Harry Potter News and Commentary
From the category archives:
On her blog Quoth the Maven, Janet Batchler has some great comments regarding who is the hero of Harry Potter: Harry Potter or Dumbledore. She’s responding to a story here arguing that Dumbledore is the real hero of the HP series not Harry. Check out both and see what you think.
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Quick Synopsis: After an abortive attempt to return to Grimmauld Place, the Trio instead end up in a forest. Yaxley was able to hold on long enough to get within the protective charms on the house, but Hermione shakes him off and goes to where the Quidditch Cup was held in Goblet of Fire. Ron is splinched and has a gaping wound in his arm and is in danger of bleeding to death. Tense moments pass until first aid is applied. Ron appears to be okay, but the Trio decide to stay put for a spell. The Trio have the Locket Horcrux but only have vauge ideas on how to destroy it. Caution and watchfulness become the order of the day. Hermione puts up several protective spells and Harry suggests he and she take turns watching. As he takes the first watch, Harry begins heading into the doldrums again which leaves him open to seeing another vision from Voldemort’s head. The Dark Lord has finally found Gregorovitch and learns that the object he seeks was stolen years ago by the curly haired, wild, merry youth. The vision ends with Gregorovitch’s death and Harry is left to ponder what he has seen. [click to continue…]
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Two things I like about this chapter: Romance and Politics. 
I won’t attempt to summarize the whole chapter since there’s so much packed in there. Instead, I’ll have some random thoughts on things that stood out for me.
As the chapter begins, Harry is dreaming of Voldemort searching for Gregorovitch. For HP obsessives, we should remember way back to Goblet of Fire and the passing reference to Gregorovitch as Krum’s wand maker. Did anyone catch this on first reading DH? I don’t think I did. This reference, combined with the actions of Harry’s wand three chapters ago, should get us thinking about wands and wand-lore as something important to which we should pay attention throughout the story. [click to continue…]
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Half-Blood Prince’s final chapter opens with a favorite device of Ernest Hemingway, the simple declarative sentence:
“All lessons were suspended, all examinations postponed.”
It really is one of Rowling’s finer moments as a writer, poignant and rich with subtlety. In this one statement, she wipes away all the carefree wonderment of childhood with pointed irony. Hogwarts shifts in symbolism from a place of comfort and safety where the worst worry was two parchments on werewolves for horrible Professor Snape, to a place in which parents are spiriting their children away as fast as possible because Snape has murdered the headmaster.
We see the Centaurs and Merfolk gather and pay their respects in ways I believe would have left Dumbledore deeply honored. His entombment is rich with symbolism, as Harry thinks “for one heart-stopping moment, that he [sees] a phoenix fly joyfully ino the blue.” Yet, the “next second the fire had vanished,” and a brilliant “white marble tomb” sits in its place.
In Dumbledore’s death, Voldemort has seemingly gained a devastating victory. Harry and Hogwarts no longer have their protector. The last bastion of paradise is now vulnerable — very vulnerable. Hogwarts has become, in one sense, a graveyard. [click to continue…]
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