Chapter Five: Fallen Warrior
In chapter five of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Hagrid is okay, making your recapper very happy, we meet Andromeda Tonks, a GOOD SLYTHERIN, and Mad-Eye, the baddest of badasses is dead.
(Please be advised that this is a reread and I will be discussing book and movie spoilers.)
We open our chapter thinking Hagrid might still be dead and DAMMIT NO I am NOT OKAY with this! Harry’s super wounded and has been fixed by the kind (therefore doomed) Ted Tonks and then Harry tries to attack his wife because Andromeda Tonks looks like her murderous terrible sister Bellatrix and well, at least you’re hot then Andromeda?
I wanted more of Andromeda. She’s the Sirius of her family, except she was a Slytherin and clearly a good person (whooo hoooo a not evil Slytherin, my favorite!) and then gets disowned by her entire family for marrying a Muggleborn. Her one cousin who likes her is imprisoned for murder, gets out, and is killed shortly thereafter. Her daughter and husband are murdered. It’s sad! Big ups to Andromeda Tonks who pulled herself together and raised her grandson even after unspeakable loss.
On a happier note Hagrid is ALIVE! Okay, we get two seconds of happiness, before we get back to sadness. Hagrid finds out Hedwig’s been killed, and I’m really glad that our boy Hagz is the one who was there for Harry at this moment. Who else would understand this loss more then Hagrid, animal lover, kind person, surrogate father figure to our boy hero?
HagzPotz makes their way to the Burrow via portkey (….why are these portkeys safe but not one from Privet drive…?) and find out that they are the only pair that has arrived safely. This chapter is excellent displaying the dreadful build of fear. We know JKR is not playing anymore. She killed Hedwig after all! So we know it’s very unlikely we get a Disney ending to this excursion. Lupin and George show up, and George is missing an ear and bleeding copiously, and this misdirect clearly means for us to think the twins might be safe in the story. I mean, George already lost an ear, right? So the twins are safe, yeah?
JKR:
Lupin is convinced they’ve been compromised and after determining Harry isn’t an impostor has moved onto insulting Harry for not killing Stan, an innocent man and therefore revealing that he’s THE Harry Potter to the Death Eaters. It’s interesting, because Remus isn’t wrong. But Harry argues back that Stan is under the Imperius curse and blasting innocent people out of the way because you need to is Voldemort’s bag, baby, and not his, and Harry’s not wrong either.
Hermione and Kingsley show up unscathed, and Lupin reveals Snape was the one who maimed George, making Harry’s hatred for Snape go to nuclear bomb levels aka the everyday level of hate Snape holds in his heart for James.
Tonks and Ron arrive late, and shocker of shocker, Bella tried to kill Tonks with all her might (HMM wonder why) but somehow Ron fought her off which is DAMN IMPRESSIVE when you consider Bellatrix knocked out Tonks, killed Sirius, incapacitated Kingsley, and slipped away from Dumbledore last time we saw her in battle. And yet Ron (RON!) holds her off.
Bill and Fleur show up with the horrible news that Mad-Eye is dead, Mundungus panicked when Voldemort flew at them and left him open to an attack, and he was “Snape killed Dumbledore’d” out of the sky. Light your wands for Mad-Eye, who in the face of Voldemort and Mundungus being a coward stayed a badass m’f’er until the end.
Everyone debates who betrayed them and Mundungus is dismissed because he suggested the 7 potters which the Death Eaters were surprised by (Snape: lol) and Harry thinks of sweet, kind Hagrid and how he once accidentally gave Quirrelldemort info on how to get the sorcerer’s stone while drunk and is like “NO you all are my ride or dies and I trust you all” while everyone else pities his naive optimism, reminiscent of James trusting Wormtail to his death.
The dudes go off to retrieve Mad-Eye’s body and Harry tries to explain how his wand destroyed Voldz’s wand while he was swooning of its own accord while no one believes him. No one but Voldemort, who is back in Harry’s brain torturing Ollivander for the bad information about wands. Well cheer up Harry, at least one person believes you for once!
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Is Andromeda Tonks one of the characters most roughly effected by the story?
Why are the portkeys safe now, but not at Privet drive?
How did everyone escape from the Death Eaters aside from Mad-Eye when they were outnumbered 30-14?
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