Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

14

Chapter 14—The Thief

Summary

When Harry next opens his eyes, he finds that they are lying on the forest floor. He briefly thinks it might be the Forbidden Forest, but quickly realizes that he’s wrong. Then he properly sets eyes on Ron and realizes that he’s badly injured, and the Polyjuice Potion is wearing off. Hermione informs him that Ron is Splinched, and works quickly to try and fix the wound. She tells Harry to grab Essence of Dittany from her bag, and asks him to unstopper the bottle since her hands are shaking. A few drops cauterizes the wound on Ron’s arm, making it seem a few days old. Hermione admits that there are spells that would fix him completely, but she doesn’t want to chance it in case she gets it wrong, seeing as he’s already lost a lot of blood. Harry asks Hermione what went wrong, and she tells him that Yaxley got hold of her when they Disapparated and wouldn’t let go. She shook him off when they arrived and Grimmauld Place and brought the three of them here instad, but that means their safe house is compromised. She apologizes, but Harry insists that it’s his fault for taking the eye from Umbridge’s office door.

Ron wakes, and Hermione informs them that she brought them to the wood where they held the Quidditch World Cup a few years back. Harry wonders if the Death Eaters will find them easily again, like last time, and Ron wonders if they shouldn’t leave. Harry decides they should stay since Ron is recovering, so Hermione begins to put up protective enchantments, and suggest Harry get out their tent. It turns out to be the same one that they used at the World Cup—the guy Arthur borrowed it from didn’t want it back. Hermione erects the tent and says that she did the best charms she could, and they should at least know if anyone’s coming. She almost mentions Voldemort by name, but Ron asks her not to, claiming that it feels like a jinx. When Harry brings up Dumbledore’s words on the subject, Ron points out that it hadn’t saved him, and Harry and Hermione decide not to argue while he’s hurt. They carry Ron inside the tent and he rests for a while as Hermione makes tea. Hermione and Ron begin to talk about how they hope the Cattermoles got away, and Hermione looks at Ron with such a loving expression that Harry feels he needs to remind her he’s still around. He asks after the locket.

Ron is very excited to learn they succeeded in their mission, so Hermione passes it to him. He asks if they’re sure it’s still Horcrux, but Hermione assumes it would looked damaged if someone had destroyed it. Harry reckons that they’ll have to open it before they can destroy it. They all try, but nothing happens. Ron claims he can feel something though, and Harry agrees, almost like a heartbeat. He says they’ll have to keep it safe until they can get rid of it, then puts it around his neck and decides they should take it in shifts keeping watch outside. He and Hermione go back and forth all day, but nothing shows up and the Sneakoscope they’ve brought along never budges. There’s no food for them aside from some mushrooms that Hermione collects that are practically inedible even after stewing. Harry sits outside, lost in unhappy thoughts, concerned now that they had the Horcrux and he no longer knew what to do. He can’t seem to direct himself away from bad thoughts, things that bring up sadness or a sense of helplessness.

He enters Voldemort’s mind again, and finds that the Dark Lord has Gregorovitch. He’s torturing the man, asking where something is. The old wand maker claims that the thing was stolen from him. Voldemort uses Legilimency to find the memory, and sees a young man with golden hair stealing it. Gregorovitch doesn’t know who the young man is, so Voldemort murders him. Hermione wakes Harry, standing over him. Hermione wants to have it out again, but Harry tries tells her what he saw. She advises him to go lie down. Harry goes inside and tells Ron instead, trying to parse it out. He knows the young man from Gregorovitch’s memory looks familiar, but can’t figure out why. Ron wonders if Voldemort is looking for something else to turn into a Horcrux. Harry can’t figure out why he wasn’t trying to get another wand from the wand maker. Thinking over the thief, Harry falls asleep.

Commentary

Poor Ron. Straight out of the gate with a nasty injury. I do think it’s important that Rowling puts this here, though. The peril is real, right from the start, and they’ve got a long way to go. Hermione can’t even heal Ron properly for fear of causing more damage. (That one place where someone in the trio should have maybe spent a few days hanging around Madam Pomfrey and asking her questions. You don’t ever think about how important healing magic is going to be until you’re right in the middle of it, and you don’t have the skills.)

Harry has the thought that they’re not going back to the house, and that Kreacher is making them dinner that they’ll never eat and NO MY HEART I CANNOT. Not to poor Kreacher, who was finally happy and fulfilled again, nooooooooooooo!

I sort of love the fact that they’re using the same tent that they used during the Quidditch World Cup. It plays into a certain level of soothing that Rowling allows in the narrative; whenever we encounter something horrible, she usually counters it by offering up something familiar next. So the trio flee the wedding and are attacked, but then they get to head back to Grimmauld Place, which they already know. They botch the end of their mission at the Ministry and are forced to give up the house, but the tent is a familiar place that they spent good times in. So there’s a bit of a seesaw going on, a back-and-forth that makes everything feel a little more comfortable after everything that’s gone wrong.

They talk about the locket and wearing it, and wow, the effect is pretty much instant. I’m almost surprised that Harry doesn’t notice, but then, when you’re already so concerned and frightened and paranoid all the time by necessity, a little extra probably doesn’t set off any alarms. It’s entirely insidious. The idea that it has some kind of heartbeat, an effect that make it seems alive, is equally disturbing, more like something out of a horror story.

Harry is back in Voldemort’s head and finally sees Gregorovitch, and we get our first substantial clue about the Elder Wand being the thing that Voldemort is after. We also learn (though we don’t have all the information yet) that Grindelwald is the one who stole it, and the memory we get from Gregorovitch makes the guy seem straight-up like Peter Pan to me. The mischief, the laughter, falling out the window like a bird. We know he’s a pretty cruel guy as well, so I think the comparison is apt. Does that make Albus his Wendy? And Aberforth and Ariana are John and Michael? But it’s like a really messed up version of Peter Pan where Wendy didn’t really care enough about the welfare of her siblings, and loses little Michael as a result?

Wait, this really works for me. Including the suggestion that a grown-up Peter Pan has every chance of turning into a nasty, power-mad dictator. Who then must be stopped by Wendy. Oh wow, I LOVE this.

Erm.

Outside of that, the chapter is mostly Harry beginning to fret, and the realization that with the first Horcrux in their hands, the trio are without a next step. It’s an interesting falter in the quest, the first of many. A harbinger of things to come.