Chapter Two: In Memoriam
In chapter two of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Harry reads endless text about Dumbledore’s mysterious past and if this sounds like I am complaining I am not! I would read four hundred pages of this!
(Please be advised that this is a reread and I will be discussing book and movie spoilers.)
Harry starts off his last book adventure (burn in hell, Cursed Child you don’t count!) by stepping on Dudley’s peace offering and gently bleeding into the floor of the Dursley house of horrors. In case germaphobes weren’t triggered enough we get Harry cleaning his horrendously filthy trunk, and get reminded of the time Harry didn’t open his present from Sirius, which would’ve saved Sirius’s life. You know, Harry seems strangely lacking in guilt about all that. I’m pretty sure that would haunt me the rest of my days.
Harry reads a memoriam about Dumbledore that is incredibly fascinating, written by Dumbledore’s childhood friend and member of the order Elphias Doge, who writes movingly about Dumbledore’s friendship, his sad childhood, and his Muggle attacking father. We finally hear more about the elusive Aberforth Dumbledore other then “he fucks goats maybe” and the tragic death of Dumbledore’s mother and sister, which leads to an estrangement between the brothers.
Our boy HPotz is left to contemplate that he (and we, the reader) really didn’t know Dumbledore at all and frankly I LOVE IT. Nothing makes me happier then layered characters. Yes I rail on Snape and Dumbledore, but I adore how complicated they are as characters. I don’t mind a one note character *coughloveyouGilderoy* but I get super excited by characters that make me think many thoughts, have many feelings. Adding on to this, Rita Skeeter is coming out with a sketchy ass tabloid book about Dumbledore where she’s hinting horrible things like the fact that Harry murdered him, and that something is very wrong with the deaths of his sister and mother.
One, I would totally read this awful tabloid book if it were real, let me keep it honest. Two, thanks for the reminder that Rita Skeeter was my OG biggest villain that made me homicidal (before Umbridge shows up of course). Three, why why WHY did Hermione only blackmail Rita for one year? Can’t Hermione just write her right now and be like “bitch I remember that you’re an illegal Animagus even if you don’t” and get her to stop? Do it Hermione! Do it for me!
Making like me screaming at my tv during a college football game Harry’s like
at nothing, a boy after my own heart as always.
Aberforth peaks in the mirror shard and dips out, assuming whatever Harry is doing screaming “LIES” in his bedroom has nothing to do with a goat and is therefore, of little interest to one Abz Dumbledore.
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What did you make of our first taste of Dumbledore backstory?
Have you ever felt like Harry, where you found out you didn’t know someone like you thought you did?
Why did Hermione blackmail Rita for only one year?
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