CHAPDISC: DH35, KING'S CROSS

[potioncat]

No: HPFGUIDX 185154

snipping summary and a few questions:
Alla wrote:

> 2.    Is the action in this chapter happens in Harry's head or some 
> other place?               
„« Explain why or why not.

Potioncat:
If this was all in his head, and Harry working out the situation with 
a dream, then everything DD said was Harry's own ideas and wasn't the 
real DD speaking. So I think it was supposed to be in some Hereafter.

I'm not sure everyone who dies goes to King's Cross, because Harry is 
really having a "near death" experience. DD doesn't seem to recognize 
the place. However, it's always hard to tell what DD knows and 
whether his asking the question meant he didn't know the answer. 



> 3.    Where do you think Dumbledore spends his days now?

Potioncat:
Not in the Heavenly King's Cross----whoa, that doesn't sound right.

JKR kept her WW Hereafter very vague. I'm sure DD is doing whatever 
it is wizards do when they go on. But I don't think he's stuck at 
King's Cross station. It's not clear to me how much the Reverants (is 
that the word someone coined?) know about what's happening back on 
Earth. Lily and James seemed to know what Harry had been up to, but 
it could have been Sirius and Remus who told them. DD asks if his 
plan for the wand worked. But in typical ambiguous English, it's hard 
to tell if the question was genuine or rhetorical.



> 
> 4.	The theme of the hero given a choice whether to rest or to go 
> back and possibly be hurt more or prevail over the enemy is fairly 
> common in the fantasy genre. When Harry makes his decision to go 
back 
> did you feel at any time that he is going back to die for real now? 
„« Explain why or why not.

Potioncat:
I thought he had "died" and would now get to survive. Actually I 
thought it was a pretty cool way for JKR to work it out.


> 
> 6.	List discussed the injured baby under the table extensively 
„« in the past, but if you want to please discuss some more here.

Susan replied in:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/185135


> Uncomfortable... distressing... squirmy... horrified... these are 
all 
> words which could describe how I felt reading this section.  Ugh!  
> I'm pretty much avoiding the entire question because I still have 
not 
> adequately assessed my own response, nor the reasons for it.  (I've 
> got some personal wrestling to do, I guess.)  I must say, though, 
> that I think Montavilla nailed a part of it for me ¡V the fact that 
> I'm not at all sure how I feel about the concept of eternal 
> punishment, other than that I'm fairly disinclined to believe in 
it.  
„« Perhaps that is at the root of a lot of my discomfort.

Potioncat:
(Hey SSSusan! Good to see you!)
The flayed baby hasn't been punished by some WW deity; this is what 
Tom Riddle did to himself. This is the condition his soul is in when 
he arrives. The first time I read this chapter, I thought it was the 
soul bit from Harry!Horcrux. It's in the next chapter that I realized 
this is what's left of Riddle's soul. Not much there, and not in good 
shape. This is the soul that is/was LV on earth. Every time he's 
murdered, he's ripped it--and of course he chose to tear off 7 pieces 
of his soul. 

We don't get a lot of WW theology, and what we get is in broad 
stripes. Not that I'm asking for any, you understand. But in the RW, 
there are those who don't so much believe in a Hell, but rather being 
cut off from God, or forever living with our sins/choices.  After 
seeing Riddle's soul, I can understand why Snape had become concerned 
about the condition of his.

DD says there's nothing they can do about the baby, and he's probably 
right. (nothing 'they' can do) Harry is feeling compassion for this 
ugly baby, contrasting to the revulsion he felt for the same ugly 
baby in life. It seems Harry has grown. In the next chapter, Harry 
makes one last effort to help Tom Riddle mend his soul. It was 
Riddle's choice to ignore the help.

It isn't clear whether LV was aware of being King's Cross. It doesn't 
appear he was. If all he recalls is being in severe pain, then he has 
even more reason to fear death.


Excellent summary and thought provoking questions, Alla! I hope to 
answer the other questions later.