DH Chapter 31: The Battle of Hogwarts.
Chapter 31: The Battle of Hogwarts.
Harry decides to devote ≈20 minutes to hearing McGonagall's evacuation & castle defense instructions, which are necessary since he is running short of time to find the Horcrux. The decision is especially intriguing, considering he has seen V looking through the castle gates 15 min ago.
I am surprised Firenze is at the Great Hall, allowed to teach under the new regime. In the interview, JKR said he returned to his herd after the battle, "who realized that pro-human leanings were not shameful."
Ernie shouts they want to fight too. I got so accustomed to Gryffindor being the House of the brave that it took several readings for my brain to register the words "at the Hufflepuff table".
Asking thrice "Give me HP" was a good move, not because of truly expecting them to do thus (I hope), but since the tactic could be potentially successful in sowing doubt, and even lead to mayhem & inter-fighting. Had Slytherins violently tried to lay hands on Harry, the castle defenders would be physically weakened before the official beginning of the battle.
Pansy surely tried her best to fulfill those hopes with "Someone grab him!"
"Potter, aren't you supposed to be looking for something?"
"What? Oh," said Harry, "oh, yeah!"
*loves* Poor woman has to micromanage Harry too, in addition to the school's evacuation.
Chekov's Gun from the previous chapter fires when Harry realizes Flitwick's "in living memory" means he should ask the ghosts.
Zacharias Smith, the only person to question Harry in DA and the one fans hoped would be Hufflepuff's heir, exits the book by bowling over first-years on the way to the queue's front. If any Zach's fans are disappointed, well… his being Hufflepuff's heir doesn't contradict canon. Nobody said heirs have to be good ones, look at what Slytherin & Hufflepuff (the simpering, old, fat lady in HBP) got.
OMG. It's worse than not remembering his classmates' names. After 6 years at school Harry asks Nick who the ghost of Ravenclaw Tower is. Ravenclaw, the 1 of 4 Hogwarts Houses.
Interesting whether Nick is surprised by Harry's ignorance or by the question itself.
Only when he caught up to the Gray Lady Harry "recognized her as a ghost he had passed several times in the corridor". As the saying goes, better late than never. But he still is surprised to hear her real name is Helena Ravenclaw.
Harry thought if she had known anything, she would've told DD, "who had surely asked her the same question". So, had DD never asked or had Helena refused to answer since DD hadn't given her a good enough reason, iow the real one? I would guess the latter.
Fun fact from wiki: According to a letter written by Rowling to Nina Young, the actress who played the Grey Lady in the first film, she is "a highly intellectual young lady …. She never found true love as she never found a man up to her standards".
Don't know about Helena's (too?) high standards, but she was 100% right to refuse the Baron. A hot-tempered man, who will stab you because of being "furious at my refusal, jealous of my freedom"? No, thanks.
The Bloody Baron and Helena Ravenclaw
I am curious what she was doing alone in that forest. Why not go to China instead? Or Africa?
Apparently, the ghost isn't afraid to use V's name either. And she knows V is the same boy whom she told the story.
Love to see the way even insignificant details fit together as parts of the same puzzle (alas, too little in DH!). V's spirit chose to hide in Albania for 10 years since he saw how secluded the place was on his trip for the diadem.
V was right to change the diadem's hiding place, but leaving it at Hogwarts the night he asked for a job was very reckless. DD had known of the visit in advance, I am surprised he didn't order house-elves & the portraits to report V's every step, thus finding the relic on the same day. The one time DD's tendency to spy after people could've been useful and he didn't use it.
Harry decides V asked for the job for the chance "to nick Gryffindor's sword as well". Imo, the idea of V expecting to steal the sword in DD's presence is ridiculous. Most likely, in the good old days, with smaller number of Horcruxes V preferred simpler plans over convoluted ones and decided there was no need to sneak into the castle, when coming through the main gate under the pretense would do. That specific time it was a mistake (see previous paragraph), but luckily for him DD made one too, so all was well.
Now that we met all Houses' ghosts, let's sum up and see how they suit their Houses:
Slytherin - the Bloody Baron - a murderer -- Need I say more?
Ravenclaw - the Grey Lady - a thief. -- Those intellectual types can't be trusted!
Gryffindor - Nearly Headless Nick - got his head cut off for being a wizard. -- A good guy, who only made a small, comical mistake, and was unjustly executed by bigoted masses.(*)
Hufflepuff - the Fat Friar -a jolly, friendly fellow, "the only House ghost whose death has not been discussed in the books". -- As sistermagpie put it, "bland, but cute".
(*) An excerpt from Nick's song, which was cut from the first draft of CoS. (I am probably the only one to enjoy HP poetry in a way, especially the Sorting Hat's song in OoTF. Would want to read what it sang in DH.):
It was a mistake any wizard could make
Who was tired and caught on the hop
One piffling error, and then, to my terror,
I found myself facing the chop.
Alas for the eve when I met Lady Grieve
A-strolling the park in the dusk!
She was of the belief I could straighten her teeth
Next moment she'd sprouted a tusk.
I cried through the night that I'd soon put her right
But the process of justice was lax;
They'd brought out the block, though they'd mislaid the rock
Where they usually sharpened the axe.
5 minutes until midnight, Harry rounded the corner just as "a gigantic body flew in through the window and hit the opposite wall". Don't worry; it's only Hagrid with Fang.
Meanwhile, the clock strikes midnight and the battle begins.
JKR tries to add some humor via Hagrid with variable success. The following bit is funny:
Grawpy was carryin’ us, Fang an’ me. Told him ter let me down at the castle, so he shoved me through the window, bless him. Not exactly what I meant, bu’-
But what am I supposed to take from his leaving Harry alone in the battle after 5 min to run after terrified Fang? In HBP he was all about his dog in the burning hut too. Jeez, people are dying here. Why aren't you fighting? Why bring the stupid dog in the 1st place, if you care about it so much? Now I want Fang to share Hedwig's fate, so that Hagrid will get some incentive to fight already.
Next time he appears when the gigantic spiders force their way into the front hall, brandishing his pink umbrella and yelling “Don’t hurt ‘em, don’t hurt ‘em!” At this point my first thought was he was afraid of people hurting the spiders. Honestly.
The smashed gargoyle on the floor reminds Harry of the ugly warlock near RoR and he understands where the Horcrux is. OK, but still more convoluted than simply remembering where he hid HBP book. And where Draco hid the vanishing cabinet, letting DEs into school. And where they used to hide from Umbridge for the entire year. And …
Harry continues to amaze me. All of DH wasn't enough to disabuse him of the notion of DD as somebody, who would never set foot near RoR due to being … "a model pupil". Besides, it's not like walking corridors during the day is forbidden. (And I am sure DD sneaked into the forbidden section in his thirst for knowledge and power, which I don't see as a bad thing, btw.)
Neville with Professor Sprout and other wearing earmuffs students prepare to lob mandrakes over the walls. It sounds great, until you remember Hogwarts defenders on the grounds "won't like this" either.
Hagrid pounds off after Fang to great cheer of numerous fans.
Harry runs into Aberforth and rejects his idea of keeping a few Slytherins hostage since DD would never do it and it wouldn't stop V. In fact, doing thus could even help V. Narcissa helped Harry; other DE parents would fight twice as hard to get to their children. In addition, the prisoners' guards would be out of the battle.
Ron thinking first about basilisk's venom is nice, but gets completely spoiled by mimicking Parseltongue.
[Harry] He hid it exactly where I hid my old Potions book, where everyone’s been hiding stuff for centuries. He thought he was the only one to find it.
Interesting how V explained to himself the contradiction. It's a bit too much even for him.
Ginny, Tonks & Neville's grandmother leave RoR, clearing the stage for R/Hr big moment.
Out of the 3 Augusta Longbottom impressed me most:
“He’s fighting,” said Harry.
“Naturally,” said the old lady proudly. “Excuse me, I must go and assist him.” With surprising speed she trotted off toward the stone steps.
I am glad we'll see her in DH movie, performed by Ninette Finch: "Yes I am playing Augusta Longbottom although it is not a very big part... I have also played a couple of witches and was one of the people on the Millennium bridge when it was under attack".
And less glad we'll see Hermione obliviating her parents. Her excuse: "That’s to make it more difficult for Voldemort to track them down and interrogate them about me - or you, because unfortunately, I’ve told them quite a bit about you." Wasn't necessary since:
a) I am 100% sure they don't know anything unknown to V. Hermione hardly told them about the Horcruxes!
b) We saw obliviate isn't good against V, who had no scruples in driving Bertha Jorkins insane to access the memories.
[Ron] “I mean we should tell them to get out. We don’t want anymore Dobbies, do we? We can’t order them to die for us -”
I know Ron mentions Dobby since he's dead, but the comparison still seems strange since Dobby is the embodiment of Free Elf You Don't Want To Cross, who will decide himself what to do and Go For It, even if it means breaking Harry's leg.
Besides, the Trio being just 3 former students can't neither order nor free the elves anyway. Wizards having unlimited power over their elves is canon (can't refuse a direct order), but couldn't Hogwarts' elves be different since they serve the institution, not an individual? Even if they can't leave, the elves could be magically bound only to serve the school, not every headmaster's whims. Iow, they'll endanger themselves for Hogwarts, as they did in DH, but not for any other reason (without agreeing to).
At last the Trio steps out of RoR into the shaking worse than ever castle and Grawp with Ginny get more screen time. NOOOOOO!!! Usually I am quite indifferent to both, but look:
Grawp meanders past, swinging a stone gargoyle and "roaring his displeasure". Ron hopes he'll help by stepping on DEs (LOL!), while Ginny (or Tonks) notes he can step on their wounded too. JKR does sound like she describes an animal, doesn't she?
Meanwhile, V's giants are more useful and help to breach the north battlements. Grawp and them sound like different species here, making me seriously suspect Hagrid's brother was mistreated because of having a mental disability.
Ginny is complimented in every other sentence. Her "well-aimed jinx" gets "Good girl!" from Aberforth; she comforts Tonks "I'm sure he's okay" after hearing Remus was last seen dueling Dolohov. I get she's perfection. Enough already.
Harry asks for the place where everything is hidden and enters "a place the size of a cathedral with the appearance of a city". It could take hours, even days to find the diadem in this labyrinth, made of walls of rubbish. Why not try to ask for a small room with the bust of an old man wearing a wig and a tiara? Yes, I know, the plot.
The tiara is ancient and discolored. I always imagined it shinier, with magical protection against wear and tear.
Via mctabby from Comedy: A Geographic and Historical Guide, edited by Maurice Charney (Greenwood, 2005):
The names of Harry's enemies (Draco, Crabbe, and Goyle) hint at their personalities through association with such words as draconian, crabby, and gargoyle.
Crabbe does behave crabby here, when he gets some lines at last. But Draco being draconian? Prior to HBP, annoying seems the most suitable adjective.
Draco with his mother's wand gets metaphorically castrated again, when panting Harry replies to “That’s my wand you’re holding, Potter” with “Winners, keepers, Malfoy."
Do any Draco fans remember whether Harry ever used his first name?
Goyle speaks for the 1st and the last time in this chapter (and iirc in the series!):
“We was hiding in the corridor outside,” grunted Goyle. “We can do Diss-lusion Charms now! And then,” his face split into a gormless grin, “you turned up right in front of us and said you was looking for a die-dum! What’s a die-dum?”
Wait, Goyle cast the charm so well that Harry didn't notice anything? Goyle?! I got so excited since the same charm was used to show DD's greatness, when he told Harry he didn't need the Cloak to become invisible in PS. Ah, the young, naïve days of fandom.
Since we saw only DD & V (*) casting such strong charm, I thought it was their special ability, out of reach of most wizards, forced to use the Cloaks.
(*) "he could conceal himself…and in a second he had cast upon himself a Disillusionment Charm that hid him even from his own eyes" [DH, Chapter 24: The Wandmaker, before breaking into DD's grave]
In the previous chapter, Ron didn't know what a diadem is either, though he pronounced the word right.
You can be sure that if JKR wants to show something, she'll do it through and through (see: Ginny's awesomeness). In this case, Crabbe is the only one out of Delinquent Trio to cast any spell and he casts (among others): Crucio at Harry, 2 killing curses (at Ron AND at Hr) & Fiendfyre. He also calls Hr Mudblood and is horrible even to his friends: “I don’t take your orders no more, Draco. You an’ your dad are finished.” Doesn't he deserve to die?
Wow, I am probably the only one to see the following as Draco saving Harry's life (at least, to some degree) before the reverse happens:
“Don’t kill him! DON’T KILL HIM!” Malfoy yelled at Crabbe and Goyle, who were both aiming at Harry: Their split second’s hesitation was all Harry needed.
It was not normal fire; Crabbe had used a curse of which Harry had no knowledge despite Fiendfyre being one of the few substances that destroy Horcruxes and spending the year bored in the tent with all relevant literature. I am surprised Hr didn't force him to read the books, as I would've.
The sequence of running from fiery beasts and saving Draco looks as if it was written for the screen. And for H/D fans:
Malfoy was screaming and holding Harry so tightly it hurt.
Best H/D canon scene, except HBP's near murder.
[Ron] “IF WE DIE FOR THEM, I’LL KILL YOU, HARRY!” LOL!
THE REST IS IN THE 1st COMMENT.
It’s a gun. No it isn’t! It’s Chekov! No it isn’t!
"Percy wouldn't recognize a joke if it danced naked in front of him wearing Dobby's tea cozy." -- Ron (GF21)
Status: Fired with “Hello, Minister! Did I mention I’m resigning?”
V's request for the position of DA Professor.
Status: Fired. He just wanted to hide the diadem.
V hiding in Albania.
Status: Fired. I was interested why Albania, and finally got the answer.
It has been 7 long years (of bickering).
Status: Fired with a big kiss!