This message is a Special Notice for all members of http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups In addition to being published onlist (available in webview), this post is also being delivered offlist (to email in-boxes) to those whose "Message Delivery" is set to "Special Notices." If this is problematic or if you have any questions, contact the List Elves at (minus that extra space) HPforGrownups-owner @yahoogroups.com NOTE: This ChapDisc is the work of Lizzyben. SSSusan only posted it for her. ----------------------------------------------------------- Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows CHAPDISC: Chapter 13, The Muggle-born Registration Commission Harry, Hermione and Ron have infiltrated the Ministry, using Polyjuice Potion to impersonate Ministry wizards. Ron ("Mr. Catterpole") is called off the lift to fix Yaxley's office, which has been subject to a downpour of rain all day. Suddenly, Dolores Umbridge enters the lift, discussing her commission work. She orders Hermione ("Mafalda") to accompany her down to the courtroom to assist in the interrogations for that day. Harry gets off on the eighth floor, puts on the Invisibility Cloak, and begins to look for Umbridge's office. As he searches the long hallways, he comes across a wide area in which numerous witches and wizards are producing pamphlets. Harry glances at one pamphlet and reads the title: "Mudbloods and the Danger They Pose to a Peaceful Pureblood Society." As the wizards work, one witch casually wonders whether the "old hag" will be interrogating Muggle-borns all day. Harry follows her gaze, and sees that an eye had been set into the large front door of one office. Harry realizes that this is Mad-Eye Moody's eye, and he is overcome with anger. He strides toward the office door and reads the plaque proclaiming that the office is that of Dolores Umbridge, Head of the Muggle-born Registration Commission. In order to enter the office, Harry creates a distraction by setting off a "Decoy Detonator" nearby. During the commotion, Harry slips into Umbridge's office. He notices that Moody's eye is connected to a telescope that enables Umbridge to spy on her workers, and he wrenches the telescope out of the door and pockets the eye. He begins to search the office for the locket, and comes across a surveillance folder on Arthur Weasley, and yet another copy of Rita Skeeter's smash biography of Albus Dumbledore. Harry picks up the book, and spots a picture inside of a laughing Dumbledore and Grindewald. As Harry is skimming the book, the door opens, and Pius Thicknesse enters the office. Harry quickly puts back on the Cloak and backs out of the office. Harry decides they have little chance of getting the locket now, since Umbridge apparently didn't hide the locket in her office, and wouldn't tell them where she did have it. Instead, he decides that he should focus on finding Hermione and Ron, and escaping the Ministry before they are all discovered. He gets back on the lift to retrieve Ron from the second floor. As soon as the lift stops at the second floor, Ron enters it. Before the two can properly communicate, Mr. Weasley also enters the lift at the next stop. Mr. Weasley doesn't recognize Harry or Ron, believing that Harry is Runcorn, and Ron is Mr. Catterpole. Mr. Weasley chats with Ron, and suggests spells that could stop the downpour in Yaxley's office. At the next stop, Ron follows another Ministry wizard to the raining office, and Percy Weasley gets on the lift. There is an awkward silence until Percy quickly leaves the lift at the next stop. When Mr. Weasley and Harry are alone, Mr. Weasley challenges Harry for giving information up on a Muggle-born wizard. Harry attempts to warn Mr. Weasley that he is also being tracked by the Commission. Harry decides to get Hermione from the courtroom first while Ron is occupied. Finally, Harry arrives at the dungeon level, where the Commission is holding its interrogations of Muggle-born wizards. As he approaches the courtrooms, he feels a sudden sense of despair and hopelessness, and realizes that Dementors are nearby. When he turns into the passage, he sees that the passage is full of Muggle-born wizards who have been brought in for interrogation, while Dementor guards patrol the hallways. The courtroom doors burst open, as a man inside screams that he is really a half-blood; to no avail, as Umbridge orders the Dementors to take him away. Umbridge next calls Mary Cattermole in for questioning, and as Mrs. Cattermole passes him, Harry is struck by the fear and revulsion on the woman's face. Instinctively, he follows her to the courtroom so that she would not have to walk into the interrogation alone. In the courtroom, he sees many more Dementors, and a platform on which the Commission members sit during the questioning. Hermione, Yaxley and Umbridge are seated there, as Umbridge's cat patronus strolls across the platform to protect the interrogators from the effects of the Dementors. Harry moves to the platform and quietly lets Hermione know that he is there. As Umbridge begins the questioning, Mrs. Cattermole begins to cry. Umbridge tells her that her wand has been seized, and demands to know which wizard she stole the wand from. Mrs. Cattermole responds that the wand was her own, which she had bought when she was eleven years old. As Umbridge leans forward, a locket around her neck swings out and dangles in the air. Harry spots the Slytherin locket that he has been searching for. Hermione spots it as well, and asks Umbridge about the locket. Umbridge claims that the locket was a Selwyn family heirloom, one of many pure-blood families that she is related to. This lie angers Harry so much that he raises his wand under the Invisibility Cloak, and stupefies Umbridge. Umbridge falls to the floor, and her patronus disappears. Before Yaxley can draw his own wand, Harry stupefies him as well. Now without restraint, a Dementor approaches Mrs. Cattermole and grabs her chin to administer a Dementor's Kiss. Harry shouts out the incantation to create his own stag patronus, and the stag leaps toward the Dementor, causing it to withdraw. Harry and Hermione release Mrs. Cattermole, and then Hermione creates a patronus of her own to accompany the stag patronus. Together, they leave the courtroom into the passageway. The patrolling Dementors all disappear, driven away by the patronuses. Harry tells the waiting Muggleborn wizards that they are all free to leave, and tells them that they should go into hiding with their families. He asks them to follow him towards the Atrium, where they can apparate out of the Ministry. As they all approach the lift, the lift doors open, and Ron walks out. He tells Harry that the Ministry was tipped off about intruders when they discovered the hole in Umbridge's office door. The group gets onto the lift, which takes them up into the Atrium. When they enter the Atrium, Harry sees that Ministry wizards have already begun sealing all the fireplace exits. He decides to try to use Rumpole's authority to order a wizard to allow the group of Muggle-borns to leave the Ministry. At first the balding wizard protests, but when Harry threatens to examine the wizard's family tree, he relents and allows the group of Muggle-borns to exit through the fireplaces. Suddenly the real Mr. Cattermole rushes up to Mrs. Cattermole, calling her name. She looks from him to Ron in confusion, as do the other wizards. Before anyone can figure out what is going on, Yaxley runs out of the lift, yelling at the wizards to seal the exits. The balding wizard lifts his wand, and Harry punches him and sends him flying into the air. Still impersonating Rumpole, he tells Yaxley that the balding wizard had been helping Muggle-borns to escape, and the wizards rise in an uproar. In the chaos, Ron grabs Mrs. Cattermole, and they disappear into a fireplace. Harry and Hermione also rush into a fireplace, narrowly avoiding a curse that Yaxley sends over their heads. They spin up the fireplace into the bathroom, closely followed by Yaxley. Harry grabs Ron and Hermione, and the three apparate out. They are engulfed in darkness, and Harry realizes that something has gone wrong with the apparition; he can't breathe, and he feels Hermione's hand slipping out of his grasp. For a moment, Harry glimpses the door of Grimmwauld Place, but then he hears a scream and sees a flash of purple light, and everything is dark again. Questions for discussion: 1. What do you think of the Trio's plan to infiltrate the Ministry? Was it well-planned, or could they have approached things a different way? 2. Numerous characters mention that Yaxley's office has been jinxed to create a downpour. Could this be a sign of low-level sabotage against Death Eaters within the Ministry? 3. Harry impersonates Albert Runcorn, a character whom we never actually meet. Based on other character's reactions to him, what kind of person do you believe Runcorn is? Do you believe he is a Death Eater? 4. Ron impersonates a Ministry official with a Muggle-born wife, Hermione a woman who assists Umbridge in the interrogation of Muggle- borns, and Harry a high-ranking Ministry official. Is there any thematic or character significance to the identities that they take on? 5. How in the world did Dolores Umbridge get Moody's eye? 6. Harry takes a number of impulsive actions in this chapter: taking Moody's eye, stupefying Umbridge, and helping the group of Muggle- borns to escape. These actions create both negative consequences (tipping off the Ministry), and also positive consequences (freeing the Muggle-born wizards). Do you believe that Harry's actions were rash, or were his actions justified? 7. The Ministry is producing propaganda pamphlets against Muggle- borns, registering all wizards with Muggle-born blood, interrogating Muggle-born wizards, and imprisoning Muggle-borns in Azkaban. Do you believe that this is meant to be an analogy to the treatment of Jews in Nazi Germany? Or is it a general analogy to bigotry and prejudice against minority groups? 8. Umbridge accuses Mrs. Cattermole of taking another wizard's wand, and the Ministry propaganda accuses Muggle-borns of "stealing" magic from pure-blood wizards. What does this mean? Does the Ministry believe that Muggle-borns are literally stealing wands; or that Muggle-borns steal magic by their very existence in the wizarding world? How could this propaganda succeed when all wizards had seen Muggle-born wizards perform magic on their own at Hogwarts? Do you believe that the Ministry propaganda has convinced the wizards, or are they simply too intimidated to contradict the Ministry? 9. In this chapter, the Ministry's "courtrooms" are used to terrorize and intimidate the powerless. What is the novel's view of the legal system? What does JKR seem to be saying about law versus instinct as a basis for morality? Lizzyben ------------------------------------------------------------- NOTE: For more information on HPfGU's chapter discussions, please see "HPfGU DH Chapter Discussions" at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/database Next chapdisc, Chapter 14, The Thief - February 18, 2008