CHAPDISC: DH8, The Wedding

[ianuno3]

No: HPFGUIDX 179394

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CHAPDISC: DH8, The Wedding

At 3 p.m. on the day of Bill and Fleur's wedding, Harry, Ron, Fred
and George, all decked in dress robes, are stationed outside the
great white marquee, ready to escort guests to their seats inside for
the ceremony. So as not to alert anyone to his presence, Harry takes
a large dose of Polyjuice Potion. He looks like a curly-haired,
redheaded boy from Ottery St. Catchpole, the town closest to The
Burrow where the Weasley family lives and where the wedding takes
place. For the wedding, Harry will be known as Barny, one of the many
Weasley cousins.

Guests keep appearing at the distant boundary of the yard wearing
elaborate and colorful outfits. Harry meets old friends and is
introduced to new ones: Fleur's Veela cousins, Mr. Weasley's old
Ministry colleague Perkins, the recently married Tonks and Lupin (who
looks miserable immediately after greeting Harry) and Hagrid causes a
comedic stir by breaking several chairs when a specific, magically
reinforced one was set aside for him.

A strange-looking man in an egg-yolk colored outfit, a yellow cap
with a tassel and a strange symbol looking like a triangular eye
attached to a chain around his neck, arrives. It turns out to be
Xenophilius Lovegood, father of Luna, a friend of Harry, Ron and
Hermione's. Xenophilius explains that he and Luna live just over the
hill, and they were happy to receive the invitation to the wedding.
When Ron asks if Luna is coming, her father says she is spending time
with the gnomes who are infesting the Weasleys' garden. Luna comes
along shortly afterwards, immediately recognizes the disguised Harry
by his expression, and pleasantly tells her father of the bite she
received from a gnome. Her father is ecstatic, telling her gnome
saliva can help one to be very creative.

The next guest we are introduced to is Ron's Auntie Muriel, who is
107 years old and never at a loss for sharing her opinion whether one
has asked for it or not.

Hermione then comes out of the house in a lilac-colored dress to join
Harry and Ron. It is then that Viktor Krum, the Quidditch star from
Goblet of Fire, arrives as one of the last guests. Being that Viktor,
who received an invitation from Fleur, and Hermione had a romance
during the fourth year, Ron is taken a little uneasy by Viktor's
presence. Harry (or Barny) decides to escort Viktor in.

After all the guests have arrived, Harry, Ron, Hermione, Fred and
George quickly move to sit in the second row in the marquee just
before the ceremony begins. After Mr. and Mrs. Weasley make their
entrance and Bill and best man Charlie arrive at the front, a radiant
Fleur in a simple white dress is escorted by her father down the
aisle to the sighs of all in attendance. To Harry's surprise, the
same tufty-haired man who presided over Dumbledore's funeral,
presides over the ceremony. During the ceremony, a wink from Ginny
lets Harry reminisce about their romance the last spring. Many tears
are to be had by the mothers of the bride and groom (as well as the
usually loud and emotional Hagrid and Hermione). The presider then
puts his wand over the heads of Bill and Fleur and silver stars fall
over the two and around their entwined hands to signify the
completion of the ceremony. The presider then asks the congregation
to stand while he transforms the marquee into a canopy and the
seating area into a dance floor with dining areas encircling it.

Ron directs Harry and Hermione to a table away from Auntie Muriel
(and presumably Viktor Krum). They end up sitting with Luna. When the
music starts, Luna is motivated to get up and sort of float
blissfully by herself on the dance floor.

Viktor then sits down and asks who Luna's father is. Ron quickly asks
Hermione to dance, and Harry is left alone with Viktor.

Viktor says if Luna's father wasn't a wedding guest, he'd challenge
the man to a duel because of the symbol he is wearing around his
neck. Viktor explains that the symbol was used by Grindelwald, the
dark wizard whom Dumbledore defeated in the famous duel of 1945.
Grindelwald did terrible things where Viktor is from, including
killing Viktor's grandfather. Grindelwald carved that symbol into a
wall at Viktor's school – Durmstrang. Many students, who were
intrigued by Grindelwald, or inspired by him, took to drawing the
symbol into their books and elsewhere.

Viktor wonders why a person who wore the symbol of Grindelwald would
be at the wedding. Harry explains that Xenophilius is an eccentric
man with strange beliefs, but Harry didn't believe he could be
someone who embraced the Dark Arts. Harry says that Luna's father
couldn't be like that because he knew Luna. Explaining the
strangeness of the Lovegood family doesn't seem to do well by the
time the conversation ends.

Viktor takes out his wand and starts tapping it against his leg in
anger. It is then that Harry has a revelation. "Gregorovitch." He
knew he had heard that name before his dream about Voldemort the
other night. Gregorovitch is the wandmaker who made Viktor's wand. He
remembered hearing the name during the Tri-Wizard tournament
involving Viktor. Harry quizzes Viktor (who briefly wonders
why "Barny" would know his wandmaker's name, which Harry dismisses as
something he read in a fan magazine) about Gregorovitch. Where Viktor
comes from (he did play for Bulgaria in the Quidditch World Cup),
Gregorovitch was the pre-eminent wandmaker. Harry deduces that
Voldemort must be looking for Gregorovitch to make a wand that would
not fail against Harry's wand like it did the night Voldemort pursued
Harry across the skies.

Harry then wanders around the reception to find Ron to tell him about
Gregorovitch, but sees Ron and Hermione enjoying themselves on the
dance floor. He then sees an old wizard who seems familiar sitting
alone at a table. Harry realizes it is Elphias Doge, a lifelong
friend of Dumbledore's who wrote Dumbledore's obituary in the Daily
Prophet.

Harry sits down next to Doge and tells the old man that he is Harry
in disguise. Doge is happy to meet Harry and talk with him. Harry
asks Doge about the Rita Skeeter article in the Daily Prophet. Doge
is quickly angered by the mention of Skeeter and tells Harry not to
believe a word she says about Dumbledore's affection for the Dark
Arts in his youth. But the continued mentioning of Skeeter's name
grabs the attention of Auntie Muriel, who is half-drunk already and
excited at the prospect of talking about the scandalous past of
Dumbledore, even as Doge protests against the very thought.

Muriel, who continually takes gulps of champagne during the
conversation, tells Doge to face the facts and to get over his
idolatry of Dumbledore. She can't wait to read Skeeter's biography of
Dumbledore, especially the parts about Dumbledore's sister, whom no
one knew very well. According to Muriel, Dumbledore's sister was a
Squib, a non-magical child born to magical parents. ("Ariana was not
a Squib," Doge said. "I thought she was ill," Harry said.). Muriel
leapt to describe a different tale about how Dumbledore's mother kept
Ariana hidden in the house, away from the public. And when their
mother died, Dumbledore, now as head of the household, kept her
hidden too. And, when Ariana died, Dumbledore's brother, Aberforth,
blamed Dumbledore for her death, breaking Dumbledore's nose at
Ariana's funeral. Muriel speculates, scandalously, as to how
Dumbledore's mother and sister died.

While an emotional Doge sporadically tries to protest, Muriel
continues, stating her belief that Bathilda Bagshot – the same
Bathilda Bagshot who wrote a history book Harry studied at Hogwarts –
is likely to be Skeeter's incredible close source for the biography.
Bathilda lives in Godric's Hollow (the same village Harry's parents
lived in when they were killed by Voldemort), and so did the
Dumbledore family. Harry is taken aback by all of this information,
and doesn't know what to do with it.

Hermione then leaves the dance floor, exhausted, and sits next to
Harry at the table. Other than noticing that Viktor was having an
argument with Luna's father, Hermione and Harry don't have time to
even think about having butterbeers that Ron was going to get. Just
then, a Patronus in form of a lynx shoots through the top of the
canopy and into the middle of the dance floor. As all the guests
freeze, the lynx, in the deep distinct voice of Kingsley Shacklebolt,
says, "The Ministry has fallen. Scrimgeour is dead. They are coming."

Questions:
1. How is that Harry can take a large dose of Polyjuice Potion and it
lasts the entire wedding and reception afterward? Throughout the
books, Polyjuice Potion's effect lasts just one hour, unless the
taker uses it again before that hour is up. How does a larger dose
suffice? Do we just assume Harry kept taking doses throughout the
day/evening?

2. Did the Delacour family pay for most, if not all, of the wedding?
Seeing as how often it is described how little money the Weasley
family has to spare, how could they afford such a wedding at their
home?

3. What is wrong with Lupin? He's at a celebration, why can't he
enjoy it, especially since he and Tonks are newlyweds themselves?

4. What is the significance of meeting Xenophilius Lovegood? Is it
just to explain where Luna gets her "Looneyness" from?

5. If the Lovegoods essentially were neighbors of the Weasleys, how
come Ron and the other Weasleys (Ginny apparent knew Luna because
they were in the same year) didn't know her before we met Luna in
Order of the Phoenix on the train?

6. Auntie Muriel asks where Harry is, since Ron says they are close
friends. If so many people know Harry is that close to the Weasleys,
wouldn't they expect him to be there? The important people know
Harry's in disguise, but wouldn't more people be questioning his
absence?

7. Are we just to assume Ron and Hermione are an item now? Does
everyone else assume they are? No one seems to acknowledge it except
for a brief exchange between Viktor and Harry.

8. JK Rowling said in an interview after Goblet of Fire that
international wizards no longer were going to factor in the books.
Why was Viktor here, just as a device to explain Grindelwald's symbol?

9. Did Hermione discontinue her correspondence with Viktor? She had
no idea why he was at the wedding? She made a point of staying in
touch for at least a year after Goblet of Fire.

10. Just like many other traditions and holidays, the magical world
has seemingly borrowed from Muggle traditions again with the entire
wedding. Why isn't there much difference between that ceremony and a
traditional Muggle ceremony, religious or not? Is it easier just to
believe there is more in common between the two worlds than they let
on? We see this wedding through Harry's eyes. Harry admittedly has
never been to a wedding – magical or Muggle – before. Does that make
a difference?

11. Why is Grindelwald's symbol so important? Why is Xenophilius
Lovegood wearing said symbol? Is it just costume jewelry?

12. Is Elphias Doge protecting Dumbledore's memory by telling Harry
not to believe a word Rita Skeeter says?

13. What is the deal with Doge's relationship with Dumbledore? Did
Doge love Dumbledore as more than a friend? Knowing Dumbledore's
sexuality now, could Doge and Dumbledore also have been lovers at
some period? Or could Doge have had that kind of affection for
Dumbledore, but it was never realized in a physical sense? Was their
planned yearlong journey around the world more than just two friends
on a quest?

14. Muriel seems so taken by the scandals involving Dumbledore; do
you think she's ashamed of the Weasley clan? She mentions
once, "Another Weasley? You breed like gnomes." What would she think
of the scandals Arthur's been involved with? Does she dismiss it
because she apparently is from Mrs. Weasley's side of the family?

15. Was Kinglsey not at the wedding because he was still protecting
the Prime Minister? If so, how did he know so quickly about the
Ministry of Magic's fall and Rufus Scrimgeour's death?


-IPPY
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