The Order of the Phoenix Re-Read: Chapter 36

[slowfox]

Dumbledore corrals most of the Death Eaters. We know that Bellatrix is duelling Kingsley, and then he's bested and she dashes out of the auditorium. Harry gives chase, and we find that the Department of Mysteries can be quite accommodating at times, despite the carousel of doors:

"Where's the exit?" he shouted desperately, as the wall rumbled to a halt again. "Where's the way out?"

The room seemed to have been waiting for him to ask. The door right behind him flew open and the corridor towards the lifts stretched ahead of him, torch-lit and empty.

Of all the bewildering characterisations of Harry throughout OotP, this one got me the most:

Hatred rose in Harry such as he had never known before; he flung himself out from behind the fountain and bellowed, 'Crucio!'

*boggles* It knocked Bellatrix off her feet, but didn't do much beyond that. Questions, nonetheless, arise. How did Harry know how to cast an Unforgivable? It surely can't just be 'wave the wand randomly and say the incantation'. There has to be more to spellwork than that, since otherwise what's the point in Hogwarts? It could be argued that, having been subjected to the spell, Harry's had ample time to analyse how it's conjoured, but you'd think that he'd have had other things on his mind at the time.

Aren't there, y'know, consequences for casting Unforgivables? Even if they're singularly ineffective ones?

But beyond that, this is Harry, who, unless he's really going to go Dark, surely wouldn't ever cast a spell of pure torture? I think, the first time I read OotP, I had to read that sentence a couple of times to make sure I understood. Sirius' death notwithstanding, it just didn't seem to flow naturally as a consequence...

Nice bit of banter between Bellatrix and Harry as to whether or not the Prophecy really has been smashed into a million tiny, tiny pieces. Harry's scar's letting him know that Voldemort isn't pleased at the prospect:

"No!" she screamed. "It isn't true, you're lying! MASTER, I TRIED, I TRIED - DO NOT PUNISH ME -"

"Don't waste your breath!" yelled Harry, his eyes screwed up against the pain in his scar, now more terrible than ever. "He can't hear you from here!"

"Can't I, Potter?" said a high, cold voice.

As entrances go, that's a pretty good one.

I thought Crouch (who would know)/Moody (who should) said you couldn't block Avada Kedavra?

GoF Ch 14:

Moody swept the dead spider off the desk onto the floor.

"Not nice," he said calmly. "Not pleasant. And there's no counter-curse. There's no blocking it. Only one known person has ever survived it, and he's sitting right in front of me.

So, you can't block Avada Kedavra. But, apparently, you can magic a statuesque obstruction in its way, and thus save the day. But that's not blocking, apparently. That's, um, something else. Evidently.

I do like the imagery for Dumbledore's power:

Dumbledore flicked his own wand; the force of the spell that emanated from it was such that Harry, though shielded by his golden guard, felt his hair stand on end as it passed and this time Voldemort was forced to conjure a shining silver shield out of thin air to deflect it.

This time, Harry is genuinely possessed by the Dark Lord, although by what mechanism isn't made clear. However, Voldemort disappears (taking Bellatrix with him), and when Harry comes to his senses, Fudge and others have arrived to pick up the reins.

Dumbledore constructs a Portkey for Harry that whisks him away from the Ministry (although we don't know where to), and the chapter closes.

So the battle is spread across two chapters, really - we have the melée in the Department of Mysteries followed by the Duels in the Atrium, which is quite a bit of action, all told. But I really don't buy that Harry would cast the Cruciatus Curse - when he gives chase, he promises Bellatrix that he'll kill her, so wouldn't AKing her have made as much sense (ie, none at all)?

Dumbledore's role in his duel with Voldemort seems assured right up until the point where Voldemort vanishes (and then possesses Harry). However, he lords it over Fudge quite, to use JKR's own word, magesterially. If anything good has come out of this, it's that Fudge now believes that Voldemort is back. Of course, we've had Luna, Ginny and Hermione all knocked unconscious (how come it was the girls who get knocked out?), Neville beaten up, Ron's mind disturbed, Sirius killed and Harry corrupted by rage to the extent that he tries to cast an Unforgivable. But on the bright side, er, Fudge is no longer in denial.