hour glass wasRe: CHAPDISC: DH32, The Elder Wand

[potioncat]

No: HPFGUIDX 184754

 
> Carol:
What do you think is the significance
> of this repeated but altered detail? What might it symbolize or
> foreshadow in both instances? Who do you think cursed the respective
> hourglasses and why?"
> 
> I'll see what others say and, when I have another moment to breathe
> and think, I'll read the responses and add mine.

  
Potioncat:

There is more than just the hourglasses being repeated. In HBP there 
is "The Lightening Struck Tower" followed by  "The Flight of the 
Prince." In DH we have "The Elder Wand" followed by "The Prince's 
Tale."  The earlier two chapter titles evoke Tarot images of wand and 
tower. The following two chapters are about the "Prince." Do the 
Tarot cards speak to the Prince in these cases?

Back to the hourglasses. We don't see who fired the curses that 
shattered the hourglasses. It appears to be part of the great damage 
that is happening to the castle. In both cases, the stones are 
scattered on the blood stained floor. It is written as a random part 
of the damages being done, but the choice of stones reflects the 
current Headmaster. 

We might say, given one symbolism of the hourglass, that DD's and 
Snape's time had run out. I can't honestly say that I saw the 
emeralds as forewarning of Snape's death when I first read it. I may 
have. It certainly appears to do that in a re-read.

Good question--Carol and Zara.