CHAPDISC: DH27, The Final Hiding Place (not about the EW, promise!)

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 184168

Responding to  the rest of Jen's excellent questions:
  
> 1)  What did you think would be the 'final hiding place' when
reading  the chapter title?  Were you expecting a Horcrux at Hogwarts
all  along?

Pippin:
I was expecting a horcrux at Hogwarts, certainly since JKR said she
had dreamed about it. The obvious place would be the RoR, though I
thought the Chamber of Secrets might be a runner up.

>  
> 2)  This is likely the shortest chapter in all of the HP books, yet 
> descriptions of the dragon take up quite a few paragraphs at the 
> beginning:  how the dragon feels, what it's doing while the Trio
rest  by the lake, where it might go next, etc.  Then right before
leaving  the lakes, they watch the dragon take flight until it
vanishes, even  though Harry insisted they must leave at once.  Do you
think the  dragon plays a symbolic role?  Is it a significant part of
this  chapter for another reason?  Or did you find the mentions of the 
> dragon more filler?

Pippin:
I never thought about the symbolism of the dragon before. But it makes
a good metaphor for the wizarding world at the end of the story. It's
scarred and blind, and its future prospects are uncertain. But for
now, it's free, and all is well. I wonder if the dragon's blindness is
from a conjunctivus curse, which Sirius says is used to control
dragons. Perhaps it, like the wizarding world, might recover from the
blindness, ie prejudice, inflicted on it. 
  
>  
> 4)  Voldemort initially believes his Horcruxes must be safe because 
> he would feel 'if he, himself, most important and precious, had been 
> attacked, mutilated[.]'  Comments about either Voldemort's reasoning 
> or how he describes his Horcruxes?  Did the course of Voldemort's 
> thoughts about his Horcruxes and the realization that Harry is 
> hunting them offer any new glimpses into his interior life? 

Pippin:
The full sentence interests me: 
'He, the greatest wizard of them all, he, the most powerful, he, the
killer of Dumbledore and of how many other worthless, nameless men:
how could Lord Voldemort not have known, if he, himself, most
important and precious, had been attacked, mutilated?'

Dumbledore, too, once described himself as unconcerned about nameless,
faceless others.

'I cared[...]more for your life than for the lives that might be lost
if the plan failed. In other words, I acted exactly as Voldemort
expects we fools who love to act. [...] What did I care if numbers of
nameless and faceless people and creatures were slaughtered in the
vague future, in in the here and now you were alive, and well, and
happy?'(OOP ch37)

Voldemort here behaves like a fool who loves: not caring what has
become of those he slaughtered as long as what he loves, himself, is
alive and well, and, like Dumbledore, not recognizing any connection
between the life of what he loves and the lives of others.  

Does he not know what has become of his detached soul bits because he
himself is detached from others? Dumbledore seemed to think  so.

'"Does Voldemort know when a horcrux is destroyed, sir? Can he feel
it?" Harry asked, ignoring the portraits.
"A very interesting question, Harry. I believe not. I believe that
Voldemort is now so immersed in evil, and these crucial parts of
himself have been detached for so long, he does not feel as we do."'
HBP ch 23


 
>  
> 5)  If you were a Harry!Horcrux theorist, or argued against the 
> theory, did you think the possibility of Harry being the final 
> Horcrux was defunct when the last Horcrux was revealed as an object 
> hidden at Hogwarts?  Were you keeping count at that point?  Were you 
> already suspecting the possibility of a twist with the Horcruxes?

Pippin:
Oh, I was pretty sure there would be a soul bit inside Harry, and that
Voldemort's count was off. JKR wouldn't let LV have the mystical power
of seven. I figured JKR would come up with a way to spare Harry's life
if that was so, though I was way off on how she would manage it. I was
sure we would revisit The Veil, although that didn't fit with the
climax being at Hogwarts. I do remember thinking that ideally, Harry
would find a way to make Voldemort destroy himself, but I couldn't see
how that would work either. 
   
> 6)  Voldemort is fairly certain the Potter boy couldn't know of his 
> connection to the Gaunts, or about the cave, until he remembers 
> Dumbledore.  In a final assessment of why Dumbledore was the only 
> wizard Voldemort reportedly feared, what was the basis of
Voldemort's  fear?  Did it have to do with Dumbledore's knowledge of
Tom Riddle's past or other factors? 

Pippin:
Tom seems to have forgotten that he wrote his  name in the diary and
tied Harry to Riddle Sr's gravestone. That would be enough for a crack
researcher like Hermione. But Voldemort tends to be dismissive of
anything he doesn't understand, and certainly he understands
Dumbledore much better than he understands any of the Trio.

  
> 7)  Harry is the one to determine when they jump off the dragon;
he's  the one who casts the protective spells.  When Hermione attempts
to  plan their trip to Hogwarts rather than following Harry's lead, 
> Harry 'firmly' decides the course of action.  Is this a new twist in 
> the Harry/Hermione relationship?  Do you think something changed 
> between them over the course of the year or is it typical that Harry 
> takes over in certain situations?

Pippin:
I think Harry realizes that Hermione doesn't have any information with
which to formulate a plan. 

> 
> 8)  Any thoughts on Harry's decision to go to Hogsmeade even after 
> learning Voldemort believed it would be 'impossible' for Harry to 
> enter Hogsmeade undetected?  Did Harry forget this point in his
haste  to find the last Horcrux?

I don't think Harry forgot. But he's just done the impossible by
breaking into Gringotts and escaping on a dragon. Hogsmeade can't be
more protected than Gringotts was. He knows that the protections won't
be set up to kill him, since Voldemort plans to do that himself.

Pippin