CHAPDISC: DH13, The Muggle-born Registration Commission

[lizzyben04]

No: HPFGUIDX 181291

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Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
CHAPDISC: Chapter 13, The Muggle-born Registration Commission


Harry, Hermione and Ron have infiltrated the Ministry, using
Polyjuice Potion to impersonate Ministry wizards. Ron ("Mr.
Catterpole") is called off the lift to fix Yaxley's office, which has
been subject to a downpour of rain all day. Suddenly, Dolores
Umbridge enters the lift, discussing her commission work. She orders
Hermione ("Mafalda") to accompany her down to the courtroom to assist
in the interrogations for that day. Harry gets off on the eighth
floor, puts on the Invisibility Cloak, and begins to look for
Umbridge's office. As he searches the long hallways, he comes across
a wide area in which numerous witches and wizards are producing
pamphlets. Harry glances at one pamphlet and reads the
title: "Mudbloods and the Danger They Pose to a Peaceful Pureblood
Society." As the wizards work, one witch casually wonders whether
the "old hag" will be interrogating Muggle-borns all day. Harry
follows her gaze, and sees that an eye had been set into the large
front door of one office.

Harry realizes that this is Mad-Eye Moody's eye, and he is overcome
with anger. He strides toward the office door and reads the plaque
proclaiming that the office is that of Dolores Umbridge, Head of the
Muggle-born Registration Commission. In order to enter the office,
Harry creates a distraction by setting off a "Decoy Detonator"
nearby. During the commotion, Harry slips into Umbridge's office. He
notices that Moody's eye is connected to a telescope that enables
Umbridge to spy on her workers, and he wrenches the telescope out of
the door and pockets the eye. He begins to search the office for the
locket, and comes across a surveillance folder on Arthur Weasley, and
yet another copy of Rita Skeeter's smash biography of Albus
Dumbledore. Harry picks up the book, and spots a picture inside of a
laughing Dumbledore and Grindewald. As Harry is skimming the book,
the door opens, and Pius Thicknesse enters the office. Harry quickly
puts back on the Cloak and backs out of the office.

Harry decides they have little chance of getting the locket now,
since Umbridge apparently didn't hide the locket in her office, and
wouldn't tell them where she did have it. Instead, he decides that he
should focus on finding Hermione and Ron, and escaping the Ministry
before they are all discovered. He gets back on the lift to retrieve
Ron from the second floor. As soon as the lift stops at the second
floor, Ron enters it. Before the two can properly communicate, Mr.
Weasley also enters the lift at the next stop. Mr. Weasley doesn't
recognize Harry or Ron, believing that Harry is Runcorn, and Ron is
Mr. Catterpole. Mr. Weasley chats with Ron, and suggests spells that
could stop the downpour in Yaxley's office. At the next stop, Ron
follows another Ministry wizard to the raining office, and Percy
Weasley gets on the lift. There is an awkward silence until Percy
quickly leaves the lift at the next stop. When Mr. Weasley and Harry
are alone, Mr. Weasley challenges Harry for giving information up on
a Muggle-born wizard. Harry attempts to warn Mr. Weasley that he is
also being tracked by the Commission.

Harry decides to get Hermione from the courtroom first while Ron is
occupied. Finally, Harry arrives at the dungeon level, where the
Commission is holding its interrogations of Muggle-born wizards. As
he approaches the courtrooms, he feels a sudden sense of despair and
hopelessness, and realizes that Dementors are nearby. When he turns
into the passage, he sees that the passage is full of Muggle-born
wizards who have been brought in for interrogation, while Dementor
guards patrol the hallways.

The courtroom doors burst open, as a man inside screams that he is
really a half-blood; to no avail, as Umbridge orders the Dementors to
take him away. Umbridge next calls Mary Cattermole in for
questioning, and as Mrs. Cattermole passes him, Harry is struck by
the fear and revulsion on the woman's face. Instinctively, he follows
her to the courtroom so that she would not have to walk into the
interrogation alone. In the courtroom, he sees many more Dementors,
and a platform on which the Commission members sit during the
questioning. Hermione, Yaxley and Umbridge are seated there, as
Umbridge's cat patronus strolls across the platform to protect the
interrogators from the effects of the Dementors.

Harry moves to the platform and quietly lets Hermione know that he is
there. As Umbridge begins the questioning, Mrs. Cattermole begins to
cry. Umbridge tells her that her wand has been seized, and demands to
know which wizard she stole the wand from. Mrs. Cattermole responds
that the wand was her own, which she had bought when she was eleven
years old. As Umbridge leans forward, a locket around her neck swings
out and dangles in the air. Harry spots the Slytherin locket that he
has been searching for. Hermione spots it as well, and asks Umbridge
about the locket. Umbridge claims that the locket was a Selwyn family
heirloom, one of many pure-blood families that she is related to.

This lie angers Harry so much that he raises his wand under the
Invisibility Cloak, and stupefies Umbridge. Umbridge falls to the
floor, and her patronus disappears. Before Yaxley can draw his own
wand, Harry stupefies him as well. Now without restraint, a Dementor
approaches Mrs. Cattermole and grabs her chin to administer a
Dementor's Kiss. Harry shouts out the incantation to create his own
stag patronus, and the stag leaps toward the Dementor, causing it to
withdraw.

Harry and Hermione release Mrs. Cattermole, and then Hermione creates
a patronus of her own to accompany the stag patronus. Together, they
leave the courtroom into the passageway. The patrolling Dementors all
disappear, driven away by the patronuses. Harry tells the waiting
Muggleborn wizards that they are all free to leave, and tells them
that they should go into hiding with their families. He asks them to
follow him towards the Atrium, where they can apparate out of the
Ministry. As they all approach the lift, the lift doors open, and Ron
walks out. He tells Harry that the Ministry was tipped off about
intruders when they discovered the hole in Umbridge's office door.

The group gets onto the lift, which takes them up into the Atrium.
When they enter the Atrium, Harry sees that Ministry wizards have
already begun sealing all the fireplace exits. He decides to try to
use Rumpole's authority to order a wizard to allow the group of
Muggle-borns to leave the Ministry. At first the balding wizard
protests, but when Harry threatens to examine the wizard's family
tree, he relents and allows the group of Muggle-borns to exit through
the fireplaces.

Suddenly the real Mr. Cattermole rushes up to Mrs. Cattermole,
calling her name. She looks from him to Ron in confusion, as do the
other wizards. Before anyone can figure out what is going on, Yaxley
runs out of the lift, yelling at the wizards to seal the exits. The
balding wizard lifts his wand, and Harry punches him and sends him
flying into the air. Still impersonating Rumpole, he tells Yaxley
that the balding wizard had been helping Muggle-borns to escape, and
the wizards rise in an uproar. In the chaos, Ron grabs Mrs.
Cattermole, and they disappear into a fireplace. Harry and Hermione
also rush into a fireplace, narrowly avoiding a curse that Yaxley
sends over their heads. They spin up the fireplace into the bathroom,
closely followed by Yaxley. Harry grabs Ron and Hermione, and the
three apparate out. They are engulfed in darkness, and Harry realizes
that something has gone wrong with the apparition; he can't breathe,
and he feels Hermione's hand slipping out of his grasp. For a moment,
Harry glimpses the door of Grimmwauld Place, but then he hears a
scream and sees a flash of purple light, and everything is dark
again.

Questions for discussion:

1. What do you think of the Trio's plan to infiltrate the Ministry?
Was it well-planned, or could they have approached things a different
way?

2. Numerous characters mention that Yaxley's office has been jinxed
to create a downpour. Could this be a sign of low-level sabotage
against Death Eaters within the Ministry?

3. Harry impersonates Albert Runcorn, a character whom we never
actually meet. Based on other character's reactions to him, what kind
of person do you believe Runcorn is? Do you believe he is a Death
Eater?

4. Ron impersonates a Ministry official with a Muggle-born wife,
Hermione a woman who assists Umbridge in the interrogation of Muggle-
borns, and Harry a high-ranking Ministry official. Is there any
thematic or character significance to the identities that they take
on?

5. How in the world did Dolores Umbridge get Moody's eye?

6. Harry takes a number of impulsive actions in this chapter: taking
Moody's eye, stupefying Umbridge, and helping the group of Muggle-
borns to escape. These actions create both negative consequences
(tipping off the Ministry), and also positive consequences (freeing
the Muggle-born wizards). Do you believe that Harry's actions were
rash, or were his actions justified?

7. The Ministry is producing propaganda pamphlets against Muggle-
borns, registering all wizards with Muggle-born blood, interrogating
Muggle-born wizards, and imprisoning Muggle-borns in Azkaban. Do you
believe that this is meant to be an analogy to the treatment of Jews
in Nazi Germany? Or is it a general analogy to bigotry and prejudice
against minority groups?

8. Umbridge accuses Mrs. Cattermole of taking another wizard's wand,
and the Ministry propaganda accuses Muggle-borns of "stealing" magic
from pure-blood wizards. What does this mean? Does the Ministry
believe that Muggle-borns are literally stealing wands; or that
Muggle-borns steal magic by their very existence in the wizarding
world? How could this propaganda succeed when all wizards had seen
Muggle-born wizards perform magic on their own at Hogwarts? Do you
believe that the Ministry propaganda has convinced the wizards, or
are they simply too intimidated to contradict the Ministry?

9. In this chapter, the Ministry's "courtrooms" are used to terrorize
and intimidate the powerless. What is the novel's view of the legal
system? What does JKR seem to be saying about law versus instinct as
a basis for morality?

Lizzyben

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Next chapdisc, Chapter 14, The Thief – February 18, 2008