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Deathly Hallows--The Reread (Chapters 21 and 22)
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.

Chapters One and Two
Chapters Three and Four
Chapters Five and Six
Chapters Seven and Eight
Chapters Nine and Ten
Chapters Eleven and Twelve
Chapters Thirteen and Fourteen
Chapters Fifteen and Sixteen
Chapters Seventeen and Eighteen
Chapters Nineteen and Twenty


Chapter Twenty-One: The Tale of the Three Brothers

Xeno Lovegood tells the kids that the symbol of the Deathly Hallows doesn't really have anything to do with the Dark arts, Grindelwald notwithstanding. It seems to be more like the Masonic symbol, but it's used for "believers" or "Questers" to recognize each other, rather than lodge brothers.

At any rate, Xeno asking Hermione to read "The Tale of the Three Brothers" aloud is a convenient way for him to stall them while he waits for someone to arrive to take them away--which gives us another Ravenclaw traitor (there is an eagle on the Lovegoods' front door), something we probably didn't need. The Hufflepuffs are really the only house that gets off completely clean when it comes to this sort of thing; no traitors, no Dark Wizards as far as we know, just that annoying git, Zacharias Smith, whose relation--real or imagined--to Hepzibah Smith is neither confirmed nor debunked in Deathly Hallows.

This is a significant passage in the tale: So the oldest brother...asked for a wand...that must always win duels for its owner..." (Emphasis added.) Not "for the one wielding it" but "for its owner". This a rather important distinction, although the two phrases would seem to mean the same thing. Rowling's writing is not flawless by any means but when she writes things like this or the prophecy she's very clever and has clearly put a lot of effort into getting the wording just right.

After she's finished reading the story, Hermione is flabbergasted that Xeno believes that the wand, stone and cloak really exist. He calls her "painfully limited. Narrow. Close-minded", recalling Trelawney's words to her before she left Divination for good (which is before Hermione learns that there is a Hall of Prophecies).

Xeno dismisses the idea of other Invisibility Cloaks being "true" cloaks of invisibility; the way he describes the perfection of Death's Invisibility Cloak makes it clear to Harry, Ron and Hermione that Harry's Cloak is that perfect. Harry is very much like the third brother in the story when he goes into the woods wearing the Cloak, then takes it off, stuffs both the Cloak and his wand in his robes (because he is determined not to fight) and faces Death willingly. It's quite a lovely way to foreshadow how Harry will greet his "end".

Hermione asks Xeno about the Peverell family and something clicks in Harry's brain but he doesn't yet realize that he heard the name in the Pensieve. Apparently, many of the Deathly Hallows Questers believe that the Peverells are pivotal figures; Antioch, Cadmus and Ignotus Peverell are believed to be the three brothers of the story.

Antioch's name is Biblical and means "speedy as a chariot", but more telling may be something from the early history of the Christian church; in Alexandria it was common to ascribe allegorical meanings to scripture passages, while a school in Antioch arose where they dismissed all allegorical meanings and chose to read the text for historical and grammatical meaning. Given that Ron and Hermione are in fact insisting on an allegorical interpretation of the story after she finishes reading it and Harry is insisting on treating it as history, he also bears a bit of a resemblance to those at the school that shares Antioch's name!

Cadmus is also an apt name for the brother who wears the Resurrection Stone in a ring that passes down to the Slytherin and Gaunt families, eventually; it is the name of the founder of the Greek city of Thebes, who pursued but did not succeed in bringing back the kidnapped Europa (as the character of Cadmus Peverell does not succeed in really bringing his dead love back to life) and he was said to have turned into a serpent eventually. (So it seems possible that Cadmus Peverell might have been a Parseltongue and passed this down to the Slytherin family!) Due to the fact that he has already brought dead people he loved back to earth temporarily, as shades, and can speak Parseltongue, Harry is also like the second brother.

Ignotus seems to mean both "unknowing" and "unknown", sometimes also "a stranger"; while this brother wears Death's Invisibility Cloak, Death does not know where he is and cannot come for him; he is a stranger to Death. The prophecy also included something about Harry having a power that the Dark Lord "does not know". Both Harry and Ignotus have powers that keep Voldemort/Death from "knowing" them.

Even though Hermkione should have learned her lesson after dismissing prophecies, and even though she agreed with Dumbledore that Voldemort dismisses and fails to understand that which he deems beneath his notice, she does exactly the same thing and dismisses the idea that the Deathly Hallows are real, even though she's been using the Cloak for nearly seven years! Ron dismisses it as well, on its own merits, not just to go along with Hermione. He thinks it's just a fairy-tale with a moral, probably because it's a tale remembered from his childhood, so it would never occur to him that the events in a fairy-tale might actually have occurred.

Another way in which Harry, Ron and Hermione are three parts that combine to make a whole: When Hermione says, "it's just a morality tale, it's obvious which gift is best, which one you'd choose--" each one of them answers differently. Harry chooses the stone (he's channeling Voldemort quite a lot these days), Hermione the Cloak and Ron the wand.

A hilarious double-entendre: "Wands are only as powerful as the wizards who use them. Some wizards just like to boast that theirs are bigger and better than other people's." (Emphasis added.) How did Harry and Ron not fall off their chairs laughing at this?

Also amusing: "The smell from the kitchen was getting stronger...something like burning underpants." (Blech.) And yet--another hint that Xeno is lying to them? (Liar, liar, pants on fire.)

Fabulous idea: that Luna does fan-art! Seeing the painted ceiling of her room is quite touching. It's going up to Luna's room, however, that tips Harry off to something being wrong, and on top of that Xeno has goofed up and only laid the table for four. Harry's face is also on the front of the Quibbler, labeled UNDESIRABLE NUMBER ONE along with information about the reward for his capture. Xeno confesses that Luna's been taken; it's clear now that he's betrayed them to get Luna back and when Harry sees him spreading his arms "in front of the staircase" Harry has "a sudden vision of his mother doing the same thing" because they were both protecting their children (although Lily was betrayed, not betraying).

The house ends up being half blown up, and to help show that Xeno wasn't lying about Harry's being there, Hermione allows the Death Eaters to see him before she Apparates them away in midair once more.


Chapter Twenty-Two: The Deathly Hallows

After escaping, the Trio again discuss things they'd previously thought were myths, starting with the Chamber of Secrets. Harry ends up rather scaring the pair of them with his talk of the Resurrection Stone and the idea of living with dead people (although it's something Harry's done for years, starting with when he received the photo album from Hagrid).

Hermione talking about the Peverell name dying out reminds Harry of what he saw in the Pensieve: Marvolo Gaunt wearing the ring with the stone. (Meaning of Peverell, which is from French: piper. Perhaps more importantly, though, Guillaume Peuerel--same name as "Peverel"--was the Duke of Normandy. Oh, and he was also known as William the Conquerer. "Peverell" is also a place-name in Devon, where many have speculated that Rowling has placed Ottery St. Catchpole. )

Harry imagines himself the possessor of the Hallows, facing Voldemort, whose Horcruxes were no match... He also recalls part of the prophecy, then thinks, Was this the answer? Hallows versus Horcruxes? In a way, what he has imagined does come to pass at the end of the book: Harry faces Voldemort after practically walking right up to him in his Cloak, having brought back those he loves to walk with him (sometimes communing with the dead is comforting rather than creepy) and as the master of the Elder Wand, although he does not wield it (he doesn't need to). To a certain extent he's also right about Hallows versus Horcruxes: once all of the Horcruxes have been destroyed (because Harry removes his Cloak and decides to "bow to Death" as Voldemort bade him do in the fourth book) Harry wins, because once Neville also kills Nagini, Voldemort is no longer tethered to this world (as Harry still is) and since the Elder Wand "must always win duels for its owner" (not necessarily the one wielding it), it refuses to curse Harry and instead kills Voldemort. (I didn't get that at first; rereading definitely helps.) Harry is wrong about the meaning of the prophecy but right in all other respects.

Harry becomes convinced that the third Peverell brother was his ancestor and that's why he has the cloak, and why Dumbledore had "borrowed" it. He also correctly deduces that the ring with the stone is in the Snitch, although he cannot prove it yet. Once he is certain that he has two of the three Hallows, he's equally certain that Voldemort is after the Elder Wand, but he also suspects that Voldemort doesn't know about the Hallows (they are "holy", according to the meaning of the word, and so are probably another thing Voldemort disregards and therefore does not know about or understand). Harry believes that Voldemort probably only heard of an unbeatable wand, since he turned one of the Hallows into a Horcrux. Hermione feels he's being distracted from destroying the Horcruxes. (It's necessary, but Harry really is right about Hallows vs. Horcruxes.) Ron agrees but is less sure than Hermione; he's on the fence.

This is slightly ominous: Harry wished his scar would burn and show him Voldemort's thoughts, because for the first time ever, he and Voldemort were united in wanting the very same thing...Hermione would not like that idea, of course... He joins Xeno in considering her to be limited. Narrow. Close-minded. Harry really is almost exactly on the same page with his enemy now, very much as he was identifying with the unknown Half-Blood Prince and rather recklessly abusing the power of the potions text; he must move past this temptation for power, and he does, but he's clearly struggling at this point, especially when he considers how dissatisfactory he's found the blackthorn wand. He thinks of their rescuing Luna, which is a noble goal, but he doesn't seem to recognize that having a noble goal--such as the benevolent dictatorship of wizards over Muggles that Dumbledore and Grindelwald envisioned--doesn't excuse abusing power to reach that goal (or instituting a general regime of power-abuse and suppressing the power of those not in charge). He needs to see first that there are more types of power abuse than just blasting people out of the way because they are there, as he tells Lupin is "Voldemort's job", not his.

Harry may not be a television aerial, but he could use one now: The visions he and Voldemort were sharing had changed in quality; they had become blurred, shifting as though they were moving in and out of focus. Harry does prize his connection to Voldemort, "whatever he had told Hermione", so this concerns him.

Harry notices Ron taking charge in subsequent weeks (not Hermione). Ron mentions Potterwatch to them for the first time, which sounds amusingly like a fandom podcast. Lee Jordan is going by the handle "River" (the River Jordan--groooooan), which is almost as bad as Remus going by "Romulus". Harry, Ron and Hermione are saddened to hear that Ted Tonks and Dirk Cresswell have been killed and Dean is on the run still, with Griphook. Muggles are also being murdered in their homes and it is officially announced that Bathilda Bagshot is dead. Kingsley using the alias "Royal" is worse than "River" but still not as bad as "Romulus". During Potterwatch they also learn that Xeno is in prison and Hagrid is on the run with Grawp. Finally, Fred comes on the air as Rodent/Rapier (either alias is better than any of the previous ones, since they are both fairly non-obvious in terms of giving away his identity) and gives a rather funny description of Voldemort: "... he can move faster than Severus Snape confronted with shampoo when he wants to..."

After this, however, Harry forgets about the Taboo and makes the mistake of saying Voldemort's name; they are, of course, immediately discovered.

Chapters 23 and 24