The Order of the Phoenix Re-Read: Chapter 38

[slowfox]

As you know, I had high hopes that Ron's encounter with the braaaaaaaaaaainz would prove Significant in later tomes:

There were still deep welts on [Ron's] forearms where the [braaaaaaaaaaainz'] tentacles had wrapped around him. According to Madam Pompfrey, thoughts could leave deeper scarring than almost anything else...

After reading this, I was hypothesising giddily that Ron'd assimilated some arch High Mage of Yore's fabulous powers, and that this would prove crucial in the final showdown. But alas, no... it was just dressing to weird up the Department of Mysteries a little. Shame.

I agree with Hermione that the Prophet seem to have conveniently forgotten that they were the ones doing the slandering and ridiculing of our Boy Who Lived.

Hermione and Ginny may well laugh at Umbridge being spooked by the sound of clip-clopping noises, but Hermione was the one who led the woman into the forest with the intention of terrorising her, and although there is, indeed, a sort of poetic justice that Umbridge got her come-uppance, the gang's smug amusement isn't terribly edifying.

In all the discussion, Neville doesn't say a word.

Malfoy glanced around - Harry knew he was checking for signs of teachers - then he looked back at Harry and said in a low voice, "You're dead, Potter."

Harry raised his eyebrows.

"Funny," he said, "you'd think I'd have stopped walking around..."

Malfoy looked angrier than Harry had ever seen him; he felt a kind of detached satisfaction at the sight of his pale, pointed face contorted with rage.

"You're going to pay," said Malfoy, in a voice barely louder than a whisper. "I'm going to make you pay for what you've done to my father..."

"Well, I'm terrified now," said Harry sarcastically...

This is a different, slightly colder, yet more confident Harry to earlier, I think. And, I s'pose, counterbalanced to a slightly less secure Malfoy. I do like the 'you'd think I'd have stopped walking around' quip, though - Ron might be the more natural comic of the Trio, but every now and again Harry gets a gem.

The brevity of Harry's meet-up with Hagrid's rather sad - from the sounds of the conversation, it sounds like it's the first time that they two have met. And yet the opening to the chapter makes it sound as though the gang have been installed in the Hospital for at least a few days (it's a Sunday, and reference is made to Hermione improving as a consequence of taking 'ten potions a day').

Now Harry tries the mirror - 'tis a shame that whilst he was evidently capable of memorising the telephone number for the visitors' entrance to the Ministry of Magic, and that Bode was the Unspeakable he met on the day of his hearing, the parcel from Sirius slipped his mind...

Harry's whole conversation with Nearly Headless Nick is a bit frustrating. Wizards can become ghosts, but only a few do so, because the rest prefer to 'go on'.

The conversation with Luna's pretty sad, too - especially since he was thinking about hiding from her himself, before deciding that he didn't have the energy to do so. However:

She walked away from him and, as he watched her go, he found that the terrible weight in his stomach seemed to have lessened slightly.

Aside from noting that JKR again centres emotional feelings in the stomach, sentences like that do tend to incline me to a Harry/Luna point of view... she's interesting, an outside like Harry, and manages to at least generate some kind of emotional response from him in a way that Ginny palpably hasn't in any of the books to date.

The book manages to avoid ending on too much of a downer by having Harry's welcoming committee intimidating the Dursleys at Kings Cross, which at least reassures us that Harry's forthcoming summer isn't going to be quite as miserable as the one that we kicked off the story with.

The final chapter always was going to be a 'tie-up-the-loose-ends' sort of thing, but it does at least manage to give some sort of closure on Book V. I'm a little perturbed, as noted above, at how the Gryffindors feel quite free to inflict damage on their 'enemies' (you'd have thought that Malfoy would've given up trying to attack Harry on the Hogwarts Express by now), and things like the conversation with Nearly Headless Nick are perhaps more frustrating for their inclusion than if they'd never happened in the first place.

But all in all, Harry may be a bit battered, bruised and (metaphorically) scarred, but you get a sense that when he's finally handed over to the Dursleys for 'safe-keeping', the forthcoming summer's going to be OK...

Comments

[aome]

I had high hopes that Ron's encounter with the braaaaaaaaaaainz would prove Significant in later tomes

I was in a RPG for awhile, way back in 2004, and in that game, the person playing Ron devised that his encounter with the braaaainz gave him Seer abilities of sorts - not oral prophecying, but visions and flashes. I kind of liked that idea, even if I did not get along with the player.

the gang's smug amusement isn't terribly edifying

Not that this condones their behavior in the slightest, but I suppose the key here is to remember that they're teenagers who, as a group, can be rather self-centered and thoughtless. Think of countless pranks that teens often pull which seem hilarious to them and thoughtless - and sometimes downright dangerous - to those of us with more mature braaaaaaainz thinking.

whilst he was evidently capable of memorising the telephone number for the visitors' entrance to the Ministry of Magic, and that Bode was the Unspeakable he met on the day of his hearing, the parcel from Sirius slipped his mind...

Recall, however, that he was determined, from the moment Sirius handed the package to him, that he wasn't going to use it. It would be a whole lot easier to forget that way, if you set out with the intention to forget all about it in the first place.

Why is it that people seem to haunt certain areas and not others? Myrtle died in her lavatory, but, if I recall from DH, the Grey Lady and Bloody Baron did not die at Hogwarts - and yet that's where they ended up.

Thank you for so dedicatedly conducting this review! Thirty-eight days goes quickly, doesn't it? ;)

I do wish, however, that I could skip right to DH, in my read-aloud for the girls. OotP is just so darn ... glum ... in ways that the remaining books aren't. Also, learning about Voldemort's past is one of my favourite bits in the series.

[slowfox]

Recall, however, that he was determined, from the moment Sirius handed the package to him, that he wasn't going to use it. It would be a whole lot easier to forget that way, if you set out with the intention to forget all about it in the first place.

This is true - and also, Harry was certain that the vision he was being presented with was true, so he'd probably have been less inclined to cast about for ways of disproving what he was seeing anyway.

That said, it was a shame that JKR showcased this device, and than conspired to ensure that Harry could never make use of it. I'm not sure if that was misdirection, or just a cruel method of heaping more guilt onto the boy :-/

[cynthia_black]

Yes, I agree, it's strange that Neville gets absolutely no dialogue in that hospital wing part :-/

I do really like Luna - she always seems to make Harry feel better.

And I suppose the book ends as positively as it can do, considering what has happened. The welcoming committee makes me smile :-)

Thank you for all the time and effort you've put into this daily commentary on the reread!