Chapter Twenty-Five: Shell Cottage
In chapter twenty-five of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Harry and Remus make up, and let’s talk gender roles in Harry Potter.
(Please be advised that this is a reread and I will be discussing book and movie spoilers.)
Fleur and Bill are living my fantasy, super hot person married to super hot person living on the beach in a picturesque cottage, except there’s this one pesky problem where they’ve got living in their home a sketchy wandmaker, a sketchy goblin, a sketchy trio of heroes, a total weirdo prone to wearing radish as earrings, and oh yeah, Dean. Dean is totally normal.
Ron’s all “hey Harry made you should’ve robbed Dumbledore’s oddly preserved grave” while Hermione is like “err you do it then Ron you freak if you think Harry could’ve done it.” Harry’s angry as fuck at Dumbledore and so am I cause he’s left this nonsensical riddle of clues that lead to nonsense results instead of oh, say, clear directions on how to defeat Voldz.
Griphooks’ finally stopped tormenting the trio and agreed to help but hey, can he have that priceless sword of Gryffindor he thinks belongs to Goblins as payment?
We get an interesting little aside here and even more interesting, we never find out the truth of it. Griphook claims that Gryffindor stole the sword from a goblin named Ragnuk, while the wizarding world claims Gryffindor got the sword by legal means. It’s even more intriguing because we know wizards have a history of shitting on magical races, and yet Goblin’s idea of ownership, as Bill explains later, is….odd. They seem to think a goblin made object belongs to the goblins after the original owner dies, and is not to be passed down, which is frankly kind of ridiculous. So the trio agree to white lie to Griphook and yeah we’ll give you the sword…*whispersatsomepoint*
Griphook’s behaving like an ass making Fleur wait on him, and–hold up. Hold the fuck up. I hate to do this. I really do love JKR, I DO! I would probably act like an idiot if I met her. But one undertone of her writing that’s bothered me for a while is her reliance on gender role stereotypes. Why is Fleur, by all accounts a gifted witch, in charge of cleaning and cooking for everyone? What in the hell is Bill doing, exactly? How about Dean, Ron, and Harry who aren’t injured in the slightest? I’ll pass by Molly being the same, because it’s one person and it’s a generational thing, but then we add in Tonks acting wimpy and weak over a man and Ginny being praised for not being a weeper like most women *coughnotthisheartlessbitchhere* and YIKES can we just stick to Hermione, McG, and Luna’s great characterization? And ignore Hermione’s stereotypical catty BS in book six. Oof. I’m just saying, pull your weight Bill damn.
It’s the return of REMUS LUPIN and yay, he’s stopped being his awful doppleganger and has informed everyone Tonks has popped out a boy and he’s not quite werewolf hairy, whoo–hoo! Thank goodness we get this moment, because the thought of Harry and Remus not making up before the battle would wound me too deeply. Harry’s made godfather, and if I wasn’t made of stone and evil I would tear up at this lovely parallel moment except OH SHIT TEDDY IT’S A TRAP! Keep your parents away from Bellatrix, veils, and Death Eaters! Noooooooo! Not literary parallells!
<—Previous Chapter Next Chapter —>
Join in with your thoughts below, on twitter, or instagram with #ReadHarryPotterWithMe. Follow me on my twitter @HSecretLibrary, pinterest, and my instagram @hermionessecretlibrary
Why is Fleur the only one waiting on the inhabitants of Shell Cottage?
What are your thoughts on women’s roles in the series?
More reckless godfather: Sirius or Harry?
Picture taken in Arizona. Send me/tag me in your pics of you reading Harry Potter!