Kreacher's Tale
So, I'm re-reading Deathly Hallows, and just finished Chapter 10 (Kreacher's Tale) and feel the need to think out a few backstory things.
This is quite possibly my favourite chapter aside from The Forest Again, because eeee! Sirius' room! Lily's letter! Regulus omg omg. I'd sort of forgotten this was all in the same place. *flaily hands*
Ahem. Anyway. I wanted to say (slightly) less fangirly things, namely:
- Lily's letter is from the beginning of August, yes? So I thought it was interesting that it sounds like they're already in hiding, when we know that the Fidelius Charm can only have been placed right at the end of October, as it sounds like Peter sold them out almost instantaneously. So what prompted that extra measure? Were Frank and Alice in hiding as well? I wonder. Also, it seems terribly significant Remus is the only one not mentioned in her letter, oh dear. Peter's hanging out at Godric's Hollow planting suspicions, yes/no?
- A minor plotting quibble, how on earth did none of them ever spot Regulus' little sign (which I love madly) before? Hermione at least would surely have noticed that at some point considering they spent so much time clearing through Grimmauld Place. Still, I do love Harry's lightbulb moment when he sees the door, so I'll handwave.
- And now, Regulus. Regulus, with his Quidditch team photo and Slytherin banners and prissy door sign, oh my. ♥ But I was putting together his timeline, and gosh, he really is awfully young when all this is happening.
First off, we know he's got Voldemort press clippings from a few years before he joined up. (And I'd really like to know what the nature of those press clippings is, actually! Was he a semi-legitimate political force at one point?) What a thing to grow up with, really. And then he joins the Death Eaters age 16, so that's sometime during fifth/sixth year. My personal bet is that it's the summer after fifth year, 1977, partly because that parallels nicely with both Sirius and Draco. Then a year after that, Voldemort asks for Kreacher, and not long after that, sometime in 1979 according to the Black Family Tree, everything changes and Regulus steals a Horcrux when he really ought to have been studying for his NEWTs, and may well not have made it to 18, depending on how you work out the timeline.
James and Lily go out in a blaze of glory, but this is just a tragic story tucked away, and I love it for that. A completely unsung hero with only Kreacher to ever know what happened to him. This the kind of thing that makes me love HP so very much, all these little stories.
This is quite possibly my favourite chapter aside from The Forest Again, because eeee! Sirius' room! Lily's letter! Regulus omg omg. I'd sort of forgotten this was all in the same place. *flaily hands*
Ahem. Anyway. I wanted to say (slightly) less fangirly things, namely:
- Lily's letter is from the beginning of August, yes? So I thought it was interesting that it sounds like they're already in hiding, when we know that the Fidelius Charm can only have been placed right at the end of October, as it sounds like Peter sold them out almost instantaneously. So what prompted that extra measure? Were Frank and Alice in hiding as well? I wonder. Also, it seems terribly significant Remus is the only one not mentioned in her letter, oh dear. Peter's hanging out at Godric's Hollow planting suspicions, yes/no?
- A minor plotting quibble, how on earth did none of them ever spot Regulus' little sign (which I love madly) before? Hermione at least would surely have noticed that at some point considering they spent so much time clearing through Grimmauld Place. Still, I do love Harry's lightbulb moment when he sees the door, so I'll handwave.
- And now, Regulus. Regulus, with his Quidditch team photo and Slytherin banners and prissy door sign, oh my. ♥ But I was putting together his timeline, and gosh, he really is awfully young when all this is happening.
First off, we know he's got Voldemort press clippings from a few years before he joined up. (And I'd really like to know what the nature of those press clippings is, actually! Was he a semi-legitimate political force at one point?) What a thing to grow up with, really. And then he joins the Death Eaters age 16, so that's sometime during fifth/sixth year. My personal bet is that it's the summer after fifth year, 1977, partly because that parallels nicely with both Sirius and Draco. Then a year after that, Voldemort asks for Kreacher, and not long after that, sometime in 1979 according to the Black Family Tree, everything changes and Regulus steals a Horcrux when he really ought to have been studying for his NEWTs, and may well not have made it to 18, depending on how you work out the timeline.
James and Lily go out in a blaze of glory, but this is just a tragic story tucked away, and I love it for that. A completely unsung hero with only Kreacher to ever know what happened to him. This the kind of thing that makes me love HP so very much, all these little stories.