucked and having his mind and personality stolen. He already has Hermione to do his thinking for him and he never had much personality in the first place, so this is just life as he knows it. What does upset him is the notion that they'll have to cast the Patronus Charm, which will betray the fact that they're here to cast it.
Hermione tells Harry yet again that they need to Disapparate. Good girl, Hermione. You know, I honestly believe that this is why the pureblood racists hate Muggleborns so much; Muggleborns retain the ability to reason for longer than purebloods or halfbloods. Hermione has come up with every goddamned idea in this book, while the boys have just been sitting on their thumbs.
But alas, Harry's decision to follow Hermione's advice comes too late, for here are the Dementors, and either they or the Death Eaters have made the air turn solid. Despite this, the kids have no problem moving. Or breathing. Neat trick.
Also, it appears that the Dementors are all natural Deluminators, because look what happens next:
Light was sucked from the environment right up to the stars, which vanished.
That's right, y'all. Dementors can suck the light away from stars that are millions, billions, even trillions of light-years away. Rather like the way that they suck all sense out of this scene, in fact. I mean, anything that can suck the light out of something that far away has to be either the most powerful entity in the universe or an ambulatory black hole. Why are they following Voldemort again?
Hermione then grabs Harry's arm and they turn toward something unspecified. I'm not sure why they can do this. The air is SOLID. Shouldn't they be frozen like flies in amber?
Despite the solidity of the air which should paralyze all and sundry, as well as the utter blackness of a world in which the sun has turned into an extinguished cinder and all life as we know it dying, the three kids soldier on, groping their way down a side street. The Dementors, who evidently aren't stopped by solid air either, glide down the street toward the Trio.
And how do these brilliant young adults know the Dementors are there? By the rattle of their breath? By the bone-chilling fear seeping into the three of them? Oh, no. The teenagers know that the Dementors are here in this completely lightless world because-that's right-they can SEE them.
Then, around the corner, gliding noiselessly, came Dementors, ten or more of them, visible because they were of a denser darkness than their surroundings, with their black cloaks and their scabbed and rotting hands.
Yeah. Because black clothes are extremely visible in complete darkness. They're practically phosphorescent. And what, exactly, is "denser darkness"? Thicker darkness? More stupid darkness?
Harry deduces that the Dementors can sense fear. It's not really necessary to deduce this, as it was established back in PoA, but then so much continuity has been murdered, chopped up and danced upon by now that I really shouldn't complain. It's just that...I've read stories where continuity could actually be presumed to exist. Shocking, eh?
In any event, Harry decides, after several paragraphs describing the Dementors, that he doesn't want to be Kissed by a soul-eating demon, no matter what happens. That he actually has to ponder this consciously for any length of time is amazing. I think that your average Muggle would have reached that conclusion the instant the Dementors appeared and would be speeding toward Madagascar by now.
It baffles me that Harry doesn't think of simply walking out of Hogsmeade and, once he and his friends are outside of the village boundaries, Apparating to, say, in front of the gates of Hogwarts. But then, where would we be if more than 0.01% of this book made sense? Aside from reading a much more enjoyable book, that is.
Finally, he casts his Patronus. The Dementors scatter, and the Death Eaters are delighted; they have a rough idea of where Harry is now. Especially since the Dementors have retreated and the stars are re-kindling.
Because it is impossible that Harry be able to save his friends himself OR think of a way out of this, it is now time for a deus ex machina. That particular role has been assigned to Aberforth Dumbledore, who opens the door to the Hog's Head bar just as Harry and company are passing, and calls out, "Potter, in here, quick!" After all, there's no way that Harry could possibly know that anyone was trying to save him if that person didn't endanger himself by using Harry's name.
He obeyed without hesitation: the three of them hurtled through the open doorway.
All right. I don't mind that Harry took a chance and bolted for the nearest door. I really don't. I don't even mind that he dragged Ron and Hermione along for the ride. I think that the word that bugs me is "obey"--because seriously, who does Harry think he's obeying? That's right. He doesn't know.
Aberforth, whom I'm going to call Abe because Aberforth is too long and any attempt to call him Dumbledore will just get him mixed up with his brother, tells the kids to go "Upstairs, keep the Cloak on, keep quiet!". He then goes out on the street where the Dementors are. I confess my first thought was, "Oh, no, not ANOTHER one who's going to die for Harry."
Anyway, the kids go up to a very poor sitting room. There's a "rickety staircase" that leads up to it, and a "threadbare carpet" so I guess we're supposed to deduce that Abe is poor. Apparently working for the Order of the Phoenix doesn't pay-well, anything. Harry also notes the existence of a single lit candle-WHY don't wizards use things like gaslight or kerosene lamps if they can't use electricity?--and a picture of a little blonde girl who's staring at the room "with a kind of a vacant sweetness."
What follows is idiotic, so I'm just going to condense it.
Abe: That's my Patronus you're following, you oiks! Hey, what do you think I'm going to do if you bring Dementors round?
Death Eaters: That was a stag.
Abe: That wasn't a stag, it was a goat! *zaps up goat Patronus*
Death Eaters: *cannot tell a stag from a goat*
Readers With Dirty Minds: *wonder just why Aberforth's Patronus looks like a goat*
Death Eaters: Well, someone was out on the street after curfew...
Abe: Uh, that was my cat?
Death Eaters: So you or your cat set off the alarm?
Abe: So what're you gonna do about it? You want a piece of me? Huh? Huh? You gonna send me to Azkaban?
Death Eaters: *completely forget how to cast Imperio, Crucio and Avada Kedavra at their opponents*
Abe: And where are you gonna make your drug deals if not in my pub?
Death Eaters: Everywhere?
Abe: *sneers*
Death Eaters:*exit stage left, pretending it was their idea all along*
Abe comes back in and calls the three of them bloody fools for coming to Hogsmeade in the first place. I think that it was at this point that I began to love Aberforth.
Then, in the light of that single spluttering candle, Harry discerns that "[b]ehind the dirty lenses, the eyes were a piercing, brilliant blue." Go on. Try to tell the color of someone's eyes by the light of no more than a single candle in a dark room. I dare you. I double dog dare you.
Harry immediately deduces, based on the color of the man's eyes and the existence of a small hand mirror on the mantelpiece, that he's been seeing Abe's eye in the shard of mirror, not Albus's. He also leaps to the conclusion that Abe sent Dobby. Hey, I thought that Dobby was a free elf who didn't obey anyone's commands. What happened to that?
Harry gives Abe the news that Dobby is dead, and that Bella killed him. Abe is apparently one of the seven fans in the multiverse who liked Dobby, for he's sorry about this.
We then get dialogue that's rather like an FAQ:
Q. For the benefit of those fans who don't read your interviews, Ms. Rowling, who IS this guy?
A. This is Aberforth Dumbledore, the barman of the Hog's Head.
Q. Where did Aberforth get Sirius's mirror?
A. He bought it from Mundungus Fletcher at Albus's instruction.
Q. Did Aberforth send the silver doe?
A. "Brains like that, you could be a Death Eater, son. Did you just not notice that his Patronus is a goat?
Abe gives the kids food (bread, cheese and mead), because Ron is hungry. After everyone has eaten and the two boys are sitting "slumped dozily in their chairs," Abe brings up the problem of what to do to get the kids out of town. He suggests waiting till dawn, donning the Invisibility Cloak, walking out of Hogsmeade, heading into the Mountains-That-Should-Not-Exist-According-To-Harry, and Disapparating from there. He informs that they might see Hagrid and his annoying brother in the process, which may be why Harry doesn't want to do this. Grawp is a good incentive for not bothering.
Harry says that they aren't budging, and that they have to get to Hogwarts. Abe says that this is stupid-which it is, but when did that ever stop Harry?--and that what Harry really has to do is get the hell out of Dodge. Harry tells Abe that Albus wanted them to do this, which gets Abe quietly pissed off. After a rather odd description in which Aberforth's "momentarily opaque" glasses are compared to "the blind eyes of the giant spider, Aragog," Abe tells the kids the facts:
"My brother Albus wanted a lot of things," said Aberforth, "and people had a habit of getting hurt while he was carrying out his grand plans.
Have I mentioned that I love Aberforth? Seriously, this has been true since the first book and this is the first time anyone has had the balls to say this to Harry's face.
Abe reiterates that what Harry needs to do is flee the country, and to forget about Albus's plans and schemes. Harry insists that Abe just doesn't understaaaaaaand, and that Albus left him a job.
"Did he now?" said Aberforth. "Nice job, I hope? Pleasant? Easy? Sort of thing you'd expect an unqualified wizard kid to be able to do without overstretching themselves?"
I love Abe for saying this. On the other hand, we're less than ten chapters from the end. Shouldn't I feel by now that Harry IS qualified, rather than thinking that he's just blundering his way through this book and that if he succeeds, it'll be purely by accident?
Harry says that it's not easy and that he can't give it up. He also can't explain why he can't. He protests that Abe is in the Order so he's fighting Voldemort. Abe says that he was in the Order but that that's over with now that Voldemort's won, and repeats that Harry needs to run now, and take his friends with him. There's more, but it's all pretty repetitious.
Hermione breaks up the monotony by asking if the little blonde girl in the picture is Ariana. Abe doesn't want to talk about it and makes a comment about her reading Rita Skeeter's book. Harry says that Elphias Doge spoke of Ariana. Abe comments about Doge:
"Thought the sun shone out of my brother's every orifice, he did. Well, so did plenty of people, you three included, by the looks of it."
Best two lines in the book.
Harry then thinks about how he doesn't want to doubt Dumbledore:
He had made his choice while he dug Dobby's grave, he had decided to continue along the winding, dangerous path indicated for him by Albus Dumbledore, to accept that he had not been told everything that he wanted to know, but simply to trust.
I'd rather have a hero who can think as well as act, instead of one who merely trusts blindly without understanding what he's trusting in.
He had no desire to doubt again; he did not want to hear anything that would
Make him think?
deflect him from his purpose.
Same difference.
Hermione proclaims that Dumbledore loved Harry a lot, even though there's no proof of that. Seriously, what did DD ever do that displayed disinterested affection for the boy? Everything he did was calculated to create a hero who was willing to die.
Abe says that lots of people that Albus loved ended up worse off than if he hadn't bothered with them. Then he begins telling Ariana's story:
"When my sister was six years old, she was attacked, set upon, by three Muggle boys. They'd seen her doing magic, spying through the back garden hedge: she was a kid, she couldn't control it, no witch or wizard can at that age. What they saw scared them, I expect. They forced their way through the hedge, and when she couldn't show them the trick, they got a bit carried away trying to stop the little freak doing it."
Now, at this point, I have to mention a book called My Sweet Audrina by V.C. Andrews, © 1982. (I urge you to click on the link. There's an excerpt from the first chapter about halfway down the page.)
In My Sweet Audrina, the title character, who is nine at the time, is ambushed and attacked by three boys on a shortcut home. Audrina tries to get away but can't; the boys are older and stronger than she is. Eventually, the three boys rape Audrina and leave her unconscious and bleeding under a tree. Audrina loses her memory, not only of the beating and rape but of her whole life, and her parents build up a false set of memories for her so that she will believe she's the second Audrina in the family and that her former self is an older sister of the same name who died.
Let's examine the similar characteristics in these stories:
My Sweet Audrina
Deathly Hallows
The character's name is Audrina.
The character's name is Ariana.
The character has "chameleon hair" of many shades that nevertheless looks blonde.
The character is blonde.
The character is a small girl (aged nine).
The character is a small girl (aged six).
The character was attacked by three boys.
The character was attacked by three boys.
The character was attacked in a forest near her home.
The character was attacked in the back garden of her home.
The boys rape the character, in addition to beating her.
The boys "got a bit carried away trying to stop the little freak."
The character is kept home and not allowed to go to school until she can function as a different girl from the one who was raped.
The character is kept home and not allowed to go to school.
The character's father feels his daughter has been murdered by the beating and rape.
The character's brother Aberforth says that the assault "destroyed her."
Now, if this were a fanfic on Fanfiction.net or on LiveJournal, I'd say that having such a similar character having such similar experiences to another such character in a similar plot was, at the very least, titchy. But since Rowling has more money and more attorneys than God, I'll satisfy myself and her lawyers by saying that the story of Ariana Dumbledore is "derivative." Highly, highly, HIGHLY derivative.
Aberforth continues with the story.
"It destroyed her, what they did: she was never right again.
I think we can all agree that something worse than your average beating went on. Western society doesn't have a widely accepted concept of "beaten until you lose your mind." The motif of the girl or woman who loses her mind due to the trauma of rape, however, is common. I think that's the motif Rowling's using here-even though she's being painfully coy about it. For God's sake, Rowling, I think that most kids have heard of rape. And how controversial is it to indicate that rape is a bad thing?
She wouldn't use magic,
Er...Rowling? You've been at some pains ever since PS/SS to tell the audience that little kids don't have all that much control over their magic. Even the stuff they can consciously do can easily go wrong-like a slug that grows much larger than intended. And plenty of other magic is involuntary-like Harry making an ugly jumper shrink, or making his hair grow back after a bad haircut.
So saying that Wee Ariana had the ability to consciously choose not to use her magic-unlike every other wizarding kid in the world-is annoying. And dead wrong. And shatters continuity.
But hey, when did you give a damn about things like that?
but she couldn't get rid of it;
Well, duh, of course not, since magic is something you're born with. Either you're a witch or wizard, or you're not.
it turned inward and drove her mad, it exploded out of her when she couldn't control it,
You mean like, oh, EVERY OTHER MAGICAL KID who can't control it?
and at times she was strange and dangerous.
Somehow, I think that Molly Weasley might think that that was a perfect description of her twins as children. And not only as children.
But mostly she was sweet and scared and harmless.
A sweet and innocent victim who is also a serious threat. Does not compute, Rowling. Does. Not. COMPUTE.
Aberforth says that his father found and attacked the boys who "destroyed" his daughter. Despite being imprisoned in Azkaban, he never told anyone the motive for the crime:
if the Ministry had known what Ariana had become, she'd have been locked up in St. Mungo's for good.
*blink*
So WHAT?
Why is this even an issue? I could see Muggles fearing hospitals and asylums in the nineteenth century. Witches and wizards, not so much. Mediwizards and Healers could mend broken bones even during eras when a compound fracture was a death sentence, so I'm thinking that just maybe their mental wards weren't torture chambers. And unlike, say, the unfortunate Longbottoms, Ariana wasn't the way she was because of a curse. She was traumatised because of physical injury, not mad as the result of a torture spell. The Healers might well have been able to do more for her than her own family could.
They'd have seen her as a serious threat to the International Statute of Secrecy, unbalanced like she was, with magic exploding out of her at moments when she couldn't keep it in any longer.
As opposed, say, to Harry Potter, who inflated Great-Aunt Marge and made her float away into the sky? Or the Trio riding a big freaking DRAGON?
Aberforth goes on, telling the Trio that he and their mother tried to keep Ariana relatively placid and happy. Abe could get her to eat, and could calm her down, and let her help him feed the family's goats when she was in a more peaceful mood.
"Not Albus, he was always up in his bedroom when he was home, reading his books and counting his prizes, keeping up with his correspondence with 'the most notable magical names of the day,' Aberforth sneered, "he didn't want to be bothered with her.
What a wonderfully active and helpful kid. Not. Keep in mind that Harry will later tell Dumbledore that he was all brave and noble and good, and will name his second son after him.
Then Ariana turned fourteen (making Abe fifteen and Albus seventeen), and she and Kendra had a quarrel. Ariana lashed out, and killed her. I kind of wonder what a kid, even a crazy magical kid, could do against a fully-trained adult witch. Also, given that Ariana's mother knew that her daughter's magic could go violently haywire at any time, why wasn't she using Shield Charms 24/7? You'd think that would be basic protection-the equivalent of a padded helmet--but this question, like so many others, is cast aside as so much rubbish.
Harry doesn't want to hear anything about Ariana's arguments or Kendra's Unfortunate Demise, of course. No, really, it says that in the text.
Harry felt a horrible mixture of pity and repulsion; he did not want to hear any more, but Aberforth kept talking
My guess is that Harry doesn't want to hear it because it's Not All About Him.
Aberforth then explains that Albus couldn't go gallivanting all over the world now that Mumsie was dead, and that he decided that he was going to be the head of the family now. Keep in mind that Albus was seventeen, while his brother and sister were fifteen and fourteen, respectively, so this "head of the family" business went over about as well as Percy's siding with the Ministry rather than Harry did with the Weasleys. I can just hear Aberforth yelling, "You're not the boss of ME!"
After a few weeks of this, Grindelwald showed up at Godric's Hollow, visiting his Great-Auntie Bathilda, and hit it off with Albus instantly.
And looking after Ariana took a backseat then, while they were hatching all their plans for a new wizarding order and looking for Hallows, and whatever else it was they were so interested in.
That's an odd phrase for a wizard to use, isn't it? Brooms don't really have a front or a back seat.
Grand plans for the benefit of all wizardkind, and if one young girl got neglected, what did that matter when Albus was working for the greater good?
Honestly, I wish that I could turn Albus into a toad now, so that he could be in body what he is in soul. Selfish prick. He never changed, either. Whether the person was Ariana, James, Lily, Harry, Snape, Sirius, Cedric Diggory or Moaning Myrtle, Albus Dumbledore was always more than willing to let someone else suffer for his ideals.
Shortly before Abe had to return to Hogwarts, he had it out with his brother, telling him that Ariana couldn't be moved from place to place while Albie and Grindy scurried from town to town, speechifying. He was absolutely right, too; a mentally ill child would need structure and constant care. She'd need it all the more after accidentally killing her mother. But neither Albus nor Grindelwald liked that notion. Too much work that didn't fulfill their personal ambitions. Grindy, of course, dressed that up in prettier words:
He told me what a stupid little boy I was,
"Little boy." Oh, yeah, I'm sure that went over very well with fifteen-year-old Aberforth. Especially since Grindelwald was no more than sixteen.
trying to stand in the way of him and my brilliant brother...didn't I understand, my poor sister wouldn't have to be hidden once they'd changed the world, and led the wizards out of hiding, and taught the Muggles their place?
Which makes absolutely no sense whatsoever, because it sounds like the Muggles are in charge, tyrannizing over wizards. And that simply isn't true. Muggles don't know that wizards exist. Even the International Statute of Secrecy, which everyone is so unaccountably afraid that Ariana will violate, is imposed by wizards. It's the wizards who are choosing to remain in their little ghettoized world, hiding from people who vastly outnumber them and whose technology is just as powerful as magic, in its own way.
I had to read this next bit several times before I realized what had happened.
"And there was an argument...and I pulled out my wand, and he pulled out his, and I had the Cruciatus Curse used on me by my brother's best friend---and Albus was trying to stop him, and then all three of us were dueling, and the flashing lights and the bangs set her off, she couldn't stand it--"
Okay. Now. Reconstruct the crime scene. Aberforth was lying on the floor, being tortured by the worst pain in existence, one that can drive you insane in a couple of minutes. Grindelwald was doing the torturing, which means that all of his focus, attention and magic are on Aberforth. Albus is...well, let's be honest. He wasn't trying very hard to stop Grindelwald, because all that it would take to stop Grindy would be the Full-Body Bind, a Stunning Spell, or Expelliarmus. And Mr. Brilliant, winner of all the prizes for academic excellence, would know that.
Doesn't really fit the "the three of us were dueling" scenario, does it? I suspect that's a lie Aberforth told himself to make life more bearable, because look what happened next.
Ariana, upset by the noise and the lights, did something-we're not told what--to try to stop what's going on.
The only person free to do anything to her was Albus Dumbledore.
And it's already been established that, unlike the other two, Albus had good reason to want his sister dead. Aberforth only had a couple of years to go until he was of age; Ariana was going to be mentally ill, and dependent on her brothers, for what could be a very, very long life. Furthermore, mentally ill relatives do not look good when you're a politician. Mentally ill relatives who have been concealed from public eye for years can develop into scandals.
I think that DD saw his baby sister as the ruination of all his hopes and dreams. Not only was her life blighted, but his would be too, because of her.
And so he murdered her.
Small wonder Grindelwald left the next day. He could see the handwriting on the wall; if he stayed, there was a good chance that he-who'd already earned a bad reputation--would be blamed for the girl's death. Not to mention that DD, like any wizard, could easily muck about with his memories, implanting a false memory that Grindelwald had killed Ariana. DD could even implant the compulsion to confess, as young Tom Riddle did to Morfin Gaunt.
And after that, Aberforth says, his brother was free. His burden was dead, and he could do what he wanted.
Harry, who is, in the words of Blackadder, "as thick as a whale omelet," still does not get it. He says that when Dumbledore unnecessarily drank the potion in Cave Horcrux, he started screaming, 'Don't hurt them, please...hurt me instead.'
I recall nothing of the kind-just Generic Angsty Muttering and Screaming(TM), for the most part. However...examination of my spork of the Cave Chapter reveals that Dumbledore spoke the following rather telling words:
"Its all my fault, all my fault," he sobbed. "Please make it stop, I know I did wrong, oh please make it stop and I'll never, never again ..."
Not words of blame. An admission of guilt.
Harry insists that the words that Dumbledore did not speak indicate his pain and suffering at seeing Grindelwald torture his brother and sister.
"He thought he was watching Grindelwald hurting you and Ariana...it was torture to him, if you'd seen him then, you wouldn't say he was free."
Now, there's nothing in either the words that Dumbledore spoke or the ones that Harry made up to indicate any of those details. Harry should write novels. He seems to have far more imagination than his creator.
Aberforth, who knows that Harry is currently starring in Clueless, asks him how he can be certain that he wasn't every bit as expendable as Ariana, in Double-D's eyes?
Hermione repeats that Dumbledore loved Harry. Aberforth doesn't buy it. He demands to know why Dumbledore didn't warn Harry about danger, or advise him to hide to keep himself safe.
I'm with Aberforth. Even if you think that one person might be the key to solving everything, if you cared about them, you'd still want to keep them safe. And you would try to find a way to solve the problem AND keep that person safe. It's human nature.
Harry starts channeling Albus at this point.
"sometimes you've got to think about more than your own safety!
Harry, you've NEVER thought about your own safety. Or anyone else's. Which is, you know, not a good idea in war. There are a couple of things called strategy and tactics. Maybe Ron could explain them to you?
Harry babbles about "the greater good" some more. I swear that Rowling became addicted to Charmed on her last tour of the United States. He also accuses Aberforth of having given up, which is rather stupid, as Aberforth already told him that. He then starts lying through his teeth:
"Your brother knew how to finish You-Know-Who
He did? All I recall is his mentioning Horcruxes. There was nothing in there about how to find, identify and destroy Horcruxes. (Horcruces, it should be, in proper Latin.)
and he passed the knowledge on to me.
Liar. So, Harry, if "he passed the knowledge on" to you, how come you've had such a tough time finding and destroying Horcruxes for, oh, THE WHOLE BOOK?
Harry proclaims that he'll continue on this course until he wins or dies. Evidently the concept of victory bought with self-sacrifice is completely alien to him. He also says that he knows that this could end in his death, which the readers figured out back when he was eleven.
Harry then basically orders Aberforth to help him.
"If you can't help us, we'll wait 'til daybreak, leave you in peace, and try to find a way in ourselves. If you can help us - well, now would be a great time to mention it."
Which leaves Aberforth with no choice, really. I mean, if he doesn't do anything, these three will go out at dawn, do something pointlessly stupid, and get captured by the Death Eaters. Again.
So he walks up to the painting of Ariana and tells her "You know what to do." Ariana walks down a long tunnel painted behind her until finally she vanishes from sight. Aberforth tells the kids that everything is guarded now-secret passages, walls, the school itself. Dementors and Death Eaters everywhere. Aberforth also wants to know how they're going to do anything with Snape, Amycus Carrow and Alecto Carrow running the school, but he seems to feel that that's the Trio's lookout at this point.
At this point Ariana reappears, and now there's someone else in the painting with her-someone with long hair, ragged clothes and wounds on his face. I think this was supposed to harken back to PoA Sirius, actually. Ariana and Random Portrait Person walk closer and closer and closer to the canvas until finally all Harry can see are their heads.
And then, unaccountably, the portrait swings open like a door, revealing a tunnel. Also, the Random Portrait Person turns out NOT to have been a talking portrait at all, but an image of Neville Longbottom, who was walking through the tunnel beneath the portrait. Why he turned into a figure in a portrait is anyone's guess. I'm more puzzled by the fact that it was necessary to send Ariana to Hogwarts on the grounds that Neville might be there by her portrait, waiting for her to appear, and then have him come back with Ariana to the Hog's Head, when all Aberforth really had to do was open the portrait, show the Trio the tunnel, and tell them to follow it to Hogwarts But I guess that would have made way too much sense.
At any rate, Neville climbs out of the tunnel, jumps from the mantel and starts shouting enthusiastically, "I knew you'd come! I knew it, Harry!"
*rolls eyes* Yeah, Neville. Harry's here. And he had to have his incompetent ass saved-yet again-by someone else.
You, on the other hand, rock. You've been taking a stand against evil, been leading an underground student movement, withstanding torture, and going into hiding when it seemed that you would be killed or bundled off to Azkaban.
You are a hero. Harry is a zero. See, Rowling? You used to be able to tell the difference.