HP&tDH SPOILERS

[Albus]

The ring/resurrection stone: Voldemort put a curse on the ring to protect it when he hid it back in the Gaunt house. Dumbledore adverts to the existence of those protections in the Half Blood Prince, when he tells Harry about retrieving that Horcrux. As to Dumbledore suffering the curse, he admits to Harry in King's Cross that he wanted to use the Resurrection Stone to have contact with Ariana. This caused him to touch the stone and suffer the curse, which Snape's quick work contained in Dumbledore's withered hand. This, of course, led to the plan for Snape to kill Dumbledore at a time of Albus' own choosing.

The Sword of Gryffindor: It was indeed taken by Griphook in the vault at Gringotts. That didn't matter. The sword was enchanted to come to the aid of a true Gryffindor in time of need whenever he shows loyalty to Albus Dumbledore. Remember, in the Chamber of Secrets, the sword was not in Dumbledore's office when Harry was first summoned there early in the book. In the Chamber, however, when Harry said that Dumbledore would never be gone from Hogwarts as long as those loyal to him remained, Fawkes brought the Sorting Hat -- remember, Godric Gryffindor's hat -- to Harry, and the hat conjured up the sword from wherever it might then have resided (one mystery that remains unanswered). Fast forward to the Battle of Hogwarts. Neville Longbottom steps out and has his Braveheart moment, crying out "Dumbledore's Army!" Here comes the Sorting Hat, from which Neville, a true Gryffindor if ever there was one, pulls out the sword. I can only imagine Griphook's reaction as the sword disappeared from wherever he was keeping to be sent to Neville's aid.

The master of the Wand: Draco Malfoy went to the top of the tower with the intention of killing Albus Dumbledore and, in the process, disarmed Dumbledore against his will. That made him master of the wand. Snape killed Dumbledore with Dumbledore's consent. That may or may not have been sufficient to give him mastery over the wand, but it had in any event already chosen Draco as its master. Had things gone according to the plan, Dumbledore would either have died without the wand transferring to a new master or the new master would have been Snape, whom Dumbledore trusted to keep the wand from Voldemort.

Nagini: Voldemort turned Bathilda Bagshot into an Inferius, and then Nagini was stuffed inside of her. Nagini's "speech" in Parseltongue was controlled by Voldemort who, as Dumbledore had observed, had unusual control over her, obviously due to Voldemort's having used her for a Horcrux.

[mommylawyer]

Originally posted by SlaveNoMore


Still do not understand why cracking the ring "killed" Dumbledore -either as a Horcrux or a Hallow - while the destruction on the over Horcruxes had no effect at all on the other destroyers.

Same thing with the Malfoy/Wand connection. Something doesn't add up at all.

the first - My understanding was that it WASN"T the fact that it was the Hallows that poisoned DD, it was the poison spell of it being a Horcrux, and that in his lust for the Hallows, he slipped it on his finger before examining it etc... to discover the poison. the other Horcruxes DID have effects...the locket put you in a dark mood, made you destructive etc... affected Ron worse - they realised this and kept switching the possession and when Ron had to destroy it, he really struggled etc.... The Cup had the spell of everytime it was touched, it would multiply and burn etc... I don't have my book but there was something going on with the crown too...

The second - that was the blip in DD's plan. the plan was that Snape was to disarm him, making Snape the owner of the elder Wand, which would have led to one of two thing - Harry would own it if he killed Snape, or Snape would own it if Voldemort killed Harry and use it to kill Voldemort in a last minute betrayal. Then Draco disarmed DD, and if Harry hadn't disarmed him (Dobby to the rescue - Snape/Aberforth sent DOBBY) Draco would have remained the owner, if not hte possessor. As the wands choose the wizard, and as such recognize their true owner, Voldemort could not kill Harry with Harry's wand and all harry had to do was throw up a block. hope that made sense...

[mommylawyer]

Originally posted by Replaced_Texan
I read someplace that she'd written the last chapter years ago to sort of give herself an endpoint to work towards. She said something about having to rewrite it because she killed someone off and gave someone else a reprieve. I don't know if the Epilogue counts for her as the last chapter, but my guess is that it probably does. I suspect that the Epilogue may actually serve more for her than it does for us. I didn't really need it, and I don't think that the story really suffers without it. The only thing it really does is show that life goes on and that Harry recognized ultimately that Snape was acting unbelievably bravely throughout his lifetime without anyone knowing it.

She said yesterday on the today show, that Arthur Weasley was supposed to die in book 5, but he got a reprieve..... and another Father died...my guess was that it was Remus.

Was I the only one who got really nervous when Mad-Eye got creamed???

[mommylawyer]

Originally posted by SlaveNoMore
And this to me- - especially the second part of Harry taking Draco's wand as somehow "taking" the Elder wand as well - is a bit much.

He didn't just 'take' Draco's wand, he disarmed him..... almost like when a leader surrenders, he surrenders not just for himself but for those he leads. Because the disarming was a taking by force (without an actual force of course, but there were being held as captives and they were escaping etc...) Harry 'captured' draco's wand(s).

[Replaced_Texan]

Originally posted by Hank Chinaski
minor point but how/when did they get the sword back? the last i heard the goblin had it, then at the end of them (neville maybe?) had it.

What aV said.

But that leads to other questions.

1.) Did Dumbledore bequeath the sword to Harry to draw his (and other Griffyndors') attention to it in the hopes of getting the Death Eaters/Voldemort interested in the double? I was sort of surprised to find myself agreeing with the Minister that the sword wasn't Dumbledore's to give.

2.) Was the double sword intended to be used as bait to get Voldemort to show Harry what safe places he keeps important things in? And did Snape sort of suggest to Neville, Luna and Ginny that they should try to steal it to draw Voldemort's attention to it? It occurs to me that Snape was walking a very fine line of probably knowing more about Voldemort and his obessions than the average everyday Death Eater would know. Saying something like "yo, boss, I know you like Hogwarts' founders' stuff, here's the sword of Griffyndor" probably would have raised suspicion.

3.) After the diary debacle, why on earth would Voldemort trust anyone with custody and protection of his Horcruxes?

[SlaveNoMore]

mommylawyer
He didn't just 'take' Draco's wand, he disarmed him..... almost like when a leader surrenders, he surrenders not just for himself but for those he leads. Because the disarming was a taking by force (without an actual force of course, but there were being held as captives and they were escaping etc...) Harry 'captured' draco's wand(s).

It's weak.

[ltl/fb]

Here’s how The Guardian’s tidy summary - no real plot spoilers are involved here, but if you are fragile about stumbling on any kind of hints at all, read at your own peril - ends:



Harry, Ron and Hermione had criss-crossed the country getting out of ever-tighter scrapes with wizard spells, but still Harry felt no nearer to knowing what to do. Yet he had the strange feeling everything was becoming clearer.

“I’m leaving you two,” Ron declared one day. “I need to create some narrative tension.” Harry was lost again but a Patronus spell led him to the Sword of Gryffindor. He had to step naked into an icy pool to retrieve it. “I knew getting the lead part in the school production of Equus would come in handy,” he thought.

“I’m back,” said Ron, as Harry’s scar continued to reveal yet more of the seemingly endless back story. Sometimes Harry didn’t know if he was awake or asleep, alive or dead, as so many old characters flashed through his mind. “Don’t worry,” said the figure of Dumbledore. “This time, no one knows what’s going on either.”

So Harry made his way back to Hogwarts to face Voldemort. It would end as he had always known it would. With everyone wondering what JK would do next.

[Fugee]

Originally posted by mommylawyer
the other Horcruxes DID have effects...the locket put you in a dark mood, made you destructive etc... affected Ron worse - they realised this and kept switching the possession and when Ron had to destroy it, he really struggled etc.... The Cup had the spell of everytime it was touched, it would multiply and burn etc... I don't have my book but there was something going on with the crown too...

Yes as to the locket, but the multiplying spell was Gringott's anti-theft protection and nothing to do with the cup as a Horcrux. Everything they touched in there multiplied. I don't recall if the burning part was Gringotts as well but I think it might have been because the whole room was getting hot with all the hot multiplied stuff they accidentally touched.

Presumably there were spells on the cup & tiara but the book doesn't cover them. Whatever enchantment was on the cup got kind of glossed over because they were all in the middle of battle when Ron & Hermione came up to show that it was destroyed. Also, we don't really know what kind of spell was on the tiara because it was cracked & destroyed by the Fiendfyre before Harry got his hands on it (or so soon after that they didn't spend any time on it).

[Replaced_Texan]

Rowling interview expanding on the Epilogue.

[Fugee]

Originally posted by Replaced_Texan
Rowling interview expanding on the Epilogue.

Interesting. I expected, from Harry's comment in the last chapter, that he'd changed his mind about being an auror because he wanted an uneventful life so she would have hium doing something more mundane. Not at all surprised that she decided Hermione would be in law.

[tmdiva]

Originally posted by Fugee
Interesting. I expected, from Harry's comment in the last chapter, that he'd changed his mind about being an auror because he wanted an uneventful life so she would have hium doing something more mundane. Not at all surprised that she decided Hermione would be in law.

I'm just glad she's not a housewife like so many other women in the books.

tm

[Fugee]

Originally posted by tmdiva
I'm just glad she's not a housewife like so many other women in the books.

tm

There was no way that was happening -- she had over-achiever written all over her since the first book. Ron was more likely to be a house husband!!!

But you are correct that most of the married women in the books did not appear to work outside the home.

BTW, if you get sick of reading the books out loud to Magnus and Thor, try the audio CD/tapes. Jim Dale does an outstanding job. He has distinct voices & accents for for the characters -- I read somewhere that he has 100 different voices for the books.

[greatwhitenorthchick]

When Harry and Dumbledore are at King's Cross, that dying baby is Voldemort in Harry, correct?

[Fugee]

Originally posted by greatwhitenorthchick
When Harry and Dumbledore are at King's Cross, that dying baby is Voldemort in Harry, correct?

It took me a couple reads to figure it out, but yes, I think it is the piece of Voldemort's soul that was in Harry. That's why Harry tells Voldemort he has seen what awaits him if he doesn't repent.

[greatwhitenorthchick]

Originally posted by Fugee
It took me a couple reads to figure it out, but yes, I think it is the piece of Voldemort's soul that was in Harry. That's why Harry tells Voldemort he has seen what awaits him if he doesn't repent.

Thanks, Fugee!

I think the most interesting thing about this book for me was that somewhere along the line of reading all the HP books, I lost sight of the fact that it's ultimately a series geared to children and adolescents. So I was expecting some kind of bizarre ending with loose ends left all around, but that is not the way children's books end, so the fact that the ending tied everything up made me remember that.