CHAPDISC: DH36, THE FLAW IN THE PLAN

[cubfanbudwoman]

No: HPFGUIDX 185219

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SSS:  My apologies for the extreme length of this.  But hey, this was 
the culminating chapter of the whole adventure!!  Surely I can be 
granted a little forgiveness for having to handle all of that in 10 
pages or less? :)


CHAPTER DISCUSSION:  Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Chapter 
36:  The Flaw in the Plan

Harry is back (or is that "back"?) from King's Cross and is lying, 
face down, in the forest again.  He is surprised to NOT be hearing 
Death Eaters cheering Voldemort's victory. Rather, he hears their 
running and their whispers & murmurs.  He hears Bellatrix saying, "My 
Lord... *my lord*...," as if to a lover. [1] 

Harry remains perfectly still, silently taking stock -- wand present, 
Invisibility Cloak present – and then risks the tiniest of eyelid 
openings, to see what is happening.  Voldemort is rising to his 
feet.  Apparently, he had fallen when he cast the Killing Curse upon 
Harry.  [2]

After coldly refusing assistance from Bellatrix, Voldemort asks 
whether the boy is dead.  No one responds, and we hear Voldy 
instructing someone to make the determination.  Soft hands then touch 
Harry's face and his chest, certainly registering the heartbeat 
there, and a woman's voice whispers, "Is Draco alive?  Is he in the 
castle?"  
"Yes," breathes Harry in response.  
"He is dead!" lies Narcissa to Voldemort & the DEs [US hardback, p. 
726].  

Quickly, the reason for the lie registers in Harry's mind:  Narcissa 
does not care whether Voldemort wins now; she simply has said the 
only thing which will provide her with any chance of entering 
Hogwarts and locating her son.  [3]

Voldemort begins to gloat and Crucios Harry in order to show what he 
has done to Harry Potter.  Harry has been expecting this and works to 
remain limp in spite of the pain.  The pain, however, does not come.  

Voldemort announces it is time to go to the castle to show all what 
has become of "their hero."  Voldy assigns Hagrid the task of 
carrying Harry.  Hagrid, as we all surely expected, is sobbing.  
Harry does his best to remain limp and appear dead.  Centaurs appear 
then, and Hagrid shouts, "BANE!  Happy now, are yeh, that yeh didn' 
fight, yeh cowardly bunch o' nags?  Are yeh happy Harry Potter's—
d-dead?" [p. 778]  [4]

As they reach the edge of the forest, the procession halts upon 
Voldemort's command.  Dementors are present – Harry can hear them 
breathing – but they have no effect on him now.  "The fact of his own 
survival burned inside him, a talisman against them, as though his 
father's stag kept guardian in his heart" [p. 728].  [5]

Voldemort magnifies his voice and tells those at Hogwarts that Harry 
Potter is dead, that he has been killed while trying to run away.  He 
tells them if they continue to fight, they'll all be killed; if they 
surrender and kneel before him, they and their families will be 
forgiven, and they may join him to build a new world together.  [6]

Harry risks another glance and sees Voldemort in front of him, Nagini 
wrapped around his neck.  He can risk no action now, though, and 
shuts his eyes again.  Then the procession moves even closer to the 
castle.  A scream of "NO!" breaks the silence.  It is Professor 
McGonagall's scream.  Bellatrix laughs.  More screams of "No!" come 
from Ron, Hermione and Ginny.  The rest of the Hogwarts crowd begins 
to scream and yell at Voldemort & the Death Eaters.  Voldy 
cries, "SILENCE!" and casts a spell to force it.  He instructs Hagrid 
to place Harry on the ground, and then he tells the assemblage again 
that Harry was killed while running away, that he was never anything 
but "a boy who relied on others to sacrifice themselves for him" [p. 
730].  [7]

Ron breaks the enforced silence by shouting, "He beat you!" and 
Neville charges Voldemort, unarmed.  Voldemort is impressed by 
Neville's spirit and bravery and tells him he will make a valuable 
Death Eater.  Neville says he'll join "when hell freezes over" and 
proclaims, "Dumbledore's Army!" [p. 731].

"Very well," concedes Voldemort, and waves his wand, summoning the 
Sorting Hat.  He declares that there will no longer be Sorting at 
Hogwarts, no longer be Houses, but rather, the "emblem, shield and 
colors of my noble ancestor, Salazar Slytherin, will suffice for 
everyone.  Won't they, Neville Longbottom?" [p. 731], and forces the 
Hat onto Neville's head, then magically lights it afire. [8]

Harry is horrified and decides he must now act.  At that instant, 
though, several things happen:  Grawp lumbers around the castle, 
calling, "HAGGER!," causing Voldemort's Giants to attack him; the 
centaurs arrive and begin shooting arrows at the DEs; Harry pulls the 
IC on and jumps up; and Neville, amazingly, breaks free of the Body-
Bind Curse and draws "something silver, with a glittering rubied 
handle" from the depths of the flaming Sorting Hat [p. 733].  [9][10]

With one single stroke of Godric Gryffindor's sword, Neville slices 
off the head of Nagini.  Voldemort screams in fury, and Harry casts a 
Shield Charm between Voldy and Neville.  Hagrid, noticing Harry's 
body is gone, shouts out, "WHERE'S HARRY?" [p. 733].

Chaos now reigns.  Additional reinforcements arrive in "great winged 
creatures" and thestrals, Buckbeak (yay Beaky!), and wizards, too.  
The battle shifts into the castle, Harry under his IC going along 
with the rest.  He does what he can from his hidden spot, casting 
spells and Shield Charms.

More and more people arrive – families of students, Hogsmeade 
shopkeepers – and then come the Hogwarts House Elves, led by 
Kreacher, wearing Regulus' locket and shouting, "Fight! Fight! Fight 
for my Master, defender of house-elves!  Fight the Dark Lord, in the 
name of brave Regulus! Fight!" [p. 734]

Many DEs are felled, by House Elves, by George & Lee, by Flitwick & 
Hagrid, by Ron & Neville, by Aberforth, Arthur & Percy.  Harry notes 
Lucius & Narcissa, running and searching, not even trying to fight, 
just seeking Draco.

Voldemort takes on McGonagall, Slughorn & Kingsley simultaneously, 
while Bella also battles three: Hermione, Ginny & Luna.  A Killing 
Curse nearly strikes Ginny, causing Harry to begin to run towards 
Bellatrix.  Before he can get there, though, he is knocked aside.  

"NOT MY DAUGHTER, YOU BITCH!"

It's Molly, and Bella simply laughs at her, but Molly is 
deadly.  "OUT OF MY WAY!" she roars to the three girls.  She will not 
tolerate assistance, crying, "Get back! Get back!  She is mine!"  
Bella taunts Molly, asking what will happen to the children "when 
Mummy's gone the same way as Freddie?"  

"You—will—never—touch—our—children—again!" is the screamed response, 
and Molly's curse hits squarely above Bellatrix's heart [pp. 736-7].  
("Ding dong, the witch is dead.  Which old witch?  The wicked 
witch!"  Whoops--wrong story :)) [11]

Voldemort screams in rage, blasts all three of his opponents aside, 
and turns to Molly.  "Protego!" roars Harry... and removes his 
Invisibility Cloak.

The crowd yells and cheers but then quickly silences, as Harry and 
Voldemort begin to circle one another.  Harry shouts out his wish 
that no one try to help – "It's got to be me."  Then Harry tells 
Voldy, "There are no more Horcruxes.  It's just you and me.  Neither 
can live while the other survives, and one of us is about to leave 
for good...."

Voldemort jeers his response.  "One of us?  You think it will be you, 
do you, the boy who has survived by accident, and because Dumbledore 
was pulling the strings?" [12]

Harry counters with questions of his own:  His mother dying to save 
him – accident?  His decision to fight in the graveyard – accident?  
His not defending himself this night in the forest and yet surviving—
accident?

Yes, ACCIDENTS, screams Voldemort.  And he proceeds to lie again 
about Harry "crouch[ing] and snivel[ing] behind the skirts of greater 
men and women" [p. 738]. 

Harry corrects this lie and announces that Voldemort won't be killing 
anyone else that night, nor ever again.  "Don't you get it?  I was 
ready to die to stop you from hurting these people.  ...I've done 
what my mother did.  They're protected from you."  And then perhaps 
the biggest shocker of all:  "You don't learn from your mistakes, 
Riddle, do you?" [p. 738]

The prowling continues, as Harry continues informing (I might even 
say teaching) Voldy!Tom.  Then Voldemort jeers, "Is it love again?  
Dumbledore's favorite solution, *love*?"  He points out that love 
didn't keep DD from dying, nor Harry's mother.  What will stop Harry 
dying now?

"Just one thing."  

"If it's not love that will save you this time, you must believe that 
you have magic that I do not, or else a weapon more powerful than 
mine?"

"I believe both."

Voldy laughs his great humorless, insane (Evil Overlordish) 
laugh.  "You think *you* know more magic than I do?" [p. 739] 

He taunts Harry with the reminder that he killed DD.  Yes, concedes 
Harry, DD's dead... but he planned it all his way, on his terms, with 
Snape's help.  Harry emphasizes that Snape was never Voldemort's; 
Snape's patronus was a doe, because of his love for Lily; that he'd 
spied for DD ever since Lily's murder.  Voldemort counters that it 
really doesn't matter, for DD had only been trying to keep the Elder 
Wand from him, but he'd already taken it, and he's just killed Snape 
anyway, making the Elder Wand truly his.  "Dumbledore's last plan 
went wrong, Harry Potter!" [p. 741]

Harry agrees that the plan has gone wrong.  "But," he says, "before 
you try to kill me, I'd advise you to think about what you've 
done....  Think, and try for some remorse, Riddle."  Beyond anything 
else Harry has told him, this shocks Voldy most.  "It's your one last 
chance," Harry reiterates, "it's all you've got left....  I've seen 
what you'll be otherwise....  Be a man... try... Try for some 
remorse...." [p. 741]  [13]

Voldemort cannot believe Harry's gall.  How can Harry possible dare 
to say this?  Yet Harry does, because "Dumbledore's last plan hasn't 
backfired on me at all.  It's backfired on you, Riddle."  He 
explains:  Snape had not been the Elder Wand's true master because 
he'd never *defeated* DD; the death had been *planned,* and that 
changes everything.

Voldemort laughs, seeing what he believes to be the error in Harry's 
thinking:  he himself has stolen the wand from DD's grave, so if DD 
was the last master, not Snape, it's still now Voldy's.  NO, corrects 
Harry, *taking* it isn't enough, *holding* it isn't enough.  The wand 
chooses the wizard... and the Elder Wand already recognized a new 
master before DD died -- someone who removed the wand while DD was 
still alive, against DD's will.  Draco Malfoy was the true master.

Voldy is shocked but cares little.  He figures he'll just take care 
of Draco later.  After he's defeated Harry, he'll just win the Elder 
Wand outright from Draco.  Too late, says Harry.  "I got there 
first.  I overpowered Draco weeks ago.  I took the wand from 
him. ...So it all comes down to this, doesn't it?  Does the wand in 
your hand know its last master was Disarmed?  Because if it does... I 
am the true master of the Elder Wand" [p. 743]. [14]

"Avada Kedavra!"
"Expelliarmus!"

A bang... golden flames... the Elder Wand flies high, spins "toward 
the master it would not kill, who had come to take full possession of 
it at last" [pp. 743-44].  Harry catches it – Voldemort falls 
backward, eyes rolling — "Tom Riddle hit[s] the floor with a mundane 
finality" — Voldemort is dead, killed by his own rebounding curse. 
[15] [16] [17]

There is a shocked silence... then a roaring of cheers and shouts.  
Hermione & Ron reach Harry first (how appropriate), and then Ginny, 
Neville & Luna, the remainder of the sextet which has made up this 
core.  More and more come, all wishing to touch The Boy Who Lived.  
So much to tell him, so much news coming in (Kingsley as Minister for 
Magic, the Imperiused released, innocents in Azkaban freed...), but 
Harry wants so desperately to be away from the crowds.  Luna, 
unsurprisingly, senses this and offers to provide a distraction while 
Harry slips under his IC.  "Ooooh, look, a Blibbering Humdinger!" and 
Harry is gone.  

Harry sees Ginny... Neville... the three Malfoys, reunited, "huddled 
together as though unsure whether or not they were supposed to be 
there" [p. 746].  Finally, he finds Ron & Hermione, and they sneak 
out.  [18]

Peeves is heard singing, 
"We did it, we bashed them, wee Potter's the one,
And Voldy's gone moldy, so now let's have fun!"

"Really gives a feeling for the scope and tragedy of the thing, 
doesn't it?" remarks Ron [p. 746].  But the real scope and tragedy 
don't allow for lightness quite yet for the trio.  Harry takes the 
time to fully explain everything which Ron & Hermione do not yet 
know, about Snape's memories and what occurred in the forest.  Then 
they arrive, without having discussed their destination, at the 
entrance to the headmaster's study, where the battered gargoyle tells 
them to go on up, no password required.  

At the top, Harry is taken aback by an earsplitting sound – the 
applause of the portraits.  Amidst the laughing and dancing and 
crying for joy, Phineas Nigellus calls out, "And let it be noted that 
Slytherin House played its part! Let our contribution not be 
forgotten!" [p. 747]  [19]

Harry, however, can only focus on DD.  In his portrait, tears are 
streaming, and the look of "pride and... gratitude emanating from him 
filled Harry with the same balm as phoenix song" [p. 747].  [20]

Harry speaks to DD's portrait.  "The thing that was hidden in the 
Snitch, I dropped it in the forest. ...I'm not going to go looking 
for it again.  Do you agree?"  DD does, calling it a wise and 
courageous decision.  Harry also says he will be keeping "Ignotus' 
present," though, and again DD agrees.

"And then there's this," Harry says, holding up the Elder Wand.  "I 
don't want it."  Hermione & Ron are beaming at it reverently, and at 
this pronouncement from Harry, Ron asks if he's mental. ;)  But Harry 
wants his *own* wand back.  He pulls the pieces of his holly-and-
phoenix-feather wand out of his pouch, touches them with the Elder 
Wand, and says, "Reparo."  And it works, mending the wand, which then 
sends a warmth through Harry's fingers.

The Elder Wand, says Harry, will go back where it came from, and if 
he dies a natural death, the power will be broken, right?  Since its 
master will never have been defeated?  DD nods, and it is 
resolved.  "[It's] more trouble than it's worth.  And quite honestly, 
I've had enough trouble for a lifetime," says Harry [p. 749].  [21] 
[22] [23]


QUESTIONS
1.  I still don't get this "like a lover" stuff between Bellatrix & 
Voldemort.  What *was* their relationship, in your opinion?  What 
about Rodolphus, her husband?  Was theirs a marriage of convenience? 
Did he not care, or did he know that if he did show he cared, 
Voldemort would kill him?  

2.  Harry is surprised to not hear DE cheers, and is surprised that 
Voldemort has fallen down.  Why?  After encountering the Baby-Voldy-
Thing at King's Cross, wasn't he expecting Voldemort hadn't yet won?

3.  With Narcissa's lie, we have come full circle to a mother's love 
again.  How do you feel about its being this mother?  What do you 
think might have happened if Harry hadn't lucked out this way -- with 
a desperate Narcissa chosen as the one to announce whether he were 
dead or not?

4.  Hagrid, in his grief, accuses the centaurs of cowardice and of 
being happy that Harry has died.  Yet they do arrive, in the nick of 
time, and fight the DEs.  Did they know Harry wasn't dead, or if they 
did not, why did they fight?  

5.  Why is it that Harry does not feel the pain of the Crucio? Is it 
the same reason the Dementors don't affect him? 

6.  Do you believe Voldemort made his offer of forgiveness 
sincerely?  Would those who surrendered have been forgiven and 
allowed to live? 

7.  Okay, Voldy knows the untruth of Harry letting others sacrifice 
themselves for him.  What is he trying to do in telling everyone at 
Hogwarts that he was killed while running away and that he was never 
anything but someone who let others sacrifice themselves for him?  
Does Voldy believe what he's saying, or is he trying to convince the 
others?

8.  It's interesting that Voldemort specifies just the emblem, shield 
and colors of Slytherin being good enough for all.  Why didn't he say 
anything about Slytherin's principles?  Or were they implied along 
with the rest?

9.  Why/How was Neville able to break free of the Body-Bind Curse?  
He certainly couldn't break free of Hermione's in first year!

10.  Does it say anything beyond "only a true Gryffindor" that 
Neville also found Gryffindor's sword in the Sorting Hat?  Does it 
say anything about the Chosen One or about the prophecy?  Or not?

11.  There has been quite a varied response to Molly Weasley in this 
scene.  What is yours?

12.  If you had (or have) no vested interest in Harry Potter, what 
would you think of Voldemort's remarks here?  Has he missed the point 
entirely, or does he have a point about accidents and Dumbledore?  
Does it make sense that he would see things this way?

13.  What do you think Harry thought the odds were that Riddle would 
actually be able to find some remorse?  Did he believe it was 
possible?  Was he doubting DD's statement that nothing could be done 
to help the Voldy-Baby-Thing?  Was he offering this up to be able to 
know that he'd done all he could?

14.  When did Harry puzzle all this out about the Elder Wand?  Does 
he believe it?  Does he just hope it's true?

15.  Tom Riddle falls "with a mundane finality."  Such a fascinating 
phrase.  Was there anything mundane at all about this?  Does JKR 
imply that death strikes us all, no matter who are what?  Why use 
such a phrase?

16.  Wow.  To answer that earlier rhetorical question of Harry's--No, 
Voldy really doesn't learn from his mistakes, does he? :)  In all 
seriousness, though, *is* this Voldemort's biggest mistake, his 
failure to learn?  Or was there something else which was his more 
fundamental mistake?

17.  Now that time has passed and it's all been considered & talked 
over (and over and over), does the "Who's master of the Elder Wand 
and how does it happen?" work for you or not?

18.  This has been discussed much before, but just *why* do the 
Malfoys look as if they're not sure whether they should be there? 
Because of the part they had once played but had set aside? Because 
there were no other Slytherins there to speak of?  Because...?

19.  Many were disappointed by the part Slytherin played at the end, 
having hoped for so much more from students, children of DEs, etc.  
Thinking of the roles of the Slytherins who *did* play a part – 
Horace and Narcissa in particular – are those parts worth 
celebrating?  How significant to the outcome were they?

20.  Many left this book rather stunned at revelations about DD, not 
altogether happy with the strings he pulled or decisions he made or 
actions he took.  What do you make of the fact that, for Harry, DD's 
pride and — let's face it — DD's approval were a balm equal to 
phoenix song?

21.  Would you have kept any of the Deathly Hallows?  If so, which 
one(s) and why?  If not, which would at least have tempted you?  Are 
there any to whose power you think you'd have been totally immune?

22.  As you finished this chapter for the first time, how satisfied 
or dissatisfied were you?  Did it feel like a resolution befitting 
our protagonist and antagonist?

23.  So if you had to do it in your own words and as concisely as 
possible, how would you sum up just what that "flaw in the plan" was?


Siriusly Snapey Susan


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