Muggles' Guide to Harry Potter/Books/Deathly Hallows/Chapter 11
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Chapter 11 of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: The Bribe
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[edit] Synopsis
Three days pass and Kreacher is still gone, while dark figures, apparently Death Eaters, are constantly outside watching Grimmauld Place. While the Trio await Kreacher's return, the tension strains their nerves. Tiring of Ron and Hermione's bickering, Harry heads for the kitchen, hoping Kreacher will reappear there. Halfway down the stairs, he hears a tap on the front door, then metallic clinks and the grinding of the chain. Harry draws his wand as a cloaked figure enters. As Dumbledore's moldering form rushes at him, the mysterious stranger calls out, "It was not I who killed you, Albus," causing Dumbledore to crumble back into dust. Harry, aiming his wand, shouts, "Don't move!" causing the curtains on Mrs. Black's portrait to fly open. Her screeching insults bring Ron and Hermione running from upstairs. A voice yells, "Hold your fire, it's me, Remus!" Hermione redirects her wand at the screaming portrait, Ron lowers his wand in relief, and after further convincing, Harry is finally persuaded it really is Lupin and lowers his wand. Lupin, speaking as their Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher, reprimands Ron and Hermione for lowering their wands too soon. Lupin confirms that Death Eaters are monitoring the house, although they apparently are unaware anyone is there. Any place associated with Harry is being watched.
They descend to the kitchen where, over butterbeer, Lupin updates them on recent events. He is stunned about the Death Eaters at Tottenham Court Road, although he assures Harry it is impossible that the Trace is still active, confirming Ron's statement. Lupin reports that most wedding guests Disapparated to safety, and that Death Eaters have infiltrated the Ministry. Mr. Weasley heard a rumour that Scrimgeour was tortured before being killed, but he apparently never revealed Harry's location. Death Eaters searched the Burrow and found the Spattergroit ghoul, but avoided getting too close; everyone else at the Burrow was interrogated for hours. Although Death Eaters forced their way into other Order-related houses, no one has been killed, but some, like the Tonks, were tortured. Death Eaters were able to penetrate the magical charms surrounding the Burrow because they now have the Ministry's might behind them. Asked how they can legally justify their search, Lupin pulls out a Daily Prophet. On the front page is Harry's picture and the headline: WANTED FOR QUESTIONING ABOUT THE DEATH OF ALBUS DUMBLEDORE.
Harry pushes the paper aside. Lupin says the Ministry claims that the murdered Scrimgeour actually resigned. He was replaced by Pius Thicknesse, who Lupin says is under the Imperius curse. This effectively makes Voldemort the Minister for Magic. Although many wizards suspect what is happening in the Ministry, none dares to speak out, fearing reprisals and unsure who to trust. Voldemort remains hidden to create fear and confusion. While Dumbledore's death was certain to make Harry the rallying point for resistance fighters, implicating him in Dumbledore's murder has cast doubt. Lupin also says the Ministry is rounding up Muggle-borns, claiming they acquired their magical powers by theft. Anyone without at least one close wizard relative is suspect. In addition, wizard children can no longer study magic at home or abroad, but only at Hogwarts, although this is only a means to further weed out Muggle-borns – to attend Hogwarts, you must be able to prove Blood status.
Lupin says the Order suspects Dumbledore assigned Harry a secret mission, which Harry confirms without confiding any details other than it also involves Ron and Hermione. Lupin offers his assistance, even if they are unable to share what they are doing. When asked about Tonks, Lupin says she will be fine at her parents house. Hermione suspects he is withholding something, and he reveals that Tonks is expecting a baby. Harry chastises him for abandoning his pregnant wife, but Lupin claims she is better off without him and that she should never have married an outcast. He fears their child will be a werewolf like him, and even if it is not, he is an unfit father. Outraged that he would desert his family, Harry shouts that Lupin is a coward. Lupin, offended, rages out the front door, ignoring Hermione's pleas to stay. Hermione, supported by Ron, reproaches Harry, who now feels bad over how he treated Lupin, but still feels he was right.
Ignoring Ron and Hermione, Harry browses the Prophet. Dumbledore's name jumps out at him, along with a photo of the entire Dumbledore family: Percival, Kendra, Albus and Aberforth, and baby Ariana. There is also a headline: EXCLUSIVE EXTRACT FROM THE UPCOMING BIOGRAPHY OF ALBUS DUMBLEDORE by Rita Skeeter. The article describes Kendra as proud and haughty. After her husband's imprisonment in Azkaban, she moved the family to Godric's Hollow, Harry Potter's former home, where few knew them. Skeeter claims that Kendra thought she could hide Ariana, who was believed to be a Squib. The article concludes with, Next Week: Albus Dumbledore at Hogwarts—the Prizes and the Pretense.
Kreacher suddenly returns with a flailing Mundungus Fletcher, who attempts to use his wand. Hermione disarms him, and Ron wrestles him to the floor. After some encouragement from Kreacher wielding a pot, Mundungus says he used the Locket to bribe a Ministry woman who caught him selling goods without a license. The woman was short, wearing a hair bow, and looking rather like a "toad." Harry, Ron, and Hermione exchange shocked expressions; the old scars on Harry's hand begin to prickle.
[edit] Analysis
One must wonder somewhat about the Death Eater interest in the house at Grimmauld Place. It is clearly under surveillance, though no apparent attempt is made to enter it. Clearly the Death Eaters believe that some Order member, possibly Harry, may be hiding inside, although it is learned later that any place associated with Harry is being watched. We already know that Severus Snape is a Secret-Keeper for the house's location; if it is believed that Harry may be in the house, why does Snape not reveal the secret to a Death Eater squad so they could enter and ransack the place? If Snape is reluctant, why does Voldemort not order Snape to reveal the secret? If, however, Snape attempted to enter Grimmauld Place after the Order of the Phoenix left, Mad Eye Moody's Tongue-tying Curse that greeted the Trio at the front entrance may be preventing Snape from divulging its location.
Although Harry's reaction to Lupin seems undeservedly harsh, he immediately saw Lupin's offer as a thinly-veiled excuse to leave Tonks, believing that he is an unfit husband and father and that she deserves someone better. Having lost his own parents and godfather, being raised in a loveless household, and left feeling betrayed and set adrift by Dumbledore, Harry is infuriated that Lupin would abandon his pregnant wife in such desperate times and allow their unborn child to be raised without a father. This is particularly infuriating as Lupin, despite being a werewolf, has risked his own life serving in the Order of the Phoenix fighting Voldemort and his Death Eaters, is always loyal to his friends, and has exerted a significant positive influence on Harry and many other students while he was a teacher at Hogwarts. Lupin, like so many others when they appraise themselves, apparently fails to consider this, and, despite loving Tonks, instead feels that his outcast status in the wizarding world far outweighs his sterling attributes and his responsibilities as a husband and father. Lupin leaves Grimmauld Place in a rage, and he and Harry seem permanently divided, but Harry's outburst will deeply affect him. Harry is also affected by their confrontation. And though Harry now regrets over-reacting to Lupin, he remains convinced he is right.
Harry is also deeply affected by Rita Skeeter's book excerpt. Again discovering how little he knew about Dumbledore, Harry is confused by these revelations of Dumbledore's past, and his family's behaviour, and wonders how the Dumbledore he knew could have come from the past Skeeter describes. Harry is particularly dismayed to discover how far Kendra Dumbledore seemed willing to go to conceal her daughter Ariana.
The Trio have no doubt that the "toad" woman is none other than Ministry official Dolores Umbridge. Although they have located the Locket Horcrux, they must now devise a plan to retrieve it from her—an extremely difficult and dangerous undertaking. It is unclear yet if she knows the Locket's significance.
[edit] Questions
[edit] Review
- How did Lupin know where to find the Trio? How did he enter Grimmauld Place undetected by the ever-present Death Eaters?
- Why does Lupin offer to help with the Trio's mission?
- Why does Harry call Lupin a coward, even though Lupin is willing to risk his life to help with their mission?
[edit] Extra Study
- If Death Eaters and Snape, who is a Secret Keeper, previously searched Grimmauld Place as Harry suspects, why are they unwilling or unable to enter it now?
- Harry, and we, are certain that the Ministry woman that Mundungus Fletcher described is Dolores Umbridge. Is it possible she knows what the Locket is?
- How can the Trio be so certain that the "toad woman" Mundungus Fletcher describes is actually Dolores Umbridge.
[edit] Greater Picture
Although Lupin is deeply angered and offended by Harry's outburst, it will cause him to return to Tonks and, eventually, to realize that he is indeed a fit husband and father. Lupin later asks Harry to be godfather to his newborn son, indicating that their relationship has healed.
It is almost certain that Umbridge is absolutely oblivious to the Locket's status. To her, it is only a heavy, ornate locket with an inlaid S, which she is unable to open. She would never suspect that it might be a Slytherin relic; having extorted it from a petty grifter on the streets, it cannot be much more than a cheap trinket, certainly not an artifact worth thousands of Galleons. And Horcruxes, being a mechanism for a person's immortality, would certainly be carefully protected and unavailable for sale on a street corner. We will see later that Umbridge uses the Locket as a prop to bolster her claim that she is related to the Selwyn family, on strength of the inlaid S.
