Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
After all the hype and all the waiting, it was even better than I could have hoped. Yes, buying it at midnight was such a clusterfuck that I practically had a panic attack from being trapped in such a crush of people. Yes, I read it in a marathon and finished it fifteen hours after laying hands on it, pausing only to sleep and not bothering with
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Now, in Deathly Hallows, as Snape is dying he gives his memories to Harry and we learn the full story...Dumbledore finds out that he's going to die within a year thanks to the curse on the Horcrux (Marvolo's ring), and he says "Well, really, this makes matters much more straightforward...I refer to the plan Lord Voldemort is revolving around me. His plan to have the poor Malfoy boy murder me.". Snape and Big D acknowledge that Draco's been sent on a suicide mission as punishment for his father's mistakes...He asks Snape to try to make sure that Draco doesn't hurt anyone else in his attempts to kill Dumbledore, and then makes Snape promise to do it himself.
“If you don’t mind dying,” said Snape roughly, “why not let Draco do it?”
“That boy’s soul is not yet so damaged,” said Dumbledore. “I would not have
it ripped apart on my account.”
“And my soul, Dumbledore? Mine?”
“You alone know whether it will harm your soul to help an old man avoid
pain and humiliation,” said Dumbledore. “I ask this one great favor of you,
Severus, because death is coming for me as surely as the Chudley Cannons will
finish bottom of this year’s league. I confess I should prefer a quick, painless
exit to the protracted and messy affair it will be if, for instance, Greyback is
involved-I hear Voldemort has recruited him? Or dear Bellatrix, who likes to
play with her food before she eats it.”
So there's the story behind Dumbledore's death...going back to the Elder Wand stuff, Voldemort thinks that the wand isn't working for him in any kind of super powerful way. And he's convinced that his failures to kill Harry have been related to the wands he's been using so he wants to be sure he's got the best:
"The Elder Wand cannot serve me properly, Severus, because I am not its
true master. The Elder Wand belongs to the wizard who killed its last owner.
You killed Albus Dumbledore. While you live, Severus, the Elder Wand cannot
truly be mine.”
“My Lord!” Snape protested, raising his wand.
“It cannot be any other way,” said Voldemort. “I must master the wand,
Severus. Master the wand, and I master Potter at last.”
Aaaand then he kills Snape and goes off to kill Harry with (what he thinks is) the Elder Wand. I'm going to skip past the Resurrection Stone and King's Cross stuff because I don't think it's relevant. BUT I have to go back to where Harry got Draco's wand. His own was already broken, he and Ron and Hermione are captured at the Malfoy manor. They're all fighting and Voldemort is on his way when DOBBY COMES BACK AND DROPS A GIANT CHANDELIER ON THE BAD GUYS and glass flies into Draco's face, giving Harry the opportunity to attack him and get his wand. Then they escape (but not before Bellatrix throws a knife into Dobby's chest D: ). Sooooo, skipping back ahead to Harry and Voldemort facing each other, Harry's kinda taunting him, saying he believes he has more magic and a better weapon then Voldie, and I'm just going to quote the whole thing:
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“You thought you did,” said Harry, “but you were wrong.”
For the first time, the watching crowd stirred as the hundreds of people
around the walls drew breath as one.
“Dumbledore is dead!” Voldemort hurled the words at Harry as though they
would cause him unendurable pain. “His body decays in the marble tomb in the
grounds of this castle. I have seen it, Potter, and he will not return!”
”Yes, Dumbledore’s dead,” said Harry calmly, “but you didn’t have him killed.
He chose his own manner of dying, chose it months before he died, arranged
the whole thing with the man you thought was your servant.”
“What childish dream is this?” said Voldemort, but still he did not strike,
and his red eyes did not waver from Harry’s.
“Severus Snape wasn’t yours,” said Harry. “Snape was Dumbledore’s Dumbledore’s
from the moment you started hunting down my mother. And you
never realized it, because of the thing you can’t understand. You never saw
Snape cast a Patronus, did you, Riddle?”
Voldemort did not answer. They continued to circle each other, like wolves
about to tear each other apart.
“Snape’s Patronus was a doe,” said Harry,“the same as my mother’s, because
he loved her for nearly all of his life, from the time when they were children.
You should have realized,” he said as he saw Voldemort’s nostrils flare, “he
asked you to spare her life, didn’t he?”
“He desired her, that was all,” sneered Voldemort, “but when she had gone,
he agreed that there were other women, and of purer blood, worthier of him-”
“Of course he told you that,” said Harry, “but he was Dumbledore’s spy from
the moment you threatened her, and he’s been working against you ever since!
Dumbledore was already dying when Snape finished him!”
“It matters not!” shrieked Voldemort, who had followed every word with
rapt attention, but now let out a cackle of mad laughter. “It matters not
whether Snape was mine or Dumbledore’s, or what petty obstacles they tried
to put in my path! I crushed them as I crushed your mother, Snape’s supposed
great love! Oh, but it all makes sense, Potter, and in ways that you do not
understand!
“Dumbledore was trying to keep the Elder Wand from me! He intended
that Snape should be the true master of the wand! But I got there ahead of
you, little boy-I reached the wand before you could get your hands on it, I
understood the truth before you caught up, I killed Severus Snape three hours
ago, and the Elder Wand, the Deathstick, the Wand of Destiny is truly mine!
Dumbledore’s last plan went wrong, Harry Potter!”
“Yeah, it did,” said Harry. “You’re right. But before you try to kill me,
I’d advise you to think about what you’ve done. . . . Think, and try for some
remorse, Riddle. . . .”
“What is this?”
Of all the things that Harry had said to him, beyond any revelation or taunt,
nothing had shocked Voldemort like this. Harry saw his pupils contact to thin
slits, saw the skin around his eyes whiten.
“It’s your one last chance,” said Harry, “it’s all you’ve got left. . . . I’ve seen
what you’ll be otherwise. . . . Be a man . . . try . . . Try for some remorse. . . .”
“You dare-?” said Voldemort again.
“Yes, I dare,” said Harry, “because Dumbledore’s last plan hasn’t backfired
on me at all. It’s backfired on you, Riddle.”
Voldemort’s hand was trembling on the Elder Wand, and Harry gripped
Draco’s very tightly. The moment, he knew, was seconds away.
“That wand still isn’t working properly for you because you murdered the
wrong person. Severus Snape was never the true master of the Elder Wand.
He never defeated Dumbledore.”
“He killed-”
“Aren’t you listening? Snape never beat Dumbledore! Dumbledore’s death
was planned between them! Dumbledore intended to die undefeated, the wand’s
last true master! If all had gone as planned, the wand’s power would have died
with him, because it had never been won from him!”
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voice shook with malicious pleasure. “I stole the wand from its last master’s
tomb! I removed it against its last master’s wishes! It’s power is mine!”
“You still don’t get it, Riddle, do you? Possessing the wand isn’t enough!
Holding it, using it, doesn’t make it really yours. Didn’t you listen to Ollivander?
The wand chooses the wizard. . . . The Elder Wand recognized a new
master before Dumbledore died, someone who never even laid a hand on it.
The new master removed the wand from Dumbledore against his will, never
realizing exactly what he had done, or that the world’s most dangerous wand
had given him its allegiance. . . .
Voldemort’s chest rose and fell rapidly, and Harry could feel the curse coming,
feel it building inside the wand pointed at his face.
“The true master of the Elder Wand was Draco Malfoy.”
Blank shock showed in Voldemort’s face for a moment, but then it was gone.
“But what does it matter?” he said softly. “Even if you are right, Potter,
it makes no difference to you and me. You no longer have the phoenix wand:
We duel on skill alone . . . and after I have killed you, I can attend to Draco
Malfoy. . . .”
“But you’re too late,” said Harry. “You’ve missed your chance. I got there
first. I overpowered Draco weeks ago. I took this wand from him.”
Harry twitched the hawthorn wand, and he felt the eyes of everyone in the
Hall upon it.
“So it all comes down to this, doesn’t it?” whispered Harry. “Does the wand
in your hand know its last master was Disarmed? Because if it does . . . I am
the true master of the Elder Wand.”
A red-gold glow burst suddenly across the enchanted sky above them as an
edge of dazzling sun appeared over the sill of the nearest window. The light
hit both of their faces at the same time, so that Voldemort’s was suddenly a
flaming blur. Harry heard the high voice shriek as he too yelled his best hope
to the heavens, pointing Draco’s wand:
“Avada Kedavra!”
“Expelliarmus!”
The bang was like a cannon blast, and the golden flames that erupted between
them, at the dead center of the circle they had been treading, marked
the point where the spells collided. Harry saw Voldemort’s green jet meet his
own spell, saw the Elder Wand fly high, dark against the sunrise, spinning
across the enchanted ceiling like the head of Nagini, spinning through the air
toward the master it would not kill, who had come to take full possession of it
at last. And Harry, with the unerring skill of a Seeker, caught the wand in his
free hand as Voldemort fell backward, arms splayed, the slit pupils of the scarlet
eyes rolling upward. Tom Riddle hit the floor with a mundane finality, his
body feeble and shrunken, the white hands empty, the snakelike face vacant
and unknowing. Voldemort was dead, killed by his own rebounding curse, and
Harry stood with two wands in his hands, staring down at his enemy’s shell.
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This unfortunately doesn't exactly address your specific questions, I now realize. LOL...I had to get that all straight for myself first, sorry. So how exactly did Draco defeat Dumbledore? Was it because he tricked Dumbledore into the trap that led to his death? Even though Dumbledore was planning to be killed by Snape, Draco successful tricked him into the actual circumstances of it, so I'd say that's how he defeated him to gain mastership of the Elder Wand. As for how Harry knew that Draco was the one to defeat Dumbledore and not Snape, I think that seeing the memory where Dumbledore asked Snape to kill him made him realize that Snape didn't become the master because he didn't actually defeat Dumbledore. From there, he understood that Draco had been the one to actually become the Wand's master, which is definitely a bit of a leap, but then Harry's got good instincts for that kind of thing.
What do you think?
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And you say he has good instincts for this kind of thing.... the irony in that really is that all 3 of them spend - what was it - 8 months camping out in the cold/hungry trying to figure out clues and riddles and what not - if he had such good instincts, me thinks they would have worked out more sooner, and not gone cold or hungry (come on, they have magic! sure they can't make food appear, but what about more fire and clothes? and hello, apparating to where food is available OR as Hermione points out 'unless you know where the food is' ie surely they can see food anywhere supermarket, peoples cupboards and make it appear)
I know that period camping was a good time to fill in back stories but seriously, if you've spent the last 7yrs of your life with the shadow over you of Voldemort, would you not have made it your lifes mission to learn absolutely ALL the kinds of neat things magic can do?
Sometimes I think Harry was a little too apathetic about this whole showdown.
Sorry, that's my rant, but if I could do magic, I'd certainly be learning and practising EVERYTHING I could besides a disarming or stunning spell... wouldn't you?
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I think that Harry needed that time to be prepared for the fact that he was going to have to die. Dumbledore said something about hoping Hermione would slow Harry down a bit in King's Cross as well, didn't he?
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