Chapter Twenty-Three: Malfoy Manor
In chapter twenty-three of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Hermione almost saves the day until she doesn’t, Draco shows more redemptive promise until he doesn’t, and Dobby noooooo Dobbbbbyyyyyy!
(Please be advised that this is a reread and I will be discussing book and movie spoilers.)
Hermione saves Harry’s Ass, or Almost Does for the Billionth Time happens and suddenly Harry’s face has been stung to inflation until he’s unrecognizable when Greyback: the Pedo Werewolf and some snatchers find our trio. Harry pretends he’s Vernon Dudley, the alternate universe version of himself that grew into a giant beefy dude with a mustache who gives people the one-two when they irritate him and screams about drills into phones, and Hermione impersonates Penelope Clearwater, who hopefully got zero blowback from this. The brain trusts that have snatched our heroes are momentarily stymied by all of this, and the fact that Harry can describe the Slytherin dungeon with accuracy, until they find a clipping of Undesirable number two, our Herms, captioned as Harry’s traveling companion.
Dean and Griphook are caught up as well, and they are unfortunate enough to get trapped with HPotz and dragged off to Malfoy Manor. Or can we say….fortunate enough? Because its not like HPotz doesn’t have a documented history of getting out of scrapes with luck, pluck, and sometimes, bucks.
So our quartet of Gryffindors and Goblin are forced into the albino peacock overcompensating mansion of the Malfoys, and brace yourself for disappointment, because this is our last chance to get teased that D-Malfs is going to finally do something heroic and interesting in the series. Let’s chat about this, because I’m honestly confused by JKR here. We spend a solid five plus books hating what a little odious bullying worm Draco is and then, BAM! Malfoy’s crying in a bathroom. BAM! Malfoy’s being forced into killing Dumbledore but his heart is obviously not into it. Then book seven starts and the entire first chapter is all about how miserable the Malfoys are, how terrified D-Malfs is, and we get flashes of him torturing people against their will. Then we get to this chapter, where Lucius and Narcissa practically have drool coming down their chins with the excitement of getting back in Lord V’s good graces by capturing Harry Potter, and Draco’s like, “yeah whatever maybe it’s Potter and his friends who I’ve hated for years, but maybe not I don’t care can I just go back to playing with my wand dad” and MAN was I let down when all of this build up lead to nothing for D-Malfs. After all this set-up, all he does is try to stop Harry later on in the story and get saved by PotzWeaz a few times then go bald and nod at Harry nineteen years later?!!
I just wanted one redeemed young Slytherin, dammit! Ahem. Anyway, so Malfoy clearly knows its the trio and also clearly doesn’t want to watch them get tortured and die, while Harry watches Lord V confront Grindelwald in his mind, who tries to lie and protect Dumbledore (or perhaps just to stop Lord V from getting the Elder wand, six of one half dozen of another.)
Bellatrix freaks the eff out when she sees the sword of Gryffindor, and she’s right to freak out but let’s drink in the delicious irony of Bellatrix leading Harry right to the correct conclusion of why she’s freaking out later on. So Bellatrix decides to torture Hermione about the sword while Ron is useless in his panic (or because Ron is generally useless, depending on your Ron feelings) and our boys and Griphook are reunited with Ollivander and Luna in the basement while Harry screams into the mirror shard and about time you used that mirror to save someone Harry, sigh.
Hermione is a total baller, lying about the sword even while she’s being tortured and Harry thinks fast and begs Griphook to continue the lie about the sword being a copy.
Dobby shows up to ferry Ollivander, Luna, and Dean to safety and Peter Pettigrew goes out with nary even a whimper, as he shows Harry a little moment of mercy and gets choked out by his silver hand. I am still confused about how PPetz was used in the narrative, but I will assume JKR was showing the myriad of ways someone can be villianous, and Wormtail is a villain because he’s weak and scared. So what is perhaps our biggest villain in the story (from a certain point of view) goes out in anticlimactic fashion, but certainly not as weak as in the movie, where he says “ow” and doesn’t even seem to die or show up again.
Anyway, Harry and Ron escape, Bellatrix calls Lord V who is furious about this and probably regretting ever making those damn dark marks, and Ron and Harry do one of their most badass Gryffindor moments of all time and charge into a room full of Death Eaters with one wand to save Hermione (and Griphook.)
Things are going well until they aren’t (my life’s motto) and then KING DOBBY shows up to save the day. Y’all. The first time I cried reading these books was in this chapter. And not just cry. Ugly cry. While saying “Dobby noooooo” in my head. And every time I see this part in the movie, or reread this chapter I either openly cry or well up. I’m not a crier. I hate crying. But something about how Dobby goes out, Dobby who lived a miserable life until Harry freed him, who helped Harry selflessly over and over with little in return, Dobby who single handedly saves Ollivander, Luna, Dean, Hermione, Ron, Harry, Griphook, and by extension the entire British wizarding world, and he gets stabbed by a thrown knife and dies saying Harry’s name.
I maintain that there is no nobler character in the entire series than Dobby, so let’s pour one out while I tear up once more for the most loyal of friends, the bravest of beings, the most selfless of all, Dobby, a free elf.
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Why didn’t the trio disapparate away when they heard the snatchers outside the tent?
Did you wish Draco got more of a redemption in the series? Or do you think he was redeemed enough? Or did you want him to remain a villain?
What is your saddest death in the series?
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