CHAPTER DISCUSSION: Chapter 34, "The Department of Mysteries"

[Abbi Dorn]

No: HPFGUIDX 120207


Summary:

The chapter begins with Harry, Luna, and Neville getting on the thestrals, 
preparing to travel to the Ministry of Magic.  After a bit of confusion, 
Luna proceeds to help Ron, Hermione, and Ginny "mount" the thestrals before 
returning to her own thestral.  Harry tells his thestral to take them to the 
Ministry of Magic's visitors' entrance with uncertainty before the thestrals 
swiftly begin the trip.

When they land in London and are safely on the ground, Harry leads the 
others to the phone booth entrance.  When all are safely inside the booth, 
Ron dials 6-2-4-4-2 and Harry says to the automated voice that they are 
visiting to save someone.

After the group has their badges, which state their names and "Rescue 
Mission" the phone booth slides down to the Atrium level of the Ministry of 
Magic.  Harry already has his wand out and ready for any resistance they 
might encounter.  The group finds a deserted Atrium; even the person 
responsible for weighing all visitors wands is absent.

Harry leads the group to the lifts, in order to reach the ninth level, the 
same level as the door from his dreams.  Before Harry enters the door he 
suggests that not everyone should enter the Department.  This suggestion is 
met with dissent from Ginny, Neville, and Ron before Harry acquiesces and 
they all enter the Department of Mysteries.  Upon entering, Harry tells 
someone to shut the door, and instantly wishes he would not have done that, 
as the circular room begins to spin.

Once the room stops spinning, the first door that Harry tries opens into a 
room with brains suspended in liquid.  Ron notices the room has doors 
leading to other places, but Harry immediately dismisses the doors by using 
his dream as a reference.  After the group has left the "brain" room, but 
before Luna can close the door, Hermione marks the door with a magical "x" 
for future reference of what doors they had opened unsuccessfully.  The 
circular room spins again before stopping with one door emblazoned with a 
red "x".

The next door Harry chooses leads to a room with a sunken center, similar to 
the chambers that Harry encountered during his trial the previous summer.  
In the center of the bottom is a stone dais on which stands an ancient 
archway with a black curtain that flutters despite the complete stillness 
around it.  When Harry moves closer to investigate, Harry can hear voices 
coming from behind the curtain.  Harry, Neville, and Ginny are entranced by 
the veil.  Only Hermione seems to be afraid.  Hermione urges Harry away from 
the veil and succeeds only by mentioning Sirius.

The group enters the circular room for a third time to watch the room spin 
before trying another door. Unable to open the third door with pushing, 
"Alohomora," or the knife Sirius gave Harry (which melts), Hermione marks 
that door with a fiery "x" and the room spins again.  On their fourth try, 
they finally find the correct room.

Harry recognizes the room immediately and proceeds to lead the group to the 
door from his dreams, located behind the bell jar which encases the progress 
of an egg into a hummingbird and back again.  Upon entering the final room 
on their quest Harry sees shelves of glass orbs.  The first row Harry sees 
is number 53.  Hermione points the group to the right toward row 97, which 
Harry said was their destination.

Once the group reaches the correct row, Harry looks for but neither finds 
Sirius nor signs of Sirius's struggle.  Ron points out a glass orb labeled 
as "S.P.T. to A.P.W.B.D., Dark Lord, and (?) Harry Potter."  Despite 
Hermione and Neville's urging otherwise, Harry picks up the orb to find it 
warm to the touch.  Before Harry can further investigate the orb a voice 
stops the group with the following words, "Very good, Potter.  Now turn 
around, nice and slowly, and give that to me."

Questions:

1) Thestrals obviously understand human language since they were able to 
understand Harry's instructions.  Why is that?  Can most magical 
animal/beasts/beings understand the human language?

2)  Why didn't Harry and Neville help Ron, Hermione, and Ginny onto the 
thestrals?

3)  Why was Luna acting as if she had ridden a thestral before?  Is it from 
her natural demeanor or could she have previous experience riding a 
thestral?

4)  When riding the Thestrals to the Ministry of Magic, could the riders be 
seen?  Can only people who see thestrals normally be able to see the riders 
during flight?

5)  What happened to the thestrals after the group goes into the phone 
booth?  Do they have to be retrieved?

6)  Why doesn't the Ministry of Magic have an alarm go off when people enter 
after business hours?  What about security surrounding the Ministry?  What 
about their badges?  Shouldnt some alarm go off when the badges were made 
to say "Rescue Mission"?

7)  What happened to the person in charge of weighing the visitors wands?

8)  Is the Ministry of Magic really deserted after business hours?  What 
about aurors?  Shouldn't they work in shifts or be in and out of the 
Ministry at odd hours?

9)  Does the Ministry of Magic lack security on all levels?  Could the 
security have been removed by the Death Eaters?  If so, what could have been 
the security measures?

10)  What is the Ministry doing with Brains?  Is it purely for research on 
how the brain works or are the brains from famous witches and wizards?  Like 
the rumor that people have kept Einstein's brain in a jar because of his 
genius.

11)  What is the mystery behind the veil?  Where did the veil come from?  If 
the veil really is that dangerous, why not have the room locked?  Who are 
the voices?  Do different people hear different voices when they are close 
to the veil?

12)  Why is Hermione not affected by the veil like Harry and the others?  
She is almost hysterical when trying to pry Harry away from the veil.  What 
does she know or understand differently?

13)  Why won't Sirius's knife open the door to the locked room?  Is this the 
"love" room Dumbledore speaks of later in the book?  Why does Sirius's knife 
melt?  Can the blade be repaired?

14)  Seems there must be significance to the prophecy being in row 97, any 
ideas?  Could it be the year that the prophecy will come true?  What about 
row 53, is there significance that this was the first row seen by the group 
upon entering the hall of prophecy.

15)  When Harry doesn't find Sirius being tortured, he deals with his 
mistake by treating his friends horribly.  Is this a direct result of his 
up-bringing?

16)  Why was Neville hesitant when Harry reaches for the orb?  Does Harry 
take his friends intuition for granted?

17)  Why was the orb/prophecy warm?  Why were some of the orbs as dull and 
dark as blown out light bulbs while others glowed?

Amdorn

P.S. I wanted to give thanks to Penapart Elf for proof reading for me.