Chapter 6: The Ghoul in Pyjamas

Chapter Six: The Ghoul in Pyjamas


The chapter begins with another forced attempt to make us feel bad for Mad Eye’s death. (“Harry kept expecting to see him stumping in through the back door” is a little too much for me. I don’t believe for a moment that Harry would care that much.) Anyway, Harry is hungry for action, and he wants to set out on his mission to find and destroy Horcruxes as soon as possible.

He discusses this with Ron over breakfast. His friend tells him they have to wait at least five days, till Harry gets rid of the Trace, and till after Bill and Fleur’s wedding. Harry is impatient, and Ron has bad news: Mrs. Weasley is trying to find out why they’re dropping out of Hogwarts, and also trying to convince them not to. Surely, that same day, Harry is questioned. He tells her that Dumbledore left him some “stuff” to do (understatement of the year: he basically asked Harry to die, though Harry doesn’t know it yet). Mrs. Weasley, bless her, is having none of it. After trying to make Harry change his mind, she goes to Plan B, asking him to help with the preparations for the wedding. She asks the same thing to Ron and Hermione: her idea is to keep them so busy they won’t have time to plan and will have to postpone everything (stupid idea, in my opinion – not planning doesn’t mean they won’t go, it just mean they won’t plan it that well, which increases the chances of failure).

There’s a very brief encounter between Harry and Ginny, supposed to make us feel sad that they haven’t talked much since last book (don’t know about you, but I didn’t really feel it, and I wish I did, because I am a shipper.) We also learn that The Burrow is now the Headquarters of the Order, replacing Grimmauld Place – when Dumbledore, the secret keeper, died, each of the people to whom Dumbledore had confieded its location became a Secred Keeper in turn (this gave me headaches: is there a worse charm than the Fidelius one? How safe is it, really?). At dinner with the members of the Order, Harry asks Mrs. Weasley if they’re not worried that Snape will turn up at Grimmauld Place. She says that Mad-Eye has set up a couple of courses against him. Apparently, the body of Mad Eye has not been found, and The Daily Prophet hasn’t said a word about him dying. This produces a discussion about the Ministry and its cowardice. After a while, they start to discuss the wedding again, and it’s Mrs. Weasley cue to send Harry and Ron on new errands. This time, though, they manage to get away from their assignments and meet with Hermione at Ron’s bedroom. Hermione seems busy, sorting out which books to take on their trip to find the Horcruxes.

At first, they discuss Mad Eye's death yet again. While they’re talking about what happened to his body, Hermione gets really upset, so Ron puts his arms around her and comforts her in a sweet way (those two I can buy!). After a while, Harry says what he’s been dying to say: that they don’t really need to go with him. Have they really thought this through? Both Ron and Hermione roll their eyes in disgust.

What comes next is quite surprising to Harry (and to us). Both Hermione and Ron have really thought everything through. Hermione has gone as far as modifying her parent’s memories, so they would go to Australia, far away from Voldemort. If she doesn’t come back, they will live happily thinking they never had a daughter to begin with. (OK, I have so many objections here I don’t know where to begin. Hermione is so powerful that she can change memories like that? Does she think she has the right to do that to another human being, let alone their parents? Does she have the emotional structure to stand this kind of break up from her previous life? Also, was it worth it, since probably Voldemort can remove the memory charms, or just plain kill them, if he wishes? Anyway, I think J.K. never dealt very well with these memory charms, so it’s no surprise.)

Then, it’s Ron’s turn to show what he has done to assure his parent’s safety while he’s gone. He has transformed the family’s ghoul, so it now has red hair and a large number of pustules in it's face. It's also wearing Ron’s pajamas. Ron’s plan (his father is aware of it) is to make everyone think he is sick with spattergroit (what would that word mean in English?), a very contagious disease that renders the victim unrecognizable.

Harry is astonished to hear all of this -and very, very grateful. At that moment, he realizes that those two are the best friends anyone could have, really. “He wanted to tell them what that meant to him, but he simply could not find words important enough.” (I must say that, despite all my objections to this chapter, this part really touched me deeply. Must be really nice to know you have such devoted friends, willing to die by your side. I never felt the bond between those three so strong as I felt here...) Now it’s time to plan. Where are they going to go first? Harry wants to go to Godric’s Hollow (yes!), but Hermione thinks Voldemort might be keeping a watch on the place (which obviously he is).

For Harry, it’s very simple, really: now that he has to defeat Voldemort again, he wants to visit the place where it all started, and maybe find some answers there (so do we). Ron asks another important question: once they find the Horcruxes, how do they destroy them? Hermione, who has stolen some books from Dumbledore’s studio (that’s the Hermione we know and love), has the answer: you need a really destructive magic object, like the Basilisk fang that destroyed Riddle’s diary. Harry wonders why he never asked Dumbledore how he destroyed the ring: he feels he should have asked so many things! How is he supposed to deal with this huge task alone, without his help? (In fact, it’s the other way round: Dumbledore was the one who should have offered more information, right? Anyway, I forgive him for that.)

Their talk is interrupted by Mrs. Weasley, who sends them away on new tasks. The rest of the chapter is spent with the last preparations for the wedding: the arrival of the Delacours, the security enchantments, and so on. In the ending, Mrs. Weasley asks Harry about his birthday: does he want anything special? Harry says something along the lines of no, please, don’t worry about me. She says that she’ll invite some friends, and leaves Harry feeling all guilty again, for all the trouble he’s causing her. (He’s still the reluctant hero, isn’t it? He is willing to do what he has to do, but he doesn’t understand that his mission is so big, it must be protected. He shouldn’t feel guilty at all. But he does.)

*One final observation: I noticed something different reading the chapter a second time. That sensation Harry gets when he realizes he's not ready for the task he's given was really disturbing the first time. I thought: oh my God, he has no idea what he’s doing! How the hell is he going to accomplish it? Now, though, my thoughts were different. I think it’s the perfect metaphor for being a teenager going into adulthood. Have you ever felt, when you were a teenager, that you were not ready, that it was just too much, that no one had prepared you for everything you had to do, that you were completely and terribly alone? I guess that’s the feeling J.K. is trying to bring back here. And she succeeds.

The life and lies of Albus Dumbledore

He's my favorite character in the HP mithology. He's a genius. He's a manipulator. He uses people for his own interests, but he says he cares about them. And he sent Harry to his death (or did he?).

Since this is already one of the main topics of discussion, I thought it deserved its own thread. So, what's your veredict?

Mine is very clear: Dumbledore is a great man, who had a plan to defeat the greatest evil the magic world had ever knew. It was absolutely necessary to make the plan work. Everything else was irrelevant. So, yes, I forgive all those times he manipulated Harry -and there were lots of them, since the first book. And I forgive the way he used Snape, too. Because it had to be done, and Dumbledore was the only one who could pull it through.

Also, I totally believe he cares. He loved Harry as if he was his own family, as if he was his son. "I never dreamed I would have someone like this in my hands." "I cared too much." I bet it took all the strenght he had to knowingly send Harry to his death. I can even begin to imagine how he felt, causing the death of a member of his family -again. Of course, he hoped Harry wouldn't really die, but he cound't be sure, right? He had been wrong before.

He cared about Snape. Maybe he was the only one who cared, really. By giving him a mission, he gave Snape's life a meaning. I don't think he could have survived without it. Also, Dumbledore stayed by his side, time and again, against all the people who loathed him. "Professor Snape", he always told Harry. Respect the man, he was sying. It was more than Snape deserved, in my opinion.

Should he have told more to Harry, or to Snape? I don't know. I wish he had told Harry about how ill he was, and how he had asked Severus to kill him. That would have made Harry's life easier, I guess. But maybe that would damage the big plan, so who knows?

Ultimately, he did the best he could, in a impossible situation. It's all you can ask of anyone, really.

Book 7: Wish List

I want to propose a wish list for Book 7. Serious stuff, fun thoughts, terrible fears: you choose. Just say what you really want to happen in the book, and what you really don't want to see.

I'll start with a short list.

1. I want Harry to live. Yeah, I know, confusing. In my posts, I always say he will die. But that doesn't mean I want him to. I just fear that's what J.K. will do.
2. I want Snape's head on a plate. That bastard must die a horrible death.
3. I want Dumbledore to be present in some way. Be it portrait, fawkes, the pensieve, a diary, whatever. I just want a reminder of how great he was.

Deaths in Book 7

I was thinking about deaths in the beginning of the book and, out of nowhere, an idea came to me: Draco is going to die. I don't know why, it just seems right to me. I believe Voldemort will kill him. After all, Draco did fail in his mission, right? It doesn't matter that Snape did that horrible thing, the fact is that Draco was supposed to kill Dumbledore, and he didn't. Wouldn't Voldie be cruel enough to kill him because of it?

Also, Harry was feeling sorry for Dracto in the ending of Book5. J.K. made ths readers feel sympathetic towards him. So, it would be just perfect if she killed him now.

Chapter 1: The Boy Who Lived

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Then he created man in his own image. And then J.K. created Harry Potter and everyone was happy. (IMG:http://the-pensieve.org/forums/style_emoticons/default/icon_mrgreen.gif)

I don't know about you, but reading the beginning-of-it-all always makes me shiver. I mean, this is it. There was no Harry Potter in the world, and suddenly there was. I'm grateful to be here to see that. When you read it now, it's easy to see that Chapter 1 is the perfect set-up for everything that is going to happen next. All the mystery, all the unsolved questions, all the tragedy that is Harry's life, it's all there. If we only could read between the lines of this one chapter, I'm sure we would have figured everything out by now. But then, what would be the point? (IMG:http://the-pensieve.org/forums/style_emoticons/default/rolleyes.gif)

Well, enough rambling, I guess. Shall we begin?


CHAPTER ONE: THE BOY WHO LIVED

The book begins in a very simple way. The readers get to know the Dursleys, the family living at Privet Drive, number 4, Surrey, England. There is a married couple, Vernon and Petunia - he makes drills and she likes to spy on neighbors; he is big and she is thin; he has no neck, hers is quite long. They enjoy being normal and can't stand anything strange in their lives. Oh, and they also have a son, Dudley. (I remember not being too impressed by that first paragraph. “OK, this is for children”, I thought –but I kept reading anyway, thank God. Do you remember your first reaction?)

We soon learn that the Dursleys hide a secret. Petunia has a sister, Lily, who is married and has a son. Petunia and Lily haven't talked for years (I find that information quite interesting). In fact, the Dursleys act like she doesn't exist. We are not told why. We only know that Lily Potter and her husband are as "unDursleyish" as it is possible to be.

It's a gray Tuesday, and strange things are happening in England. The first sign that something is different is an owl flying outside the Dursley's window. On his way to work, Mr. Dursley notices something even more peculiar, a cat reading a map (Minerva rules, right there in her first scene. (IMG:http://the-pensieve.org/forums/style_emoticons/default/icon_mrgreen.gif) ).

Later, Vernon sees a group of strangely dressed people walking on the streets - they use colored long cloaks. At lunchtime, he sees them again, and this time he can hear to what they're saying: "The Potters, that's right, that's what I heard, yes, their son, Harry". That talk scares him to death. Could they be talking about Petunia's nephew?

Vernon leaves work at five o'clock and stumbles into a man wearing a violet cloak, who tells him: "Don't be sorry, my dear sir, for nothing could upset me today! Rejoice, for You-Know-Who has gone at last!" Vernon is now dazed and hoping he is imagining things, "which he had never hoped before, because he didn't approve of imagination." (Heh! I love this quote.)

When he arrives home, the cat is still there. He tries to scare the cat away, but it just gives him a stern look. (IMG:http://the-pensieve.org/forums/style_emoticons/default/icon_mrgreen.gif) The news make him hysterical again - there are reports of hundreds of owls flying during the day and dozen of shooting stars all over Britain. Vernon makes up his mind and asks Petunia if she's heard from her sister lately. She gets quite disturbed and says "No, I haven't". He then asks about her sister's son, and confirms his name is Harry Potter. Vernon is quite worried, but doesn't dare tell her about the talk he heard earlier. (I wonder - is he worried about Petunia, or scared of her? If he is scared, why is that?)

Outside, the cat finally makes a move, narrowing its eyes to see a man on the corner of the street. This man is tall, thin, old, with a long silver beard and blue eyes behind half-moon spectacles. He wears a purple cloak and high-heeled boots. (This is when the movie catches up with the book, finally.) Albus Dumbledore looks at the cat and then uses an instrument to turn off all the street lamps. Then, he walks to number four and sits beside the cat. "Fancy seeing you here, Professor McGonagall."

The cat transforms itself into a severe-looking woman. She tells him she's been sitting there all day, and asks him a crucial question: "Has You-Know-Who really gone?" Dumbledore answers: "It certainly seems so." They start a discussion about the name. Apparently, Dumbledore is the only person who says the name Voldemort instead of You-Know-Who. Minerva says the reason he’s able to say it is because "you’re the only one Voldemort was frightened of."

"You flatter me," said Dumbledore calmly. "Voldemort had powers I will never have."
"Only because you're too -- well -- noble to use them."

(How important is this dialogue? What powers Voldemort possess that Dumbledore will never use? Or will he?)

Minerva goes on asking questions. Now she wants to know if the rumour she heard is true. "What they're saying is that last night Voldemort turned up in Godric's Hollow. He went to find the Potters. Lily and James Potter are dead." Dumbledore confirms this, which makes Minerva really sad. She goes on. "They're saying he tried to kill the Potter's son, Harry. But he couldn't. No one knows why, or how, but when he couldn't kill Harry Potter, Voldemort's power somehow broke -- and that's why he's gone." Dumbledore confirms that, too. He says he doesn’t know how Harry survived, or what stopped Voldemort. "We can only guess," says Dumbledore. "We may never know."

(According to J.K. herself, this is the central mystery of all the books. The question is: does Dumbledore know what really happened? I believe he has a good idea, but he’s not totally sure. Some people think he knows exactly what happened, but doesn't want to talk about it. Either way, he’s lying to Minerva, or at least hiding information from her. I wonder why is that.)

As Dumbledore looks at his watch, he says that Hagrid is late. Hagrid, you see, is supposed to bring Harry to live with his aunt and uncle, the only family he has left now (another important bit of information. What happened to all of Harry’s family? And he does have Sirius, right?). Minerva is shocked at the idea that Harry is going to live with the muggles. She says they're not like them at all, and that their son is awful. Dumbledore says he's written a letter explaining everything to the Dursleys. (Just what exactly he wrote, we are not told. He must have explained about the spell that will protect Harry’s life. Maybe he told them that the spell would protect Petunia as well. And maybe he made some kind of threat. As we know, Dumbledore will refer to this letter in Book 5: "Remember my last." It does seem like a threat to me. Also, we know now that there were letters before that. Why in the world would Dumbledore have sent letters to Petunia? Discuss away. (IMG:http://the-pensieve.org/forums/style_emoticons/default/icon_mrgreen.gif) )

Minerva says that a simple letter is not god enough: those people will never understand who Harry is. "He'll be famous – a legend -- I wouldn't be surprised if today was known as Harry Potter day in the future -- there will be books written about Harry -- every child in our world will know his name!" (Well, we must give J.K. some credit: she couldn’t know the books were going to be as successful as they are. I guess it was just wishful thinking. Or maybe she was making a prophecy. (IMG:http://the-pensieve.org/forums/style_emoticons/default/icon_mrgreen.gif) )

Dumbledore says that Harry is better off away from all that, the fame, the pressure, the people talking around him. Minerva is still upset, but thinks he has a point. (I have to stop now and point my finger at Dumbledore: LIAR! I mean, he does have a good point, but we know it's not the main reason why Harry has to stay with the Dursleys. So, he is really lying to Minerva now. I ask again: why? Why couldn’t he trust her? Or is this just a plot device not to reveal too much too soon?)

A rumbling sound interrupts their conversation, and a huge motorcycle lands in front of them. The huge man on it is a giant named Hagrid, and he's carrying a little baby. Hagrid talks to Dumbledore and says he borrowed the motorcycle from “young Sirius Black” (yet another very important information, as we all know). Hagrid says he got Harry out of his destroyed house.

(OK, big stop here, because I have a question. Sorry if this is silly, but it has bothered me for ages. All day long, the wizards have been celebrating the demise of Voldemort, right? Vernon saw them celebrating that morning. So that means it happened the night before. Why it took Hagrid a whole day to retrieve Harry and bring him to the Dursleys? It doesn't make sense to me.)

Dumbledore and Minerva bend forward to take a good look at baby Harry: there, over his forehead, they can see a scar, a lightning-shaped scar. Minerva asks Dumbledore if he can do something about the scar, but Dumbledore replies he wouldn’t, even if he could. “Scars can come in handy. I have one myself above my left knee that is a perfect map of the London Underground.” (Heh. Scars can come in very handy, indeed. Specially when they are the visible sign of a magical bond between two powerful wizards. Just how handy that connection will be, we've got yet to see.)

It's time to say goodbye. Hagrid, stupid as ever, lets out a howl that might waken up all the neighborhood (I do remember liking Hagrid once, you know?) Dumbledore lays Harry on the doorstep of the house and tucks a letter inside Harry’s blankets. The the twinkling light that usually shines from Dumbledore’s eyes is gone. “Good luck, Harry”, he says, before he disappears. (Can you imagine just how sad this must be for Dumbledore? He does know what awaits the little boy...)

Harry Potter rolled over inside his blankets without waking up. One small hand closed on the letter beside him and he slept on, not knowing he was special, not knowing he was famous, not knowing he would be woken in a few hours' time by Mrs. Dursley's scream as she opened the front door to put out the milk bottles.



P.S. Sorry, I know this is really long. Bad, bad Maddie!