CHAPDISC: DH25, Shell Cottage

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 184023

> Questions:
> 
> 1) Any suggestions why JKR had these characters (Trio, Bill, Fleur,
> Mr Ollivander, Griphook, Luna, Dean) in a small house for weeks,
> maybe months?

Pippin:
It gives us a good cross section of what Harry is fighting for. Not
just his own survival, but all that will be destroyed if Voldemort is
not stopped. Of course by running a safe house and sheltering
fugitives, Bill *is* participating in the anti-Voldemort underground.
Being a secret keeper,  he can't risk himself on missions. It sounds
like the secret keeper spell was cast *after* Harry got there, which
would explain how he was able to enter. 

The timing is conditioned by seasonal and symbolic considerations,
IMO. The Snatchers episode had to take place around Easter so that
Draco would be at Malfoy Manor. That meant Easter had to be moved up
(or the camping interval would have lasted even longer) but the battle
of Hogwarts couldn't take place before May, if JKR didn't want Harry
to take his walk through the forest knee-deep in mud.<g>

I think it's also important  that Harry's sacrifice takes place well
after Easter, not during it. Symbolically, he's a follower of Jesus,
not Jesus himself. 



> 2) There is a relaxed mood in this chapter, with no spells used in
> anger. Some (adrenaline junkie) readers may have been tempted to
skip this chapter to get on with the fighting, and filling of body
bags. This chapter filled a few holes in what goes on with families in
> other parts of the Wizarding World. What tidbit did you enjoy,
hidden in this chapter?

Pippin:
I enjoyed the description of the cottage, the way a "small snake"
seems to stir inside Harry when he contemplates his dubious bargain
with Griphook, and  everything that Luna does.

> 
> 3) Fleur seemed to react worse to Griphook than the others. Were
> Wizard - Goblin relations worse in France?

Pippin:
Fleur's a kvetch. She's probably got her gripes about everyone, but
it's easier to vent about Griphook than her husband's relatives and
their friends. 

> 
> 4) There is a saying, "History was written by the winners". The
Daily Prophet has been doing it in most of the books. So are wizards
> the "lesser evil" compared to the "not fluffy bunnies", or just as
> bad, or worse?

Pippin:
There's no way to tell. We don't meet any goblin heroes, but we don't
meet any goblin villains either. It's not fair to judge all goblins by
Griphook. 


> 
> 5) We see many heroes in the Harry Potter books have bad qualities.
> Is the possibility of Godric Gryffindor's stealing the sword ("For
> the greater good") the thing Harry has to come to terms with about
> his house hero?

Pippin:
It's impossible to know whether Godric made an honest bargain for the
sword -- even if it was honest by his standards we might not agree
with him, because wizard notions of ownership are also not the same as
ours. We don't think it's proper to own sentient beings, for one
thing. If Gryffindor owed some of his wealth to forced labor, then we
might feel he purchased the sword with gold that wasn't truly his. 

 For another, Dumbledore says in HBP that Grimmauld Place could have
been enchanted so that only a pureblood could own it. That turns out
not to be the case, but introduces the wizard notion that the rightful
owner of an object may be determined by the object itself, regardless
of the legally expressed wishes of its previous owner.

Stealing something from its rightful owner is hardly a valorous
act. If the sword can belong only to a Gryffindor who takes it under
conditions of need and valor, that implies that if Gryffindor  had
stolen the sword he wouldn't have been able to use it properly  --
so I'd imagine that Gryffindor had no misgivings about how he obtained
the sword. But we might think he should have. 

It's interesting that despite paying attention in history of magic
Hermione has no idea that Goblin ideas about ownership are so
different, and Bill doesn't expect Harry to know this either. Of
course we will shortly discover that the author of "A History of
Magic" has been *selective* about other things too. 

Thinking that Griphook must be lying about Gryffindor changes how
Harry thinks about deceiving him. Harry never really comes to grips
with the idea that goblin ideas about ownership should be taken into
account. It's a case where he does what is easy rather than what's right.


> 
> 6) To seal the bargain, Griphook shook hands with Harry Potter. That
> sounded ominously like "Just sign here for Dumbledore's Army" to me.
> How did you feel about it?

Pippin:
This bargain was one of the most cowardly things Harry ever did IMO--
indeed one could say it's the *only* cowardly thing Harry ever did.
IMO, it's the proof that Harry can be cowardly as the crucio is the
proof that he can be cruel. 

Harry could have told Griphook that he would need access to the sword
in the future,  and bargained on that basis.  I think Griphook knew
perfectly well that Harry was planning to cheat him, and that made
planning to cheat Harry right in his own eyes. I'm sure he intended to
trap Harry in the vaults all along.



> 
> 7) Luna deserves her own question. Flowers on Dobby's grave: loyalty
> to her father; the only one who Mr Ollivander gave a personal
> compliment to as he left; and never complained despite her account
of missing Christmas in a cellar jail. Why do you think she is such an
> important presence in Harry Potter's life?

Pippin:
She's the anti-Hermione, and also the anti-Fleur. Harry was once
comforted by Fleur's beauty (at the end of GoF), and turned off by
Luna's scraggly weirdness. Now he finds Luna's presence more
comforting than Fleur's.

> 
> 8) We see Fleur in her own environment here. She quickly changes
from (ze goblin) fury; to (you are safe 'ere) over-protectiveness; to
> getting Mr Ollivander to deliver the tiara (when Bill was going
there too); to (glancing at the window) worry about Bill outside; to
anger at Muriel; to baby hugger; to humble wife ("Wait" said Bill)
within one meal time. What do you think of her?

Pippin:
Her changeable moods I think are part of her "water" personality. I
think that, like Harry, she really did believe that Gabrielle was in
danger, and so she's grateful to him not only for "saving" her sister
but for making her seem less foolish by viewing the situation the same
way she did. 

> 
> 9) Did you pick up that subtle reminder of the "Lost Diadem of
> Ravenclaw" in your first reading? Were there enough clues to
identify this as the last Horcrux?

Pippin:
Not much to add here. I was one of those who thought the Ravenclaw
horcrux ought to be a wand, since we already had a cup, a jewel and a
sword, but I felt that the tiara Harry had found in the RoR was a
strong contender.

> 
> 10) Every culture has differences with Births, Marriages and Deaths
> (Hatch, Match and Dispatch). Lupin offers us our only insight into
> Wizard Births. Especially a new born Metamorphmagus. Anything
special you see here?

Pippin:
There was no formal christening ceremony presided over by the "tufty
little man" in black. But perhaps there would have been when things
were more settled.  

> 
> 11) Goblin ownership laws: "the true owner of an object is the
maker, not the purchaser". This sounds like our copyright and patent
laws. I can't buy a CD and copy a song onto my I-Pod. Are arguments
against the goblin law grounds for authors to re-think copyright laws?

Pippin:
Ownership can be considered a "bundle of rights" -- goblins evidently
bundle things differently than wizards do. 

Goblin law sounds  like a "life interest" in real estate. But RL fine
artists have attempted to extend their rights in their work, so that
the creator of a painting gets some share of the future sales, or
maintains control over how it can be displayed. 

> 
> 12) Is Harry getting reckless, like his thoughts on Sirius? Any
other thoughts about Harry being a godfather?

Pippin:
I don't think Harry was being reckless, exactly, but I think his
conscience was  uneasy with the bargain he'd made. By becoming a
godfather, Harry is formally taking responsibility for the next
generation of wizards, and like Sirius, he's off to a rocky start,
planning something he might not feel like boasting of to Teddy.

Pippin