The Order of the Phoenix Re-Read: Chapter 22

[slowfox]

We've known since the first book that the portraits can talk, and we've known that they can move from picture to picture since at least the third books (Sir Cadogan leading the gang up to Trelawney's lair in the North Tower), but this is the first time, I think, that we see that they're not restricted simply to the building in which the picture's hung. Which again raises the prospect of parents being able to give their children portraits to take with them to Hogwarts, so that they can keep in touch through the school year. Just sayin'...

Nonetheless, I share Harry's concern:

"Yes," said Harry emphatically - why were they all so slow on the uptake, did they not realise how much a person bled when fangs that long pierced their side?

We had the wait for Neville to fetch McGonagall, and then the trek through the castle to Dumbledore's office, and now Harry replaying the dream for Dumbledore's benefit before anyone makes any kind of move to help Arthur.

Dumbledore does a lot of cryptic things in this chapter, which must surely be serving to wind an already stressed Harry up still further:

"We will need," Dumbledore said very quietly to the bird, "a warning."

and

"Naturally, naturally," murmured Dumbledore apparently to himself, still observing the stream of smoke without the slightest sign of surprise. "But in essence divided?"

The portraits return from their recon with the news that Arthur "doesn't look good, he's covered in blood" and that he's been taken to St Mungo's, where "he looks bad."

Obviously, at this point Hogwarts' pastoral care for its students kicks into high gear and... no-one speaks to Ron, despite the fact that he's right there as he's being told his dad's been attacked and is in grave danger. I know that Dumbledore's more distant in this book than the others, but this is pretty extreme, if you ask me.

We get a hint, finally, as to why Dumbledore's been avoiding Harry's kiwi-green eyes:

At once, Harry's scar burned white-hot, as though the old wound had burst open again - and unbidden, unwanted, but terrifyingly strong, there rose within Harry a hatred so powerful he felt, for that instant, he would like nothing better than to strike - to bite - to sink his fangs into the man before him -

So Harry's clearly bonded, at this point with a snake, and we have to hypothesise that the connection is two way - not only did Harry ride with the snake when it attacked Arthur, but the snake seems to be trying to goad Harry into attacking Dumbledore.

The Weasleys (plus Harry, but of course no Hermione) travel by Portkey to Grimmauld Place, where they're greeted by Kreacher:

"Back again, the blood-traitor brats. Is it true their father's dying?"

"OUT!" roared a second voice.

OK, was this sufficient instruction for Kreacher to desert his post? I'm not sure that it's that different to the Now go away, Kreacher," from chapter 6.

Sirius, Harry, Ron, Ginny and the Twins spend a miserable night drinking Butterbeer in the kitchen until Molly arrives the following morning, to let them know that Arthur's going to be OK:

"Breakfast!" said Sirius loudly and joyfully, jumping to his feet. "Where's that accursed house-elf? Kreacher! KREACHER!"

But Kreacher did not answer the summons.

So it's looking like this is the point that Kreacher absconds...

We make it into St Mungo's, and the tone of this chapter's a bit uneven if you ask me: we have the silliness of the various magical maladies that are afflicting the patients, interspersed with the heaviness of Harry's doom-laden introspection. It's all a bit unsettling.

Note how prescient Harry was, when wondering why Hagrid's wounds seemed fresh:

"It seems there was some rather unusual kind of posion in that snake's fangs that keeps wounds open. They're sure they'll find an antidote, though."

The snake vanished from the site, we learn - I'm assuming it was Nagini, although we never know one way or the other on that count. Still seems odd - how did it get in? How did it get out?

And then the chapter closes with the suggestion that Voldemort's possessing Harry, which is why Dumbledore's avoiding him (but, oddly, quite happy to let the boy spend the entire summer right at the very centre of the top secret resistance movement).

Like I said, this chapter felt very uneven in tone to me - McGonagall and Dumbledore must have faster chains of communication than having to walk from Gryffindor Tower down to the Headmaster's office. Dumbledore's treatment of Ron, inparticular, seems callous in the extreme, and it's all pretty miserable, especially when Harry gets all depressingly introspective. But then we have this 'light-hearted' portrait of St Mungo's, before being brought back down to earth with Arthur's injury and the suggestion that Harry's possessed.

We have determined that Arthur was on some kind of guard duty, but we don't know where, nor of what. And it's still very hard, even at this point, to determine what the overall story arc is going to be.

Comments

[aome]

Dumbledore has never really seemed that interested in coddling students through difficult situations, at least not initially. It's not that he doesn't understand their feelings of woe, but that other priorities need to come first - like when he made Harry re-tell what happened in the graveyard, where McG wanted him to be able to go lie down and rest. So, it seems like his lack of attention to Ron is more that other events needed to be attended to, first - setting up a lookout, having the portraits take action, creating the Portkey, etc, and that he trusted others would take care of Ron's emotional state once the immediate issues had been dealt with.

Has it ever been demonstrated that living people can communicate with others via portraits? Sirius and James had those bespelled mirrors - why would they have those if portraits would work instead? It seems that only dead (or entirely fictional) people can actively communicate through portraits. It also seems like photos do not have this ability - it has to be a portrait. I can't imagine it's easy, cheap or common to have someone come 'round to paint a portrait of you. Or perhaps there has to be some sort of spell done after your death, to animate a portrait?

I know St Mungos is a mix of silly with heavy, but I think that's good - the silly helps lighten the overall tone. And I like the wacky inventions - it's part of what makes HP so enjoyable.

I read ahead last week, but we've nearly caught up now, so I suppose I'd better get a move on with continued reading!

[slowfox]

Has it ever been demonstrated that living people can communicate with others via portraits?

Yes, but what if you had a portrait of a long-dead (lamentably, obviously) ancestor, with twin frames? Then your living wizards could communicate 'twixt one another by sending the (no doubt overjoyed to assist) relative back and forth to relay your Dialogue of Import ;-P I'm not saying it'd be perfect, but it could work (although from the looks of things, portraits do like their sleep (apart from Sir Cadogan))...

You can understand the professors not saying much to Ron all the time that Arthur's predicament is unconfirmed, but once they'd actually learnt from the portraits that the situation was bad, there should have been something that they could've said. It didn't necessarily need to be relayed in the text, but she could have written something along the lines of 'McGonagall offered some words of support to Ron before rushing off to Gryffindor Tower'.

Only 4 chapters behind ...for now

[cynthia_black]

Kreacher: The 'OUT' summons is more direct in terms of allowing the house elf an interpretation that means he can leave the house than the 'go away' one. I suppose it's also a question of how long it took Kreacher to get to the point where he'd had enough and really did want to betray Sirius - Dobby took a long, long time to get to the same point in disobeying the Malfoys.

So Harry's clearly bonded, at this point with a snake

I suppose you could interpret it this way at this point, but no, I'm sure it's Riddle he's bonded to, and Riddle was in the snake at the time. Dumbledore is aware of the connection and knows, but is not certain that it is, two-way, and is taking no chances.

Quite a close to the chapter, too, with the information that Harry could be possessed by Voldemort. Useful things, those Extendable Ears...

Re: Only 4 chapters behind ...for now

[slowfox]

Quite a close to the chapter, too, with the information that Harry could be possessed by Voldemort.

Sinister ending, really, and this sends Harry into quite the spiral of self-despair...