Comments on: Chapter 10: Kreacher’s Tale

By: Arabella Figg

Arabella Figg — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 00:05:13 +0000

Sorry I’m so late to this, but excellent chapter, Johnny. Great catch on the seven questions/identity.

Kreacher’s story is so moving. It’s the first time we have any kind of extended story from, and interaction with, an elf. Kreacher really contrasts with Dobby. Dobby hated his masters (or at least the current ones), but Kreacher loved his family, even if he despised Sirius’ deviation (but that was entwined with Sirius’ contempt and unkindness to him).

Kreacher reveals that elves can love. He also reveals that some humans love their house elves and be devoted to them. There’s no doubt in my mind that Regulus turned on Voldemort because of his callous treatment of Kreacher. Regulus may or may not have understood what the Horcrux was, but he finally understood Voldemort’s evil and determined to fight it.

That Kreacher could be turned to loyalty to Harry so speedily shows how these creatures needed love and respect, rather than the kind of fear and mistreatment Dobby endured. I suspect he was saddened when the Trio didn’t return home to 12 Grim.

A Horcrux issue confusing to me is that Regulus writes LV that he intends to destroy it. Yet he doesn’t do a thing with it, giving the locket to Kreacher and then dying. So was this a bluff?

I also found Lily’s letter touching. Until Snape’s Memories, it’s the first time in the books we’ve actually heard her voice. And then in the Pensieve, Harry got to see his mother alive.

By: R. Ross

R. Ross — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 20:01:41 +0000

I see one of the greatest reasons why Dumbledore did not or could not confide to Harry about their mutual personal ties that both of them living in Godric’s Hollow, and in Dumbledore’s personal quest to search for the three Hallows of the Brother’s Peverell DD could not say to Harry by the way I have the Elder wand come by and have a look see! These facts or (truths) where kept hidden from Harry to keep him safe, just as R.A.B. choose to provide safety for Kreacher and the rest of the Black family to keep the old “muggle-hater line” going. There is also a theory that one reason why Regulus A. Black was so disillusioned and changed his allegiances was that he discovered the truth about Tom Riddle’s secret of his true blood status, in Lord Voldemort’s own words a filthy half-blood mud-blood. (I Can not back this theory up, I don’t remember where I read this, has anyone encountered this also).

Later we see that Harry is simply obsessed and driven completely way off track by searching for The Hallows and giving less priority (questing) of finding the remaining Horcruxes. Hermione’s “job” at this time in the story is to slow Harry down and to help him focused and on task, that is to find and destroy Horcruxes.

By: diva_alix

diva_alix — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 05:48:46 +0000

Very nicely written post! I like how you point out that even Lily’s letter points us back to Dumbledore, she knows information that ’she’s not sure that Dumbledore would like them knowing’ (to paraphrase), and coming from his mother, it’s doubly intriguing to Harry.
I liked how Lily and Harry form their “G”s in the same way, and that Harry experiences each one as a “little wave from beyond the veil”, a hearkening back to the veil in the Death Room of book 5, and the Celtic idea of a veil dividing our world from the spirit world.
I believe that Regulus did figure out that the locket being a Horcrux. Voldemort was known for occasionally boasting about his “experiments” and his “pushing the boundaries of magic farther” to his Death Eaters, sure, in his arrogance, that no one would figure out his secrets. Regulus, being intelligent, did.

By: jensenly

jensenly — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 01:15:26 +0000

Excellent, SJ. I knew someone could clear that up for me!

By: SJ

SJ — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 23:50:53 +0000

Jensenly, when I was a child living in England, we always referred to all the decorative porcelain statuettes, pretty vases, commemorative plates and “precious moments”-type things on my grandma’s mantle as ornaments. So there you go.

By: jensenly

jensenly — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 23:11:38 +0000

I have always been a little perplexed on the use of the word “ornaments” in Lily’s letter. She is writing to thank Sirius for Harry’s birthday present, which would indicate she was writing sometime after July 31st, but before October 31st. In the sentence prior to the word “ornaments”, she mentions the ugly vase Petunia sent for Christmas (which Harry broke while riding his toy broom). So is JKR using the word “ornaments” to describe knick-knacks or did she make a mistake and think of Christmas ornaments because of the prior mention of the holiday? Is “ornaments” a British term for little decorative items placed around the house?

Obviously not an earth-shattering question, but would be curious to know what others think.

By: Lily Luna

Lily Luna — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 15:47:26 +0000

Sorry – meant “the horcrux” not “to horcrux”

By: Lily Luna

Lily Luna — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 15:46:15 +0000

In my opinion, Regulus Black is the Black King of alchemy (not Kingsley Shacklebolt, sorry John). The name obviously fits. In addition, the Black King usually dies by drowning (like Regulus) and at his death the matter is at its blackest black. This would accurately describe the state of the war against Voldemort both at the time of Regulus’ actual death and at the time that Harry learns of it from Kreacher.

I too wondered why Regulus allowed himself to drown rather than apparate away with Kreacher. Your reason, that the death eaters would find him and kill him anyway if he left is good. I also thought he might have been afraid that Voldemort would legilimize him and realize he had taken to horcrux, which would have endangered Kreacher and probably his parents, too, so he would have sacrificed himself to protect him. I think the death eaters didn’t know what had happened to him and put out the story that he was dead as a warning to any other death eaters thinking of fleeing.

By: Steve Morrison

Steve Morrison — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 05:22:06 +0000

Regulus isn’t just a star name, either. It’s the name of a famous Roman general, Marcus Atilius Regulus, whose death, according to legend, had a striking parallel to R.A.B.’s. Google him if you don’t already know it — the essential part is that, out of principle, he voluntarily returned to a place where he knew he would be killed by torture. (Though this is considered historically questionable; the legend is doubtless the reason Rowling chose the name.)

By: SJ

SJ — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 04:52:12 +0000

The last question, much like the last horcrux, is the key to overcoming Harry’s biggest hang-ups.

“Or had Harry been nothing more than a tool to be polished and honed, but not trusted, never confided in?”

I would argue that he needs the answer to that final question before he can walk into the fray and sacrifice himself.

Harry needs to believe that it is his FREE WILL that drives him to sacrifice, not predestination. Thus, the crux of his concerns about Dumbledore boil down to a deeper question about his status as either an active participant in his own life or a pawn, a faceless tool in Dumbledore’s scheme.

That is why the seventh question is so poignant, and colors his development throughout the book, up through the climax. It is, essentially, a question of free will.