Harry Potter HFriday - That Time We All Wept

I actually considered skipping this section and jumping straight to book 6, but no. I am a glutton for punishment and also perhaps the sliiiightest bit OCD.

There’s a rollicking debate going on over at Megs’s blog about whether Harry was dumb about the 2-way mirror or not. I fall on the side of that-is-a-terrible-plot-device-designed-only-to-make-me-feel-EVEN-MORE-SHITTY-JK, whatever side that is. Because really all it does is the aforementioned and make Harry feel like it’s even MORE his fault that Sirius is no more. Guilt Trip, party for two, someone carry Dumbledore’s bags, please.

But here’s a thing I don’t get. Grimauld Place is on the Floo network and can’t be monitored  because Dumbledore is the secret keeper for the house’s location. So why doesn’t Harry just… go all the way to the house and look for Sirius? Climbing the stairs shouting is going to be way more effective than just sticking your head out of the fire and shouting, right? And then if the lookouts at Hogwarts Hogwarts Hoggy Warty Hogwarts hear Umbridge is coming, they just join Harry at Grimauld place. Phineas Nigellus can come back to the house and tell them when the coast is clear, and if Sirius isn’t at HQ, they could just take the Floo network to the Ministry. Because your whole body can travel by Floo.

I should be in charge of everything.

I feel the need to point out that back when we were all reading this for the first time and we didn’t know who was going to die, the whole lead-up to the duel in the arch room was SO SCARY. Leaving Ron with those brains? AGH!  There was a moment – probably less than a moment because I was reading so fast – when I was sure Hermione was dead. And then Dumbledore shows up and he. is. pissed. and you think, Oh, it’s all going to be all right and then Bellatrix hits Sirius and you’re all, he’ll be okay! It was just a stunner and McGonagall took 4 of those to the chest and she'll be okay (eventually aggghhh)!

And then he’s standing in the wrong place at the wrong time. Again.

There are discussions upon discussions we could have about how True Hero Archetypes have to have someone - usually a Guardian - die before they can be dedicated to their Cause in the right way, and how Sirius's death does this for Harry in a way that Dumbledore's will not. This pattern is borne out by literature and myth and, all things considered, JK handled it beautifully.

I would just like to close with the happy images of McGonagall lending Peeves her walking stick to drum Umbridge off of Hogwarts property, and of Neville and his mimbulus mimbletonia-stroking.

Neville, you are so uncomfortably attractive.