Bookshelf

Starting at about 85% into the book, we again get a very tumultuous and exciting showdown. I had to read these hundred pages in one sitting, had a high heart rate and got quite sweaty, it was that exciting to me. This time, it felt more like a description of a movie. This makes sense, I believe the publications of the movies where at about the time when Rowling wrote this book. She might have had in mind how this all will look on the big screen. It doesn’t hurt though, it’s a wild ride and lots of fun to read.

The conclusion of the book and the main outcome presented to us readers is that now finally the misinformation campaigns have ended. This happened sort of by accident and no one had real agency in that revelation, it’s all just so chaotic. The first 80% of the book weren’t really necessary to push the story along, but were still fine to read most of the time. After finishing the book, I had fun trying to put the whole story into two sentences. Here they are:

Out of fear of evil Voldemort and their own looming loss of power, the Ministry of Magic undermines every attempt from our wizarding heroes to stop evil from rising again, while Harry slowly finds out about his close connection to Voldemort and is finally lured into the Department of Mysteries via a fake vision, just to see his only parent-like figure, godfather Sirius Black, get murdered in an intense battle of good versus evil where he barely makes it out alive himself. The end result fortunately includes a complete change of direction of the Ministry of Magic after Voldemort foolishly revealed himself to actually have taken human form again right inside their headquarters before being held back and made to flee by Dumbledore who also saved Harry and everyone else except Sirius right there and then.

It now seems to me that Rowling sort of made up the stories as she went along. She probably just wrote many cute little chapters, possibly interconnecting them in retrospect to become plot devices later on – I’m thinking of Hagrid’s side-quest involving the giant Grawp (”we need someone to allow the centaurs to capture Umbridge but protect Harry and Hermione from them at the same time”), or the flying horse-like Thestrals (”we need a means of travel for the heroes to get to the Ministry quickly in the end, but the existence of it has to be explained in such a way that they were always there, just not visible to everyone”). It does seem a bit constructed, doesn’t it?

The antagonists in the story are also worth discussing. The highly annoying and evil Professor Umbridge was perfectly written. It’s been so easy to have someone in your mind like that after Rowling’s descriptions. You couldn’t help but despise her character. Then, of course, we have Voldemort himself, who plays a tiny role but whose motivations now become clearer, even though seemingly taken out of thin air. I’d like to learn more about what he actually wants and why. Professor Snape, as discussed, is clearly on the side of the protagonists, but shows his twisted character flaws in a way which still make him seem like an enemy of Harry’s. The bratty Draco Malfoy doesn’t play much of a role, and his character has so far developed in no way at all. He is the same person as he was at the beginning of the first book, and it’s not really clear where all his hate comes from, except from blind adaptation of his father’s hate. I would also like to know more about his thinking and motivations.

Which brings me to the Death Eaters, Voldemorts circle of trust and enablers, which openly includes Draco’s father. I find it hard to take that these families are still around and don’t get banned from the school, trialed, and sent off to prison, for example. They are like Hitler’s SS and every one in the story knows that. Voldemort has been going around mass-murdering and doing what was ethnical cleansing in his mind, and they are right there for him when he arrives back, supporting him whole-heartedly. How can that go unchecked? All our protagonists know about this!

And switching to the other side, I love the strong bond which Harry, Ron, and Hermione still have, and how their circle of trustees is growing. It’s at the core of the stories. I didn’t care for the moments when they fought with each other, it was a bit much in addition to all the other threats surrounding them. The death of Sirius Black was a major blow, of course. Such a tragic figure, spending over a decade wrongly accused in prison, then having to go into hiding right after managing to escape and even being verbally abused for having to be in hiding and not helping. Then, when he finally risks it and tries to help, he is immediately killed by a Death Eater and Harry is again alone without a father figure. And last not least, Professor Dumbledore, who is the only one admitting mistakes in this story and still the only one who says smart things worth highlighting and quoting. He used to be the most rational thinking person, but in this book his main mistake was one he made out of a protectionist love for Harry: Choosing not to inform him about the dire situation because he didn’t want to lay these hard truths on him.

And here we are with the main reason why everything escalates in this book, the whole series, and so many other situations in the real world: Pure lack of communication. It’s a good lesson. Talk! Be open. Share your feelings and fears and knowledge.

📔 Highlights

Chapter 37 – The Lost Prophecy

Youth cannot know how age thinks and feels. But old men are guilty if they forget what it was to be young. – Professor Dumbledore

Indifference and neglect often do much more damage than outright dislike. – Professor Dumbledore

‘The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches … born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies … and the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal, but he will have power the Dark Lord knows not … and either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives … the one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord will be born as the seventh month dies …’ – Professor Dumbledore quoting Professor Trewalney’s prophecy