The Order of the Phoenix Re-Read: Chapter 34

[slowfox]

As Harry, Neville and Luna mount up (Luna side-saddle!), it hadn't occurred to me that the rest might have a problem:

"How're we supposed to get on?" said Ron faintly. "When we can't see the things?"

Point of order: each of them bent as low as possible to protect themselves from his slipstream. No, you don't want to protect yourself from a slipstream, you want to take advantage of it.</pedant? who? me?>

I'm really impressed that, despite the weight of the impending Hearing surely being on his mind, he managed to remember the Ministry of Magic number Arthur dialled waaaaay back in Chapter 7. For those of you unfamiliar with telephone boxes, I'm impressed that all six of the Rescue Mission managed to fit inside one!

It's ominous, indeed, that the Ministry seems so deserted: surely there'd be a night watch or something? Or otherwise the Vistors' Entrance wouldn't have granted them admission, would it?

The revolving, circular room is a neat touch, the first thing they reach when they enter the Department of Mysteries. There's some creepy stuff in the Department of Mysteries:

...in the very middle of the room, an enormous glass tank of deep green liquid, big enough for all of them to swim in; a number of pearly-white objects were drifting around lazily in it.
...

"No," said Hermione. She sounded odd. She moved forward to look through the side of the tank. "They're brains."

*shudders slightly* I was disappointed when the braaaaaaaaaaaaainz didn't get utilised more deeply, but I s'pose it paves the way for Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban and Zombies when the Jane Austen/zombies mashups need to feed on new source material ;-P

Hermione's Flagrate marks the door in Gryffindor colours :-)

It's only Ron and Hermione who appear immune to the veil's charms in the stone ampitheatre; Harry and Luna can both hear the voices, whilst Neville and Ginny are at least staring, entranced by it. I do wonder what does happen when you walk through it, though...

So, to recap - of the 'about a dozen' doors, we know what's behind five:
Door 0 - the entrance
Door 1 - braaaaaaaaaaaaainz
Door 2 - the veil
Door 3 - locked
Door 4 - time turners

And it's the time turner room leads to the hall of prophecies.

This next moment is awful:

Nobody spoke. Harry did not want to look at any of them. He felt sick. He did not understand why Sirius was not here. He had to be here. This was where he, Harry, had seen him...

That moment where your blood runs cold, and you realise that you've put everyone at risk for... nothing. Ouch.

It's Ron who just happens to spot that Harry's name is on one of the prophecy orbs in row 97. I wonder what Malfoy would've done if only Harry had attempted to rescue Sirius - he probably wouldn't have scanned all the prophetic orbs looking for his name. This Moste Diabolicale Sceeyme all does hinge rather unhealthily on a large dollop of serendipity, if you ask me.

Nice close to the chapter, though:

And then, from right behind them, a drawling voice spoke.

"Very good, Potter. Now turn around, nice and slowly, and give that to me."

The 'drawling' obviously alerts us to who's giving the command, but as cliffhangers go, that's a pretty good one.

I quite like the unexpected way this chapter plays out - the completely uncontested arrival at the Department of Mysteries, then having to fathom their way through the entrance hall. The disturbing brains and the unsettling introduction of the veil. Then we discover that Sirius isn't even there, and just as Ron introduces a tiny glimmer of hope that it hasn't all been worthless, Lucius Malfoy arrives to truly make everyone's day.

Comments

[aome]

My question: where is the Order? They've been religiously guarding the "weapon" this entire time, but on the day Harry and Co arrive ... they're not there. Did they stop guarding it after Arthur was attacked?

And how did they know the moment Harry had arrived? Through Voldemort reading into Harry's thoughts, I suppose?

Have they kept every prophecy ever made since the dawn of (wizarding) time? Why? Surely many of those were made hundreds of years ago about events that were only slightly more recent, and they have now occurred. Why keep record of them in this terribly fragile fashion? (And how do you preserve a prophecy in this manner, anyway? I somehow doubt Dumbledore just happened to have a glass sphere handy just in case Trelawney spouted off just at that moment; of course, she did, but.... Does one just magically get produced the moment a true Seeing occurs? Is there one from the night Trelawney spoke in PoA? (There's yet another event that has occurred already.)

I'm not sure I'll ever be able to read the word "brains" again without thinking braaaaaaiiiinnnnz. :P

[slowfox]

My question: where is the Order? They've been religiously guarding the "weapon" this entire time, but on the day Harry and Co arrive ... they're not there. Did they stop guarding it after Arthur was attacked?

This was something I wondered about, too? Surely they'd have upped the security on the 'weapon' after Arthur's attack (even if we know from Umbridge that you can set watching wards on things).

And you do also wonder about the point of keeping all the prophecies ever made.

I'm assuming that the prophecies get made from the observer producing the memory like a Penseive, and sealing it in the glass ball for posterity.

Question: who shelves the things? Since, y'know, they can only be handled by the interested parties. And can people move them with Levitation charms without suffering ill effect? All sorts of questions...

[carolanne5]

Yup, realising Sirius wasn't there was a real pit of the stomach moment. Almost as bad as the later Sirius moment.

[slowfox]

Yup, realising Sirius wasn't there was a real pit of the stomach moment. Almost as bad as the later Sirius moment.

I did think it was a pretty original twist in the book's plot - we're haring down a rescue mission, and suddenly the rug gets pulled from underneath us, and, worse, Harry's put five of his friends in harm's way, too.

And this is all before he remembers the two way mirrors Sirius gave him.

[cynthia_black]

but I s'pose it paves the way for Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban and Zombies when the Jane Austen/zombies mashups need to feed on new source material ;-P

;)) Have you read Pride and Prejudice and Zombies perchance? UC lent it to me last week. But as I've never read P&P, I figured perhaps I'd better read that first...

I hadn't noticed the scores on the doors were Gryffindor colours :)

The bit with the prophecy orb: I do wonder about the protections on it - I mean, it's only (?)Harry Potter: It could equally have been (?)Neville Longbottom.

[slowfox]

Have you read Pride and Prejudice and Zombies perchance? UC lent it to me last week. But as I've never read P&P, I figured perhaps I'd better read that first...

No, I haven't read either Pride and Prejudice and Zombies or Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters or Mr Darcy, Vampire. Yet. Like you, I feel that I need to read the source material first, since otherwise I suspect that it's unlikely to make a lot of sense.