Could 2nd Task be Replayed in Book 7? Was DD testing something? (LONG)

[laurawkids]

No: HPFGUIDX 156027

I am rereading GOF for the first time after being exposed to RedHen, 
Mugglenet editorials and this group, and having just read 
D'Aulaires' Book of Greek Myths to my boys.  

So ideas are jumping out of the pages here.  Bear with me.  

Many have spoken of the hero journey as a possible part of book 7.  
In your minds, is that based on Orpheus, Heracles or Jason?  Or all 
of them?

Orpheus is at his own wedding and his bride is bitten by a SNAKE.  
He goes down to the underworld and, with his beautiful singing, 
subdues Fluffy/Cerberus.  He is allowed to lead Euridice back, but 
blows it by looking back.  

Now to GOF. (all citations are from the American paperback edition)

p486 :  "Harry, just go down to the lake tomorrow, right, stick your 
head in, yell at the merpeople to give back whatever they've nicked, 
and see if they chuck it out."  says Ron.

Some have proposed that this would be a way to get rid of a scar 
horcrux.  Have them chunk it out of his head for him.  Or maybe 
someone else has stumbled through the veil, or maybe he is looking 
for DD by sticking his head in.  Then R and H would be planning to 
pull him back through.  But what if there is a redo of the battle in 
that room and they let him slip in?  Harry could emerge from the 
veil to this:

"The crowd in the stands was making a great deal of noise; shouting 
and screaming, they all seemed to be on their feet; Harry had the 
impression they thought that Ron and the little girl might be dead, 
but they were wrong...both of them had opened their eyes."  p. 502 
Am.pb GOF

-There are stands in the veil room, Harry would be scanning to see 
if anyone was down, and the people Harry is bringing out maybe were 
dead, or everyone thought so.  

Some thoughts from the actual task:

-Ron, Hermione, Cho and Gabrielle are put into a bewitched sleep.
They don't seem to really be breathing.  "All four of them appeared 
to be in a very deep sleep.  Their heads were lolling onto their 
shoulders, and fine streams of bubbles kept issuing from their 
mouths."  p. 498   Note that a fine stream coming out in the air 
would be hard to detect.  Or is the fine stream like the trickle of 
blood? 

DD appeared to be just in  deep sleep except for his limbs looking 
akimbo or broken when Harry sees him after his fall.  He could have 
been testing this bewitched sleep effect at the task to see if 
people thought they looked dead, or he could have just noticed the 
effect and used it later.  (Yes, I really think DD and Snape faked 
the whole DD death thing)


-Harry takes something that makes him half fish (adapting to the new 
place and breathing a new way) and half human (still able to reason 
and do magic). Moaning Myrtle makes a big to do about breathing:  

"Tactless  [snip] Talking about breathing in front of me!... .  When 
I can't...when I haven't...not for ages..." p. 465

So, just like gillyweed that makes you breathe a different way, but 
still be ok, Draught of the Living Death (DoLD) would make you not 
breathe, but still be alive.  This Draught could be what Harry takes 
to get him through the veil and back again without dieing.  In the 
movie Neville is uncertain how well the gillyweed will work.  The 
trio could be similarly doubtful of the DoLD.  Neville also says in 
the movie, "I killed Harry Potter!!" and does not see him come out 
and flip.  This could be replayed.  

(((((Can anyone but LV even kill Harry?)))))

-The people seem to be sleeping, but others think they look dead. 

Again: 
"Harry had the impression they thought that Ron and the little girl 
might be dead, but they were wrong...both of them had opened their 
eyes."  p. 502 Am.pb GOF

If he wanted to be more like Orpheus, let's have him take the flute 
Hagrid gave him and tame Cerberus with it. 

He could be treated to a maze/labyrinth as a task inside the veil, 
thus replaying the 3rd task.  

He emerges from the lake with someone he did not go in to get whose 
name begins with a G.  Does he come out of the veil with Ginny as an 
extra prize?  Or even Sirius?  But JKR said he was dead and gone, 
right?

 

-Harry is mistaken in the 2nd task that the people will be lost to 
the lake.  The merpeople laugh at him because they know the truth. 

Let's say Harry still thinks DD is dead at this point (but DD is 
just still hiding), and tries the veil trip to seek some knowledge 
from DD.  The dead are like the merpeople (grayish skin, broken 
yellow teeth, leering at Harry)  and they know more than let on 
about DD.  Like that he is not there.  But they are not 
communicating well enough for him to know this.  They think Harry's 
seriousness is funny.  



-Harry threatens the merpeople with his superior powers and gets to 
free more than his fair share but it is obvious to all that it is a 
mark of great "moral fiber" and love.  The merpeople are proud.

Being alive would give him some authority with the dead, as would 
his noble intentions.  But, also, Orpheus does not have to be tough, 
he just has to sway them with the beauty of his music and love.  
Could Pheonix song help?  Fawkes can die and go into the veil and 
come out again.  

Harry going to the MoM to rescue DD from death could cause Fawkes to 
send for DD to come out of hiding, just like Sirius in OotP.  

So that is my mixed up idea:  there will be a trip through the veil 
which mirrors the 2nd task in a great many ways, and pulls all sorts 
of myth into it.  


Laurawkids who has a hard time doing anything when the toddler is 
getting into things and being mad at big Sis.