Week 24: Deathly Hallows, Ch. 16 - 22

That's fucking weird, Harry.

Hm.

Minister? Not Auror?

Evidence Horcruxes detect others. This never really gets brought up again, does it?

...How? It's mentioned that otherwise she only talks in Parseltongue.

Hardcore. Also, Hermione broke Harry's wand. She's got two settings in this book: plot device in Harry's favour and plot device not in Harry's favour.

A lot of fanfic writers seem to miss this.

Magical disturbance? Interesting.

Of course it's less than warm, you're the most wanted man in Britain barging in on this poor bloke you don't even know well.

I see this is one of the original fairy tales, not the Disney version.

A) it just hit me this is the wizarding equivalent of the "random discredited academic with fringe theory is proven to be correct";
B) it isn't impenetrable though. Moody & Dumbledore looked through it no problem.

Interesting enough. I actually looked these up.
The witches born in May (as sourced from here: http://members.madasafish.com/~cj_whitehound/Fanfic/birthdates.htm) are Pomona Sprout and Victoire Weasley. Not particularly notable.
Wands made of cider are never mentioned again, not in even in Olivander's notes. JKR presumably hadn't finalized her notes on wandlore yet.

Because of Nurmengard's protective enchantments, presumably?

Subtle.
The nicknames are pretty obvious. Remus is Romulus because of the myth, Kingsley is Royal.

Harry you idiot. You were just told about the Taboo. Why'd you then immediately break it?

 

Because Rowling wanted to get them to Malfoy Manor, of course.

[FONT=&quot]Well, at least Rowling acknowledges her terrible plots.[/FONT]​

[FONT=&quot]You hear that, St. Mungo's healers who tried very hard to find a cure when Arthur Weasley was bitten by Nagini? All you need to do is clean the wound and apply the most common wound sealer. Brought to you by the Brightest Witch Of Her Age[/FONT][FONT=&quot]™[/FONT][FONT=&quot].[/FONT]​

[FONT=&quot]Could've just sent an owl.[/FONT]​

[FONT=&quot]Now that's just being a dick. Or passive aggressive.[/FONT]​

[FONT=&quot]I know that Rowling/her team of shadow writers probably didn't put much thought behind it, but I wonder what that skull-shaped object could have been.[/FONT]​

 

Chapter 16: Godric's Hollow

1. Harry is being kind of an asshole here (possibly due to still wearing the Horcrux?), and it would have been good to have seen that in the film rather than the stupid dance scene.
2. Harry is perfectly capable of casting the protective spells, even if Hermione normally does it. Good to know.

Lol. Yeah right.

You mean when you repeatedly said they didn't have to, that they'd be in danger, and they insisted because they're your friends? Yeah, you're a real bastard. Also, lampshade hanging is all well and good, but meandering is certainly right, and pointless is arguably so.

Reasonable.

The worst of their worries other than being close to the Ministry and Diagon Alley, two the four most prominent (indeed, essentially only fully) magical locations in the series? Right ho.

:facepalm. WHY AREN'T THEY DOING THIS ALL THE TIME?

See above, at least after they realised what a negative effect it was having on them. At least you can handwave that as the Horcrux manipulating them somehow.

Interesting. That implies that some Muggle families knew about their magical neighbours, even after the Statute was enforced.

Precisely how long does this last, once brewed? Hermione stole some of Mad-Eye's stash, a good six months ago, and there's been no suggestion that they've brewed anymore, certainly since they started camping - and practically, that would be impossible, given the length of time it takes and their constant movement. Crouch Jr needed to raid Snape's office for ingredients back in GoF, suggesting that he needed to remake it at least once during the school year.

Chapter 17: Bathilda's Secret

But doesn't say anything about the weird hissing noise that startled her, because fuck logic.

Fair play, this whole section is legitimately creepy and awesome.

He is at least politer about it than Voldemort was.

Chapter 18: The Life and Lies of Albus Dumbledore

In fairness to her, despite her usual spitefulness, she's not far wrong with a lot of what she says.

And you've not done anything you're ashamed of in the last couple of years, Harry? Hell, in the last few months?

Chapter 19: The Silver Doe

Oh hey, someone owning up to his mistakes. Weird.

Oh hey, Harmionians. Also, oh hey, writers of the film (I hadn't realised until I reread this how much the film annoyed me).

Chapter 20: Xenophilius Lovegood

"We ran all over the country doing fuck all for about a month, then had one good meal, and then Godric's Hollow, which we've already given you the gist of. That's literally it, so you didn't miss a massive amount, mate."

This is at least subtler than the usual wand gags.

Chapter 21: The Tale of the Three Brothers

The implication being that he lived his entire life under it. Weird.

Again, fair's fair - this bit is pretty badass. DH does at least have some cool setpieces, whatever its other flaws are.

Chapter 22: The Deathly Hallows

That there weren't clear instructions or plans has literally been the biggest complaint you and Ron have had. Also, there's a nice irony in the fact that for the first time, Harry's on the right path, and the others don't believe him.

 

Oh it's not the first time. Already forgot the Malfoy ordeal in HBP?

 

True, but I was thinking specifically of during the camping trip.