CHAPDISC: DH29, THE LOST DIADEM

[yolandacarroll]

No: HPFGUIDX 184352

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CHAPTER DISCUSSION: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
Chapter 29, The Lost Diadem

At the very end of Chapter 28, Neville Longbottom comes out from the
tunnel behind Ariana's portrait.  Immediately picking up where
chapter 28 left off, chapter 29 starts with Neville warmly greeting
Harry, Ron, and Hermione.  He is very glad to see them.  Harry,
getting a good look at Neville, sees how beaten up and generally
unkempt he is.  When they ask Neville what's happened to him, he
dismisses his injuries and then tells Aberforth a couple more people
are on the way.  Aberforth protests, because it is after curfew and
the whole village has a Caterwauling Charm on it.  Neville counters
that the people will apparate right into the bar.

Neville leads Harry, Ron and Hermione through the tunnel behind the
portrait.  The passageway looks like it has been there for years.
Ron asks about it and says he thought there were only seven passages
in and out of Hogwarts.  Neville informs them those passages were
sealed off before school started and now there are curses over the
entrances with Death Eaters and Dementors waiting at the exits.

Neville then asks them, did they really break into Gringotts and
escape on a dragon?  Harry confirms both as true.  Neville is happy
to hear this and asks them what they've been doing.  Rumor had it
Harry was on the run, but Neville didn't believe it.  He thought
Harry was working on something.  Harry tells Neville he's right and
then asks about Hogwarts.  Neville tells Harry about the changes at
Hogwarts, mainly the Carrows.  Neville says that they like punishment
to the point of making Umbridge look tame.  Amycus Carrow and his
sister Alecto teach Defense Against the Dark Arts and Muggle Studies,
respectively.  Defense Against the Dark Arts is now "just the Dark
Arts."  The students are now supposed to practice the Cruciatus Curse
on people who've earned detentions.  Neville received one of the
gashes on his face for refusing to do curse people.  In Muggle
Studies, which is now compulsory for everyone,  they have to listen
to Alecto telling them how "Muggles are like animals, stupid and
dirty, and how they drove wizards into hiding by being vicious
towards them, and how the natural order is being re-established."
Neville received one of the other gashes on his face for asking
Alecto how much Muggle blood she and her brother had.

Ron comments that might not have been the right time and place to
have a smart mouth.  Neville says he had to, because it helps when
people stand up to the Carrows; it gives people hope.  Neville
learned that from watching Harry.  Also, Neville explains that
mouthing off won't get the students killed, just tortured.  The only
students who are really in danger are the ones whose friends and
families are causing trouble.  He mentions Luna's kidnapping.  They
tell Neville Luna is safe.  He already knew she was, because she sent
him a message.  He holds up one of the fake galleons the D.A. used.

Neville says he, Ginny, and Luna were the leaders of Dumbledore's
Army.  The D.A. was resisting the Carrow cruelty.  They had done
overt things like graffiti and unchaining people, but that led to
D.A. members like Michael Corner getting "tortured pretty bad," so
they'd changed to more "underground stuff."

The Carrows knew Neville was one of the main instigators and, in an
attempt to control him, the Death Eaters went after Gran.  Neville
proudly relates how the Death Eaters "bit off more than they could
chew."  Dawlish is still in St. Mungo's and Gran's on the run.  Gran
sent Neville a letter saying how proud she is of him.

They exit the tunnel and wind up in the Room of Requirement, where
everyone is excited to see them.  Harry asks if the Carrows can get
in.  Seamus says no.  As long as one of them stays inside the door
won't open.  Seamus gives Neville the credit for securing the room.
According to Seamus, Neville "really gets" the room and uses the
right wording to close all the loopholes.  Seamus even exclaims
that "Neville's the man!"

Harry feels pain in his scar and sees Voldemort inside a stone
shack.  Voldemort knows the Horcrux he left there is gone.  Harry
lets Ron and Hermione know they need to get moving.  Problem is, the
rest of the D.A. is ready and willing to go with them.  Harry
objects, explaining how Dumbledore left the three of them, him, Ron
and Hermione, a job to do.  Neville counters that they're
Dumbledore's Army and everyone in the room had been fighting and had
proven their loyalty to Dumbledore
 and to Harry.

Just then, people start showing up in answer to Neville's message.
Luna Lovegood, Dean Thomas, Ginny, Fred and George Weasley, Lee
Jordan and Cho Chang come in.  Harry finds Ginny more beautiful than
ever, but he really didn't want to see her right then.  (The roaring
beast in Harry's chest from Half-Blood Prince was apparently on mute
for the moment.  ^_^)

George asks Harry what's the plan.  Harry says there isn't one.  Fred
says "make it up as we go along my favorite kind."  Everyone
misunderstands why Harry has returned to Hogwarts.  Ron and Hermione
question Harry's decision to not let the D.A. help.  They argue that
time is short and they don't even know what they're looking for.  Ron
says they don't have to tell the others  the object is a Horcrux,
adding, "You don't have to do everything alone, Harry."

Harry thinks about Dumbledore and what Aberforth said about him and
secrets.  Dumbledore was the one who told Harry not to tell anyone
except Ron and Hermione about the Horcruxes.
Harry decides to trust the D.A. to help him.  He asks everyone,
especially the Ravenclaws, If anyone has seen anything that could
have belonged to Ravenclaw, perhaps something with an Eagle on it.
The lost diadem of Ravenclaw is brought up.  Harry decides to check
it out, even if it is a stretch.

Harry sees through Voldemort's eyes again and knows Voldemort is
flying either toward the lake or the castle.  Luna takes Harry to the
Ravenclaw common room to see the diadem Ravenclaw is wearing on her
statue.  Harry uses the Marauder's Map and his invisibility cloak to
get him and Luna to the room without being seen.  To enter the
Ravenclaw common room, you have to answer a question.  There isn't a
simple password.  Luna gets them in by giving the door a "well
reasoned" answer to the question, "Which came first, the phoenix or
the flame?"  Harry steps out from under the cloak and Alecto Carrow
appears behind him.  As he raises his wand, she presses her finger to
her Dark Mark to alert Voldemort that Potter is at Hogwarts.

1) Why would Neville and Seamus look so bad?  Shouldn't they have
been healed by the school nurse or even by themselves or another
student?

2)  What do you think about Voldemort making his very biased version
of Muggle Studies compulsory for the students?

3)  Despite the source (Alecto Carrow, a Death Eater) could there be
some truth about Muggles driving wizards "into hiding by being
vicious towards them"?

4) Neville says "...it helps when people stand up to them, it gives
everyone hope.  I used to notice that when you did it, Harry."  What
does this say about how Neville and the others see Harry?

5) In Half-Blood Prince only Neville and Luna were still carrying
around their fake galleons that the D.A. used in Order of the
Phoenix.  Judging from how many people show up to answer Neville's
message and how active the D.A. has been in fighting the Carrows,
this is no longer the case.  What caused the change?

6) In the seventh book, the trio of Neville, Ginny, and Luna were the
leaders of the D.A.  Can we compare this new trio with the trio of
Harry, Ron, and Hermione?

7) Neville says he couldn't ask people "to go through what Michael
Corner went through."   Compare Neville as a leader to Harry.  (I
realize we do not see or hear very much about Neville as a leader.
Feel free to "fill in the blanks" using what we already know about
Neville from books 1-6.)

 8) A "Little old witch living alone" gave the Death Eaters more
trouble than they would have thought.   Do you feel that the Death
Eaters should have known better?

9) Gran was hard on Neville; however he did turn out the way she
always expected him to.  What were your feelings of Gran pre-DH and
post-DH?  Were they very different from each other?

10) Harry only sees banners for three houses represented.  Why
haven't any Slytherins stood up to the Carrows and joined the D.A.?
Was it unrealistic to hope that any of them would?

11) Seamus says that "Neville's the man!"  There is no doubting that
Neville came into his own in Deathly Hallows; however, do you feel
that this was plausible or not?  Do you feel that Rowling presented
Neville's change well?

12) Why didn't the room of requirement give them a passage into the
Hogwarts' kitchen instead of to the Hog's Head Bar?

13) After girls starting moving in, the Room of Requirement
sprouts "a pretty good bathroom."  What did the boys do before then?

14) Neville quickly latched on to Harry, saying that Dumbledore had
left them a job to do.  Neville and the others truly consider
themselves Dumbledore's Army.  Neville states that the D.A. had
proven their loyalty to Dumbledore... and to Harry.  Before reading
this did you feel that the D.A. was loyal to Harry or simply a group
that was united against Umbridge and Voldemort?

15) To enter the Ravenclaw common room you have to answer a question,
not simply remember a password.  What does this say about the way
Ravenclaws learn and how they apply their skills and knowledge?

16)  Would any of you be interested in reading about what happened at
Hogwarts during Deathly Hallows?  ("Neville Longbottom and the
Rebellion at Hogwarts" sounds like a good read to me ^_^.)

Yolanda


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