DH:23 - Malfoy Manor (Bloomsbury 2007)
Italics are impressions from my first read, when I did not yet know what was going to happen.
1) Hermione hexes Harry. I admit, that surprised the hell out of me at first, but almost immediately, I understood what she'd done. His face and his wand were the two things that would have immediately identified him, and guess what? Now Hermione's taken care of both. :p Everything else that might identify him is in the bag only he can open.
2) "Get -- off -- her!" "Delicious girl ... what a treat ... I do enjoy the softness of the skin ..." Shit. It did not register how dodgy that sounded the first time I read it. What exactly was he doing to Hermione that Ron attacked him?
3) Fenrir Greyback. We've been told, of course, that he has a reputation for "savagery", but Jo seems to be strongly hinting both in this book and HBP that rape and pedophilia are not far down his list of favourite activities. He may be the scariest character we ever meet. I'm going to have to write him into a fic, I think.
4) False names. I sort of wonder that the trio didn't plan better for what they would do if they were captured. With all the weeks of not doing much, shouldn't they have been practicing their defensive magic and coming up with useful aliases and cover stories? Instead, we get Vernon Dudley, Barney Weasley, and Penelope Clearwater. Oh, Hermione! You'd better hope to God that Penelope's not muggleborn, hadn't you? When they get taken into the Ministry, Percy is going to freak out, isn't he? Their cover will be blown, and it will lead to Percy reconciling with the family.
5) Dean! Yay! So glad they've found a friend. Now SHUT UP, Dean, before you blow Harry's cover by saying his bloody name where Greyback and his lot can hear.
6) "could luck, sheer luck, get them safely out of this?" Why not? It's gotten them a hell of a long way into this book already. In fact, they're already lucky that they've been captured by the one DE who can't actually summon Voldemort, and that Harry knows for a fact that Voldemort is far, far away and busy doing something important.
7) Greyback fears the Ministry's wrath. Good to know he's afraid of something. It doesn't seem like there's a lot that would scare him.
8) The sword of Gryffindor. Why did Hermione not stick it in her magic purse? "It's my father's. [...] We borrowed it to cut firewood --" Harry, that has got to be the dumbest lie ever.
9) Voldemort is slipping again. He's been trying to keep Harry out of his thoughts pretty much since Godric's Hollow, but now that he is so near his goal, he lets his guard slip.
10) Greyback: "I haven't got --" He really hasn't got a Dark Mark, has he? Half-bloods can have them, but not werewolves. You know, as closely as he works with the other DEs, you'd think Voldemort would find it convenient for him to have one for situations like this.
11) "he forced himself through the slit of a window like a snake..." Shit. Voldemort can fly *and* shapeshift? What is he? Dracula?
12) Albino peacocks again. I think I know what it is about seeing the peacocks here that amuses me so much. This song has always made me think of Draco and Lucius Malfoy, and it mentions peacocks at the end.
13) Grindelwald lives! Er -- briefly, anyway. And he knows why Voldemort has come. Hetells Voldemort he never had the Elder Wand, though Voldemort knows he stole it from Gregorovitch. Why does he lie? It may be that he regrets his previous actions and now wishes to do what Dumbledore wanted, but I severely doubt that. I think he lies out of vanity. He does not want Voldemort's reign of terror to eclipse his own legacy.
14) Draco is on his Easter holidays. So it is currently any time between mid March and late April.
15) "His black hair reached his shoulders and there was a dark shadow around his jaw." This is not from Hermione's jinx; this is from living rough for the past eight months. Harry has become a rugged and sexy man while he was without a mirror.
16) The Malfoys cannot identify Harry. Narcissa and Lucius of course want to be 100% sure before they summon Voldemort, because otherwise they will be in even deeper shit than they already are. Draco is reluctant to identify Harry at all, or even Ron and Hermione, and seems to have more of a connection with his mother in this scene than with his father. I think he believes that Harry is the only one who has a chance of defeating Voldemort, and he really wants to see Voldemort defeated. He's also terrified of Fenrir Greyback.
17) The Sword of Saving the Day. Lucius is just about to summon Voldemort when Bellatrix sees the sword that's supposed to be hidden in her Gringotts vault. And now she's got to figure that out before Voldemort shows up and crucios them all for negligence. Again, lucky! We are reminded yet again that Bellatrix is "a witch of prodigious skill and no conscience."
18) Greyback is wary of Bellatrix. He seems fearful of anyone with power and magical skill. I wonder if his own magic is lacking? Is that why he preys on children and the weak?
19) Ron: "No! [...] You can have me, keep me!" Oh, Ron! Trying to be heroic and protect Hermione. He really does prove how he feels about her over and over again in this book, doesn't he? He completely loses his head while she's being tortured, but Harry just keeps working on trying to escape. I think I feel worse for Ron in this chapter than I do for Hermione. It's always easier to endure suffering yourself than to witness someone you love suffering. This chapter spawned a serious Ron/Hermione plot bunny for me, the result of which I posted today. It's called Primal, and it's set at the end of this chapter.
20) Luna! She's not in Azkaban after all. She's been here the whole time, keeping poor old Ollivander company. The DEs are so not going to know what hit them. Luna is awesome. I would totally want her with me if I was in dire circumstances. She always seems able to maintain a cheerful attitude and keep people from feeling too down. That's no small gift.
21) Ron manages to remember the Deluminator. Rather surprising in his current state. Also surprising that the DEs didn't search him and take it, even if they didn't know what it was. Harry's still got his mokeskin pouch as well. These people are incompetent.
22) Bellatrix is worried about Gringotts security. She wants to know if the trio took anything else from her vault, thereby supplying a hint that there might be Something in there that she's desperate to keep safe, loyal servant of the Dark Lord that she is.
23) The mirror! Harry thinks he sees Dumbledore's eye in it yet again. Not knowing what else to do, he begs it for help, telling it where they are.
24) Hermione's a tough girl. She swears the sword is a copy. I wonder if she hasn't been practicing Occlumency? We know Bellatrix was teaching it to Draco, so she must be well-versed in Legilimency as well. She should have no trouble reading Hermione's mind if it is unprotected.
25) Draco's voice is shaking. One point for the Dramione 'shippers. Seeing her tortured has completely unnerved him.
26) Dobby! Harry asked for help, and it came. Since Dobby must have come from Hogwarts, Harry now has even more reason to believe it as Dumbledore who sent help. Sadly, he never gets a chance to ask Dobby who sent him.
27) Meanwhile, Voldemort is still chatting away with Grindelwald. They must have had a nice, long talk about what it's like to be great Dark Wizards. How lovely. I bet there was tea and biscuits. "My death will not bring you what you seek ... there is so much you do not understand." *cluehammer*
28) Peter Pettigrew. Now we shall see .... WTF?! That's not very useful. I am so unbelievably disappointed. I wanted his life debt to Harry to mean something really useful. I wanted him to have a real moment of redemption. Not only does this scene feel sort of half-assed, but him strangling himself with his own hand is going to look really lame on the big screen. I did not understand on my first reading what had happened, but now I get it. Voldemort had jinxed the silver hand, knowing that Peter owed Harry. He made it so that if Peter ever even thought of helping Harry, the hand would turn on him. Harry instinctively tried to save him -- the man who betrayed his parents. Has Harry finally learned that everyone deserves at least a shot at redemption? And OK, I guess Wormtail's death is not entirely useless. It means that the cellar door is open and they can escape, but I really was hoping he'd do something to actively help them.
29) "Nothing!" Ron called back, in a passable imitation of Wormtail's wheezy voice. Has Ron ever been established as an especially good mimic before this book? Because we're going to see him do this again later on, in even more unlikely circumstances.
30) Griphook goes along with Harry's request. He claims the sword as a fake. Which means their time has run out. Bellatrix doesn't seem to wonder why there should be a copy of Gryffindor's sword floating around. All she knows is that now it's time to call Voldemort to them, and that all their prisoners can hope for now is death. Good plan, Harry. Lucky you managed to escape from the cellar before Bellatrix heard Griphook's verdict, isn't it?
31) Grindelwald is dead. Would Voldemort have killed him so precipitously if he had not been summoned home at this inconvenient moment? R.I.P., Gellert Grindelwald, great Dark wizard, Dumbledore's ex-boyfriend. Perhaps you really did keep the Elder Wand's secret "for the greater good".
32) A chaotic game of musical wands ensues. Bellatrix offers Hermione to Greyback. *squick* Ron disarms Bellatrix with Peter's wand, and Harry catches her wand. Harry stupefies Lucius with Bellatrix's wand. Narcissa, Draco and Greyback fire at Harry and miss. Bellatrix holds a knife to an unconscious Hermione's throat. Ron and Harry drop their captured wands, which Draco collects. The chandelier crashes down on Hermione and Griphook, Bellatrix jumps out of the way. Draco gets a face full of shattered crystal. Ron rushes to rescue Hermione. Harry rushes to disarm Draco of all three wands by hand. He then turns to stun Greyback with all three wands at once. More wands = more power? Narcissa drags Draco to safety. Dobby bravely confronts his former mistress, disarming her. Harry throws Ron one of the captured wands, grabs Dobby and Griphook, and Disapparates.
33) "... soon he would be close enough to Apparate ..." The range at which one can Apparate is limited. Did we know this before? Is it controlled by national boundaries (can't Apparate across a border) or physical distance? If it's distance, how far?
34) Shell Cottage. Apparently you really can Apparate to a place you've never been to or seen, so long as you know what it's called and possibly who lives there.
35) DOBBY?! Noooo! Alright, I admit it. This was the death that got me more than any other in this entire bloodbath of a book. I would like it here noted that this makes three deaths of important characters in a single chapter, which has got to be a record up to this point.
1) Hermione hexes Harry. I admit, that surprised the hell out of me at first, but almost immediately, I understood what she'd done. His face and his wand were the two things that would have immediately identified him, and guess what? Now Hermione's taken care of both. :p Everything else that might identify him is in the bag only he can open.
2) "Get -- off -- her!" "Delicious girl ... what a treat ... I do enjoy the softness of the skin ..." Shit. It did not register how dodgy that sounded the first time I read it. What exactly was he doing to Hermione that Ron attacked him?
3) Fenrir Greyback. We've been told, of course, that he has a reputation for "savagery", but Jo seems to be strongly hinting both in this book and HBP that rape and pedophilia are not far down his list of favourite activities. He may be the scariest character we ever meet. I'm going to have to write him into a fic, I think.
4) False names. I sort of wonder that the trio didn't plan better for what they would do if they were captured. With all the weeks of not doing much, shouldn't they have been practicing their defensive magic and coming up with useful aliases and cover stories? Instead, we get Vernon Dudley, Barney Weasley, and Penelope Clearwater. Oh, Hermione! You'd better hope to God that Penelope's not muggleborn, hadn't you? When they get taken into the Ministry, Percy is going to freak out, isn't he? Their cover will be blown, and it will lead to Percy reconciling with the family.
5) Dean! Yay! So glad they've found a friend. Now SHUT UP, Dean, before you blow Harry's cover by saying his bloody name where Greyback and his lot can hear.
6) "could luck, sheer luck, get them safely out of this?" Why not? It's gotten them a hell of a long way into this book already. In fact, they're already lucky that they've been captured by the one DE who can't actually summon Voldemort, and that Harry knows for a fact that Voldemort is far, far away and busy doing something important.
7) Greyback fears the Ministry's wrath. Good to know he's afraid of something. It doesn't seem like there's a lot that would scare him.
8) The sword of Gryffindor. Why did Hermione not stick it in her magic purse? "It's my father's. [...] We borrowed it to cut firewood --" Harry, that has got to be the dumbest lie ever.
9) Voldemort is slipping again. He's been trying to keep Harry out of his thoughts pretty much since Godric's Hollow, but now that he is so near his goal, he lets his guard slip.
10) Greyback: "I haven't got --" He really hasn't got a Dark Mark, has he? Half-bloods can have them, but not werewolves. You know, as closely as he works with the other DEs, you'd think Voldemort would find it convenient for him to have one for situations like this.
11) "he forced himself through the slit of a window like a snake..." Shit. Voldemort can fly *and* shapeshift? What is he? Dracula?
12) Albino peacocks again. I think I know what it is about seeing the peacocks here that amuses me so much. This song has always made me think of Draco and Lucius Malfoy, and it mentions peacocks at the end.
13) Grindelwald lives! Er -- briefly, anyway. And he knows why Voldemort has come. Hetells Voldemort he never had the Elder Wand, though Voldemort knows he stole it from Gregorovitch. Why does he lie? It may be that he regrets his previous actions and now wishes to do what Dumbledore wanted, but I severely doubt that. I think he lies out of vanity. He does not want Voldemort's reign of terror to eclipse his own legacy.
14) Draco is on his Easter holidays. So it is currently any time between mid March and late April.
15) "His black hair reached his shoulders and there was a dark shadow around his jaw." This is not from Hermione's jinx; this is from living rough for the past eight months. Harry has become a rugged and sexy man while he was without a mirror.
16) The Malfoys cannot identify Harry. Narcissa and Lucius of course want to be 100% sure before they summon Voldemort, because otherwise they will be in even deeper shit than they already are. Draco is reluctant to identify Harry at all, or even Ron and Hermione, and seems to have more of a connection with his mother in this scene than with his father. I think he believes that Harry is the only one who has a chance of defeating Voldemort, and he really wants to see Voldemort defeated. He's also terrified of Fenrir Greyback.
17) The Sword of Saving the Day. Lucius is just about to summon Voldemort when Bellatrix sees the sword that's supposed to be hidden in her Gringotts vault. And now she's got to figure that out before Voldemort shows up and crucios them all for negligence. Again, lucky! We are reminded yet again that Bellatrix is "a witch of prodigious skill and no conscience."
18) Greyback is wary of Bellatrix. He seems fearful of anyone with power and magical skill. I wonder if his own magic is lacking? Is that why he preys on children and the weak?
19) Ron: "No! [...] You can have me, keep me!" Oh, Ron! Trying to be heroic and protect Hermione. He really does prove how he feels about her over and over again in this book, doesn't he? He completely loses his head while she's being tortured, but Harry just keeps working on trying to escape. I think I feel worse for Ron in this chapter than I do for Hermione. It's always easier to endure suffering yourself than to witness someone you love suffering. This chapter spawned a serious Ron/Hermione plot bunny for me, the result of which I posted today. It's called Primal, and it's set at the end of this chapter.
20) Luna! She's not in Azkaban after all. She's been here the whole time, keeping poor old Ollivander company. The DEs are so not going to know what hit them. Luna is awesome. I would totally want her with me if I was in dire circumstances. She always seems able to maintain a cheerful attitude and keep people from feeling too down. That's no small gift.
21) Ron manages to remember the Deluminator. Rather surprising in his current state. Also surprising that the DEs didn't search him and take it, even if they didn't know what it was. Harry's still got his mokeskin pouch as well. These people are incompetent.
22) Bellatrix is worried about Gringotts security. She wants to know if the trio took anything else from her vault, thereby supplying a hint that there might be Something in there that she's desperate to keep safe, loyal servant of the Dark Lord that she is.
23) The mirror! Harry thinks he sees Dumbledore's eye in it yet again. Not knowing what else to do, he begs it for help, telling it where they are.
24) Hermione's a tough girl. She swears the sword is a copy. I wonder if she hasn't been practicing Occlumency? We know Bellatrix was teaching it to Draco, so she must be well-versed in Legilimency as well. She should have no trouble reading Hermione's mind if it is unprotected.
25) Draco's voice is shaking. One point for the Dramione 'shippers. Seeing her tortured has completely unnerved him.
26) Dobby! Harry asked for help, and it came. Since Dobby must have come from Hogwarts, Harry now has even more reason to believe it as Dumbledore who sent help. Sadly, he never gets a chance to ask Dobby who sent him.
27) Meanwhile, Voldemort is still chatting away with Grindelwald. They must have had a nice, long talk about what it's like to be great Dark Wizards. How lovely. I bet there was tea and biscuits. "My death will not bring you what you seek ... there is so much you do not understand." *cluehammer*
28) Peter Pettigrew. Now we shall see .... WTF?! That's not very useful. I am so unbelievably disappointed. I wanted his life debt to Harry to mean something really useful. I wanted him to have a real moment of redemption. Not only does this scene feel sort of half-assed, but him strangling himself with his own hand is going to look really lame on the big screen. I did not understand on my first reading what had happened, but now I get it. Voldemort had jinxed the silver hand, knowing that Peter owed Harry. He made it so that if Peter ever even thought of helping Harry, the hand would turn on him. Harry instinctively tried to save him -- the man who betrayed his parents. Has Harry finally learned that everyone deserves at least a shot at redemption? And OK, I guess Wormtail's death is not entirely useless. It means that the cellar door is open and they can escape, but I really was hoping he'd do something to actively help them.
29) "Nothing!" Ron called back, in a passable imitation of Wormtail's wheezy voice. Has Ron ever been established as an especially good mimic before this book? Because we're going to see him do this again later on, in even more unlikely circumstances.
30) Griphook goes along with Harry's request. He claims the sword as a fake. Which means their time has run out. Bellatrix doesn't seem to wonder why there should be a copy of Gryffindor's sword floating around. All she knows is that now it's time to call Voldemort to them, and that all their prisoners can hope for now is death. Good plan, Harry. Lucky you managed to escape from the cellar before Bellatrix heard Griphook's verdict, isn't it?
31) Grindelwald is dead. Would Voldemort have killed him so precipitously if he had not been summoned home at this inconvenient moment? R.I.P., Gellert Grindelwald, great Dark wizard, Dumbledore's ex-boyfriend. Perhaps you really did keep the Elder Wand's secret "for the greater good".
32) A chaotic game of musical wands ensues. Bellatrix offers Hermione to Greyback. *squick* Ron disarms Bellatrix with Peter's wand, and Harry catches her wand. Harry stupefies Lucius with Bellatrix's wand. Narcissa, Draco and Greyback fire at Harry and miss. Bellatrix holds a knife to an unconscious Hermione's throat. Ron and Harry drop their captured wands, which Draco collects. The chandelier crashes down on Hermione and Griphook, Bellatrix jumps out of the way. Draco gets a face full of shattered crystal. Ron rushes to rescue Hermione. Harry rushes to disarm Draco of all three wands by hand. He then turns to stun Greyback with all three wands at once. More wands = more power? Narcissa drags Draco to safety. Dobby bravely confronts his former mistress, disarming her. Harry throws Ron one of the captured wands, grabs Dobby and Griphook, and Disapparates.
33) "... soon he would be close enough to Apparate ..." The range at which one can Apparate is limited. Did we know this before? Is it controlled by national boundaries (can't Apparate across a border) or physical distance? If it's distance, how far?
34) Shell Cottage. Apparently you really can Apparate to a place you've never been to or seen, so long as you know what it's called and possibly who lives there.
35) DOBBY?! Noooo! Alright, I admit it. This was the death that got me more than any other in this entire bloodbath of a book. I would like it here noted that this makes three deaths of important characters in a single chapter, which has got to be a record up to this point.