ChapDisc: DH14, The Thief

[Carol]

No: HPFGUIDX 181637

<snip summary>

Questions:

1. Do you think the DEs ever made it into Grimmauld Place and past
the Hallway enchantments? Do you think the additional enchantments in
the hallway enabled Kreacher to escape?

Carol:

Since the enchantments were aimed at Snape, I don't think that the DEs
would have any trouble getting past them after the first
heart-thumping scare. One of them would have thought to say, "We
didn't kill 'im, yer barmy old codger!" (Sorry. That's what Amycus
would say, but Yaxley could convey the same sentiments in better
English.) FWIW, I think that Snape could get past them, too, but he's
not involved here so it doesn't matter. As for Kreacher, I think he
could easily Apparate out of harm's way, directly to Hogwarts, where
Harry once ordered him to go, making sure that he didn't take a DE
with him (just as Dobby escaped Harry's hold in the Hogwarts hospital
wing in CoS). I don't think that any additional enchantments were
needed to enable Kreacher to leave 12 GP. We saw him do just that in
"Kreacher's Tale" or the following chapter.

2. Why did Ron Splinch during Hermione's side-along apparition? From
where does Hermione learn about Essence of Dittany? Why do you think
she is afraid to heal Ron completely with magic?

Carol:
I think that Ron Splinched because he wasn't expecting Hermione to
shift their destination and was focusing on 12 GP (trying to get to
the place she was trying to get away from). it's a wonder that Harry
wasn't Splinched, too. (I was surprised by the blood and the pain,
BTW. I don't remember anything of the sort in HBP with Susan Bones.)
*Harry* knew about Dittany as a cure for scarring because Snape told
Draco to ask Madam Pomfrey for it after the Sectumsempra incident.
Maybe Harry told Hermione about that. However, dittany seems suddenly
to have become a way of stopping the bleeding, whereas in HBP, DD
stops ordinary bleeding with a simple nonverbal spell and Snape uses
his complex chanted countercurse to stop the bleeding and heal the
wounds caused by the Dark Magical spell Sectumsempra. Splinching isn't
Dark Magic, of course, so maybe it can be partially cured (the
bleeding stopped and the skin healed) with Dittany, but I picture Ron
as still having a chunk of muscle missing because Hermione is afraid
to use the spells which, if used correctly, would heal him completely.
It's odd that nothing more is mentioned about Ron's injury not healing
properly. IMO, it's a shame that Hermione didn't attempt the spells
and find that she could do them. Maybe they would have helped Snape.
(I'm trying to remember whether she uses them on Harry after Nagini
bites him. I don't think we find out because Harry is unconscious or
nearly so after Hermione gets him back to the tent.) As for why she's
afraid, I'm sure that she thinks she might do more harm than good if
she does them wrong. Remember Harry's arm when Lockhart tries to mend
the broken bone in CoS?

3. We learn that Hermione obtained the tent from Arthur Weasley; do
you think he was the one who taught Hermione all the protection
charms too, or do you think Hermione watched/learned from the Order
members as they placed protective enchantments at the burrow?

Carol:
Neither. I think that Hermione learned her protective charms the same
way she learns everything else, by reading. And she wouldn't be afraid
to test protective charms the way she would with injury-healing
charms. (Of course, one of the charms, Muffliato, is straight from the
HBP.)

4. Ron insists they no long call Voldemort by his name. Is this
because he's frightened, some of the "Ron the seer" poking through,
or has he been thinking?

Carol:
I think it's his intuition. He senses that the name is jinxed, and
he's right. I also think, though I know that Catlady disagrees with
me, that a similar jinx may have been used in VW1, which resulted in
people fearing to speak Voldemort's name. Otherwise, silly nicknames
like You Know Who, Lord Thingy, and even the pompous He Who Must Not
Be Named (shades of Ryder Haggard's She Who Must Be Obeyed) are
inexplicable. Sensible people like Mr. Weasley would speak the name if
there were no reason to fear it. (DD, Sirius Black, Lupin, and a few
others speak it after Voldemort is vaporized, and maybe it was always
safe to do so at Hogwarts with DD there, but I don't know whether
anyone except DD spoke it when Voldemort was in power the first time.)
Alternatively, LV could have gotten the idea for the jinx from the
widespread fear of his name. Why not give them a *reason* to fear it?
In any case, I don't think that Ron has been thinking. He's not the
reasoning type. He just senses that it's dangerous to say the name (as
he has always believed, in any case), and it turns out that he's right.

5. Are you surprised that neither Harry nor Ron thinks of using
Parseltongue to open the locket? What about the decision to wear the
locket to "keep it safe" after noticing it seemed alive?

Carol:
I'm not surprised that Ron doesn't, but you'd think that Harry would
recall his experience with Diary!Tom in his second year, especially
since he now knows that the diary was a Horcrux. Maybe the locket has
the effect of making his thinking less clear as well as causing a kind
of hopelessness and fear. Its effect on Ron, of course, is to make him
irritable, selfish, and ungrateful (not to mention secretly jealous)
though we don't see that in this chapter because Ron hasn't worn the
Horcrux yet. He's not a hinker, though, and hasn't shown any potential
as a leader yet. He's also ill from the Splinching. If anyone should
have thought of Parseltongue, it would be Hermione, but she wasn't
present for the opening of the CoS, so I suppose that excuses her. As
for the decision to wear the locket (shades of the One Ring), I think
it was totally stupid. Why couldn't they keep it in an inside pocket
of a robe or jacket, or better yet, in Hermione's little bag? (Maybe
because you can't Accio a Horcrux?) For that matter, wouldn't it fit
in Hagrid's mokeskin pouch? I do understand why they didn't want one
person to wear the locket all the time, but wearing it at all when
they know it to be Voldemort's Horcrux and when they know it affects
their mood and their ability to think clearly seems reckless. Ah, but
they're Gryffindors. Got it.

6. Hermione seems so prepared and put a great deal of thought into
what they might need on their adventures. Do you think if she had
involved Ron (or even Harry) more in her preparations, they may have
packed some non-perishable food items, perhaps a wizarding wireless,
and perhaps a few more things she may have overlooked? Is there
anything else that they could have taken with them that would have
helped?

Carol:
Ron did pack a wizarding wireless, didn't he? At least he has one when
he returns from his time away. And whatever happened to Harry's
magical razor that he got for his birthday? He and Ron could have used
that when they had nothing better to do. (Did they have soap, I
wonder? The tent has a bathroom.) But nonperishable food seems so
obvious that I don't understand why Hermione would forget to pack it.
she packed teabags, after all. And, to answer your question, I do
think that Ron would have said something like "Books? What do we need
books for? what about food?" Other than food and toiletries (soap,
shampoo, etc.) I can't think of anything they would need. Hermione can
probably magically mend ripped clothing; if not, a needle and thread
wouldn't hurt. Maybe some form of entertainment that wasn't likely to
burn the tent down, but maybe they didn't want to forget their danger
or their mission. And, of course, they didn't know the camping trip
would last so very long.

7. Which were you more surprised to see, Ron's concern of the plight
of the Cattermoles or Hermione's reaction to Ron's concern?

Carol:
Hermione's reaction, I suppose. She's only shown tenderness once
before that I can recall, in HBP after Ron was poisoned. Since Ron had
quite literally been in Reg Cattermole's shoes, identifying with him
and fearing for Cattermole's wife's predicament (even accidentally
referring to her as "my wife"), I wasn't surprised by his concern at
all. Before the MoM incident, he cared about Hermione's danger as a
Muggle-born, but I don't think he cared much about other Muggle-borns
except in a generalized, abstract way. Now, thanks to the Cattermoles,
the Muggleborns' predicament is more real to him and he cares about
all of them, especially the Cattermoles, because he's experienced
their plight.

8. We see the beginnings of how the locket may affect the emotions of
one who wears it. Do you think Harry, being a sort of Horcrux
himself, is more susceptible to the locket, or has his being a
Horcrux given him more strength and practice at fighting off the
effects of the locket?

Carol:
For some reason, it's Ron who's particularly susceptible to the
locket, maybe because his feelings of jealousy and inadequacy are
exactly the sort of thing that Tom Riddle liked to exploit. Harry's
susceptibility appears to be to anger (though all we see in this
chapter is hopelessness, exhaustion, and fear); Hermione seems to be
able to shut out the locket's influence (*she* would have had no
trouble learning Occlumency) until Ron leaves, at which point she gets
weepy. But I'm getting ahead of the chapter, so al I'll say is that,
no, I don't think Hary's relationship to the soul bit as a fellow
Horcrux gives him any kind of immunity; it just affects him
differently than it does Ron or Hermione because he has a different
personality and different concerns. (They can, after all, go back if
they want to. He can't.)

9. Looking back are you surprised that Voldemort didn't question
Gregorovitch about wandlore?

Carol:
I'm not surprised now since he'd learned all that he thought he needed
to know from Ollivander. Gregorovitch *might* haave been able to tell
him about the deathly Hallows had he been given the opportunity. Then
again, maybe, like Ollivander, all he knows is the history and
properties of the Elder Wand. And all Voldemort cares about is
possessing the Elder Wand. Gregorovitch might have told him that he
needed to defeat the wand's master, in which case, Snape would have
been in serious trouble. As it is, he's only concerned with
identifying, finding, and no doubt killing the golden-haired thief. If
only he'd never seen that photo, he'd have been stuck in that stage of
a fruitless hunt!

10. The first time you read about the merry-faced golden-haired
youngster hopping out a window, did you remember where Harry had
glimpsed his face before?

Carol:
Oh, yes. I didn't know who he was, but I knew where Harry had seen his
photograph. I remembered the golden curls and the gleeful, wild
laughter. Funny, though; I don't think I connected him with
Grindelwald despite Krum's rant on Grindelwald's symbol and Rita
Skeeter's hints about the duel.

Carol, thanking Doddie for an interesting summary and great questions!