Chapter 9: A Place to Hide.

[elanor_x]

 

* To remind the readers where we are, the previous chapter ended with the lynx's warning – "The Ministry has fallen. Scrimgeour is dead. They are coming". Remember the first sentence when we will be told later that V lies low to prevent people from knowing he has taken over the Ministry.

* Harry sees "cloaked and masked figures appearing in the crowd" and Lupin & Tonks casting "Protego!", "a cry that was echoed on all sides-". During my first reading of the book, I totally expected the DEs' arrival to have consequences. I mean, it didn't get the Trio out of the house, since they would have left shortly after the wedding anyway. It didn't hurt Weasleys, since Ginny goes to school and Arthur – to work as usual. It didn't make them find Harry; saying "Voldemort" did that. I suppose the DEs came to make book more exciting, but they only disappointed me in the end.

* Do you know how JKR could put this invasion to good use?  By making them kill Lupin. Any method, sparing me from the tedious L&T subplot (especially this horrible scene, in which Harry teaches Lupin how to be a good husband and father), is good enough. True, it would be a somewhat pointless death, but they died in the final battle off-screen anyway.
 

* Did anybody else except me get the feeling during the first 5 chapters that JKR tried to cram too many exciting scenes (deaths, near escapes, etc)? I even started losing the sense of excitement from such abundance of it.
 

* Btw, why are those DEs masked? Doesn't everybody know not only how they look like, but also their biographies at this point? Has it become psychological imperative by now after years of practicing? I bet they keep up tradition of calling each other by real names while masked too, like they did in OoTF at the MoM. "-Go and check that Weasley boy, Avery. – I don't want to get Spattergroit, Nott. Lets make Jugson do it."

* After finding Ron Hermione takes them to Tottenham Court Road. Not being English, I had to look in Wikipedia to find out that this is a significant shopping street in Central London. The funny thing is that neither Harry nor Ron seem to have any clue about it either.
 

* "a group of merry pub-goers ogled them as they passed; Harry and Ron were still wearing dress robes."

(Checking in the dictionary) Ogle - to look at someone with obvious sexual interest.

LoL. It reminded me again of Harry laughing at the ridiculousness of Dudley's uniform in PS.

* Harry inwardly curses his stupidity for not having the Invisibility Cloak with him: "All last year I kept it on me and-". Since he doesn't add "All last year I kept it on me, while non-effectively spying on Malfoy, except that time, when DEs invaded Hogwarts and the Cloak could have been really useful", I am not impressed.

* Atomic Grenade is now officially canon (the way Hero’s Death Battle Exemption was made by the lucky potion in HBP):

"- You’re telling me that whatever was in that little purse blew up that entire building?! She must have been carrying an Atomic Grenade!

- Don't know what 'atomic' means, but her Undetectable Extension Charm sure was effective, putting 5 tons of dynamite in an innocently looking small beaded handbag is tricky".
 

 * I understand that this charm is a useful plot device, but Hermione's behavior strikes me as… strange/controlling (don't know how to say it exactly). She has "had the essentials packed for days" and never considered asking the boys what they want to be packed and they didn't pay attention to their possessions disappearing. Really?

* Ron says that the Order members will "look after everyone", but judging by DEs' behavior the best thing the Order members could do was to follow in the Trio's footsteps and quickly disappear, thus enabling DEs to see the disguised ghoul and leave the house quicker.

* Do you know why HP world is truly magical? Not because of flying pigs or spells or even Dumbledore not being seduced by power, as was proposed in one pre-DH editorial. Witness the real evidence: The "drunkest of the men" (!) starts yelling at Hermione "Fancy a drink? Ditch ginger (me: even drunkards understand R/Hr is the way to go!) and come and have a pint!" Wow, that's some obscenities! Almost on a par with Malfoy telling Ron his house stinks or Slytherins singing "Weasley is our king" at a football Quidditch match.
 

* Ron offers to visit the Leaky Cauldron and check what's going on, and, surprisingly, it's Hermione, not Harry, who pronounces V's name – "Voldemort's taken over the Ministry, what else do we need to know?", hence bringing DEs on their heads. (Don't worry, Harry will have a chance to do it later).

* Almost instantly afterwards a pair of "burly workmen entered the café". What? So, do DEs view Muggles as subhuman, contemptible creatures and at the same time wear Muggle clothes? And, unlike Arthur, know how to put them right? I guess Voldemort sent them to a basic espionage training camp, led by Charity Burbage, before killing her in the first chapter. Or JKR never paid attention to being consistent about clothes. (Remember Tom Riddle visiting Hepzibah "plainly dressed in a black suit"? Yes, he promoted his Muggle ancestors that much.)

* "The larger of the two workmen, who was blond and quite huge, now that Harry came to look at him, waved her away."

During my first read, immediately after reading the words "blond and quite huge", I recalled the huge blond DE from HBP. Not a mean feat, many HP fans have probably had the same reaction. Our hero, however, has no idea who this alien man is despite being the one, who has seen him couple of months ago in not so ordinary situation. That Harry is looking straight at him, is on the run and has just escaped DEs is like a cherry on top of the cake.
 

* I suppose Hermione had to have her back to the entrance to prevent her from recognizing the men too soon. Ron is good for nothing as usual.

* Wow, Ron really is dissed by the author. Harry mirrored the workmen's movements (drawing their wands) 'without conscious thought' and cast his first spell, while still invisible, only after Ron pushed Hermione sideways. Despite that it was Ron, who was "a few seconds late in realizing what was going on".
 

* The Trio immobilizes the DEs (with Harry accidentally stunning the waitress along the way). 'Trembling-all-over' Hermione slashes open the knee of Ron's jeans, leaving a deep cut, while trying to sever ropes because of her shaking hand.  A bit later she asks how DEs found them "a little hysterically". "Somehow her panic seemed to clear Harry's head". May be it's nitpicking, but it reminded me of Maya's essay about the portrayal of men & women in HP (does anybody have a link?). Hermione-the-girl is the one, who takes care of the boys' clothes and loses her head in tight situations. Or am I asking for too much since both Harry & Ron have their failings?

* Harry recognized the huge blond DE at last and Ron even identified him as Dolohov. Phew, there is still some hope left for our heroes then.
 

* Ron's questioning whether they should kill the DEs makes Hermione take a step backward, shuddering, but Harry decides to wipe their memories instead, since "it'll throw them off the scent. If we killed them, it'd be obvious we were here". Um, why? Because of the bodies? Harry is probably as terrified as Hermione at the idea of killing and searches for any excuse to avoid it (right?), but didn't we see Barty Crouch turning his father's corpse into a bone in GoF? Ron reacts with profound relief, so we know he didn't really find killing attractive either.
 

* Hermione obliviates the DEs and Harry tells Ron to help him clear up, since the DEs "might wonder what's happened if they wake up and find themselves in a place that looks like it's just been bombed". Of course, they might, Harry. On the other hand, if they wake up and find themselves in an unfamiliar Muggle café with no clue how they got there (Obliviate makes people forget things, not plants alternative memory, as I know), they will think they have just had a memory lapse, which almost everyone has from time to time, and naively go on their way. Yay!

* The plan becomes even better, if you consider the possibility of those DEs warning others before entering (as they did from what I have understood). The Trio should have left the place as soon as possible, not wasting time to clear up, as if waiting for other DEs or even V to pop in.

* Hermione "dragged the waitress out of sight of the windows". Ouch! The mental image is creepy. In fanon the waitress would have been levitated by now.

* Exploitation Filmmakers’ Credo/(The opposite of Harry's) Light Bulb Moment (?): 
"Come on, these DEs literally can’t remember what they saw five minutes ago! They will guess they came in for a cup of coffee." 

* After cleaning up our heroes stay a bit more, trying to decide where to go and wondering how they were found.  Ron feels sure Harry hasn't got the Trace on him since it breaks at 17 and he hasn't been near a DE in the last 24 hours. Actually Harry has been near legions of DEs less than an hour ago at the wedding. Probably Ron means that Harry hasn't been recognized by any DE during this day.

* In the end they decide to hide in Grimmauld Place since out of DEs only Snape is liable to enter it. Besides, Harry swears he'd "like nothing better than to meet Snape". First, I too would like nothing better than to see Harry meeting Snape before the end of the book, albeit for a different reason. Second, I can't help wondering what Harry remembers of his 'duel' with the man last year. Would he like nothing better than meeting V too? (Doesn't seem like that to me.) Because imo meeting Snape, if he wanted them dead, would have for the Trio the same consequences as meeting V himself.

* They arrive at Grimmauld Place, which looks "just as Harry remembered it: eerie, cobwebbed, the outlines of the house-elf heads on the wall throwing odd shadows up the staircase". Both in the fifth book and in OoTF movie (which was wonderful, I wrote a bit about things I liked here) the portrayal of this house stroke a chord with me. Revolutionizing Sirius's (and other Blacks') house of despair into Harry's house of mirth felt fake, as if I was reading fanfic, which even if not being objectively bad still left me completely cold. 

* Thinking about Moody's traps for Snape:

(1) How effective were they in practice? We know that almost all wizards, let alone somebody as gifted as Snape, are pretty good at wandless magic, so Tongue-Tying Curse wouldn't have stopped him. As for Dumbledore's gray, "horribly familiar, dreadfully altered" corpse-figure rising out of the carpet, I really liked the idea since the mental image is scary and it brought to mind post-HBP fandom theories about Harry's parents (or other loved ones) ending up as Inferi. The only disadvantage was that I couldn't imagine what that figure would do, except making Snape inhale it & die from choking (well, unlike Inferi it didn't have bones). Poor Snape just can't get an exciting death in this canon.

(2) Were they not attacked only due to Harry saying they weren't Snape or could the defenses identify whom they needed themselves? Seems like second, otherwise Snape could say "I didn't kill you" (in a way he didn't, D was the one, who killed himself by touching this stone and speeding the process with the green potion) and enter the house without problems.
 

* I still think Mike's idea for the a trap was the best: "Maybe Mad-Eye could have left out a bowl full of peeled grapes, so if Snape put his hand in it without looking he'd think it was full of eyeballs. Then he'd run away so fast he'd tear a hole in the wall shaped like his body." (If somebody is still unfamiliar with mike_smith's recaps, you can see the one of this chapter here) 
 

* Harry's scar starts hurting again and he feels V's fury "pound through his body, violent and brief as an electric shock". I am probably very in the wrong here, but this description almost made me pity V. I mean, the man is his own worst enemy on so many levels and urgently needs sedatives with no chance to get them. Everybody, who has ever complained about Harry being a towering pillar of rage and pissyness in OoTF, should read one HP book, written from Canon!V's point of view. I bet after that experience our hero would seem the most good-natured man in the world.

* Ron is horrified at the thought that Harry feels V's rage, while he is at the Burrow, torturing his relatives, which is likely at this point. Thankfully, Mr. Weasley's Patronus arrives and tells the family is safe.
 

* The chapter ends with Harry watching V forcing Draco crusio Rowle. Interesting that V threatens him with "shall we end it and feed you to Nagini?", the way he did to Pettigrew in GoF. Is it a favorite threat of his, or what?

Comments

[baeraad.livejournal.com]

My view on Hermione may not stand in the face of the evidence, I admit... ^_^; I guess I just assume that "smart = strong and independent" without really thinking about it.

[ivy-chan.livejournal.com]

I'd like to point out here that someone can be strong and independent and still cry easily. It's proof of strongly emotional people, not necessarily delicate and weak ones.