CHAPDISC: HBP30, The White Tomb

[a_svirn]

No: HPFGUIDX 165702

Here  it is – the last chapter. Many thanks to SSSusan for her 
suggestions! 

CHAPTER DISCUSSIONS: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Chapter 
30, The White Tomb
 
 
In the aftermath of the disaster the adults are trying to achieve 
some measure of damage control. Lessons are being suspended and 
examinations postponed. A number of parents anxious to get their 
children out of the harm's way are removing them from the school. The 
Patil twins and Zacharias Smith go quietly; Seamus Finnigan digs his 
heels in and stays for the funeral. 
 
Even as some of the students are clearing out, a number of official 
persons starts to trickle in. M-me Maxime causes a mild sensation 
among the younger students by appearing in the carriage pulled by a 
team of giant winged horses. Hagrid greets her with an affectionate 
embrace. A group of  Ministry representatives including Scrimgeour 
and Percy arrives and gets accommodated within the castle. Harry, not 
being anxious to account for Dumbledore's (as well as his own) 
movements on the fatal night, steers clear of them.
 
The Trio plus Ginny hang out together; Harry knows he has to discuss 
something important with Ginny, yet he puts the talk off and gets 
increasingly uneasy about it. They visit the infirmary twice a day; 
Neville has been discharged, but Bill is still in Madam Pomfrey`s 
care. His face is badly disfigured, and he has acquired a taste for 
rare steaks. Fleur is constantly fussing over him, and Ginny seems to 
finally accept their imminent marriage. 
 
Each of the gang tries to cope with the shock in their characteristic 
ways. Harry broods; at the moment he is unable to summon enthusiasm 
enough to pursue the matter of Horcruxes. Ron affects – 
unconvincingly – a pose of flippant aloofness, and Hermione 
researches away in the library. So far her attempts to identify 
R.A.B. have yielded no results, but she has found out about Eileen 
Prince's being Snape's mother. 
 
Harry finds this bit of information to be all of a piece with 
everything else he knows and hates about Snape. He sees it as proof 
positive that Snape's followed Voldemort`s road: renounced his muggle 
father and muggle heritage, tried to make up for the lack of purity 
by inventing a sham title. Harry resents Dumbledore for not seeing 
the obvious, and still more himself for succumbing to the Prince's 
attraction. 
 
The question of the Prince leads to the question of the book. Ron 
wonders why Snape didn't expose Harry as a cheat. Hermione suggests 
that by exposing Harry, Snape would have disclosed the identity of 
the Prince, which would have been damaging for his own reputation. 
Harry castigates hims elf for not showing the book to Dumbledore – 
surely that would have demonstrated Snape's evil nature beyond doubt. 
Hermione objects to the word "evil;" when challenged, however, she 
says she merely thinks that Harry is being too hard on himself. It is 
impossible, she claims, to judge just how evil the Prince is with 
only the samples of his "nasty sense of humour" to go by. Ron affirms 
that no one could have possibly believed the worst about Snape. 
 
Finally the day of the funeral arrives. The narrator brings our 
attention to the fact that, although Harry has seen death before, 
this is the first funeral he's ever attended. He does not know what 
to expect and it worries him. He wonders whether this new experience 
will make him accept the finality of Dumbledore`s death.
 
Everyone comes down for breakfast in their dress robes. The general 
mood is subdued; no one seems to be hungry.  Hagrid is absent, his 
chair is unoccupied. Scrimgeour sits in Snape`s place, and Harry 
studiously avoids making any eye contact with him. Having noticed 
Percy among the Ministry crowd, Ron becomes seriously annoyed. 
 
Harry spots Crabbe and Goyle at the Slytherin table, looking "oddly 
lonely without the tall, pale figure of Malfoy between them." He 
spares Draco a fleeting thought, wondering what has become of him, 
and what else Voldemort is forcing him to do. Although on the whole 
Harry still disapproves of Draco, he, nevertheless, does not believe 
that Malfoy would have killed Dumbledore. 
 
With the breakfast finished, the heads of the houses lead their 
charges down to the lake where everything is ready for the ceremony. 
Prof. Sprout is uncharacteristically clean; Slughorn is resplendent 
in a robe of Slytherin green; Madame Pince in a "thick black veil 
falling down to her knees" stands next to Filch clad in "an ancient 
black suit and tie reeking of mothballs." 
 
It is a beautiful summer day. Down at the lake hundreds of chairs 
have been arranged in rows facing a big marble table. Quite a few of 
the chairs are already occupied; it seems like the entire wizarding 
community has congregated here to pay their last respects to 
Dumbledore: members of the Order of the Phoenix; the bass player of 
the Weird Sisters; M-me Malkin; the publican of the Hog's Head; and 
many others, only known to Harry by sight. Bill is supported by 
Fleur, Lupin holds hands with the no-longer-depressed Tonks. The 
castle ghosts, barely visible in the sunlight, also attend.
 
People continue to file in. Harry catches a sight of Neville and Luna 
in the crowd and feels a "great rush of affection" towards them. He 
sympathises with their being outsiders. He also spots a miserable 
looking Fudge and then, to his great indignation, Rita Skeeter with 
her notebook at the ready and Dolores Umbridge wearing an 
unconvincingly grave expression. The latter is genuinely startled at 
the sight of Firenze.
 
Finally everyone is settled down and "strange otherworldly music" 
sounds. Harry can't find its source at first. Others also seem 
bewildered and a little alarmed. Ginny nudges him and points to the 
lake, where a chorus of the merpeople sings the anthem for 
Dumbledore. Harry is shaken by their singing: it conveys sorrow and 
the sense of loss matching his own. He is convinced that, unlike some 
of the humans present, the merpeople at least are genuinely mourning 
for Dumbledore. 
 
At this point Hagrid appears with the body of Dumbledore. Everyone is 
shocked to see him dead, the girls cry. Hagrid places the body on the 
table and sits next to Grawp, his giant half-brother (the latter 
looking more civilized than Harry remembers him). 
 
A "little tufty-haired man in plain black robes" takes over 
proceedings and launches into a long speech about 
Dumbledore`s "nobility of spirit", "greatness of heart" 
and "intellectual contribution." Harry's mind wanders, and he 
remembers Dumbledore`s own disdain for such formality. The merpeople, 
however, resurface once again in order to listen. The centaurs also 
come to pay their respects. 
 
For some time Harry thinks idly about such things as where Dumbledore 
did learned Mermish, and suddenly he is crushed by the enormity of 
his loss. He thinks about all those who died for him and decides then 
and there that he must not allow anyone else to come between him and 
Voldemort. 
 
Finally the boring speech is over. Harry waits for someone else, 
probably the Minister himself to take the floor, as the funeral 
suddenly reaches its climax. To the shock and surprise of many, the 
body and the table combust into "bright white flames" that spiral 
into the sky, arranging themselves into strange shapes. Harry thinks 
he can see a Phoenix before the flames vanish. Then there is a white 
tomb where the body and the table have been.
 
The centaurs fire a salute of arrows and melt into the Forest; the 
merpeople sink back into the lake. The ceremony is over. Harry looks 
at Ginny and notices that she's got her "hard blazing look" again. 
Even as he steels himself to the difficult talk, he knows that Ginny 
will understand.
 
Indeed, when he informs her that their romantic relationship is over, 
she does not protest. Harry explains that since any girlfriend of his 
will be at risk, they ought to stop seeing each other. Ginny 
disapproves but complies with his wishes. However, she avers that she 
has always loved him (although she doesn't actually use the word) and 
implies that she always will.
 
At last Rufus Srimgeour succeeds in waylaying Harry. He tries to pump 
Harry for information about Dumbledore's last mission. Harry is, as 
always, uncooperative and rather brusque in his manner. Scrimgeour 
lets it slip that one of the death eaters was stupefied on the Tower. 
He tries to bargain with Harry, offering him Aurors for protection. 
Harry turns him down flat. He asks again about the fate of Stan 
Shunpike, which annoys Scrimgeour greatly. The conversation ends with 
Harry reminding him that he's "Dumbledore's man through and through."
 
The Trio now discuss their immediate plans. Ron and Hermione are 
afraid that Hogwarts may be closed. Harry informs them about his 
decision. He is not coming back next year. He stays at his uncle's 
until he turns seventeen and then he'll be heading to Godric`s Hollow 
to start his Horcrux-quest. Alone. 
 
To his surprise Ron and Hermione are having none of it. They are 
going to share every adventure with Harry. Ron also reminds him about 
Fleur and Bill's wedding, and says that before embarking on their 
horcrux-hunt they should attend it. The idea cheers Harry up he feels 
much better at the thought that "there is still one last golden day 
of peace left to enjoy with Ron and Hermione."

Questions:
 
1.	Do you find the Patil Twins' and Seamus' parents' attitude 
reasonable or overprotective? Although the school has been penetrated 
by death eaters there is no mention of extra security measures taken 
or Aurors posted. Do you suppose there weren't any? 
2.	What do you think of Bill's part-transformation? Do you find 
it sinister? 
3.	What do you make of Harry's mood at the beginning of the 
chapter? Is his apathy a way to cope with the shock of Dumbledore's 
death, or was he damaged irrevocably in some ways? 
4.	It has been discussed extensively, but still. Is Harry right 
in thinking that Snape followed the same pattern as Voldemort? Does 
proclaiming oneself a Half-Blood Prince mean renouncing one's muggle 
heritage? 
5.	Do you agree with Hermione that Snape held his peace about 
the book only because by exposing Harry he would inevitably expose 
himself? 
6.	Why does Hermione object to the word "evil"? Incidentally, 
the words she actually uses can be at best described as 
understatements – "nasty sense of humour" indeed! Why is she being so 
guarded? 
7.	Here is another thing that has been much discussed but should 
to be addressed again. The chapter is about a funeral, but what kind 
of funeral is this? A Christian funeral? A secular one? Something 
else? The "little man in black robes" may or may not be a minister or 
a priest – Rowling's description of him seems deliberately 
ambivalent. It is as though she wants us to wonder about the status 
of religion in the Potterverse, and is never going to enlighten us on 
the subject. Now, why is that? 
8.	We are specifically told that this is the first funeral Harry 
has ever attended. Can we judge of the death rites in the Potterverse 
by this ceremony? Since Hagrid wanted to bury Aragog in order give 
him "a proper send-off", one can assume that for Hagrid, at least, 
burial is the proper way of disposition of the dead. Do wizards 
usually bury their dead or do they usually cremate them?  
9.	Did the funeral go as planned? Some, at least, of the 
onlookers were genuinely shocked when Dumbledore's body combusted. 
And another thing, did it ignite all by itself, or did somebody set 
fire to it? 
10.	This has been discussed a lot, but must be asked again here. 
What about that white smoke taking the shape of a phoenix? Was it 
Fawkes? Was it the essence of Dumbledore, for want of a better word? 
Or something (-one) else? 
11.	In a way the White Tomb is the true "magic brethren" 
monument. Virtually everyone came to pay their respects to 
Dumbledore, the entire Ministry, the denizen of Hogsmead and Diagon 
Alley, the representatives from the WW abroad, the centaurs, the 
merpeople, even the Castle ghosts. Yet there were few conspicuous 
absences. Goblins did not come, and no mention has been made about 
house-elves. Do you think that is significant? 
12.	From what Scrimgeour let slip, one might conclude that some 
kind of investigation is going on. Can the captured death eater be of 
any use in book 7? 
13.	Why is Scrimgeour so adamant about Stan Shunpike's fate? 
Surely his release is a small price to pay for Harry's cooperation? 
14.	There is something odd about the way Ginny accepts Harry's 
decision, while Ron and Hermione refuse to do so. Even stranger, 
Harry does not really attempt to talk them out of sharing his 
destiny. (And still more strange seems his surprise at Ron and 
Hermione's reaction.) Does it mean that for Harry (and even for 
Rowling) friendship is something infinitely more important than love? 
Even so, Ginny is not just a girlfriend; she is a friend as well. 
15.	The last two chapters of the book allude very distinctly to 
Shakespeare's "The Phoenix and the Turtle."  The phoenix lament, the 
anthem, and the central episode with the funeral fire. Is this 
supposed to be a clue to the relationship between Fawkes and 
Dumbledore? 

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