SPOILERS BELOW!
I’ve jotted down a few notes from chapters 1-13, which I’ll refer to when I review Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows for my next column and prepare subsequent posts. “Second Third," “Last Third,” and posts on Christian themes will follow. Read my first impressions of the book.
The first third of the book, which encompasses Chapters One through Thirteen, was the best. I thought the book opened beautifully. It set the tone for the rest of the story and answered burning questions from Book 6.
Chapters 1-6: Let the Games Begin
In the first chapter, we found out where Severus Snape and Draco Malfoy were hiding: At Malfoy Manor with Voldemort and the rest of the Death Eaters. At that point, we still didn't know Snape’s true loyalties. (Hint: He's good!) Nervous Death Eaters are sitting around a table, scared out of their wits that Voldemort will kill them Darth Vader-style, while Voldemort plots to take down the Ministry of Magic and capture/kill Harry Potter en route to his safe house.
Unfortunately, Snape’s lines are minimal. After he tells the Dark Lord when Harry will be moved and Yaxley shares “new” plans about Harry’s movements, Snape smiles. This scene is ambiguous; we’re not sure what’s going on. Both sides of the Great Snape Debate have equally plausible arguments to support their theories.
In Chapter Two, we learn more about Albus Dumbledore’s life through an untrustworthy source: bloodsucking Daily Prophet reporter Rita Skeeter. There may be some truth in her accusations against Dumbledore, but we know what a talented yellow journalist she is. One thing we know for certain at this point: Dumbledore was a fallen human being. What a revelation!
Finally, we get to the Dursley’s. The spoiled Dudley is uncharacteristically concerned about his scarred cousin, wondering why he’s not going into hiding with them. During the “goodbye” scenes, I so hoped that Petunia would have a kind word for Harry.
Before Book 7, I had these wild and unpublished ideas that Petunia would apologize to Harry and explain that she had to pretend to hate him for whatever reason, or that she’d simply apologize and hug him. Wild, indeed! I was disappointed that she and her husband remained cold toward Harry to the end.
The seven Potters idea for Harry's escape plan in Chapter Four was clever, especially given JKR’s affinity for the “perfect” number seven. (Seven books, seven school years, seven Weasley kids, seven Horcruxes, seven secret passages out of Hogwarts, etc.)
While I don’t understand why Harry's owl Hedwig had to snuff it, Mad-Eye Moody’s death was a good start to the “blood bath.” Great tease with Hagrid. I though he was a goner. The flying fighting scenes were quite riveting, and I knew someone was going to die.
I like the way JKR plugs in details that will be wrought with meaning later in the book. In fact, she’s done that through all seven books. For example, Harry’s “trademark” Expelliarmus spell served him well in Book 4. In Book 5, DA member Zacharias Smith balked at learning it — until Harry told him the spell saved his life when fighting Voldemort the year before. JKR ties the ends when the real Harry among the seven gives away his identity when he chose to perform his trademark defensive spell on the Imperiused Stan Shunpike instead of killing him.
George Weasley’s ear was blasted off during the airborne battle, and we learn why toward the end of the book. (Good guy Snape, undercover as a bad guy, meant to curse another Death Eater but missed.) Readers like JKR’s books because she’s so adept at planting details and revisiting them later. Those “A-ha!” moments are part of the enjoyment.
In the wake of Mad-Eye’s death, Harry is ready to tell best friends Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger that he doesn’t want them to join him on the Horcrux hunt after all, but they shut him down before he can get the words out. This is war, and people are prepared to die to stop Voldemort, including people Harry loves.
Chapters 7-13: A Will, A Wedding, and A Horcrux
The story shifts in Chapter Seven (coincidence?) when Rufus Scrimgeour, Minister of Magic, visits The Burrow to give bequests to Harry, Ron, and Hermione, according to Dumbledore’s will. He left the following:
Ron: A Deluminator, called a Put-Outer in Book 1. With it, one can suck light from its source and return it. But why did Dumbledore really give it to Ron? The answer is very strange. It emanates some weird blue light that helps him find his way back to Harry and Hermione in the forest.
Harry: The Golden Snitch Harry caught at his first Quidditch match. It’s inscribed with, “I open at the close,” and contains an important object: the Resurrection Stone, one of the Deathly Hallows. I'll get to those in a different post.
Hermione: A book of wizard children's fairy stories called The Tales of Beedle the Bard. One of those stories, "The Tale of the Three Brothers," contains the legend of the Deathly Hallows, which we learn are actual objects: the Cloak of Invisibility, the Elder Wand, and the Resurrection Stone.
Harry’s brief time at The Burrow echoes his sentiments in the final line of Book 6, where he looked forward to spending “one last golden day of peace left to enjoy with Ron and Hermione" at Bill Weasley's and Fleur Delacour's wedding. The previous day wasn’t exactly peaceful, but perhaps the wedding day will be?
Not! At the reception, everyone learns the Ministry of Magic has fallen, Scrimgeour is dead, and the Death Eaters are in transit. Harry, Ron, and Hermione are on the run.
I’m going to pull a “J.K. Rowling” and speed up this final section. In Chapters Nine through Thirteen, we find out about Hermione’s bewitched bead purse (where can I get one?), and return to 12 Grimmauld Place to discover that R.A.B. was Regulus Black. (My theory was wrong!)
The locket Horcrux was not destroyed; it was stolen by “smelly sneak thief” Mundungus Fletcher and given to Dolores Umbridge as a bribe to keep him out of Azkaban. Harry and Lupin fall out, and we learn even more about Dumbledore’s family. The trio surveils the Ministry of Magic before going undercover (with new faces) to get the locket and finds out about the mandatory registration of Muggle-borns.
Very Third Reich. I agree with a commenter in a previous post. She said she was “Nazi'd out for one lifetime.” Me too, sister!
The trio saves Muggle-borns and escapes the Ministry with the locket.
Addendum: Keep fellow HP blogger Travis Prinzi in your prayers as he prepares to present three papers at Prophecy 2007. He's a better man than I!
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July 26th, 2007 at 12:27 pm
OOOOOOhhhhh. . .someone to discuss Harry Potter with. I'm just gonna jump in here. After I read the entire book and then re-read sections–some more than once, I'm wondering if, in fact, Delores Umbridge was a Death Eater. . .or if not actually CALLING herself that, was atleast just so deplorably evil that she could have given Voldemort a run for his money. She SAID she had the locket because she was a "Selwyn", but the Selwyn family is pure blood and in cahoots with Voldemort and the Death Eaters AND, we find out later. . .which I'm sure you're going to mention. . .that Mad-Eye Moody's magic eyeball is stuck in Umbridge's door like some macabre trophy. She is one sick puppy. . .I think she knew is was Slytherin's locket even if she didn't say so.
My only OTHER comment is. . .I was with you about Hedwig. What plot point did it serve? And then after that, there isn't any more mention of her. . .I felt the same way about other characters that died. Really Mad-Eye and Doby were the only deaths I found to be "necessary" to move the plot along. But then I thought that might be the point. Senseless, needless, useless killing takes place in times of war. Someone wicked wants to take over. The good guys fight back. People die. The bad guy doesn't care how many deaths there are. . .the people Wicked dude sends into battle are merely pawns in his army, the people he kills from the opposing side are just defeated foes. We don't even really know how Tonks and Lupin die. . .that happens too. Sometimes all you know is that they were killed–there are no details–just the cold, hard facts of death.
I thought Dudley's gift of a cup of tea was rather sweet. . .and we don't know how he came to quit thinking Harry was a waste of space, but as much as he hated Harry, he was like his brother–he'd always been there–he was part of their "family." That's why when they are leaving Dudley can't fathom a world without Harry in it. In some odd way, I think he feels like Harry should be with them.
Sorry to hijack your comments. My husband hasn't read the books yet, and so I can't talk to him about it. I just love the fact that this is the book that keeps on giving. . .little things come to mind and fit together long after you've finished the last page.
July 26th, 2007 at 3:04 pm
I read a comment about Hedwig elsewhere. St. Hedwig is the patron saint of "death of children" so the owl's death might have symbolized Harry's new adulthood having attained age 17 and his new mission as an adult was kind of like "When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things." I Cor. 13:11
July 26th, 2007 at 3:24 pm
I could be way off base on this, but I think that maybe Harry had to lose Hedwig in order to move on. His owl and his Firebolt (which he also lost), were symbols of his childhood, which he must now leave behind.
July 26th, 2007 at 4:13 pm
I loved this book, but I just have a tiny problem with the Ministry of Magic break-in.
a) Why didn't Harry tell Arthur Weasley who he was when they were alone in the elevator? Mr. Weasley has proven himself to be trustworthy. It's possible that Harry was protecting Mr. Weasley by not giving away his identity - but they needed all the help they could get.
b) Harry learned in book 6 how to perform non-verbal spells, why didn't he use a nonverbal spell on Umbridge down in the dungeon? It would have given him a split-second advantage over Yaxley - to stun him as well.
c) Lastly, I know that Harry took Mad-Eye's eye because he couldn't stand the thought of Umbridge using it, but he must have known that it's presence would have been missed - sentimentality or not, you can't worry about that when you are working "infiltration".
So did Rowling have Harry make these mistakes to make the escape that much more dramatic??
I don't think Harry would have made those kind of mistakes. Ron maybe, but not Harry. It was distracting for me.
July 26th, 2007 at 4:31 pm
I hear ya, Abby. Part of the issue with us hardcore fan is that we've gone over so many details in the series, and our expectations were so high with this book. Besides the little things that bother us, there are larger things like plot holes, unanswered questions, and unresolved issues.
I'll address some of these in subsequent posts.
July 26th, 2007 at 11:06 pm
I just finished the book this afternoon. A couple of comments on the comments:
Dudley: I think part of this change in attitude toward Harry is the fact that Harry saved him from the Dementors at the beginning of Book 6.
Mad-eye's eye: I think Harry took it (in part) because that would be all that was left of him, and Harry couldn't stand the thought of Mad-eye's remains being desecrated like that - remember that the Order couldn't find Mad-eye when they went to recover his body.
July 26th, 2007 at 11:56 pm
Thanks for the prayers. I'm going to need them! In the past 24 hours we've put our house up for sale, made it look good for showing, received an offer, countered, got a counter-offer back, countered again, got the first counter accepted…(yeah, it confused us, too) and have made an offer on a house in the city (making the trek from the nice suburb down into city living) - all of which means I've had very little time to prepare these three talks!
Excellent thoughts so far, LaShawn. I'll be looking forward to the next two parts. And thanks for the link!
July 27th, 2007 at 10:02 am
My thoughts on the death of Hedwig - having an owl available means that messages could be sent and received. Loss of contact made the isolation during the trek more severe and the reconnection with the world more important. Remember the feelings that they had when they listened to the radio and heard their friends.
However, I also agree with the idea that the symbols of the childhood (owl, broom as well as Quidditch robes and school items) needed to be discarded in order to move on.
July 27th, 2007 at 4:59 pm
Abby–
I think it is because in all these instances Harry was acting emotionally.
That's definitely the case with Umbridge. "It was Umbridge's lie that brought the blood surging into Harry's brain and obliterated his sense of caution."
July 29th, 2007 at 3:32 pm
I know you're trying to do a brief summary, but I wish you'd included more details about the locket horcrux backstory. A lot of fans guessed before Deathly Hallows' release that Regulus had stolen the locket with Kreacher's help, but I don't think anyone would have predicted that Regulus willingly sacrificed his own life to protect his house-elf. When have we ever seen a pure-blood wizard act like that toward a house-elf? Regulus turns out to have been an unsung hero, in some ways more noble than his brother.