CHAPDISC: DH36, THE FLAW IN THE PLAN

[Catlady (Rita Prince Winston)]

No: HPFGUIDX 185221

Siriusly Snapey Susan summarized chapter 36 in
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/185219>:

<< 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 :)) >>

This is a forbidden LOL reply.

<< He hears Bellatrix saying, "My Lord... *my lord*...," as if to a
lover. [1]  (snip) After coldly refusing assistance from Bellatrix
(snip) and Molly's curse hits squarely above Bellatrix's heart [pp.
736-7] (snip) Voldemort screams in rage, blasts all three of his
opponents aside, and turns to Molly. (snip) 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? >>

Of course Bellatrix was completely in love with Voldemort. He surely
wasn't in love with her, but it seems that, despite his inability to
care about anyone but himself, he did care about her, at least as a
prized possession. This is shown by his rage at her death, as well as
by him taking her with him while fleeing the debacle at the Ministry
ending OoP. He saved Bella while leaving Lucius to be sent to Azkaban.

Rodolphus appears to be just as weak and flimsy a character as his
brother Rabastan. Both are Bella's slaves (no, slaves have feelings of
their own, they are her robots) to command as she will. One could
speculate whether she had eaten them up while the three were still in
school and she brought them to LV, or whether they had been more
independent in those days and joined LV on their own, and it was LV
who ate them up and then handed them over to 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, (snip) 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. >>

Why didn't Hagrid notice Harry's heartbeat? He would have noticed if
it were one of his interesting creatures! This bothered me even more
than why is Hagrid still alive at this point in the story. 

<< 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?" (snip) 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? >>

They must have known that Harry wasn't dead, because they know
everything, from reading it in the stars. They may have joined the
fight because they read in the stars that they were going to join the
fight. 

However, I'm inclined to think that the centaurs weren't thinking at
all of Harry. I think their co-incidentally well-time attack on the
Death Eaters was just their old tradition of attacking anyone who
messed up their forest, such as by sending Acromantulas dispersing in
all directions.

More later.