Reflection on DH ( and its deaths, from a fan of Sirius, Remus and Tonks)

[pattiemgsybb]

No: HPFGUIDX 174276

Dana:

> When in OotP Sirius falls through the veil, it is not so much that he
> died (well it is but that is another point entirely ;o) but the way
> the aftermath of his death was handled. To me it was for one not
> totally clear from reading the text that yes he died (No explanation
> about the veil or even that falling through is indeed deathly) and
> secondly I found DD's aftermath speech tasteless.
<HUGE SNIP>



Hello Dana.
I also grieved for Sirius's death.  When you consider that the man had
lived through a nightmare for twelve years, had had only a tiny taste
of freedom before being (in effect) locked up once again and made
useless...it was a very painful death for me, as a reader, to live
through. I found the veil confusing -- I still don't understand the
stupid veil! Why on earth is there a tunnel straight to death in the
middle of an office, and couldn't they at least put a fence
around the thing? If we can put fences around swimming pools I think
we could do something around the Death Veil. And then, what made it
all even worse was that little bit where Sirius seems to be gloating
at Bellatrix at the end -- ie, he died because of his arrogance.
Well, if JKR wrote it, I have to accept that it's "HP Reality," but I
sure don't have to like it. And then, as you say, the man gets no sort
of remembrance at all, no memorial of any kind.  Plenty of people die
without leaving a body to bury and that doesn't mean there's no
funeral. Why did Sirius have to be the exception?

I take it JKR had to get Sirius out of the picture because Harry
needed to go on his quest alone.  So Sirius fell victim to the need of
the plot.  And apparently the Lupins had to die -- when they
weren't supposed to, initially --for similar reasons.  All of a sudden
JKR decides she wants to leave a second orphan, to remind people that
this is one effect of war (in case we forgot how Harry wound up
parentless) while at the same time taking the opportunity (via her
epilogue) to illustrate that orphans can have good lives (and I'm sure
the fact that their parents died an early death doesn't haunt them much).

The bizarre behavior of both Lupin and Tonks throughout DH -- Remus
particularly not remotely in character, and their partnership an
emblem of The Marriage That Should Never Have Been -- was supposedly
an opportunity for the author to drop a red herring re. Lupin's
loyalties. I certainly did wonder about Remus's behavior in DH but it
was more along the lines of "he seems about ready for some
long-term-care at the insane asylum" rather than any worries that he'd
deserted Harry's cause. And then, of course, the off-camera deaths.
Couldn't we at least have seen the kick-it Auror Tonks take out ONE
Death-Eater?  Why not let Lupin send Fenrir to the great beyond?
Nope.  They just die out of sight, out of hearing, out of any reality
of the battle.  It's as though JKR couldn't take the trouble to write
a real ending for them.

I do love many aspects of each novel, and in fact there were many
scenes in DH that I found quite moving or exciting -- but I hated the
treatment of Sirius in OotP and I hate the treatment of Remus and
Tonks in DH.

pattiemgsybb