PoA Chapters 21-22 Summary (even better format)

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No: HPFGUIDX 22149

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 previous posts?

Thanks.

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Hi,

I've decided to put questions and comments within the text (in 
square brackets) and not as a list at the end. That's because I 
hate having to return to the relevant paragraph for each 
question. I hope you will find it convenient. My apologies if 
you don't.

All page numbers refer to the British edition.


Enjoy!


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Summary of Chapters 21&22

Chapter 21
================
(416-20) Harry, lying in the hospital bed, hears a 
conversation between Snape and Fudge. [C: This gives us the 
story from Snape's point of view.] He wakes up thoroughly 
and demands to see Dumbledore. M. Pomfrey tries to restrain 
him. He learns from her that Black is about to receive the 
Kiss. Harry & Hermione both try to convince Fudge that 
Black is innocent. M. Pomfrey tries to shut both sides up so 
she can minister to the patients.

(420-21) Dumbledore arrives and requests to speak to Harry 
and Hermione alone. Snape protests, fearing that Dumbledore 
believes Harry and Hermione's story regarding Black. M. 
Pomfrey protests on medical grounds. Snape: "Sirius Black 
showed he was capable of murder at the age of sixteen, You 
haven't forgotten that, Headmaster? You haven't forgotten 
that he once tried to kill me?" [Q: Had Black really meant to 
kill him then? It was a very dangerous prank, but was it 
cruelty on Black's part or thoughtlessness?]

(422-424) Dumbledore tells Harry and Hermione that he 
cannot help Black. Harry faces the fact that Dumbledore is 
not omnipotent with a sinking heart. Dumbledore then gives 
them instructions, or rather clues as to what they must do: 
- Need more time (Time-Turner)
- Sirius is locked in an office on the seventh floor, thirteenth 
window from the right of the West Tower (save him via 
window)
-  "If all goes well, you will be able to save more than one 
innocent life tonight." (save Buckbeak - innocent life - and 
use him to save Sirius). 
The one explicit instruction he gives them is that they must 
NOT be seen. Then he tells Hermione that "three turns should 
do it." He exits, telling them he is going to lock the door. [Q: 
Why tell it in clues? Great for the story and suspense 
building, but was it really reasonable when so much is at 
stake? What if they hadn't understood?]

(424-26) Hermione turns the Time-Turner three times. They 
find themselves three hours earlier, at the Entrance Hall. 
They hide in the broom closet and Hermione explains to 
Harry that they had gone back in time. They hear their earlier 
selves leave the building (on the way to visit Hagrid). 
Hermione explains about the Time-Turner, resolving the 
mystery of her double/triple lessons. 

(426-7) Still in the broom closet, they puzzle out what they're 
supposed to do - free Buckbeak, fly him to where Sirius is 
locked up and free Sirius[Q: What's wrong with a 
broomstick? Why did they need Buckbeak?] 

(427-9) They start on their way and arrive at Hagrid's (from 
the forest side), unseen. They move closer to the pumpkin 
patch  where Buckbeak is tethered but realize that the 
Committee members must see Buckbeak first, or they'll think 
that Hagrid had released him. From their vantage point they 
see and hear their earlier selves arrive, Hagrid greeting them, 
the milk jug crashing and Hermione's shriek when she finds 
Scabbers. Harry suggests that they go in and grab Scabbers-
Pettigrew. Hermione explains why they must not be seen by 
themselves, and the horrific consequences of changing time. 

(429-33) They see Fudge, Macnair, Dumbledore and the old 
Committee member walking towards the hut. The earlier 
Harry, Hermione and Ron leave under the invisibility cloak, 
exchanging a few words with Hagrid. 
Macnair sees Buckbeak from the back window. Harry runs to 
Buckbeak, frees a reluctant Buckbeak and leads him to the 
forest. [C: For me, the most suspenseful moment in the book. 
Q (very nitpicky): Buckbeak is described as "tied to the fence 
around Hagrid's pumpkin patch." When Harry goes to free 
him, he "vaulted the fence into the pumpkin patch and 
approached Buckbeak". From this it would seem that 
Buckbeak is inside the patch. But - how did Harry then get 
him over the fence? Harry is described as simply leading him 
several steps into the forest - from which it would seem that 
Buckbeak was tied to the fence on the outside of the pumpkin 
patch. In or out?] They just manage to get out of sight before 
the delegation comes out and sees that Buckbeak is gone.  
[C: Two interpretations of what happened - Hagrid's howl 
which they thought was grief, they now know is joy. This 
whole scene is a beautiful depiction of the same scene from a 
different vantage point and with this comes a very different 
understanding of what really happens[

(433-7) Now comes a long scene where Harry and Hermione 
hide in the forest and see the events they had participated in - 
Ron running after Scabbers, Sirius dragging him into the 
secret passage, themselves entering after them. They see 
Lupin entering the hole. [Q: "Harry looked up at the sky. 
Clouds were obscuring the moon completely." (435) SO 
WHAT? The question we have written ourselves hoarse on - 
why didn't Lupin transform before? Surely the 
transformation isn't dependent on being hit directly by the 
beams of the moon, or else why hadn't Lupin simply stayed 
in a closed room at the time of the full moon to prevent 
transformation?] Harry suggests they grab the cloak before 
Snape arrives. Hermione remonstrates, reminding him that 
they mustn't be seen. And indeed within seconds Hagrid  
walks by (happily inebriated). Then Snape arrives and enters 
the passage too. "So that's it. We're all down there... and 
now we've just got to wait until we come back up again
"

(437-9) Hermione asks Harry how the Dementors were driven 
away, and Harry tells her of the mysterious  Patronus that 
saved them. When pressed, he tells her that the person who 
sent the Patronus seemed like his father.
 
(439-40) They see their earlier selves and the others exit the 
Whomping Willow and walk towards the school. Harry 
suddenly realizes that they must move away, because Lupin, 
as a werewolf, was about to run straight at them. They return 
to Hagrid's hut on the double. 

(441-3) Harry goes outside to see what's happening. He feels 
that he must see who had sent the Patronus, see his father. He 
arrives at the lake bank but nobody is there. Meanwhile, the 
Dementors are gathering around his earlier self, Hermione 
and Sirius. The Dementor lowers his hood and is about to 
administer the Kiss and still nobody appears. Then it hits him 
- it was himself he had seen. He pulls his wand out and 
conjures the Patronus. When the Patronus gallops back to 
him, Harry sees that it is a stag. "Slowly, it bowed its 
antlered head. And Harry realised... 'Prongs,' he whispered." 
[Q: Is there some rule as to what shape a Patronus takes? If 
so, what is the rule? What can we conclude about it from 
Harry's Patronus? Did anybody read this bit without tears in 
her/his eyes?]

(443-4) Hermione comes rushing along. Harry explains to her 
what had just happened and she is extremely impressed: "you 
conjured up a Patronus that drove away all those Dementors! 
That's very, very advanced magic...". (443) Harry explains 
that this time he could do it because he knew he had already 
done it. [Q: Why, though? This point has always rather 
confused me. A "single, very happy memory" is not the same 
as self-confidence, is it?] They see Snape revive and return to 
the castle with their unconscious forms.

(444-7) They wait until they see Macnair leave the castle to 
call the Dementors (which means that everything had been 
sorted out and Sirius is locked up). They fly on Buckbeak to 
the room Dumbledore had carefully described. Hermione 
opens the window with the Alohomora spell. Sirius climbs 
out and onto Buckbeak. They fly to the top of the West 
Tower and send Sirius off. His last words are: "You are - 
truly your father's son, Harry
"

Chapter 22
(448-50) Harry and Hermione now run for it. They need to 
reach the hospital room before they had left it (so that nobody 
will know they had gone). On their way, they hear Snape and 
Fudge. Snape is eager for Sirius to receive the Kiss.  
[Q: Why?? How can he hate him so much as to want him to 
receive the Kiss? Is it reasonable for a boy's grudge to be 
taken to such an extreme?] Then they have to hide from 
Peeves. They arrive at the hospital wing just as Dumbledore 
is about to lock the door. They get inside and he locks them 
in.

(450-3) M. Pomfrey returns and starts feeding them 
chocolate. A roar at the distance tells them that Sirius' escape 
has been discovered. Fudge, Snape and Dumbledore burst 
into the room. "Snape was beside himself", accusing Harry of 
helping Sirius escape, shouting and screaming. Fudge is 
shocked by this display of temper and irrationality (as he sees 
it; we know that Snape is actually right). Dumbledore 
explains that Snape had "just suffered a severe 
disappointment".  Fudge holds forth on his own let down. He 
professes himself shocked at the Dementors' attempt to 
administer the Kiss to an innocent boy. 

(453-5) Next morning, all three sit by the lake talking of what 
had happened. Hagrid joins them and they pretend to be 
surprised when he tells them that Buckbeak had escaped. 
They learn from him, with real surprise, that Lupin is leaving. 
Moreover, it seems that everybody now knows that he is a 
werewolf, since Snape had "let it slip." [Q: If werewolves are 
only dangerous at the time of the full moon, why are people 
afraid of them all the time? I can understand the fear when 
you don't know who the werewolf is, but when you know 
who he is, it should be easy to take precautions against him, 
no? Doesn't it remind you of another prejudice against a 
different disease?]

(455-8) Harry goes to Lupin, to try and persuade him to stay. 
Lupin insists that he must leave. He gives Harry the 
Invisibility Cloak back and also, with some hesitation, the 
Marauder's Map. Dumbledore arrives to say farewell. Lupin 
seems to want to say goodbye and leave as quickly as 
possible. [C: how is he feeling now, returning to a life where 
no one is willing to hire him? Where no one will trust him? 
Does he have a family? Friends who can help?]

(458-60) The requisite Harry-Dumbledore clarification 
conversation then takes place. Harry feels discouraged that 
with all their efforts Pettigrew had managed to escape. 
Dumbledore tells him he had "made all the difference in the 
world" by saving an innocent man. Harry then remembers 
Professor Trelawney's prediction and tells it to Dumbledore, 
who seems "mildly impressed." He tells Harry that this 
"brings her total of real predictions up to two." [Q: What was 
the first?!?!?!?] In the face of Harry's blaming himself for not 
allowing Sirius and Lupin to kill Pettigrew, Dumbledore 
maintains his ends-do-not-justify-means ethical stance and 
tells Harry that he "did a very noble thing, in saving 
Pettigrew's life." He also hints that good will come out of it 
("... the time may come when you will be very glad that you 
saved Pettigrew's life."). [Q: In what way will this happen? Is 
the bond that Dumbledore refers to a magical bond or a moral 
bond?] He also tells him that from his knowledge of Harry's 
father, James would also have saved Pettigrew. Harry tells 
him how he had thought he had seen his father conjure the 
Patronus and adds that he had been stupid to think so. 
Dumbledore points out that Harry's Patronus has the shape 
of a stag and concludes "So you did see you father last night, 
Harry ... you found him inside yourself." [Not a question, but 
an invitation to discuss the extremely important father-son 
motif in the book].

(460-3) End of term. Nobody knows what really happened, 
except for the troika and Dumbledore. Malfoy is furious 
about Buckbeak [C: is there a book that doesn't end with 
Malfoy being foiled?]. Harry is unhappy about Professor 
Lupin leaving and worried over Professor Trelawney's 
prediction. He wonders what Pettigrew is doing. He is most 
unhappy, though, about returning to the Dursleys. It is 
particularly galling because he had believed "for a glorious 
half hour" that he was rid of them for good, and going to live 
with Sirius, the next best thing to a parent.

(463-8) The drive home. Hermione tells them that she had 
given up Muggle Studies, which means she doesn't have to 
use the Time-Turner any more. Harry cheers up when Ron 
invites him to stay during the vacation and see the Quidditch 
World Cup. Some time later, a small owl appears outside 
their carriage window. When pulled in, it drops a letter from 
Sirius, which also contains a signed permission to visit 
Hogsmeade. In the letter Sirius says that he is safe and that it 
was him who sent the Firebolt. He adds that Ron may keep 
the little owl. Harry is made very happy by the signed 
permission.[C: More by feeling cared for than by the 
permission itself, maybe?] Ron holds the owl for 
Crookshanks to OK. They arrive at King's Cross. Harry, on 
being asked, tells Uncle Vernon that the letter he is holding is 
from his godfather, who is a convicted murderer on the run. 
>From the look of horror on Vernon's face, it seems that Harry 
is going to have "a much better summer than the last."