CHAPDISC: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Ch. 19: The Silver Doe

[Debbie]

No: HPFGUIDX 182694

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After last chapter's discussion led by special guest Harry himself, 
this week we will, regrettably, be turning back to our listmembers to 
lead the discussion.  (For the record, Ron Weasley was asked to stand 
in, but he refused, muttering under his breath about being "second 
best, always, eternally overshadowed").
 
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CHAPTER DISCUSSION: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
Chapter 19, The Silver Doe
 
The chapter opens at midnight, December 26th, with Hermione taking 
over the watch.  Harry sleeps fitfully, convinced that he heard 
voices outside the tent, and finally suggests to Hermione that they 
leave early.  Hermione, who also thought she had heard voices, 
agrees.  Under cover of the Invisibility Cloak, they decamp to the 
Forest of Dean.  After huddling around Hermione's blue flames all day 
for warmth, Harry takes the evening watch.  He is unable to shake the 
feeling that something is different tonight. 
 
Harry dozes and awakes several times to velvety blackness. While 
searching for his hand in the inky blackness, Harry spots a bright 
silver light, moving soundlessly through the trees toward him.  
Stepping out from the trees, the light reveals itself as a silver 
doe.  Harry finds the doe, inexplicably, familiar, and strongly 
believes the doe has come for him.  The doe turns away and walks 
through the trees.  Harry, instinctively deciding the doe is not Dark 
Magic, follows as the doe leads him into the forest.  Finally, the 
doe stops and vanishes.  
 
Momentarily fearful, Harry lights his wand and notices a small frozen 
pool.  Looking through the ice, he realizes that the sword of 
Gryffindor is at the bottom of the pool.  After scanning the forest 
in a futile attempt to discern who could have brought the sword, 
Harry realizes he must retrieve it himself.  Harry removes his 
sweaters, breaks the ice and dives in with, he supposes, true 
Gryffindor daring, nerve and (perhaps) chivalry.  He manages to grab 
the sword despite the agony of the icy cold water, but at that moment 
the chain of the Horcrux begins to strangle him, and, expecting 
Death, he loses consciousness. . . .
 
Harry comes to lying face down in the snow.  The Horcrux is gone.  He 
hears another person panting and coughing.  When the person 
asks, "Are you mental?" Harry recognizes Ron's voice.  Ron is holding 
the locket in one hand and the sword, which he had evidently 
retrieved from the pool, in the other.  Ron explains that he had been 
looking for Harry for hours when he saw the doe, followed by Harry.  
Ron also tells Harry he thought he saw someone move between two tree 
trunks while he was running to the pool to rescue Harry.  Harry looks 
but sees no footprints or other signs.
 
The Horcrux is twitching and Harry concludes that the sword's 
presence has agitated it.  He tells Ron that he should destroy the 
Horcrux because he retrieved the sword.  Ron demurs, asserting that 
he can't do it because he's too susceptible to the locket's powers, 
but Harry insists.  Harry opens the locket using Parseltongue.  Ron 
holds the sword ready, but backs away as the Horcrux taunts Ron with 
his worst fears -- that he is nothing, that his mother would have 
preferred a daughter, or Harry, that Hermione prefers Harry to him.  
As the images inside the locket transform to an embracing Ron and 
Hermione, Ron, his eyes now traced with scarlet, finally plunges the 
sword through the locket and the images disappear.  Ron falls to his 
knees, shaking, and drops the sword.  Harry reassures Ron that 
Hermione is a sister to him, and reveals that she cried for days when 
Ron left.  Ron responds by apologizing for leaving.  Harry tells Ron 
he has made up for it by saving Harry's life, and they hug.  
 
Together Harry and Ron go back to the tent, where they wake up 
Hermione.  Hermione responds to Ron's presence by punching him, 
prompting Harry to cast a Shield Charm to keep them apart.  Ron is 
finally able to explain that he tried to return right away, but 
encountered a gang of Snatchers rounding up Muggle-borns.  Ron 
escaped the Snatchers (with a spare wand), but by the time he 
returned to the riverbank, Harry and Hermione had decamped.  Hermione 
expresses derision at Ron's tale of woe.  Ron then explains how he 
heard Hermione's voice through the Deluminator on Christmas Day and 
used it to find their location, and followed them to the Forest of 
Dean.  Only after a full explanation for Hermione's benefit of the 
destruction of the Horcrux (minus the locket's tormenting of Ron), 
does Harry remove the Shield Charm.
 
Ron gives Harry his spare wand to replace the one broken at Godric's 
Hollow, Hermione goes back to bed, and Ron concludes that his return 
has been received as well as he could have hoped for.  Harry reminds 
him of the birds Hermione set on him in HBP.  Hermione shouts from 
her bed that she hasn't ruled it out, but Ron is smiling.
 
---------------------------------------------
 
Questions
 
1.  Phineas Nigellus learns critical information about Harry's 
location, which Hermione carelessly provides while the beaded bag is 
open.  Has Phineas really been hanging out in that cramped bag all 
this time?  Why is he willing to do this?
 
2.  What did you think initially of the appearance of the silver 
doe?  Did you perceive clues (either on initial reading or rereading) 
pointing to the identity of the doe?  Was it intended, in your view, 
as misdirection?  Was it effective?  Does it seem odd that Harry did 
not attempt to identify the doe?
 
3.  How long do you think Snape stayed behind the trees to watch?  
Did he leave when the sword was recovered, or might he have seen the 
destruction of the locket?  How might Snape have interpreted this 
action, given that he was unaware of the nature of the Trio's mission?
 
4.  The sword at the bottom of the lake is reminiscent of Arthurian 
legend.  JKR is known for borrowing the stuff of legends and 
reworking those legends for her own purposes.  Is that what happened 
here?  Is Harry at all comparable to King Arthur?  If so, how?  And 
what about Ron's Arthurian connections, since it was Ron who 
succeeded in retrieving the sword of Gryffindor?
 
5.  Why did it have to be Ron who destroyed the Horcrux?  Wouldn't 
Harry have been able to destroy it just as effectively?  If Harry had 
wielded the sword, do you think the locket would have found a way to 
torment him instead?
 
6.  The locket tortures Ron, but it begins with an observation and a 
prophecy of sorts:  "I have seen your dreams, Ronald Weasley, and I 
have seen your fears.  All you desire is possible, but all that you 
dread is also possible."  What does this statement tell us about 
Ron's character?  And why didn't the locket just get on with the 
torturing?
 
7.  What is the significance of the scarlet in Ron's eye just before 
he destroys the locket Horcrux?
 
8.  What, if anything, do you make of the fact that the sword of 
Gryffindor was used only to destroy Horcruxes with a significant 
Slytherin connection (the locket, the ring and Nagini)?  
 
9.  As Harry comforts Ron after the destruction of the locket, he 
finally realizes, now that Ron is back, "how much his absence had 
cost them."  What was the cost?  How did Ron's absence affect their 
progress?  How does his return change things?
 
10.  Harry concludes that Ron's return went about as well as 
possible, despite Hermione's reaction.  Do you agree?  Why?  What 
purpose did that exchange serve?
 
11.  This chapter is outwardly about Ron, but in retrospect the 
subtext is all Snape.  Is there a connection between these two 
characters?  How are they alike.  To what extent are their 
differences the result of circumstances rather than character?
 
Debbie
with thanks to zgirnius for her review and very helpful comments