PoA Chapters 21-22 Summary (even better format)

[Penny & Bryce Linsenmayer]

No: HPFGUIDX 22225

Hi --

Great summary Naama!  PoA is my favorite (most days ... if forced to
choose a favorite that is) and these chapters are my favorites of PoA so
I can't resist adding in a few bits even though my time is short.

Jenny wrote:

> Chapter 21 is one of my favorite chapters in
> all the series.  I love Harry and Hermione working together as a team
> (as friends, mind you).
>
Ah, but see what a team they can make!!  They're great together ....
<sorry!  couldn't resist>

> [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?]

This is still one of the most moving & emotional moments in the entire
series as far as I'm concerned.  *If* the eventual PoA movie gets this
right, there indeed shouldn't be a dry eye in the house as they say.

> 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
"

Again, very moving.  I really felt that this book begins a shift in
emphasis towards Harry identifying & wanting to identify more with his
father.  Yet another reason why the changed wand order passage irks me.
[The rewrite, IMO, lacks emotional resonance since Harry hadn't been
thinking of his mum that night -- but he *had* been thinking about his
dad].

> 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].

This was my sig quote for a long time.  One of my favorite HP quotes
ever in fact.  I'm cutting & pasting what follows from an earlier
message (Mesage # 9496) that I did some time ago relating to the wand
order issue:  I think that Harry can be said to have a  more emotional
connection to his father.  After all, while he's affected  by the
sounds/memories of his mother's dying moments when the dementors draw
near, it was his first memory of his father's voice that reduced  him to
tears in PoA.  His patronus is his father's animagus form.  And, I think
it's his *father* and not his mother who figures most prominently in his
thoughts in times of danger *after* PoA.  He learned alot about his
father in PoA, and he's established a bond with 2 of his  father's
dearest friends.  And, there's no disputing that he was directly
thinking about James and not Lily that night of the 3rd Task  when
facing Voldemort.  I also think Harry is, at this point in his
adolescence, identifying more with his father (this seems natural to
me).  And, in listening to PoA tapes this morning in the car, I
remembered that it seems to be slurs against his father that enrage him
more than anything said about his mum (when Aunt Marge says James was a
wastrel and when Snape taunts him about his father).

Penny


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