Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
Chapter 28: The Missing Mirror
“‘Accio Cloak!’ roared one of the Death Eaters. Harry seized its folds, but it made no attempt to escape: the Summoning Charm had not worked on it.” – Two things: the Death Eaters already expect Harry to turn up, so Voldemort must have given them a warning, afraid that Harry might have figured out another hiding place for a Horcrux. They also know about the Invisibility Cloak, probably thanks to Snape. Second, the Summoning Charm does not work on said Cloak, which is interesting. Is it one of his magical properties, that not only does it make people underneath it invisible, but that it is immune to certain spells, perhaps escpecially those that would reveal the people underneath? We know that the Summoning Charm did not work on Horcruxes as well, because Voldemort made sure of it, another level of protection. So there must be some kind of counter-charm, that you can work on objects, making it impossible to summon them. It is also impossible to work the Summoning Charm on living objects, so perhaps that is the reason why they don’t work on Horcruxes (which of course leads to the question if Horcruxes are living objects).
“He raised his wand: he could not, would not, suffer the Dementor’s Kiss, whatever happened afterwards. It was of Ron and Hermione that he thought as he whispered, ‘Expecto patronum!’ The silver stag burst from his wand and charged: the Dementors scattered and there was a triumphant yell from somewhere out of sight.” – First of all, it is really impressive that even in a situation like theirs Harry is able to produce a Patronus; it shows his mental strength. Second, he makes the choice that neither himself or Ron or Hermione would be kissed by a Dementor, losing their soul in the process. By exposing themselves however he risks all of their lives (though it is impossible for them to disapparate, so what choice do they have left?). But it reminds me (and perhaps Harry as well) of something Dumbledore once said: there are worse fates than death. And losing your soul is certainly is certainly one of them.
“‘My brother Albus wanted a lot of things,’ said Aberforth, ‘and people had a habit of getting hurt while he was carrying out his grand plans. You get away from this school, Potter, and out of the country if you can. Forget my brother and his clever schemes. He’s gone where none of this can hurt him, and you don’t owe him anything.’ […]‘Did he, now?’ said Aberforth. ‘Nice job, I hope? Pleasant? Easy? Sort of thing you’d expect an unqualified wizard kid to be able to do without overstretching themselves?’ […]‘I knew my brother, Potter. He learned secrecy at our mother’s knee. Secrets and lies, that’s how we grew up, and Albus … he was a natural.’” – I really like Aberforth’s role within the story. We heard about him, but until now we never met him. What little did we know about him we learned from Dumbledore, and it was obvious that the two of them didn’t get along. Aberforth is part of the resistance, he tries to help wherever he can, but he is also realistic about everything that is going on and has lost his hope in the process. What he is telling to Harry is not meant to hurt him or to defile the image Harry has of Dumbledore – he tells it because he as well cares about Harry and wants to save him. Unlike his brother however he thinks the best chance Harry has for survival is to hide, perhaps best abroad. It is not about what benefits the most, that Harry might actually be in the position to defeat Voldemort. Aberforth only sees a teenage boy (and his two best friends), who has been given an impossible task, that will most likely kill him. Harry is not a hero, not the Chosen One, but nothing more than a child, neither qualified or prepared to do what Dumbledore wants him to do. Aberforth does not support the narrative that we have been told so far, with Harry as the saviour and Dumbledore as his mentor, that we should trust blindly. Aberforth just tells the cold hard truth that Harry does not want to hear: that Harry is too young, too inexperienced for the task that he has been given and that Dumbledore should not be trusted, that he kept secrets all his life and that he did not tell Harry the entire truth either. It is almost like breaking the fourth wall, as if a disillusioned reader tries to tell Harry how it is, that is not the Heroe’s Journey where everything will end well, but that there is a big chance he might die any moment. And I think it is a bold move from Rowling to bring in this moment of awareness, to have these characters be confronted with the ugly truth.
“Harry kept quiet. He did not want to express the doubts and uncertainties about Dumbledore that had riddled him for months now. He had made his choice while he dug Dobby’s grave; he had decided to continue along the winding, dangerous path indicated for him by Albus Dumbledore, to accept that he had not been told everything that he wanted to know, but simply to trust. He had no desire to doubt again, he did not want to hear anything that would deflect him from his purpose.” – So much about Harry’s process growing up is about taking people from the pedestal he put them on, to stop idealizing them, and see them for who they are. He did this with his father and Sirius, and with Dumbledore as well. He learned about their mistakes and flaws and it always hurt him to learn that those men weren’t quite as he had them pictured. But people are not just good and bad, they are much more complex than that. Good people make mistakes as well and bad choices. It does not make them bad people; it makes them human. Harry had his doubts about Dumbledore, but he also made his choice to trust Dumbledore and follow his plan. He doesn’t want to hear anything bad about him, because it matters to Harry if the people he looks up to, that he is supposed to trust, are morally right. It makes a difference to him.
“‘When my sister was six years old, she was attacked, set upon, by three Muggle boys. They’d seen her doing magic, spying through the back garden hedge: she was a kid, she couldn’t control it, no witch or wizard can at that age. What they saw scared them, I expect. They forced their way through the hedge, and when she couldn’t show them the trick, they got a bit carried away trying to stop the little freak doing it.’” – Given what had happened to his sister it is easy to see why the young Dumbledore fell so hard for Grindelwald. They were equally gifted, but I think Grindelwald’s way of think that wizards are superior, that they should rule over Muggles, all for the so called Greater Good, would hit fertile ground with Dumbledore. Muggles were responsible for his sister’s fate and the reason his father would end up in Azkaban, which would start his family having to keep secrets, even though they were the victims. Grindelwald would have had his way to retell this story in a way that Dumbledore would agree with his ideas. And yet, despite this, despite his family’s history, Dumbledore didn’t go down the same path so many others did. He changed his mind, he realized how wrong he was, and dedicated the rest of his life to protect Muggles and Muggleborn.
“‘It destroyed her, what they did: she was never right again. She wouldn’t use magic, but she couldn’t get rid of it: it turned inwards and drove her mad, it exploded out of her when she couldn’t control it, and at times she was strange and dangerous. But mostly she was sweet, and scared, and harmless.” – There is a quite popular theory that Ariana was an Obscurial and that through her Grindelwald first came in contact with those. He saw her raw power, saw the kind of destruction she could cause, and wanted to use such power for himself, which is the reason he was later interested in Credence Bareborne. Until this point we had always assumed that magic is a natural part of every wizard and witch, something you can learn to control and channel. Now though it seems like magic can become a thing of its own, and if you are afraid of it, if you want to get rid of it, it can turn against you. It can become a parasite, something that lives inside you and will sooner or later kill you.
“‘I was her favourite,’ he said, and as he said it, a grubby schoolboy seemed to look out through Aberforth’s wrinkles and tangled beard. ‘Not Albus, he was always up in his bedroom when he was home, reading his books and counting his prizes, keeping up with his correspondence with “the most notable magical names of the day”,’ Aberforth sneered, ‘he didn’t want to be bothered with her. She liked me best. I could get her to eat when she wouldn’t do it for my mother, I could get her to calm down when she was in one of her rages, and when she was quiet, she used to help me feed the goats.” – For one thing this explains Aberforth’s… fascination with goats. They remind him of a better time, of a calm life with his family. There is also the underlying accusation that Albus Dumbledore did not care about his sister, that he could not be bothered to be interested in her or take care of her. And perhaps he didn’t, because he was a teenager after all, a highly gifted teenager, who had other things on his mind. And yet he never wanted his sister to get hurt, yet he still loved her. And I think not only does he regret what has happened to her, but that he did not spend enough time with her while she was still alive.
“‘He was never free,’ said Harry. ‘I beg your pardon?’ said Aberforth. ‘Never,’ said Harry. ‘The night that your brother died he drank a potion that drove him out of his mind. He started screaming, pleading with someone who wasn’t there. “Don’t hurt them, please … hurt me instead.” ’” – The night Ariana died the rest of her family died with her. Perhaps Albus was never able to express his regret to Aberforth, perhaps he did and Aberforth did not believe him. Something was broken that night, irreplaceable. It comes to Aberforth as a surprise, a shock, that during his final hours his brother was forced to relive his worst memory and that it was the night Ariana died.
“Aberforth seemed lost in contemplation of his own knotted and veined hands. After a long pause, he said, ‘How can you be sure, Potter, that my brother wasn’t more interested in the greater good than in you? How can you be sure you aren’t dispensable, just like my little sister?’ A shard of ice seemed to pierce Harry’s heart. ‘I don’t believe it. Dumbledore loved Harry,’ said Hermione.” – Dumbledore does sacrifice Harry for the greater good; there is no other choice. And yet he still loves him. He still cares. He still tried to find a loophole, a way for Harry to survive after all, to live a life free of any burden. But this Harry’s worst fear: that Dumbledore did not care, that he is nothing more than a tool.
“‘No, it isn’t,’ said Harry. ‘Your brother knew how to finish You-Know-Who and he passed the knowledge on to me. I’m going to keep going until I succeed – or I die. Don’t think I don’t know how this might end. I’ve known it for years.’” – Harry is not naïve. He is petrified and scared and he does not want to die and yet he keeps going, yet he tries to master a nearly impossible task. He keeps going and that is true bravery.
“Larger and larger the two figures grew, until only their heads and shoulders filled the portrait. Then the whole thing swung forwards on the wall like a little door, and the entrance to a real tunnel was revealed. And out of it, his hair overgrown, his face cut, his robes ripped, clambered the real Neville Longbottom, who gave a roar of delight, leapt down from the mantelpiece and yelled, ‘I knew you’d come! I knew it, Harry!’” – I wonder if there had always been a secret passage between the Hog’s Head and Hogwarts or if this is part of the magic of the Room of Requirement, that they needed a way out of Hogwarts and suddenly it appeared. Also we have never seen a portrait work like this before. Yes the people in portraits can move, but they can’t bring real people with them. I wonder if there is a second portrait of Ariana in the Room of Requirement as well, and if the others saw Harry, Ron and Hermione arriving as well.
