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Deathly Hallows: The Reread (Chapters 5 and 6)
Deathly Hallows: The Reread (Chapters 5 and 6)

Chapters One and Two
Chapters Three and Four

WARNING: Since this is a collection of comments from my rereading the book, expect there to be many spoilers in the sections on early chapters for developments that come in later ones; there is really no other way to discuss foreshadowing or the "real" purpose of something that occurs early on and is explained later. Do not read if you are still going through the book for the first time and do NOT want spoilers.


Chapter Five: Fallen Warrior

The immediate impression we are probably meant to get is that the chapter title refers to Hagrid, but he is a touch nut to splatter all over the pavement, so he is “fallen” in the sense that he literally fell, but not in the sense that he died.

Harry finally has time to reflect that Hedwig was “his one great link with the magical world whenever he had been forced to return to the Dursleys”, but since his thoughts are phrased in precisely this way, it is worth noting that he will never again be returning to the Dursleys, so it is somehow fitting that the patron saint of orphans (St. Hedwig) should leave him now.

Once more, Harry shows who he really is (NOT a killer) when he explains to Lupin why he tried to disarm the very-likely-Imperiused Stan Shunpike. Lupini lecturing him about this is also reminiscent of Voldemort taunting Dumbledore for not trying to kill him. Lupin is as wrong as Voldemort when he says “…but the Death Eaters seem to think it is your signature move, and I urge you not to let it become so!” Remus has not allowed himself to become like Fenrir Greyback, but he is missing the point here that Harry is also resisting becoming like his enemy.

Harry very rightly says, “I won’t blast people out of my way just because they’re there… That’s Voldemort’s job.” He has a firm handle on who he is and who he isn’t by now, even though he was earlier unaware that he would be very likely to try to save the Dursleys if they were in danger because of him.

Two purposes are served by George losing his ear: first, it lulls readers into a false sense of security when it comes to the twins, and second, it means that when Fred is killed there is no question of who it is—identification is not an issue.

Ginny continues to be Harry’s greatest comfort by taking his hand when they are waiting for the others to arrive, but unlike Ron and Hermione, they don’t think the middle of a semi-crisis is the best time for a snog-fest.

Hermione’s reaction to seeing Ron is well done, including Ron saying, “Always the tone of surprise,” to Hermione’s sounding slightly incredulous about some impressive magic Ron performed. This is the second little detail (along with saying that Harry looked tastier than Crabbe or Goyle) that will lead up to Ron destroying the locket with the sword.

There is also a great deal of irony in the fact that when Harry was hanging about with a Polyjuiced version of Moody who was really a Death Eater, Harry lived, but when the real Mad-Eye was with a Polyjuiced Harry Potter, Moody did not. This is in spite of the fact that Fake!Moody was doing everything he was supposed to in order to help Voldemort kill Harry, whereas Fake!Harry (Dung) was not doing what he was supposed to (in which case it is not surprising that Voldemort managed to kill Moody).

When Fleur says that Voldemort had to have inside information, she’s not wrong. It is doubtful, however, that anyone could have imagined that Dumbledore’s portrait telling Snape to tell Voldemort about Harry’s departure; since Dumbledore knew that Harry could not die, it was a relatively safe thing to do (for Harry, not the others) and it continued to keep Snape in Voldemort’s good graces. Harry, on the other hand, is wrong about the “slip” having been a mistake, but then, he doesn’t yet know that he can’t be killed and stay dead as long as Voldemort lives.

It’s also interesting that Lupin compares Harry’s trusting and loyal nature to James, and that Pettigrew’s betrayal is mentioned, since, in the most technical sense, Dumbledore did betray Harry by having Snape reveal the departure time, and Dumbledore was the one who’d originally volunteered to be the Potters’ Secret Keeper.

It’s still not completely clear why Harry’s wand emitted the gold fire, but it could have something to do with Fawkes being the source for the core; I kind of felt like the wand was “channeling” Fawkes when that happened.

At the end of the chapter, Hermione says, “Harry, he’s taking over the Ministry and the newspapers and half the wizarding world! Don’t let him inside your head, too!” She is, of course, saying this to someone who has had Voldemort inside his head since he was fifteen months old! Unlike the first book, when Voldemort was on the back of Quirrell’s head and Harry simply felt pain due to their connection, he truly sees through Voldemort’s eyes now and learns valuable things this way; Harry is much surer of who he is at this stage in his life, so it is less likely that he will be fooled by false visions again. What was a painful and hated connection in the first book is welcomed by Harry now, but it has not corrupted him or made him like his enemy.


Chapter Six: The Ghoul in Pajamas

Harry seems to wish he could tell Ginny about the Horcruxes; when he notices that Molly’s brown eyes are just like Ginny’s it does not help him when he’s trying to explain that Dumbledore didn’t want others to know something.

Interesting information about the Fidelius Charm: when the Secret Keeper dies, every person who’d been told the secret “inherits” the role of Secret Keeper. However, the larger the number of people who’ve been told, the less power the charm has (it’s diluted). This also means that Snape is a Secret Keeper; Harry says about this, “But surely Snape will have told the Death Eaters the address by now?”

Mr. Weasley says that Mad-Eye set up curses to work against Snape specifically, but there is a flaw in this plan: when Peter told Voldemort about the house in Godric’s Hollow he didn’t go there himself, as far as we know (and we still don’t know if anyone else was there that night!). If Snape told someone the secret of number twelve, Grimmauld Place, he wouldn’t necessarily go there himself.

The fact that Death Eaters cannot suggests that he not only has not told, which should have been a red flag for Voldemort, unless Snape had never told him that Dumbledore was the Secret Keeper; if memory serves, he only says that HE is not the Secret Keeper, in the sixth book, to Bellatrix. This is still be the case, presumably.

Humor: The ghoul who will be impersonating Ron is a funny reference to an earlier book in which Ron’s usual freckled appearance prompted someone to assume that he really did have spattergroit!

The only way to put your soul back together after splitting it is true remorse, we learn, which Harry suggests to Voldemort near the end of the book. (The response is fairly predictable, of course.)

Ron hits on an actual solution when he’s being sarcastic about ways to destroy the Horcruxes: “Oh well, lucky we’ve got such a large supply of basilisk fangs, then...I was wondering what we were going to do with them.” Of course, at the end, he and Hermione do go down to raid the “large supply of basilisk fangs” in the Chamber of Secrets!

When Gabrielle Delacour arrives and gives Harry “a glowing look” we have yet another eleven-year-old girl with a crush on Harry! Ginny shows her jealousy by clearing her throat loudly, so we still know what her feelings about Harry are.

Chapters 7 and 8