Chapter Sixteen: Godric’s Hollow
In chapter sixteen of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Harry and Hermione go back to where it all started for the boy wizard, and it’s beautiful and sad and I maybe want some real estate in Godric’s Hollow.
(Please be advised that this is a reread and I will be discussing book and movie spoilers.)
Hermione and Harry are depressed af about Ron leaving them and are kind of moping about in silence, reminding us all for the millionth time that the trio is better together. We learn from the portrait of Phineas Nigellus (you know side note this thought just occurred to me, but thank goodness they removed Phineas from number 12 considering the Death Eaters are able to access it now, but maybe he would’ve convincingly lied for Snape) that the DA is back and up to it’s old shenanigans, and can I just say? 1. This is how I enjoy my Ginny 2.0, silently and believably kicking ass off screen and 2. I want this alternative universe novel about what’s going on at Hogwarts in the trio’s seventh year. If anyone’s read a good fanfic of this let me know!
Hermione finally clues Harry into the fact that there’s a Deathly Hallows symbol in Dumbledore’s book which just so happens to be the symbol Krum claimed Xenophilius Lovegood was wearing as an ode to Grindelwald. This convinces HSquared to go to Godric’s Hollow, one of the locales in the books that excites me the most considering it’s in the story so little. It just sounds so quaint and beautiful! Who else wants to move there with me?
HSquared take some polyjuice and head off (unlike in one of the movie’s rare missteps, where Harry’s just like “YOLO I’m not going home as someone else” like that makes any sense whatsoever) and lets all shed one photogenic tear for our duo, who are so out of it they just now realized that it’s Christmas Eve. And as a present, they’re going to get a doozy!
Someone has erected a statue of the Potter’s in the square and that’s got to be a trip for Harry. I can’t imagine having most of your world idealize your parents that you never knew. On their route to finding the Potter’s graves HSquared find a grave of a Peverell with another Deathly Hallows symbol, and as annoying as Hermione’s lack of belief will be later on it’s all on our girl that she finds this and makes a mental note, because Harry’s too busy having understandable parental trauma.
We find out for sure that the Potters were both 21 at the time of their murders, and I just want to mention again how much sadder the Marauder story is when the book Potters die at 21, Sirius gets imprisoned at the same time, and Remus thinks all of his friends are dead, murdered by his final friend. Then the last three Marauders all die around the ripe old age of 35-37. It also makes Peter’s betrayal slightly less evil when you realize how young he was. Moving on!
Harry’s disturbed by the Death Eater esque quote about “the last enemy that shall be destroyed is death” on his parent’s graves and while I agree with Hermione’s interpretation that this is about living on after death, I too find this quote an odd choice. Also? Who picked it? It doesn’t matter but I still want to know!
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Best duo out of the trio: Ron/Harry, Hermione/Harry, or Ron/Hermione?
How come Dumbledore never tells Harry that their family is buried in the same graveyard?
What are your top three magical places after Hogwarts castle?
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