Chapter Twenty- Four -- The Wandmaker
Today's spork is by asphodeline.
***
In which we have character death, plot assassination and grammarcide and we learn that a wizard's wand follows the wizard or sometimes doesn't or maybe it does. Who knows? Ollivander doesn't. Oh and everything suddenly makes sense to Harry.
Lucky Harry...
Chapter Twenty-Four -- The Wandmaker
the sea was rushing against rock somewhere nearby....
So we understand we are somewhere near the sea. It's a place called Shell Cottage and it's the love-nest of Bill and Phlegm.
Dobby's Dead, there I've said it. Of course, JKR makes a bit more of it than that but I've had enough of Harry and his grief so that's it folks, the elf is dead.
"I want to do it properly," were the first words of which Harry was fully conscious of speaking.
"Not by magic. Have you got a spade?" And shortly afterwards he had set to work, alone, digging the grave in the place that Bill had shown him at the end of the garden, between bushes.
so he digs
On Harry dug, deeper and deeper into the hard, cold earth
Without the full description of Shell Cottage at this point, it's maybe a bit unfair to point out that if it is that close to the sea, it's either standing on rock with only a thin layer of soil or it's very sandy. Just mentioning.
Deeper and deeper Harry sank into the grave
Why? Bearing in mind he's digging at one hell of a rate and for a small house elf.
At which we point we enjoy a little Tolkien....
and he knew where Voldemort had been tonight, and whom he had killed in the topmost cell of Isengard Nurmengard, and why… And he thought of Wormtongue Wormtail, dead because of one small hobbit unconscious impulse of mercy
and then, back in the right fictional world, along come Dean and Ron to join in the fun
They jumped down into the hole he had made with spades of their own and together they worked in silence until the hole seemed deep enough.
Whoah, wait, hang on. Just how big is this elf? There are now three young men down in this hole all wielding spades and not bumping into each other? While they're digging? That's some hole, it's big enough to stick a hippogriff in.
Sadly the atmosphere at his graveside was ruined for me here when I had visions of them lobbing Dobby off the side of a gaping chasm, waiting for the sound of his body as it hits the bottom.
Once Dobby has had his funeral (snipped to save you the heartache of course), Harry, left alone, decides to make some sort of mark or headstone and so a stone becomes a rock, morphs back to a stone and has a sizeable inscription hewn onto it:
.... there were a number of large, white stones, smoothed by the sea, marking the edges of the flowerbeds....Slowly, under his murmured instructions, deep cuts appeared upon the rock's surface.... When Harry stood up again, the stone read: Here lies Dobby, a Free Elf.
Call me picky but it's got to either be a rock or a stone or a boulder or a pebble but not intermittently any mixture of these. And while I'm feeling a bit sarcastic, love this description of the fire in the living room at Shell Cottage.
The room was light-coloured, pretty, with a small fire of driftwood burning brightly in the fireplace.
I hadn't expected them to be using the fireplace for a fire at all, had you?
So, the elf's dead. There is work to do and people to interrogate.
However, just before we get there is this gem, Harry speaks:
he heard the authority in his own voice, the conviction, the sense of purpose that had come to him as he dug Dobby's grave. All of their faces were turned towards him, looking puzzled.
I'm expecting great things now, almost excited....but no
I'm going to wash, Harry told Bill....
I am dazzled by his decision-making and conviction! Such suspense and all for a wash!! OK, so he most likely did need to wash but these weren't the prophetic words I was really expecting.
I'm snipping out the tedious, homely stuff but couldn't ignore this
and he knew that Voldemort was getting there too. Harry understood and yet did not understand....
Rep, just like the rest of us. Harry has at last started to think and we have some hope building here that he is starting to "get" a few things. Don't hold your breath though.
So, the real ditty-gritty of the chapter starts about now.
SNIP! For more boring stuff where Harry demands to speak to the prisoners injured guests and Ron and Thermionic follow him around like sheep wondering what he's up to.
Before we get to the interrogations however, this little sentence made me giggle. For some reason, I heard Fleur whinny:
Fleur made an impatient noise, but Bill did not look at her
Just as I was hoping for a speeding up of the pace here, Harry being all authoritative and understanding and such, we have to endure Griphook the goblin's interview with Harry.
Either the dialogue here is very much more tedious than previous dialogue has been or we are supposed to understand that goblins speak annoyingly slowly and deliberately. It isn't long before I'm hoping there's another hole dug for the goblin.
I skipped ahead the first time because there was no information other than the obligatory back-story to remind us all about goblins and money and treasure and such:
"You probably don't remember -" Harry began.
"-that I was the goblin who showed you to your vault, the first time you ever visited Gringotts?" said Griphook. "I remember, Harry Potter. Even amongst goblins, you are very famous."
After the history lesson Harry gets annoyed with Griphook and Ron and Hermione are confused and amazed by Harry - mostly because he apparently knows things now and he seems to be making sense - to himself at least.
More snipping till we get to the point, sort of, as Harry insists the goblin helps them get into Gringotts,
"Well, the vault we need to get into isn't empty, and I'm guessing its protection will be pretty powerful," said Harry. "It belongs to the Lestranges." He saw Hermione and Ron look at each other, astonished, but there would be time enough to explain after Griphook had given his answer.
and don't you just groan inwardly at the thought of a few more pages of Harry explaining the rest?
More snippage for memories and re-telling and reminding us just how much wizards and goblins don't get on,
"Well, goblins can do magic without wands," said Ron.
"That is immaterial! Wizards refuse to share the secrets of wand-lore with other magical beings, they deny us the possibility of extending our powers!"
"Well, goblins won't share any of their magic either," said Ron.
(nah nah nah-nah nah etc.)
"This isn't about wizards versus goblins or any other sort of magical creature -" Griphook gave a nasty laugh. "But it is, it is precisely that! As the Dark Lord becomes ever more powerful, your race is set still more firmly above mine! Gringotts falls under Wizarding rule, house-elves are slaughtered, and who amongst the wand-carriers protests?"
and here my heart sank momentarily
"We do!" said Hermione.
Fortunately, the reader isn't given a brief history of the SPEW campaign but Griphook is amazed of course at how liberal-minded these young people are while still feeling aggrieved and hard-done by.
We don't learn anything new in the talk with the goblin but his nasty look when the sword is removed from his grasp presumably sews some seeds of trouble for later on - can't wait.
Before we move to the next bedroom and interview the one belonging to the chapter title, this leapt out at me:
We have a duty to the objects placed in our care, which were, so often, wrought by our fingers."
Fingers? Is it just me or does that sound a bit strange. Why not hands here? Can things be wrought by fingers?
Anyway....
There is a brief interlude where the reader is given every opportunity to clearly understand what Harry was going on about just in case you too had rushed ahead and missed all the important bits:
"Harry," whispered Hermione, pulling them both away from the door, into the middle of the still-dark landing, "are you saying what I think you're saying? Are you saying there's a Horcrux in the Lestranges' vault?"
pause for dramatic effect....
"Yes," said Harry. "
Gripping stuff and powerful legilimencing from Hermione
Ron, bless his heart, is simply getting more confused and at times I can fully understand why,
"But I thought we were looking for places You-Know-Who's been, places he's done something important?" said Ron, looking baffled. "Was he ever inside the Lestranges' vault?"
Harry thinks not.
The Wandmaker, Mr. Ollivander, is next on the list and we learn that Harry's wand is irreparable, broken, a dead wand. I almost felt sorry for him but that didn't last long and he does have two spares!
It's all about wands - so confusing we read it twice - three times - four times. Ollivander doesn't know or doesn't care or he's too upset by his incarceration or just plain pissed off with all the questions. Oh well, can't be important to the plot then - or is it?!
The poor man has suffered in his incarceration and along with his yellow skin and sticky-out facial bones, he also has knobble-knuckled fingers, which description made me stop, raise an eyebrow and lose the thread of the conversation - such as it was.
Once again, there's a fair bit of snipping here because once again, not a lot is really said and not a lot of new, useful information comes to light. If anything, this became even more annoying than the previous few pages because Ollivander didn't seem to know much at all. Harry still wonders if he's on the side of Good or Bad and I was beginning to wonder how this man had gained such a reputation as a master wandsmith or whatever they're called.
We are reminded
"The wand chooses the wizard," said Ollivander. "That much has always been clear to those of us who have studied wandlore."
but then there is a whole load of maybes and ifs and buts which had me more than a little confused and once again this conversation seemed to be going nowhere of any use. For example,
This was the wand of Draco Malfoy."
"Was?" repeated Harry. "Isn't it still his?"
"Perhaps not. If you took it -"
"-I did - "
"-then it may be yours.
and,
"I took this wand from Draco Malfoy by force," said Harry. "Can I use it safely?"
"I think so.
and, rather revoltingly,
"I think so," replied Ollivander, his protuberant eyes upon Harry's face.
ew!
Eventually, JKR gets out of answering any of these questions by using the good all fall back
"You ask deep questions, Mr. Potter. Wandlore is a complex and mysterious branch of magic."
which in my book means we'll never really know - unless we learn more during a signing tour some years hence when the answer's been worked out.
Of course, what Harry is getting at - I'll tell you now and spare you any more breath-holding -
are "Legends about a wand - or wands - that have been passed from hand to hand by murder."
and the strange things that his own wand does when faced with Voldie (no, the real wand, not that one. Wash your minds out!)
Not surprisingly, Ollivander turned pale because Harry appears to know almost as much as he does about wandlore but also, I suspect, he is struggling with anaemia :
Against the snowy pillow he was light grey, and his eyes were enormous, bloodshot, and bulging with what looked like fear
or maybe a serious thyroid condition?
Intermittently, the reader has to be reminded that we are in a cottage by the sea and wonderfully bizarre descriptions pepper the dialogue. Most notably in this conversation,
the sea gushed forward and backward and was heard to be in the distance rushing and almost mournful.
Sometimes, the sea sounds nearby and then all of a sudden it's a distant voice. Global warming and fast tides?
Voldemort had tortured the wandmaker for information regarding wands and we learn that
"He wanted to know everything I could tell him about the wand variously known as the Deathstick, the Wand of Destiny, or the Elder Wand."
No heart-stopping new information here, I just love the idea of a deathstick !! Brilliant.
Lastly, as we say goodbye to this painfully drawn-out conversation, I see not a wand but a small band of gold laying in a river somewhere,
"You - you really think this wand exists, then, Mr. Ollivander?" asked Hermione. "Oh yes," said Ollivander. "Yes, it is perfectly possible to trace the wand's course through history. There are gaps, of, course, and long ones, where it vanishes from view, temporarily lost or hidden; but always it resurfaces.
Ah, the One Ring!!
Apparently Harry is channelling Voldemort more frequently now and his visions provide the reader with a welcome break from the POV of the Trio.
Sometimes.
I've kept my inner the proof-reader a bit subdued in me but I found myself scribbling all over my book and this passage gained a lot of pencil markings,
Voldemort was at the gates of Hogwarts; Harry could see him standing there, and see too the lamp bobbing in the pre-dawn, coming closer and closer.
what lamp and how is it "bobbing"?
Kill the Ands, pleeeease....
"And Grindelwald used the Elder Wand to become powerful. And at the height of his power, when Dumbledore knew he was the only one who could stop him, he duelled Grindelwald and beat him, and he took the Elder Wand."
and Ron gets all sort of mediaeval and not at all IC in his word choice, but then :
"Dumbledore had the Elder Wand?" said Ron. "But then - where is it now?"
SNIP!
"But then, let's go!" said Ron urgently. "Harry, let's go and get it before he does!"
This pencil exercise also highlighted just how poorly made this (Bloomsbury) hardback edition is from the paper quality to the binding. Is this just me?
Towards the end of the chapter, Harry gets all angsty because he has to make decisions regarding Horcruxes or Hallows. I feel his pain. I thought I'd got the hang of Horcurses at the end of book six and then we had to apply our minds to Hallows but maybe the Horxes were still relevant but maybe they weren't and who knows what they should be chasing now,
"No," said Harry, and he sank to his knees in the grass. "Hermione's right. Dumbledore didn't want me to have it. He didn't want me to take it. He wanted me to get the Horcruxes."
"The unbeatable wand, Harry!" moaned Ron.
"I'm not supposed to . . . I'm supposed to get the Horcruxes. . . ."
You have to feel sorry for him, soooo confusing poor lad.
And finally....
We get Snape!!!!! Squeeeeeeeeeee!!
Ahem, sorry
/fangirling
Harry's visions rescue the reader from the Tiresome Trio and finally we see something different and ACTION!! (almost). What we don't need to "see" is more floating Voldemort but since he learned to do the flying, floating thing, he can't be expected to stop. It's not a "cool" way for a baddy to be travelling imho, it's comic.
and now everything was cool and dark: The sun was barely visible over the horizon as he glided alongside Snape, up through the grounds toward the lake. "I shall join you in the castle shortly," he said in his high, cold voice. "Leave me now." Snape bowed and set off back up the path, his black cloak billowing behind him.
We get to float along with Voldie now as he makes his triumphant way to DD's tomb. I almost got excited here!
The white marble tomb, an unnecessary blot on the familiar landscape. He felt again that rush of controlled euphoria, that heady sense of purpose in destruction. He raised the old yew wand: How fitting that this would be its last great act. The tomb split open from head to foot.
Yeah, some action!!!!
The shrouded figure was as long as thin as it had been in life. He raised the wand again. The wrappings fell open. The face was translucent, pale, sunken, yet almost perfectly preserved.
I'm not good at maths either but DD wasn't exactly in there long so I'd expected him to look pretty Dumbledorish still. A bit smelly perhaps but not much changed.
Had the old fool imagined that marble or death would protect the wand?
Oh probably, yes.
The spiderlike hand swooped and pulled the wand from Dumbledore's grasp, and as he took it, a shower of sparks flew from its tip, sparkling over the corpse of its last owner, ready to serve a new master at last.
and somewhere at the back of mind is a little voice shouting "GO VOLDIE!!!!"
Here, at last, endeth chapter the twenty-fourth.
***
In which we have character death, plot assassination and grammarcide and we learn that a wizard's wand follows the wizard or sometimes doesn't or maybe it does. Who knows? Ollivander doesn't. Oh and everything suddenly makes sense to Harry.
Lucky Harry...
Chapter Twenty-Four -- The Wandmaker
the sea was rushing against rock somewhere nearby....
So we understand we are somewhere near the sea. It's a place called Shell Cottage and it's the love-nest of Bill and Phlegm.
Dobby's Dead, there I've said it. Of course, JKR makes a bit more of it than that but I've had enough of Harry and his grief so that's it folks, the elf is dead.
"I want to do it properly," were the first words of which Harry was fully conscious of speaking.
"Not by magic. Have you got a spade?" And shortly afterwards he had set to work, alone, digging the grave in the place that Bill had shown him at the end of the garden, between bushes.
so he digs
On Harry dug, deeper and deeper into the hard, cold earth
Without the full description of Shell Cottage at this point, it's maybe a bit unfair to point out that if it is that close to the sea, it's either standing on rock with only a thin layer of soil or it's very sandy. Just mentioning.
Deeper and deeper Harry sank into the grave
Why? Bearing in mind he's digging at one hell of a rate and for a small house elf.
At which we point we enjoy a little Tolkien....
and he knew where Voldemort had been tonight, and whom he had killed in the topmost cell of Isengard Nurmengard, and why… And he thought of Wormtongue Wormtail, dead because of one small hobbit unconscious impulse of mercy
and then, back in the right fictional world, along come Dean and Ron to join in the fun
They jumped down into the hole he had made with spades of their own and together they worked in silence until the hole seemed deep enough.
Whoah, wait, hang on. Just how big is this elf? There are now three young men down in this hole all wielding spades and not bumping into each other? While they're digging? That's some hole, it's big enough to stick a hippogriff in.
Sadly the atmosphere at his graveside was ruined for me here when I had visions of them lobbing Dobby off the side of a gaping chasm, waiting for the sound of his body as it hits the bottom.
Once Dobby has had his funeral (snipped to save you the heartache of course), Harry, left alone, decides to make some sort of mark or headstone and so a stone becomes a rock, morphs back to a stone and has a sizeable inscription hewn onto it:
.... there were a number of large, white stones, smoothed by the sea, marking the edges of the flowerbeds....Slowly, under his murmured instructions, deep cuts appeared upon the rock's surface.... When Harry stood up again, the stone read: Here lies Dobby, a Free Elf.
Call me picky but it's got to either be a rock or a stone or a boulder or a pebble but not intermittently any mixture of these. And while I'm feeling a bit sarcastic, love this description of the fire in the living room at Shell Cottage.
The room was light-coloured, pretty, with a small fire of driftwood burning brightly in the fireplace.
I hadn't expected them to be using the fireplace for a fire at all, had you?
So, the elf's dead. There is work to do and people to interrogate.
However, just before we get there is this gem, Harry speaks:
he heard the authority in his own voice, the conviction, the sense of purpose that had come to him as he dug Dobby's grave. All of their faces were turned towards him, looking puzzled.
I'm expecting great things now, almost excited....but no
I'm going to wash, Harry told Bill....
I am dazzled by his decision-making and conviction! Such suspense and all for a wash!! OK, so he most likely did need to wash but these weren't the prophetic words I was really expecting.
I'm snipping out the tedious, homely stuff but couldn't ignore this
and he knew that Voldemort was getting there too. Harry understood and yet did not understand....
Rep, just like the rest of us. Harry has at last started to think and we have some hope building here that he is starting to "get" a few things. Don't hold your breath though.
So, the real ditty-gritty of the chapter starts about now.
SNIP! For more boring stuff where Harry demands to speak to the prisoners injured guests and Ron and Thermionic follow him around like sheep wondering what he's up to.
Before we get to the interrogations however, this little sentence made me giggle. For some reason, I heard Fleur whinny:
Fleur made an impatient noise, but Bill did not look at her
Just as I was hoping for a speeding up of the pace here, Harry being all authoritative and understanding and such, we have to endure Griphook the goblin's interview with Harry.
Either the dialogue here is very much more tedious than previous dialogue has been or we are supposed to understand that goblins speak annoyingly slowly and deliberately. It isn't long before I'm hoping there's another hole dug for the goblin.
I skipped ahead the first time because there was no information other than the obligatory back-story to remind us all about goblins and money and treasure and such:
"You probably don't remember -" Harry began.
"-that I was the goblin who showed you to your vault, the first time you ever visited Gringotts?" said Griphook. "I remember, Harry Potter. Even amongst goblins, you are very famous."
After the history lesson Harry gets annoyed with Griphook and Ron and Hermione are confused and amazed by Harry - mostly because he apparently knows things now and he seems to be making sense - to himself at least.
More snipping till we get to the point, sort of, as Harry insists the goblin helps them get into Gringotts,
"Well, the vault we need to get into isn't empty, and I'm guessing its protection will be pretty powerful," said Harry. "It belongs to the Lestranges." He saw Hermione and Ron look at each other, astonished, but there would be time enough to explain after Griphook had given his answer.
and don't you just groan inwardly at the thought of a few more pages of Harry explaining the rest?
More snippage for memories and re-telling and reminding us just how much wizards and goblins don't get on,
"Well, goblins can do magic without wands," said Ron.
"That is immaterial! Wizards refuse to share the secrets of wand-lore with other magical beings, they deny us the possibility of extending our powers!"
"Well, goblins won't share any of their magic either," said Ron.
(nah nah nah-nah nah etc.)
"This isn't about wizards versus goblins or any other sort of magical creature -" Griphook gave a nasty laugh. "But it is, it is precisely that! As the Dark Lord becomes ever more powerful, your race is set still more firmly above mine! Gringotts falls under Wizarding rule, house-elves are slaughtered, and who amongst the wand-carriers protests?"
and here my heart sank momentarily
"We do!" said Hermione.
Fortunately, the reader isn't given a brief history of the SPEW campaign but Griphook is amazed of course at how liberal-minded these young people are while still feeling aggrieved and hard-done by.
We don't learn anything new in the talk with the goblin but his nasty look when the sword is removed from his grasp presumably sews some seeds of trouble for later on - can't wait.
Before we move to the next bedroom and interview the one belonging to the chapter title, this leapt out at me:
We have a duty to the objects placed in our care, which were, so often, wrought by our fingers."
Fingers? Is it just me or does that sound a bit strange. Why not hands here? Can things be wrought by fingers?
Anyway....
There is a brief interlude where the reader is given every opportunity to clearly understand what Harry was going on about just in case you too had rushed ahead and missed all the important bits:
"Harry," whispered Hermione, pulling them both away from the door, into the middle of the still-dark landing, "are you saying what I think you're saying? Are you saying there's a Horcrux in the Lestranges' vault?"
pause for dramatic effect....
"Yes," said Harry. "
Gripping stuff and powerful legilimencing from Hermione
Ron, bless his heart, is simply getting more confused and at times I can fully understand why,
"But I thought we were looking for places You-Know-Who's been, places he's done something important?" said Ron, looking baffled. "Was he ever inside the Lestranges' vault?"
Harry thinks not.
The Wandmaker, Mr. Ollivander, is next on the list and we learn that Harry's wand is irreparable, broken, a dead wand. I almost felt sorry for him but that didn't last long and he does have two spares!
It's all about wands - so confusing we read it twice - three times - four times. Ollivander doesn't know or doesn't care or he's too upset by his incarceration or just plain pissed off with all the questions. Oh well, can't be important to the plot then - or is it?!
The poor man has suffered in his incarceration and along with his yellow skin and sticky-out facial bones, he also has knobble-knuckled fingers, which description made me stop, raise an eyebrow and lose the thread of the conversation - such as it was.
Once again, there's a fair bit of snipping here because once again, not a lot is really said and not a lot of new, useful information comes to light. If anything, this became even more annoying than the previous few pages because Ollivander didn't seem to know much at all. Harry still wonders if he's on the side of Good or Bad and I was beginning to wonder how this man had gained such a reputation as a master wandsmith or whatever they're called.
We are reminded
"The wand chooses the wizard," said Ollivander. "That much has always been clear to those of us who have studied wandlore."
but then there is a whole load of maybes and ifs and buts which had me more than a little confused and once again this conversation seemed to be going nowhere of any use. For example,
This was the wand of Draco Malfoy."
"Was?" repeated Harry. "Isn't it still his?"
"Perhaps not. If you took it -"
"-I did - "
"-then it may be yours.
and,
"I took this wand from Draco Malfoy by force," said Harry. "Can I use it safely?"
"I think so.
and, rather revoltingly,
"I think so," replied Ollivander, his protuberant eyes upon Harry's face.
ew!
Eventually, JKR gets out of answering any of these questions by using the good all fall back
"You ask deep questions, Mr. Potter. Wandlore is a complex and mysterious branch of magic."
which in my book means we'll never really know - unless we learn more during a signing tour some years hence when the answer's been worked out.
Of course, what Harry is getting at - I'll tell you now and spare you any more breath-holding -
are "Legends about a wand - or wands - that have been passed from hand to hand by murder."
and the strange things that his own wand does when faced with Voldie (no, the real wand, not that one. Wash your minds out!)
Not surprisingly, Ollivander turned pale because Harry appears to know almost as much as he does about wandlore but also, I suspect, he is struggling with anaemia :
Against the snowy pillow he was light grey, and his eyes were enormous, bloodshot, and bulging with what looked like fear
or maybe a serious thyroid condition?
Intermittently, the reader has to be reminded that we are in a cottage by the sea and wonderfully bizarre descriptions pepper the dialogue. Most notably in this conversation,
the sea gushed forward and backward and was heard to be in the distance rushing and almost mournful.
Sometimes, the sea sounds nearby and then all of a sudden it's a distant voice. Global warming and fast tides?
Voldemort had tortured the wandmaker for information regarding wands and we learn that
"He wanted to know everything I could tell him about the wand variously known as the Deathstick, the Wand of Destiny, or the Elder Wand."
No heart-stopping new information here, I just love the idea of a deathstick !! Brilliant.
Lastly, as we say goodbye to this painfully drawn-out conversation, I see not a wand but a small band of gold laying in a river somewhere,
"You - you really think this wand exists, then, Mr. Ollivander?" asked Hermione. "Oh yes," said Ollivander. "Yes, it is perfectly possible to trace the wand's course through history. There are gaps, of, course, and long ones, where it vanishes from view, temporarily lost or hidden; but always it resurfaces.
Ah, the One Ring!!
Apparently Harry is channelling Voldemort more frequently now and his visions provide the reader with a welcome break from the POV of the Trio.
Sometimes.
I've kept my inner the proof-reader a bit subdued in me but I found myself scribbling all over my book and this passage gained a lot of pencil markings,
Voldemort was at the gates of Hogwarts; Harry could see him standing there, and see too the lamp bobbing in the pre-dawn, coming closer and closer.
what lamp and how is it "bobbing"?
Kill the Ands, pleeeease....
"And Grindelwald used the Elder Wand to become powerful. And at the height of his power, when Dumbledore knew he was the only one who could stop him, he duelled Grindelwald and beat him, and he took the Elder Wand."
and Ron gets all sort of mediaeval and not at all IC in his word choice, but then :
"Dumbledore had the Elder Wand?" said Ron. "But then - where is it now?"
SNIP!
"But then, let's go!" said Ron urgently. "Harry, let's go and get it before he does!"
This pencil exercise also highlighted just how poorly made this (Bloomsbury) hardback edition is from the paper quality to the binding. Is this just me?
Towards the end of the chapter, Harry gets all angsty because he has to make decisions regarding Horcruxes or Hallows. I feel his pain. I thought I'd got the hang of Horcurses at the end of book six and then we had to apply our minds to Hallows but maybe the Horxes were still relevant but maybe they weren't and who knows what they should be chasing now,
"No," said Harry, and he sank to his knees in the grass. "Hermione's right. Dumbledore didn't want me to have it. He didn't want me to take it. He wanted me to get the Horcruxes."
"The unbeatable wand, Harry!" moaned Ron.
"I'm not supposed to . . . I'm supposed to get the Horcruxes. . . ."
You have to feel sorry for him, soooo confusing poor lad.
And finally....
We get Snape!!!!! Squeeeeeeeeeee!!
Ahem, sorry
/fangirling
Harry's visions rescue the reader from the Tiresome Trio and finally we see something different and ACTION!! (almost). What we don't need to "see" is more floating Voldemort but since he learned to do the flying, floating thing, he can't be expected to stop. It's not a "cool" way for a baddy to be travelling imho, it's comic.
and now everything was cool and dark: The sun was barely visible over the horizon as he glided alongside Snape, up through the grounds toward the lake. "I shall join you in the castle shortly," he said in his high, cold voice. "Leave me now." Snape bowed and set off back up the path, his black cloak billowing behind him.
We get to float along with Voldie now as he makes his triumphant way to DD's tomb. I almost got excited here!
The white marble tomb, an unnecessary blot on the familiar landscape. He felt again that rush of controlled euphoria, that heady sense of purpose in destruction. He raised the old yew wand: How fitting that this would be its last great act. The tomb split open from head to foot.
Yeah, some action!!!!
The shrouded figure was as long as thin as it had been in life. He raised the wand again. The wrappings fell open. The face was translucent, pale, sunken, yet almost perfectly preserved.
I'm not good at maths either but DD wasn't exactly in there long so I'd expected him to look pretty Dumbledorish still. A bit smelly perhaps but not much changed.
Had the old fool imagined that marble or death would protect the wand?
Oh probably, yes.
The spiderlike hand swooped and pulled the wand from Dumbledore's grasp, and as he took it, a shower of sparks flew from its tip, sparkling over the corpse of its last owner, ready to serve a new master at last.
and somewhere at the back of mind is a little voice shouting "GO VOLDIE!!!!"
Here, at last, endeth chapter the twenty-fourth.