Chapter 29 -- The Phoenix Lament
In which Fleur shows class, Tonks makes a scene, Harry is stupid, selfish and insensitive, and we are told repeatedly that Gandalf Rasputin Dumbledore is DEAD.
We begin with Harry by the side of Dead Dumbledore, as Hagrid tries to persuade him to leave. YAY for really most sincerely dead Dumbledore! A death, I should note, that I had been praying for since Chapter 3.
He did not want to leave Dumbledore's side, he did not want to move anywhere.
Commas are not full stops, JKR. Try to remember this.
Harry doesn't move until someone else says "Come on," takes his hand and pulls him to his feet
Only as he walked blindly back through the crowd did he realize, from a trace of flowery scent on the air, that it was Ginny who was leading him back into the castle.
How nice that Harry, after seeing Dumbles die, is willing to walk off with the first person who pulls him to his feet. Never mind that he didn't know who he was walking with at first. Ginny could have been a Death Eater for all he knew.
Faces swam on the edges of Harry's vision, people were peering at him, whispering, wondering, and Gryffindor rubies glistened on the floor like drops of blood as they made their way toward the marble staircase.
So Gryffindor rubies (from the smashed hourglasses) are making their way toward the staircase--at least, according to the sentence structure. Sloppy, JKR. Very sloppy.
Harry doesn't want to go to the hospital wing, which is where they're headed. Ginny tells him that McGonagall wants everyone in the hospital wing.
Fear stirred in Harry's chest again: He had forgotten the inert figures he had left behind.
Nice to see that Harry's chest monster is also belatedly worried about the safety of others. (Or perhaps he has two monsters--one for lust and one for fear.)
Ginny then admits that the body that Draco stepped over was Bill, who had been attacked by Fenrir Greyback, and that Bill is alive…though not in good shape. She then gives us the roster of the other injured:
"Neville and Professor Flitwick are both hurt, but Madam Pomfrey says they'll be all right. And a Death Eater's dead, he got hit by a Killing Curse that huge blond one was firing off everywhere - Harry, if we hadn't had your Felix potion, I think we'd all have been killed, but everything seemed to just miss us -"
How convenient that the kids had the Felix Felicis potion this year. Of course, maybe they didn't need it. Harry, Ron, Hermione, Ginny, Neville and Luna fought the Death Eaters in the Department of Mysteries the year before--and none of them died. Logically, at least one of them should have. Five fifteen-year-olds and one fourteen-year-old should NOT have done as well as they did against eight fully trained adult Death Eaters.
Again, I think that this is Rowling doing retroactive patchwork. She knew that the fans would ask a ton of questions about more inexplicable luck on the part of those six, so she tried to make it explicable. The explanation is not particularly convincing.
They get to the infirmary. Neville's asleep; he doesn't participate in the hospital scene. Ron, Hermione, Luna, Tonks and Remus are clustered around Bill's bed. Bill, as Ginny warned, does not look good.
Harry looked over Hermione's shoulder and saw an unrecognizable face lying on Bill's pillow, so badly slashed and ripped that he looked grotesque.
Harry wants to know if Madam Pomfrey can't fix Bill's wounds with a spell.
"No charm will work on these," said Madam Pomfrey. "I've tried everything I know, but there is no cure for werewolf bites."
So you mean everyone who was bitten by a werewolf is walking around with unhealed wounds? God, that's practically an invitation to septicemia.
Ron wants to know if Bill's going to be a werewolf--after all, Greyback wasn't transformed when he bit Bill, and it wasn't the full moon.
"No, I don't think that Bill will be a true werewolf," said Lupin, "but that does not mean that there won't be some contamination. Those are cursed wounds. They are unlikely ever to heal fully, and - and Bill might have some wolfish characteristics from now on."
Rowling, in typical cavalier fashion, never explains what the wolfish characteristics are, nor does she use Lupin to do so.
From Wolf Song of Alaska:
But there are some distinctive phenotypic and behavioral characteristics that we look for when evaluating whether an animal is a wolf or wolf hybrid.
* …behavior is one of the biggest clues. Wolves are shy and avoid eye contact with humans other than their owner. They generally listen to and take commands only from their owner. They will leave the room or hide when a "new" person walks in.
So I guess that Bill is going to turn very shy now, and avoid looking at anyone except the human he perceives as the person in charge of him.
Ron thinks that Dumbledore might know how to fix what's wrong. Ginny--not Harry, surprisingly--blurts out that Dumbledore is dead. This is the first time we hear those words. It will not, unfortunately, be the last.
The fact that Dumbledore is dead is restated no less than nineteen times in this chapter. And the shock and horror of the survivors appears almost as often. It generally plays out like this…and this really isn't much of an exaggeration:
Harry: Dumbledore is dead.
Member of Hogwarts Staff and/or Member of the Order and/or Hogwarts Student: Inconceivable! How?
Harry: Snape killed him.
MHS/MO/HS: No, no, he's, uh...he's resting.
Harry: Now, look. I know a dead person when I see one, and I'm looking at one right now.
MHS/MO/HS: No, no he's not dead, he's, he's restin'! Remarkable wizard, that Albus Dumbledore!
Harry: It doesn't matter how remarkable he is. Or was. Because he's stone DEAD.
MHS/MO/HS: Nononono, no, no! 'E's sleeping! Sleeping at the base of the Astronomy Tower. Or maybe stunned. Old wizards stun easily, you know. Or maybe he's pining. Pining for the fjords!
Harry: He's not pining! He's passed on! Dumbledore is no more! He has ceased to be! He's expired and gone to meet his maker! He's a stiff! Bereft of life, he rests in peace! His metabolic processes are now history! He's off the twig! He's kicked the bucket, he's shuffled off his mortal coil, run down the curtain and joined the bleedin' choir invisible!! THIS IS AN EX-WIZARD!!
[/end Dead Parrot Sketch]
The thing is, I don't know why everyone has such a hard time believing that Dumbledore's dead. No one in the books has any trouble believing that Sirius is dead and gone, and Sirius didn't even leave a body. Dumbledore's corpse, on the other hand, is lying at the foot of the Astronomy Tower, if any of them would care to go look.
Not to mention that Dumbledore was well over one hundred and fifty years old, and even if he hadn't been killed…well, wizards don't live forever. Well, not unless they're willing to split their souls and turn into undead snake-man hybrids.
Frankly, I think that Rowling anticipated DD's death being a much bigger shock than it was.
"No!" Lupin looked wildly from Ginny to Harry, as though hoping the latter might contradict her, but when Harry did not, Lupin collapsed into a chair beside Bill's bed, his hands over his face. Harry had never seen Lupin lose control before; he felt as though he was intruding upon something private, indecent.
Some people have questioned Lupin's breaking down at Dumbledore's death. He didn't break down when Sirius was slain by the Deadly Drapery of DOOM--why would he break down now?
I disagree. I think it makes sense. Dumbledore, after all, did a lot for Remus:
1. He accepted little Remus into Hogwarts many years ago, despite Remus being a werewolf.
2. He allowed Remus to continue at Hogwarts after the Prank, possibly even going out on a limb to save Remus's life. If a wizard can get thrown into Azkaban for cursing someone with hives, what would be the probable fate of a young werewolf who narrowly escaped attacking, biting or killing a fellow student? I think that Dumbledore most likely saved Remus from Walden Macnair and his executioner's axe.
3. He gave Remus a place in the Order of the Phoenix. Do you get the feeling that there are many werewolves in the Order, or even supporting those fighting Voldemort? I don't.
4. He gave Remus a job. Few people seem willing to hire werewolves.
5. Judging by Remus's words to Harry over Christmas, Remus--a man who has had to face unpleasant realities since he was a small boy--trusted Dumbledore implicitly, without the slightest question.
Remus has just lost a man who allowed him to live as a wizard and not a beast, who didn't shrink from him because of his lycanthropy, who trusted him and treated him like a human being. He's lost a mentor, a colleague in the Order, a friend and very likely a father figure. A cornerstone of his life is now gone. I don't blame him for being upset.
Tonks wants to know how Dumbledore died.
Harry: Miss Scarlet in the library with a candlestick.
"Snape killed him," said Harry. "I was there, I saw it.
Second reaffirmation of Dumbledore's death.
We arrived back on the Astronomy Tower because that's where the Mark was...
Tonks, Lupin and Bill were supposedly fighting in this battle. I think they probably saw where the Mark was.
Dumbledore was ill, he was weak, but I think he realized it was a trap when we heard footsteps running up the stairs.
When people are running toward you and they aren't supposed to be there, that could be taken as a sign of a trap, yes.
He immobilized me, I couldn't do anything,
Harry: SEE? IT'S NOT MY FAULT!
I was under the Invisibility Cloak - and then Malfoy came through the door and disarmed him -"
Hermione claps her hands to her mouth at this. Somehow, Hermione never struck me as a "clap her hands to her mouth in crisis" kind of girl.
"- more Death Eaters arrived - and then Snape - and Snape did it. The Avada Kedavra." Harry couldn't go on.
Well, he doesn't actually HAVE to go on now, seeing that he's just reaffirmed Dumbledore's death for the third time.
Just by coincidence, the instant that Harry finishes rehashing the events from the previous two chapters, those in the infirmary notice that Fawkes is singing "a stricken lament of terrible beauty."
And Harry felt, as he had felt about phoenix song before, that the music was inside him, not without: It was his own grief turned magically to song that echoed across the grounds and through the castle windows.
Harry's grief doesn't come across to me. There is more actual sorrow in Lupin's one protesting word, "NO!" than in the repeated references in the narrative to Harry's grief. Once again, Rowling is telling, not showing.
Next, enter Minerva McGonagall, fresh from the battle. She asks Harry in a stammering fashion what took place:
"Harry, what happened? According to Hagrid you were with Professor Dumbledore when he - when it happened. He says Professor Snape was involved in some -"
We just covered this, Rowling. Like, three paragraphs ago. Paging the Department of Redundancy Department...
And where was she, anyway? Surely someone might have pointed the DEAD BODY lying outside rather than having her come to the infirmary.
"Snape killed Dumbledore," said Harry.
Fourth time. And wow, amazing sensitivity, Harry.
She stared at him for a moment, then swayed alarmingly; Madam Pomfrey, who seemed to have pulled herself together, ran forward, conjuring a chair from thin air, which she pushed under McGonagall.
I refuse to believe that Minerva McGonagall, who lived through the worldwide depression of the 'Thirties, the bombing of Britain and the Second World War, and who has, so far, fought two wars against Voldemort, would nearly swoon upon hearing three words.
Mind you, I don't object to her having an emotional reaction. I can see her face turning pale or becoming mask-like with shock; I can see her eyes widening, or her staring at Harry. I DON'T see her turning into "Oh, la, sir, I have the vapors."
As Minerva struggles--understandably, I think--to deal with the fact that one of her colleagues killed the other, Lupin says something very odd:
"Snape was a highly accomplished Occlumens," said Lupin, his voice uncharacteristically harsh. "We always knew that."
Uh...why would Lupin know that? I can understand Dumbledore knowing about Snape's abilities, and Harry obviously had to know in order to take Occlumency lessons. I can even see McGonagall knowing. But the whole Order knowing about Snape's ability to shield his mind from the probing of a Legilimens? Doesn't that seem like the kind of information that would render Snape instantly suspect, if Voldemort found out? And according to Lupin, the Order members always knew of Snape's skills…apparently even in the days of the First War.
The Order has nothing even vaguely approaching security, does it?
Tonks then protests that Dumbledore insisted that Snape was on their side. McGonagall says that Dumbledore hinted that he had good reason to trust Snape, but he never told her what it was. Harry sums it up briefly:
"Snape passed Voldemort the information that made Voldemort hunt down my mum and dad. Then Snape told Dumbledore he hadn't realized what he was doing, he was really sorry he'd done it, sorry that they were dead."
Does anyone else find it odd that no one in the Order knew why Death Eater Snape had changed sides, and that they all knew that he was an Occlumens, capable of concealing his thoughts and feelings from a Legilimens…but that they automatically trusted him anyway?
Minerva blames herself for Dumb and Dumber's death.
If I hadn't alerted Snape to what was going on, he might never have joined forces with the Death Eaters. I don't think he knew they were there before Filius told him, I don't think he knew they were coming."
This is illogical. If you believe that Snape is evil and has secretly been a Death Eater all along, he would have joined forces with the Death Eaters no matter what you did. And if you believe that Snape is a decent if unlikeable man who is playing a dangerous part as a double agent, then, again, he would have joined forces with the Death Eaters, simply to maintain his cover with Voldemort. Either way, this was inevitable.
And why Minerva McGonagall, the lioness of Gryffindor, would blame herself for the actions of another person, I have no idea.
Remus tells Minerva that it wasn't her fault. Harry, who couldn't care less about consoling anyone else, is far more interested in hearing more about Snape.
"So when he arrived at the fight, he joined in on the Death Eaters' side?" asked Harry, who wanted every detail of Snape's duplicity and infamy, feverishly collecting more reasons to hate him, to swear vengeance.
Because if it's all Snape's fault, then Harry can just ignore the fact that he force-fed Dumbledore the poison that was killing him even before Snape uttered Avada Kedavra. If Snape is guilty of murder, Harry, then so are you.
I wonder if that means that Harry now has a split soul?
We then get told what happened when Harry and the Dumb One were putzing about the cave. Minerva tells us that she, Remus, Bill and Tonks patrolled the corridors, and that there were enchantments on every entrance, so no one could have flown in. Harry tells her about the two Vanishing Cabinets and the Room of Requirement.
Ron, blaming himself for failure, chimes in, saying that he, Ginny and Neville were guarding the Room of Requirement, but Draco got past them anyway. Ginny says that he came out alone about an hour later, clutching a shriveled arm.
"His Hand of Glory," said Ron. "Gives light only to the holder, remember?"
Actually, no. That's not how the Hand of Glory works. It gives light to the holder, provided that the holder is a thief. That was Lucius's objection to Draco buying it, remember? He wanted his son to become something more than a thief.
Not only that, but a Hand of Glory puts all those asleep in the house in a sleep from which they cannot be awakened until the thief departs with the Hand, or until the light from the Hand is extinguished.
Ergo, if Draco was using a Hand of Glory, he would have had to be attempting to steal something, or the Hand wouldn't work. Moreover, since the other Death Eaters weren't holding it, wouldn't they have been as much in the dark as anyone else?
And there wouldn't have been a battle between the residents of Hogwarts and the Death Eaters--or at least not much of one. All the events of the past few chapters took place in the middle of the night, when almost all residents of Hogwarts were asleep, and the Hand would have kept the sleepers in enchanted slumber.
But Rowling disregards all this, because it doesn't fit her plot...never mind that it was her idea to use the Hand of Glory in the first place.
If it didn't work, she should have found another plot device, rather than grabbing hold of a legend that sounds really cool, and then dropping everything but the legend's name.
Draco threw Peruvian Instant Darkness Powder--purchased from Fred and George--into the air in order to escape. No spell would penetrate--there's that word again!--the darkness. (Perhaps Ron, Ginny and Neville should have cast magic missile at it.)
By the time that the three got out of that corridor and into a light one, Draco, and anonymous people they could hear passing, were gone.
Ron, Ginny and Neville ran into Minerva, Remus, Bill and Tonks next, and informed them of what had happened.
We
Presumably this refers to the adults and the kids as a single group.
found the Death Eaters minutes later, heading in the direction of the Astronomy Tower.
Coincidentally, Draco ran out of Darkness Powder at that point. The Death Eaters--never the most valiant of souls--first fought, and then fled. The one who set off the Dark Mark was killed by the wizarding equivalent of friendly fire.
Hermione, who was outside Snape's office with Luna, tells what happened when Flitwick came to ask Snape for help:
He was shouting about Death Eaters in the castle, I don't think he really registered that Luna and I were there at all, he just burst his way into Snape's office and we heard him saying that Snape had to go back with him and help and then we heard a loud thump and Snape came hurtling out of his room and he saw us and - and -"
Snape, thinking fast, told the two girls that Flitwick had "collapsed," and that they should take care of Flitwick while he, Snape, fought the Death Eaters. Hermione says that Snape must have Stupefied Flitwick, but the truth is, we never find out, one way or the other.
(What is with all of the swooning staff in this book? Dumbledore nearly collapses, Minerva nearly collapses, and Flitwick DOES collapse. To misquote Danny Glover, I think they're getting too old for this shit.)
Tonks continues the story, telling us that the good guys were losing a fight, for a change. The Death Eaters were far more ruthless than they had been in the Department of Mysteries. I suspect that this is a response by JKR to fan criticism.
Draco got up the stairs to the Astronomy Tower and was followed by a number of other Death Eaters, one of whom set up a magical barrier so that they couldn't be followed. Snape breached the barrier with no trouble, so presumably you'd need to be a Death Eater to get past.
Snape then came back down the stairs with Draco.
"We just let them pass," said Tonks in a hollow voice. "We thought they were being chased by the Death Eaters
Uh-huh. And you thought that Draco was just tossing Darkness Powder into the air in mid-battle for entertainment purposes? Why the hell did you think that Draco was in the company of Death Eaters without having a wand held to his head, you brain-dead troglodyte?
I swear, if the Order is as stupid as this, it doesn't deserve to win.
Harry then speculates morbidly:
Had they taken Dumbledore's body from the foot of the tower yet?
As we find out later, no.
What would happen to it next?
Probably burial. Well, unless someone wants to write a book entitled 101 Uses For a Dead Wizard.
Where would it rest?
Who CARES? It's a dead body. Can we get on with the story, please?
Enter the Weasleys and Fleur. As Mrs. Weasley kisses her disfigured son, Mr. Weasley asks what Ron asked earlier--how is the bite of an untransformed werewolf going to affect Bill?
Remus repeats that Bill has been "contaminated."
"It is an odd case, possibly unique…We don't know what his behavior might be like when he awakens…"
Oh, come on, Remus. Werewolves have been around for millennia in your world. You're going to tell me that Fenrir Greyback was the first one to ever bite someone when he wasn't transformed and it wasn't yet the full moon? What are the odds of that?
"And Dumbledore ..." said Mr. Weasley. "Minerva, is it true ... Is he really. . . ?"
As Professor McGonagall nodded,
Sixth time.
"Dumbledore gone," whispered Mr. Weasley, but Mrs. Weasley had eyes only for her eldest son; she began to sob, tears falling onto Bill's mutilated face.
Shame she's not a phoenix.
And that’s the seventh time that Dumbledore's demise is mentioned. I'm starting to feel bludgeoned by JKR's insistence that Dumbledore is dead, do you hear me, DEAD!
Given his odd and uncharacteristically vain behavior throughout this book, I'm beginning to wonder if the man who died was Dumbledore. Or at least, not Albus Dumbledore. Aberforth Dumbledore--whom we know resembled his brother, and who has always been a member of the Order--is looking awfully good as his brother's stand-in.
If it's revealed in Book 7 that JKR did this, I'm going to be enormously cross with her. That's cheating.
Molly, bless her, is more concerned with Bill than with Dumbledore.
"Of course, it doesn't matter how he looks…It's not r-really important. . . but he was a very handsome little b-boy…always very handsome…and he was g-going to be married!"
I love Fleur's reaction--"What do you mean, 'WAS'?" She then delivers a smackdown that Molly and Ginny--who have been utter bitches toward her for the entire book--richly deserve:
"You thought I would not weesh to marry him? Or per'aps, you hoped?" said Fleur, her nostrils flaring. "What do I care how he looks? I am good-looking enough for both of us, I theenk! All these scars show is zat my husband is brave!
Go, Fleur!
It was genuinely nice to see one of the women of HBP behaving in a loyal and valiant manner. And I was delighted to see that Fleur had depths to her character, as well as moral strength. I was looking forward to a nice little Bill and Fleur scene. There would be sadness, yes, but there would also be love and acceptance. And that would be good.
Unfortunately, right after Molly offers Fleur an heirloom goblin-made tiara for the wedding--which I thought was an implied apology--and Molly and Fleur hug and make up, Tonks interrupts in a manner that I found jarring.
"You see!" said a strained voice. Tonks was glaring at Lupin. "She still wants to marry him, even though he's been bitten! She doesn't care!
My reaction to this was, "BZUH?? Where did this come from?" I still see nothing before this point that indicates that they were any more than colleagues in the Order.
If JKR wants this relationship to exist, and if it's going to be important in the last book, then she should have done some groundwork to establish overtly how each person felt about the other. And she did not do that. There's so little to indicate a mutual relationship in the book that devoted fans can and do argue whether it actually IS canon.
Oh, and ignoring the fact that Remus, a very private man, is stricken with grief and not at all in a mood for a relationship talk? Tacky, Tonks. Very tacky.
Here's a picture by nassima called "The Real Love Story is in the Background":
.
Remus--"looking suddenly tense"--points out--for the third time, mind you--that Bill won't be a full werewolf, as he is. The cases--and presumably the risks--are different.
"But I don't care either, I don't care!" said Tonks, seizing the front of Lupin's robes and shaking them. "I've told you a million times…"
I really got the impression here that she DOESN'T care--at least not about how Remus feels. This is all about her. She wants what she wants. What she wants is Remus. And she wants him NOW.
The whole "I don't care how you feel, and I want you now" attitude made me think of Veruca Salt from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. (The Gene Wilder version, not the one with Johnny Depp.)
Maybe she's actually Bella or Narcissa in disguise.
And the meaning of Tonks's Patronus and her mouse-colored hair, and the reason she had come running to find Dumbledore when she had heard a rumor someone had been attacked by Greyback, all suddenly became clear to Harry; it had not been Sinus that Tonks had fallen in love with after all.
I love how Rowling realizes that most non-shippers will not see signs of Remus/Tonks on their own, so she carefully points the signs out. Never mind that Tonks has other things, mentioned in this book and the last one, that could have been stressing her:
a. She's a very young and probably not very experienced Auror--she only qualified the year before OotP takes place (i.e., 1994), according to OotP.
b. She'd been hiding her Order affiliation from the Ministry for a year. Given Dumbledore's unpopularity with Cornelius Fudge (despite the fact that he asks Dumbledore for advice on occasion), the Order probably isn't very well liked either. Concealing who she is and what she's doing has to be stressful--especially as she might well lose her job if the wrong people find out.
c. She fought a battle against Death Eaters, one of whom was her aunt.
d. She was wounded in that battle.
e. She was subsequently hospitalized for a month. That probably means rehabilitation. You can't just lie on your back for a month and then walk out of a hospital. Even if you're an athlete and you're bedridden for a week, it's going to have an impact.
(Sorry. I'm a bit touchy on this subject, having spent from August until February in various hospitals and nursing homes, fighting to survive a staph infection and then having to learn to walk all over again.)
f. In the same battle in which she was wounded, Tonks' aunt killed Tonks' second cousin, Sirius.
g. Tonks survives, creating survivor guilt.
h. Within two weeks of that battle--while she is still in the hospital-- the war gets worse. (Bridges collapse and an entire town is destroyed by giants.)
i. Two witches--one of them a colleague in the Order--are brutally murdered. Ergo, more fear and more survivor guilt.
j Dementors have left Azkaban and are breeding, which means everyone in England is depressed, including Tonks.
k. She's one of the Aurors assigned to protect Harry Potter, which is stress in and of itself. After all, he IS the only one who can defeat the Dark Lord, and if anything happens to him...so, yeah. Nice low-pressure job, this one.
l. Harry goes missing on the train. (Granted, she finds him quickly, but that still had to be a moment of heart-stopping fear.)
m. She has to go undercover.
n. Her colleague in the Order, Remus, also has to go undercover and live with the monster who infected him with lycanthropy.
o. She's so depressed that her Metamorphmagic powers stop working, and her Patronus changes (from what to what, we're not told).
p. Dumbledore dies, killed by a fellow Order member.
I do think that she has enough to be stressed about. When I was reading the book for the first time, I didn't think of unrequited love at ALL.
Remus then tries to deflect Tonks:
"And I've told you a million times," said Lupin, refusing to meet her eyes, staring at the floor, "that I am too old for you, too poor…too dangerous…"
Without getting into shipping wars, Remus sounds patient here. Not affectionate.
Molly, who should really learn to mind her own business, tells Remus he's being ridiculous. Arthur agrees, saying that "…young and whole men do not necessarily remain so."
"This is... not the moment to discuss it," said Lupin, avoiding everybody's eyes as he looked around distractedly. "Dumbledore is dead. ..."
Remus: Hey, do you mind? I'm GRIEVING here!
(And speaking as someone who grew up in a household with a Scottish grandfather and Scottish-American parents, if I had gotten the response, "This is not the moment to discuss it," from any of them, I would have known instantly that the person speaking was embarrassed by my behavior, and was very likely quietly angry at me as well.)
Dumbledore is dead???? I had no idea. It's only been mentioned, oh, eight times now.
We then get an absolute ridiculous line from McGonagall:
"Dumbledore would have been happier than anybody to think that there was a little more love in the world," said Professor McGonagall curtly
Wow. And here I had the impression that the main focuses of Dumbledore's life were Hogwarts, Harry and the war against Voldemort, in ascending order. I never really figured him for a Mills & Boon kind of guy.
Hagrid shows up, and tells everyone that he's moved the Dumb One's body, that Flitwick is recovering, and that Slughorn has informed the Ministry of DD's death. McGonagall comes up with a line that annoys me:
"I shall have to see the Ministry when they get here.
What, the entire Ministry of Magic? The delegation from the Ministry, perhaps. Or the Minister of Magic. But not the whole monolithic bureaucracy!
McGonagall then takes Harry to the Headmaster's office to talk to him privately. She wants to know--not unnaturally--"what you and Professor Dumbledore were doing this evening when you left the school."
Harry, unaccountably, refuses.
It had been here, in this very room, that Dumbledore had told him that he was to confide the contents of their lessons to nobody but Ron and Hermione.
Granted, the Dumb One did tell him that. But the Dumb One is now dead. McGonagall is now Headmistress...and, very likely, the de facto head of the Order as well. Keeping the search for the Horcruxes secret--especially as the search won't BE secret for long--makes no sense to me. While this is supposed to indicate loyalty to Dumbledore, it looks irrational to me--particularly since keeping secrets worked SO well during the First War.
McGonagall, not surprisingly, is not pleased.
"Potter" - Harry registered the renewed use of his surname - "in the light of Professor Dumbledore's death,
Ninth mention of DD's death.
I think you must see that the situation has changed somewhat -"
Harry ignores the logic of that statement, however.
"I don't think so," said Harry, shrugging. "Professor Dumbledore never told me to stop following his orders if he died."
Well, most people could figure that one out on their own, Harry. And that's the tenth mention of Dumbledore's death.
Harry then offers some information that I think really should have been conveyed to someone before now:
Madam Rosmerta's under the Imperius Curse, she was helping Malfoy and the Death Eaters, that's how the necklace and the poisoned mead -"
Just as this is registering with McGonagall, in come Sprout, Flitwick and Slughorn, followed by Hagrid. Slughorn utters an unbelievable line:
"Snape!" ejaculated Slughorn, who looked the most shaken, pale and sweating. "Snape! I taught him! I thought I knew him!"
Shaken, pale, sweating and ejaculating. Indeed, the mere mention of Snape's name makes Slughorn ejaculate. This, after all the statements Dumbledore made about penetration, and the bit about Snape "pushing and thrusting" in the Hog's Head. Do you think JKR is a secret slash writer?
The Heads of House (and Slughorn, who isn't really Head of Slytherin House, but who is acting as Head now that Snape has flown the coop) discuss whether or not to close Hogwarts. Sprout wants the school to stay open, even if one child comes to Hogwarts. Slughorn doesn't think that Hogwarts is any more dangerous than anywhere else, but doubts if parents will see it that way. McGonagall says that Dumbledore was thinking of closing the school during the Chamber of Secrets mess, and she thinks that DD's murder is more disturbing than the Basilisk was--never mind that the Basilisk targeted far more people.
This is also the eleventh mention of Dumbledore's death.
Flitwick thinks that they should talk things over with the school governors, and not rush into a decision. Hagrid's willing to teach anyone who wants to learn, but he can't imagine Hogwarts without Dumbledore.
(Personally? I can. I mean, the school's been around for more than a thousand years. Dumbledore hasn't been Headmaster the entire time. He'd only been headmaster since 1971, when Remus and the other Marauders started school. And he wasn't going to be Headmaster for the rest of forever, either. Someday, everyone dies. I don't know why his death is such a frelling issue.)
And Hagrid's "Hogwarts without Dumbledore" line? Twelfth mention of Dumbledore's death.
McGonagall agrees with Flitwick--they'll consult the governors, who will make the final decision
"What about Dumbledore's funeral?" said Harry, speaking at last.
Thirteenth time. And since when are you a member of the Hogwarts staff, Harry? You're not even supposed to be here.
Professor McGonagall says that she knows it was Dumbledore's wish to be buried at Hogwarts--the fourteenth reference to his death--then says something so OOC that I almost fell off my chair:
"If the Ministry thinks it appropriate," said Professor McGonagall. "No other headmaster or headmistress has ever been -"
If the Ministry thinks it appropriate? Since when did McGonagall give a damn about politicians or bureaucrats, or their opinions about how Hogwarts should be run? In fact, I seem to recall her loathing both bureaucrat-turned-teacher Umbridge and the Ministry's new rules regarding the school. Who is this swooning, indecisive, insecure, Ministry-respecting witch? Percy in disguise?
Flitwick says that Hogwarts should be where DD is buried--the fifteenth direct reference to Dumbledore's death. Harry makes it sixteen by saying that the students shouldn't go home till after the funeral.
McGonagall then spots Scrimgeour on the grounds. Harry skedaddles back to Gryffindor Tower before he has to see, or be questioned by, Scrimgeour.
When he reaches Gryffindor Tower, the Fat Lady asks if it's true that Dumbledore is dead--the seventeenth reference. Harry says yes.
When Harry gets to the sixth-year boys' dorm, Ron is waiting to talk to Harry. He asks if Harry found a Horcrux. Harry says no--the real one was gone, and what they found was a fake.
The full story could wait…It did not matter tonight…nothing mattered except the end, the end of their pointless adventure, the end of Dumbledore's life…
Eighteenth time.
Ron, not unnaturally, wants to know who RAB is, or was. Harry has no idea.
He felt no curiosity at all about R.A.B.: He doubted that he would ever feel curious again.
Well, considering that you have to find a number of Horcruxes, Harry, that lack of curiosity is going be VERY helpful. Not.
Finally, he realizes that Fawkes isn't singing anymore.
And he knew, without knowing how he knew it, that the phoenix had gone, had left Hogwarts for good, just as Dumbledore had left the school, had left the world…had left Harry.
Nineteenth time. And don't you just love how, in the end, Harry is most concerned with the fact that Dumbledore left HIM? Not a single thought for the teachers, who knew him far better, or the other members of the Order, or, oh, I don't know, Albus Dumbledore's own brother.
Yes, a feeling of abandonment after someone dies makes sense…but I never got the feeling that Harry and Dumbledore were that close, emotionally. Certainly not as close as Harry and Sirius--and Harry got over Sirius's death in about two weeks.
We begin with Harry by the side of Dead Dumbledore, as Hagrid tries to persuade him to leave. YAY for really most sincerely dead Dumbledore! A death, I should note, that I had been praying for since Chapter 3.
He did not want to leave Dumbledore's side, he did not want to move anywhere.
Commas are not full stops, JKR. Try to remember this.
Harry doesn't move until someone else says "Come on," takes his hand and pulls him to his feet
Only as he walked blindly back through the crowd did he realize, from a trace of flowery scent on the air, that it was Ginny who was leading him back into the castle.
How nice that Harry, after seeing Dumbles die, is willing to walk off with the first person who pulls him to his feet. Never mind that he didn't know who he was walking with at first. Ginny could have been a Death Eater for all he knew.
Faces swam on the edges of Harry's vision, people were peering at him, whispering, wondering, and Gryffindor rubies glistened on the floor like drops of blood as they made their way toward the marble staircase.
So Gryffindor rubies (from the smashed hourglasses) are making their way toward the staircase--at least, according to the sentence structure. Sloppy, JKR. Very sloppy.
Harry doesn't want to go to the hospital wing, which is where they're headed. Ginny tells him that McGonagall wants everyone in the hospital wing.
Fear stirred in Harry's chest again: He had forgotten the inert figures he had left behind.
Nice to see that Harry's chest monster is also belatedly worried about the safety of others. (Or perhaps he has two monsters--one for lust and one for fear.)
Ginny then admits that the body that Draco stepped over was Bill, who had been attacked by Fenrir Greyback, and that Bill is alive…though not in good shape. She then gives us the roster of the other injured:
"Neville and Professor Flitwick are both hurt, but Madam Pomfrey says they'll be all right. And a Death Eater's dead, he got hit by a Killing Curse that huge blond one was firing off everywhere - Harry, if we hadn't had your Felix potion, I think we'd all have been killed, but everything seemed to just miss us -"
How convenient that the kids had the Felix Felicis potion this year. Of course, maybe they didn't need it. Harry, Ron, Hermione, Ginny, Neville and Luna fought the Death Eaters in the Department of Mysteries the year before--and none of them died. Logically, at least one of them should have. Five fifteen-year-olds and one fourteen-year-old should NOT have done as well as they did against eight fully trained adult Death Eaters.
Again, I think that this is Rowling doing retroactive patchwork. She knew that the fans would ask a ton of questions about more inexplicable luck on the part of those six, so she tried to make it explicable. The explanation is not particularly convincing.
They get to the infirmary. Neville's asleep; he doesn't participate in the hospital scene. Ron, Hermione, Luna, Tonks and Remus are clustered around Bill's bed. Bill, as Ginny warned, does not look good.
Harry looked over Hermione's shoulder and saw an unrecognizable face lying on Bill's pillow, so badly slashed and ripped that he looked grotesque.
Harry wants to know if Madam Pomfrey can't fix Bill's wounds with a spell.
"No charm will work on these," said Madam Pomfrey. "I've tried everything I know, but there is no cure for werewolf bites."
So you mean everyone who was bitten by a werewolf is walking around with unhealed wounds? God, that's practically an invitation to septicemia.
Ron wants to know if Bill's going to be a werewolf--after all, Greyback wasn't transformed when he bit Bill, and it wasn't the full moon.
"No, I don't think that Bill will be a true werewolf," said Lupin, "but that does not mean that there won't be some contamination. Those are cursed wounds. They are unlikely ever to heal fully, and - and Bill might have some wolfish characteristics from now on."
Rowling, in typical cavalier fashion, never explains what the wolfish characteristics are, nor does she use Lupin to do so.
From Wolf Song of Alaska:
But there are some distinctive phenotypic and behavioral characteristics that we look for when evaluating whether an animal is a wolf or wolf hybrid.
* …behavior is one of the biggest clues. Wolves are shy and avoid eye contact with humans other than their owner. They generally listen to and take commands only from their owner. They will leave the room or hide when a "new" person walks in.
So I guess that Bill is going to turn very shy now, and avoid looking at anyone except the human he perceives as the person in charge of him.
Ron thinks that Dumbledore might know how to fix what's wrong. Ginny--not Harry, surprisingly--blurts out that Dumbledore is dead. This is the first time we hear those words. It will not, unfortunately, be the last.
The fact that Dumbledore is dead is restated no less than nineteen times in this chapter. And the shock and horror of the survivors appears almost as often. It generally plays out like this…and this really isn't much of an exaggeration:
Harry: Dumbledore is dead.
Member of Hogwarts Staff and/or Member of the Order and/or Hogwarts Student: Inconceivable! How?
Harry: Snape killed him.
MHS/MO/HS: No, no, he's, uh...he's resting.
Harry: Now, look. I know a dead person when I see one, and I'm looking at one right now.
MHS/MO/HS: No, no he's not dead, he's, he's restin'! Remarkable wizard, that Albus Dumbledore!
Harry: It doesn't matter how remarkable he is. Or was. Because he's stone DEAD.
MHS/MO/HS: Nononono, no, no! 'E's sleeping! Sleeping at the base of the Astronomy Tower. Or maybe stunned. Old wizards stun easily, you know. Or maybe he's pining. Pining for the fjords!
Harry: He's not pining! He's passed on! Dumbledore is no more! He has ceased to be! He's expired and gone to meet his maker! He's a stiff! Bereft of life, he rests in peace! His metabolic processes are now history! He's off the twig! He's kicked the bucket, he's shuffled off his mortal coil, run down the curtain and joined the bleedin' choir invisible!! THIS IS AN EX-WIZARD!!
[/end Dead Parrot Sketch]
The thing is, I don't know why everyone has such a hard time believing that Dumbledore's dead. No one in the books has any trouble believing that Sirius is dead and gone, and Sirius didn't even leave a body. Dumbledore's corpse, on the other hand, is lying at the foot of the Astronomy Tower, if any of them would care to go look.
Not to mention that Dumbledore was well over one hundred and fifty years old, and even if he hadn't been killed…well, wizards don't live forever. Well, not unless they're willing to split their souls and turn into undead snake-man hybrids.
Frankly, I think that Rowling anticipated DD's death being a much bigger shock than it was.
"No!" Lupin looked wildly from Ginny to Harry, as though hoping the latter might contradict her, but when Harry did not, Lupin collapsed into a chair beside Bill's bed, his hands over his face. Harry had never seen Lupin lose control before; he felt as though he was intruding upon something private, indecent.
Some people have questioned Lupin's breaking down at Dumbledore's death. He didn't break down when Sirius was slain by the Deadly Drapery of DOOM--why would he break down now?
I disagree. I think it makes sense. Dumbledore, after all, did a lot for Remus:
1. He accepted little Remus into Hogwarts many years ago, despite Remus being a werewolf.
2. He allowed Remus to continue at Hogwarts after the Prank, possibly even going out on a limb to save Remus's life. If a wizard can get thrown into Azkaban for cursing someone with hives, what would be the probable fate of a young werewolf who narrowly escaped attacking, biting or killing a fellow student? I think that Dumbledore most likely saved Remus from Walden Macnair and his executioner's axe.
3. He gave Remus a place in the Order of the Phoenix. Do you get the feeling that there are many werewolves in the Order, or even supporting those fighting Voldemort? I don't.
4. He gave Remus a job. Few people seem willing to hire werewolves.
5. Judging by Remus's words to Harry over Christmas, Remus--a man who has had to face unpleasant realities since he was a small boy--trusted Dumbledore implicitly, without the slightest question.
Remus has just lost a man who allowed him to live as a wizard and not a beast, who didn't shrink from him because of his lycanthropy, who trusted him and treated him like a human being. He's lost a mentor, a colleague in the Order, a friend and very likely a father figure. A cornerstone of his life is now gone. I don't blame him for being upset.
Tonks wants to know how Dumbledore died.
Harry: Miss Scarlet in the library with a candlestick.
"Snape killed him," said Harry. "I was there, I saw it.
Second reaffirmation of Dumbledore's death.
We arrived back on the Astronomy Tower because that's where the Mark was...
Tonks, Lupin and Bill were supposedly fighting in this battle. I think they probably saw where the Mark was.
Dumbledore was ill, he was weak, but I think he realized it was a trap when we heard footsteps running up the stairs.
When people are running toward you and they aren't supposed to be there, that could be taken as a sign of a trap, yes.
He immobilized me, I couldn't do anything,
Harry: SEE? IT'S NOT MY FAULT!
I was under the Invisibility Cloak - and then Malfoy came through the door and disarmed him -"
Hermione claps her hands to her mouth at this. Somehow, Hermione never struck me as a "clap her hands to her mouth in crisis" kind of girl.
"- more Death Eaters arrived - and then Snape - and Snape did it. The Avada Kedavra." Harry couldn't go on.
Well, he doesn't actually HAVE to go on now, seeing that he's just reaffirmed Dumbledore's death for the third time.
Just by coincidence, the instant that Harry finishes rehashing the events from the previous two chapters, those in the infirmary notice that Fawkes is singing "a stricken lament of terrible beauty."
And Harry felt, as he had felt about phoenix song before, that the music was inside him, not without: It was his own grief turned magically to song that echoed across the grounds and through the castle windows.
Harry's grief doesn't come across to me. There is more actual sorrow in Lupin's one protesting word, "NO!" than in the repeated references in the narrative to Harry's grief. Once again, Rowling is telling, not showing.
Next, enter Minerva McGonagall, fresh from the battle. She asks Harry in a stammering fashion what took place:
"Harry, what happened? According to Hagrid you were with Professor Dumbledore when he - when it happened. He says Professor Snape was involved in some -"
We just covered this, Rowling. Like, three paragraphs ago. Paging the Department of Redundancy Department...
And where was she, anyway? Surely someone might have pointed the DEAD BODY lying outside rather than having her come to the infirmary.
"Snape killed Dumbledore," said Harry.
Fourth time. And wow, amazing sensitivity, Harry.
She stared at him for a moment, then swayed alarmingly; Madam Pomfrey, who seemed to have pulled herself together, ran forward, conjuring a chair from thin air, which she pushed under McGonagall.
I refuse to believe that Minerva McGonagall, who lived through the worldwide depression of the 'Thirties, the bombing of Britain and the Second World War, and who has, so far, fought two wars against Voldemort, would nearly swoon upon hearing three words.
Mind you, I don't object to her having an emotional reaction. I can see her face turning pale or becoming mask-like with shock; I can see her eyes widening, or her staring at Harry. I DON'T see her turning into "Oh, la, sir, I have the vapors."
As Minerva struggles--understandably, I think--to deal with the fact that one of her colleagues killed the other, Lupin says something very odd:
"Snape was a highly accomplished Occlumens," said Lupin, his voice uncharacteristically harsh. "We always knew that."
Uh...why would Lupin know that? I can understand Dumbledore knowing about Snape's abilities, and Harry obviously had to know in order to take Occlumency lessons. I can even see McGonagall knowing. But the whole Order knowing about Snape's ability to shield his mind from the probing of a Legilimens? Doesn't that seem like the kind of information that would render Snape instantly suspect, if Voldemort found out? And according to Lupin, the Order members always knew of Snape's skills…apparently even in the days of the First War.
The Order has nothing even vaguely approaching security, does it?
Tonks then protests that Dumbledore insisted that Snape was on their side. McGonagall says that Dumbledore hinted that he had good reason to trust Snape, but he never told her what it was. Harry sums it up briefly:
"Snape passed Voldemort the information that made Voldemort hunt down my mum and dad. Then Snape told Dumbledore he hadn't realized what he was doing, he was really sorry he'd done it, sorry that they were dead."
Does anyone else find it odd that no one in the Order knew why Death Eater Snape had changed sides, and that they all knew that he was an Occlumens, capable of concealing his thoughts and feelings from a Legilimens…but that they automatically trusted him anyway?
Minerva blames herself for Dumb and Dumber's death.
If I hadn't alerted Snape to what was going on, he might never have joined forces with the Death Eaters. I don't think he knew they were there before Filius told him, I don't think he knew they were coming."
This is illogical. If you believe that Snape is evil and has secretly been a Death Eater all along, he would have joined forces with the Death Eaters no matter what you did. And if you believe that Snape is a decent if unlikeable man who is playing a dangerous part as a double agent, then, again, he would have joined forces with the Death Eaters, simply to maintain his cover with Voldemort. Either way, this was inevitable.
And why Minerva McGonagall, the lioness of Gryffindor, would blame herself for the actions of another person, I have no idea.
Remus tells Minerva that it wasn't her fault. Harry, who couldn't care less about consoling anyone else, is far more interested in hearing more about Snape.
"So when he arrived at the fight, he joined in on the Death Eaters' side?" asked Harry, who wanted every detail of Snape's duplicity and infamy, feverishly collecting more reasons to hate him, to swear vengeance.
Because if it's all Snape's fault, then Harry can just ignore the fact that he force-fed Dumbledore the poison that was killing him even before Snape uttered Avada Kedavra. If Snape is guilty of murder, Harry, then so are you.
I wonder if that means that Harry now has a split soul?
We then get told what happened when Harry and the Dumb One were putzing about the cave. Minerva tells us that she, Remus, Bill and Tonks patrolled the corridors, and that there were enchantments on every entrance, so no one could have flown in. Harry tells her about the two Vanishing Cabinets and the Room of Requirement.
Ron, blaming himself for failure, chimes in, saying that he, Ginny and Neville were guarding the Room of Requirement, but Draco got past them anyway. Ginny says that he came out alone about an hour later, clutching a shriveled arm.
"His Hand of Glory," said Ron. "Gives light only to the holder, remember?"
Actually, no. That's not how the Hand of Glory works. It gives light to the holder, provided that the holder is a thief. That was Lucius's objection to Draco buying it, remember? He wanted his son to become something more than a thief.
Not only that, but a Hand of Glory puts all those asleep in the house in a sleep from which they cannot be awakened until the thief departs with the Hand, or until the light from the Hand is extinguished.
Ergo, if Draco was using a Hand of Glory, he would have had to be attempting to steal something, or the Hand wouldn't work. Moreover, since the other Death Eaters weren't holding it, wouldn't they have been as much in the dark as anyone else?
And there wouldn't have been a battle between the residents of Hogwarts and the Death Eaters--or at least not much of one. All the events of the past few chapters took place in the middle of the night, when almost all residents of Hogwarts were asleep, and the Hand would have kept the sleepers in enchanted slumber.
But Rowling disregards all this, because it doesn't fit her plot...never mind that it was her idea to use the Hand of Glory in the first place.
If it didn't work, she should have found another plot device, rather than grabbing hold of a legend that sounds really cool, and then dropping everything but the legend's name.
Draco threw Peruvian Instant Darkness Powder--purchased from Fred and George--into the air in order to escape. No spell would penetrate--there's that word again!--the darkness. (Perhaps Ron, Ginny and Neville should have cast magic missile at it.)
By the time that the three got out of that corridor and into a light one, Draco, and anonymous people they could hear passing, were gone.
Ron, Ginny and Neville ran into Minerva, Remus, Bill and Tonks next, and informed them of what had happened.
We
Presumably this refers to the adults and the kids as a single group.
found the Death Eaters minutes later, heading in the direction of the Astronomy Tower.
Coincidentally, Draco ran out of Darkness Powder at that point. The Death Eaters--never the most valiant of souls--first fought, and then fled. The one who set off the Dark Mark was killed by the wizarding equivalent of friendly fire.
Hermione, who was outside Snape's office with Luna, tells what happened when Flitwick came to ask Snape for help:
He was shouting about Death Eaters in the castle, I don't think he really registered that Luna and I were there at all, he just burst his way into Snape's office and we heard him saying that Snape had to go back with him and help and then we heard a loud thump and Snape came hurtling out of his room and he saw us and - and -"
Snape, thinking fast, told the two girls that Flitwick had "collapsed," and that they should take care of Flitwick while he, Snape, fought the Death Eaters. Hermione says that Snape must have Stupefied Flitwick, but the truth is, we never find out, one way or the other.
(What is with all of the swooning staff in this book? Dumbledore nearly collapses, Minerva nearly collapses, and Flitwick DOES collapse. To misquote Danny Glover, I think they're getting too old for this shit.)
Tonks continues the story, telling us that the good guys were losing a fight, for a change. The Death Eaters were far more ruthless than they had been in the Department of Mysteries. I suspect that this is a response by JKR to fan criticism.
Draco got up the stairs to the Astronomy Tower and was followed by a number of other Death Eaters, one of whom set up a magical barrier so that they couldn't be followed. Snape breached the barrier with no trouble, so presumably you'd need to be a Death Eater to get past.
Snape then came back down the stairs with Draco.
"We just let them pass," said Tonks in a hollow voice. "We thought they were being chased by the Death Eaters
Uh-huh. And you thought that Draco was just tossing Darkness Powder into the air in mid-battle for entertainment purposes? Why the hell did you think that Draco was in the company of Death Eaters without having a wand held to his head, you brain-dead troglodyte?
I swear, if the Order is as stupid as this, it doesn't deserve to win.
Harry then speculates morbidly:
Had they taken Dumbledore's body from the foot of the tower yet?
As we find out later, no.
What would happen to it next?
Probably burial. Well, unless someone wants to write a book entitled 101 Uses For a Dead Wizard.
Where would it rest?
Who CARES? It's a dead body. Can we get on with the story, please?
Enter the Weasleys and Fleur. As Mrs. Weasley kisses her disfigured son, Mr. Weasley asks what Ron asked earlier--how is the bite of an untransformed werewolf going to affect Bill?
Remus repeats that Bill has been "contaminated."
"It is an odd case, possibly unique…We don't know what his behavior might be like when he awakens…"
Oh, come on, Remus. Werewolves have been around for millennia in your world. You're going to tell me that Fenrir Greyback was the first one to ever bite someone when he wasn't transformed and it wasn't yet the full moon? What are the odds of that?
"And Dumbledore ..." said Mr. Weasley. "Minerva, is it true ... Is he really. . . ?"
As Professor McGonagall nodded,
Sixth time.
"Dumbledore gone," whispered Mr. Weasley, but Mrs. Weasley had eyes only for her eldest son; she began to sob, tears falling onto Bill's mutilated face.
Shame she's not a phoenix.
And that’s the seventh time that Dumbledore's demise is mentioned. I'm starting to feel bludgeoned by JKR's insistence that Dumbledore is dead, do you hear me, DEAD!
Given his odd and uncharacteristically vain behavior throughout this book, I'm beginning to wonder if the man who died was Dumbledore. Or at least, not Albus Dumbledore. Aberforth Dumbledore--whom we know resembled his brother, and who has always been a member of the Order--is looking awfully good as his brother's stand-in.
If it's revealed in Book 7 that JKR did this, I'm going to be enormously cross with her. That's cheating.
Molly, bless her, is more concerned with Bill than with Dumbledore.
"Of course, it doesn't matter how he looks…It's not r-really important. . . but he was a very handsome little b-boy…always very handsome…and he was g-going to be married!"
I love Fleur's reaction--"What do you mean, 'WAS'?" She then delivers a smackdown that Molly and Ginny--who have been utter bitches toward her for the entire book--richly deserve:
"You thought I would not weesh to marry him? Or per'aps, you hoped?" said Fleur, her nostrils flaring. "What do I care how he looks? I am good-looking enough for both of us, I theenk! All these scars show is zat my husband is brave!
Go, Fleur!
It was genuinely nice to see one of the women of HBP behaving in a loyal and valiant manner. And I was delighted to see that Fleur had depths to her character, as well as moral strength. I was looking forward to a nice little Bill and Fleur scene. There would be sadness, yes, but there would also be love and acceptance. And that would be good.
Unfortunately, right after Molly offers Fleur an heirloom goblin-made tiara for the wedding--which I thought was an implied apology--and Molly and Fleur hug and make up, Tonks interrupts in a manner that I found jarring.
"You see!" said a strained voice. Tonks was glaring at Lupin. "She still wants to marry him, even though he's been bitten! She doesn't care!
My reaction to this was, "BZUH?? Where did this come from?" I still see nothing before this point that indicates that they were any more than colleagues in the Order.
If JKR wants this relationship to exist, and if it's going to be important in the last book, then she should have done some groundwork to establish overtly how each person felt about the other. And she did not do that. There's so little to indicate a mutual relationship in the book that devoted fans can and do argue whether it actually IS canon.
Oh, and ignoring the fact that Remus, a very private man, is stricken with grief and not at all in a mood for a relationship talk? Tacky, Tonks. Very tacky.
Here's a picture by nassima called "The Real Love Story is in the Background":
.
Remus--"looking suddenly tense"--points out--for the third time, mind you--that Bill won't be a full werewolf, as he is. The cases--and presumably the risks--are different.
"But I don't care either, I don't care!" said Tonks, seizing the front of Lupin's robes and shaking them. "I've told you a million times…"
I really got the impression here that she DOESN'T care--at least not about how Remus feels. This is all about her. She wants what she wants. What she wants is Remus. And she wants him NOW.
The whole "I don't care how you feel, and I want you now" attitude made me think of Veruca Salt from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. (The Gene Wilder version, not the one with Johnny Depp.)
Maybe she's actually Bella or Narcissa in disguise.
And the meaning of Tonks's Patronus and her mouse-colored hair, and the reason she had come running to find Dumbledore when she had heard a rumor someone had been attacked by Greyback, all suddenly became clear to Harry; it had not been Sinus that Tonks had fallen in love with after all.
I love how Rowling realizes that most non-shippers will not see signs of Remus/Tonks on their own, so she carefully points the signs out. Never mind that Tonks has other things, mentioned in this book and the last one, that could have been stressing her:
a. She's a very young and probably not very experienced Auror--she only qualified the year before OotP takes place (i.e., 1994), according to OotP.
b. She'd been hiding her Order affiliation from the Ministry for a year. Given Dumbledore's unpopularity with Cornelius Fudge (despite the fact that he asks Dumbledore for advice on occasion), the Order probably isn't very well liked either. Concealing who she is and what she's doing has to be stressful--especially as she might well lose her job if the wrong people find out.
c. She fought a battle against Death Eaters, one of whom was her aunt.
d. She was wounded in that battle.
e. She was subsequently hospitalized for a month. That probably means rehabilitation. You can't just lie on your back for a month and then walk out of a hospital. Even if you're an athlete and you're bedridden for a week, it's going to have an impact.
(Sorry. I'm a bit touchy on this subject, having spent from August until February in various hospitals and nursing homes, fighting to survive a staph infection and then having to learn to walk all over again.)
f. In the same battle in which she was wounded, Tonks' aunt killed Tonks' second cousin, Sirius.
g. Tonks survives, creating survivor guilt.
h. Within two weeks of that battle--while she is still in the hospital-- the war gets worse. (Bridges collapse and an entire town is destroyed by giants.)
i. Two witches--one of them a colleague in the Order--are brutally murdered. Ergo, more fear and more survivor guilt.
j Dementors have left Azkaban and are breeding, which means everyone in England is depressed, including Tonks.
k. She's one of the Aurors assigned to protect Harry Potter, which is stress in and of itself. After all, he IS the only one who can defeat the Dark Lord, and if anything happens to him...so, yeah. Nice low-pressure job, this one.
l. Harry goes missing on the train. (Granted, she finds him quickly, but that still had to be a moment of heart-stopping fear.)
m. She has to go undercover.
n. Her colleague in the Order, Remus, also has to go undercover and live with the monster who infected him with lycanthropy.
o. She's so depressed that her Metamorphmagic powers stop working, and her Patronus changes (from what to what, we're not told).
p. Dumbledore dies, killed by a fellow Order member.
I do think that she has enough to be stressed about. When I was reading the book for the first time, I didn't think of unrequited love at ALL.
Remus then tries to deflect Tonks:
"And I've told you a million times," said Lupin, refusing to meet her eyes, staring at the floor, "that I am too old for you, too poor…too dangerous…"
Without getting into shipping wars, Remus sounds patient here. Not affectionate.
Molly, who should really learn to mind her own business, tells Remus he's being ridiculous. Arthur agrees, saying that "…young and whole men do not necessarily remain so."
"This is... not the moment to discuss it," said Lupin, avoiding everybody's eyes as he looked around distractedly. "Dumbledore is dead. ..."
Remus: Hey, do you mind? I'm GRIEVING here!
(And speaking as someone who grew up in a household with a Scottish grandfather and Scottish-American parents, if I had gotten the response, "This is not the moment to discuss it," from any of them, I would have known instantly that the person speaking was embarrassed by my behavior, and was very likely quietly angry at me as well.)
Dumbledore is dead???? I had no idea. It's only been mentioned, oh, eight times now.
We then get an absolute ridiculous line from McGonagall:
"Dumbledore would have been happier than anybody to think that there was a little more love in the world," said Professor McGonagall curtly
Wow. And here I had the impression that the main focuses of Dumbledore's life were Hogwarts, Harry and the war against Voldemort, in ascending order. I never really figured him for a Mills & Boon kind of guy.
Hagrid shows up, and tells everyone that he's moved the Dumb One's body, that Flitwick is recovering, and that Slughorn has informed the Ministry of DD's death. McGonagall comes up with a line that annoys me:
"I shall have to see the Ministry when they get here.
What, the entire Ministry of Magic? The delegation from the Ministry, perhaps. Or the Minister of Magic. But not the whole monolithic bureaucracy!
McGonagall then takes Harry to the Headmaster's office to talk to him privately. She wants to know--not unnaturally--"what you and Professor Dumbledore were doing this evening when you left the school."
Harry, unaccountably, refuses.
It had been here, in this very room, that Dumbledore had told him that he was to confide the contents of their lessons to nobody but Ron and Hermione.
Granted, the Dumb One did tell him that. But the Dumb One is now dead. McGonagall is now Headmistress...and, very likely, the de facto head of the Order as well. Keeping the search for the Horcruxes secret--especially as the search won't BE secret for long--makes no sense to me. While this is supposed to indicate loyalty to Dumbledore, it looks irrational to me--particularly since keeping secrets worked SO well during the First War.
McGonagall, not surprisingly, is not pleased.
"Potter" - Harry registered the renewed use of his surname - "in the light of Professor Dumbledore's death,
Ninth mention of DD's death.
I think you must see that the situation has changed somewhat -"
Harry ignores the logic of that statement, however.
"I don't think so," said Harry, shrugging. "Professor Dumbledore never told me to stop following his orders if he died."
Well, most people could figure that one out on their own, Harry. And that's the tenth mention of Dumbledore's death.
Harry then offers some information that I think really should have been conveyed to someone before now:
Madam Rosmerta's under the Imperius Curse, she was helping Malfoy and the Death Eaters, that's how the necklace and the poisoned mead -"
Just as this is registering with McGonagall, in come Sprout, Flitwick and Slughorn, followed by Hagrid. Slughorn utters an unbelievable line:
"Snape!" ejaculated Slughorn, who looked the most shaken, pale and sweating. "Snape! I taught him! I thought I knew him!"
Shaken, pale, sweating and ejaculating. Indeed, the mere mention of Snape's name makes Slughorn ejaculate. This, after all the statements Dumbledore made about penetration, and the bit about Snape "pushing and thrusting" in the Hog's Head. Do you think JKR is a secret slash writer?
The Heads of House (and Slughorn, who isn't really Head of Slytherin House, but who is acting as Head now that Snape has flown the coop) discuss whether or not to close Hogwarts. Sprout wants the school to stay open, even if one child comes to Hogwarts. Slughorn doesn't think that Hogwarts is any more dangerous than anywhere else, but doubts if parents will see it that way. McGonagall says that Dumbledore was thinking of closing the school during the Chamber of Secrets mess, and she thinks that DD's murder is more disturbing than the Basilisk was--never mind that the Basilisk targeted far more people.
This is also the eleventh mention of Dumbledore's death.
Flitwick thinks that they should talk things over with the school governors, and not rush into a decision. Hagrid's willing to teach anyone who wants to learn, but he can't imagine Hogwarts without Dumbledore.
(Personally? I can. I mean, the school's been around for more than a thousand years. Dumbledore hasn't been Headmaster the entire time. He'd only been headmaster since 1971, when Remus and the other Marauders started school. And he wasn't going to be Headmaster for the rest of forever, either. Someday, everyone dies. I don't know why his death is such a frelling issue.)
And Hagrid's "Hogwarts without Dumbledore" line? Twelfth mention of Dumbledore's death.
McGonagall agrees with Flitwick--they'll consult the governors, who will make the final decision
"What about Dumbledore's funeral?" said Harry, speaking at last.
Thirteenth time. And since when are you a member of the Hogwarts staff, Harry? You're not even supposed to be here.
Professor McGonagall says that she knows it was Dumbledore's wish to be buried at Hogwarts--the fourteenth reference to his death--then says something so OOC that I almost fell off my chair:
"If the Ministry thinks it appropriate," said Professor McGonagall. "No other headmaster or headmistress has ever been -"
If the Ministry thinks it appropriate? Since when did McGonagall give a damn about politicians or bureaucrats, or their opinions about how Hogwarts should be run? In fact, I seem to recall her loathing both bureaucrat-turned-teacher Umbridge and the Ministry's new rules regarding the school. Who is this swooning, indecisive, insecure, Ministry-respecting witch? Percy in disguise?
Flitwick says that Hogwarts should be where DD is buried--the fifteenth direct reference to Dumbledore's death. Harry makes it sixteen by saying that the students shouldn't go home till after the funeral.
McGonagall then spots Scrimgeour on the grounds. Harry skedaddles back to Gryffindor Tower before he has to see, or be questioned by, Scrimgeour.
When he reaches Gryffindor Tower, the Fat Lady asks if it's true that Dumbledore is dead--the seventeenth reference. Harry says yes.
When Harry gets to the sixth-year boys' dorm, Ron is waiting to talk to Harry. He asks if Harry found a Horcrux. Harry says no--the real one was gone, and what they found was a fake.
The full story could wait…It did not matter tonight…nothing mattered except the end, the end of their pointless adventure, the end of Dumbledore's life…
Eighteenth time.
Ron, not unnaturally, wants to know who RAB is, or was. Harry has no idea.
He felt no curiosity at all about R.A.B.: He doubted that he would ever feel curious again.
Well, considering that you have to find a number of Horcruxes, Harry, that lack of curiosity is going be VERY helpful. Not.
Finally, he realizes that Fawkes isn't singing anymore.
And he knew, without knowing how he knew it, that the phoenix had gone, had left Hogwarts for good, just as Dumbledore had left the school, had left the world…had left Harry.
Nineteenth time. And don't you just love how, in the end, Harry is most concerned with the fact that Dumbledore left HIM? Not a single thought for the teachers, who knew him far better, or the other members of the Order, or, oh, I don't know, Albus Dumbledore's own brother.
Yes, a feeling of abandonment after someone dies makes sense…but I never got the feeling that Harry and Dumbledore were that close, emotionally. Certainly not as close as Harry and Sirius--and Harry got over Sirius's death in about two weeks.