Before we return to the themes and clues scattered liberally throughout OOTP, a few brief administrative notices. First, KWMU’s Cityscape this morning covered “the Harry Potter phenomenon and activities surrounding the release of the final book” with an owner of Left Bank Books and a teacher. The show will repeat this evening, and it also available via mp3. Second, mentioned during the segment is a release street party for Deathly Hallows starting at 9pm along Euclid in the Central West End and running through at least 1am. Some of the events mentioned include a costume contest, trivia contest at the Coffee Cartel, and Herbology lessons put on by the Botanical Garden. Left Bank will put book 7 on sale starting at midnight. A list of other release parties at local bookstores and libraries is at STLToday. For my part, I will doubtless still be deep in book 6 by that time, working diligently to prepare both for the subsequent post on it and then my predictions while waiting for K’s pre-order to arrive.

Back to the book. Let us turn our attention to that institution which takes on a far more sinister role than in past books, the Ministry of Magic. We had some inkling of how the Ministry behaves under pressure, both from its flummoxing at the panic at the Quidditch World Cup in the previous year and during the pursuit of Death Eaters in Voldemort’s first reign of terror. We heard tell of how Barty Crouch pushed for more severe measures in the apprehension of Death Eaters, including killing rather than capturing them if necessary, to great popular acclaim - until the unveiling of his own son as one of Voldemort’s undid his rise to power and unhinged his mind. Now with Cornelius Fudge stonewalling on the possibility of Voldemort’s return, and his growing paranoia that Dumbledore means to unseat him in a coup d’etat, the Ministry takes on ever more abhorrent aspects of a totalitarian state.

First, they pervert the rule of law to suit a political agenda. The impartiality of wizard law has already show weakness in accounting for celebrity (e.g. Ludo Bagman) and popular opinion (e.g. Harry’s prior run-in with the Decree for the Reasonable Restriction of Underage Wizardry after blowing up Aunt Marge, as a sop to public concern at Sirius Black’s public record). Here we see its outright manipulation by the executive powers of the Minister to gain advantage. Having previously severed Dumbledore from the Wizengamot, Fudge himself presides over Harry’s newest infraction of the underage Decree, with a full criminal quorum packed with notable cronies, even surreptitiously changing the trial’s location and time to put Harry at greater disadvantage. He seems especially put out at Dumbledore’s calm refutation of the charges by following actual judicial procedure, which seems like an irksome inconvenience to his clear goal of discrediting Harry, the herald of Voldemort’s so-called resurrection. The provision for ‘reasonable’ exceptions to the Decree provokes him to declare, “Laws can be changed,” and indeed we will see clear evidence of the legislature put hard to work drawing a closer and closer noose around his perceived political enemies. Percy is equally supportive of this view of the supremacy of the Ministry over the vagaries of legal doctrine, opining to Ron that Harry escaped due punishment “by a mere technicality if you ask me,” as if saving one’s life and that of a Muggle is no good reason to allow the use of underage magic.

And the laws continue to change. We first get the suspicion, and then confirmation, that communications between Harry and other ’subversives’ are being monitored without any formal charges. This ‘owl tapping’ and screening of the Floo network are hardly strange notions to us, both in a country still riven over a wide-ranging Patriot Act and the possibly illegal wiretapping for ill-defined ‘enemies of the state’ and its mother nation which saw the passage of a draconian Criminal Justice Bill when I was studying at Leeds. The wartime expansion of powers is more luridly exemplified in Umbridge’s twice attempting outright Unforgiveable acts towards Harry, first ordering dementors from Azakaban to take his life (effectively making her guilty of conspiracy to commit murder most foul) and then planning use of the Cruciatus Curse to ‘loosen his tongue,’ for “sometimes circumstances justify the use…” What is left unsaid, of course, is that circumstances sometimes seem to warrant the violation of basic rights, from detention (Hagrid’s internment at Azkaban on the mere suspicion that he was responsible for the re-opening of the Chamber of Secrets) to torture. Even other criminals can leverage these changes, as when Willy Widdershins turns informant to avoid charges on Muggle-baiting, leading McGonagall to remark, “What an interesting insight into our justice system!” We are made to feel revulsion at these rationalizations, but alas they are not universally shared even outside the hermetic Ministry. All this done in defense of an administration’s inner circle might also give one to ponder examples of due process trampled under for partisan gain, should you choose to seek them out.

And just what does distinguish the Unforgivable Curses first revealed in book 4 as being so particularly taboo? We have the Cruciatus, derived perhaps from the same root as ‘crucifixion’, which tortures the subject’s body. Then there is the Imperius, which siphons its target of volition and autonomy, effectively robbing them of free will. And finally the Killing Curse, Avada Kedavra, most universally prohibited in societies in codes such as “Thou shalt not kill.” Yet these are not the only curses that severely wound or incapacitate their victims. Akin to the Imperius, memory charms can affect the mind so as to alter the subject’s basic identity, as with Gilderoy Lockhart and Bertha Jorkins, yet they are freely employed by the Ministry in their maintenance of secrecy from Muggle detection. Apart from Cruciatus, sectusempra is also deeply wounding, as presumably is used by a silenced Death Eater on Hermione and will again appear in book 6. And surely their are other ways to kill with magic other than Avada Kedavra, such as a simple inversion of the Bubblehead Charm or the dispersal of Garroting Gas. Yet these three alone are elevated to the status of ‘cardinal’ sins even to cast. And notably, at least two of them have seen use in Ministry hands, the Cruciatus by Umbridge and Killing Curse by Aurors in the past. Clearly ‘unforgivable’ is not strictly that.

The regular threat and use of sentencing to Azkaban also raises a question about the varieties of punishment in the wizarding world. Having established just how damaging even a momentary encounter with a single dementor can be, the notion of a ’short’ stay in the wizard prison like the 6 months received by Sturgis Podmore is indubitably cruel. Yet we have only heard elsewhere of fines (such as of Mr. Weasley for enchanting the Ford Anglia) and bans on magical use (Hagrid’s wand is broken when he is expelled, and Harry is threatened prior to his hearing). Surely an inventive community can have conjured, quite literally, better means to rehabilitate its wayward denizens than soul-wracking imprisonment and effective excommunication from their number.

We also get a brief glimpse into the misuse of Ministry authority to further personal prejudice. Much as Cornelius Fudge uses the weight of his office to discredit Dumbledore and Harry, so Dolores Umbridge has shown no qualms in drafting her loathing of ‘part-humans’ into formal law. Her anti-werewolf legislation effectively cuts off Lupin from any gainful employment, and “she campaigned to have merpeople rounded up and tagged last year too.” This last evokes painful scenes of internment camps such as of Japanese-Americans during WWII and our current struggle over how to address illegal immigrantion, while Britain is no stranger to its own persecutions and immigration troubles. The chilling projection of a post-Thatcher fascist state is explored in Alan Moore’s V for Vendetta, where one of the key steps of consolidating power by Norsefire during a time of national crisis is by arresting all suspected subversives and undesirables, from liberal agitators to intellectuals, homosexuals, and all those of ‘lesser’ races. They even employ the motto “Strength Through Purity,” a frequent refrain by the pureblood partisans among wizards. Historical atrocities of this sort abound, from Stalin’s purges to Communist China’s “Cultural Revolution” (supposedly driven in part by Jiang Qing’s own malevolence towards minority cultures), the “Killing Fields” of the Khmer Rouge, and too many ‘ethnic cleansings’ of recent years in Eastern Europe and Africa to contemplate. And we cannot excuse our democratic nations, with the systematic massacre, resettlement, and ‘re-education’ of aboriginal populations in both the Americas and Australia. So we should not take lightly these hints of a government creeping towards a monoculture, or preaching the dominance of any one group.

This pro-human slant is particularly lampooned by Harry’s second observation of the central fountain in the Ministry’s entryway atrium:

“He looked up into the handsome wizard’s face, but up close, Harry thought he looked rather weak and foolish. The witch was wearing a vapid smile like a beauty contestant, and from what Harry knew of goblins and centaurs, they were most unlikely to be caught staring this soppily at humans of any description. Only the house-elf’s attitude of creeping servility looked convincing.”

Dumbledore later confirms this assessment after he uses the statues to aid in their defense against Voldemort, “The fountain we destroyed tonight told a lie. We wizards have mistreated and abused our fellows for too long, and we are now reaping our reward.” Yet is it precisely against these prejudices and divisiveness that the Order and young heroes must overcome, as the Sorting Hat warns:

“For our Hogwarts is in danger
From external, deadly foes
And we must unite inside her
Or we’ll crumble from within”

and as Hermione recalls of Dumbledore’s closing remarks in year 4, regarding Voldemort’s strategy for dividing their strength - “His gift for spreading discord and enmity is very great. We can fight it only by showing an equally strong bond of friendship and trust.” (I do love Ron’s reaction to her recitation, “How do you remember stuff like that?” asked Ron…”I listen, Ron,” said Hermione with a touch of asperity. First, because it reminds me of how I remember things from books and movies without meaning to. And second, because I had to look up ‘asperity.’) Dumbledore also makes an interesting observation of Voldemort’s conflicted nature showing through, for though he preaches the superiority of the pureblood caste and rejoices in being Slytherin’s heir, when it comes to acting on his limited intel about the prophecy, “he chose, not the pureblood…but the half-blood, like himself.”

The divisive tactics of the Ministry are not limited to their command of the legislative, executive, and judicial functions. They also compromise the impartiality of the ‘fourth branch’ of government, the press as represented by the Daily Prophet. After the exploits of Rita Skeeter and her own skewing of truth in pursuit of a scoop, the machinations over the summer to discredit Harry and Dumbledore are rather more subtle. This is played out to great effect in the fifth movie, where animated headlines link “Potter” to “Plotter” and a newsboy cries out “Dumbledore, is he Daft or is he Dangerous?”, a clever fool’s quandary. The gradual attribution of Harry’s claims to brain damage and attention-seeking behavior are insidious, and undermine any claim to truth he makes. They extend this character assassination to any who would contradict the preferred version of events, such as when Madam Marchbanks resigns in protest, her comment is immediately followed by, “For a full account of Madam Marchbanks’ alleged links to subversive goblin groups, turn to page 17.” The Daily Prophet also comes in for a criticism for being equally fickle in its prioritizing entertainment over news, as when Hermione meets with Rita Skeeter about the prospect of getting Harry’s story out in unvarnished form - “So the Daily Prophet exists to tell people what they want to hear, does it?” said Hermione scathingly… “The Prophet exists to sell itself, you silly girl,” [Rita] said coldly.

So, we cannot trust adults, the Ministry, or the press (The Quibbler, while quite willing to carry Skeeter’s exclusive, is hardly exemplary in other areas). What about divination? We get three distinct forms of it throughout the year, starting with oneiromancy (dream interpretation) in Trelawney’s class. While Harry does not seem to learn anything about the subject in class, he makes tremendous discoveries via a sort of clairvoyant connection to Voldemort - “The curse that failed to kill you seems to have forged some kind of connection between you and the Dark Lord. The evident suggests that at times, when your mind is most relaxed and vulnerable…you are sharing the Dark Lord’s thoughts and emotions.” Just as he learned of the deaths of Bertha Jorkins and Frank Bryce, as well as some of his efforts to maneuver Harry through the Triwizard tournament, in the previous year, now he proceeds down the corridors of the Department of Mysteries in search of…what? We are prevented in any progress in actual dream interpretation by the sacking of Trelawney by Umbridge, after showing little practical aptitude in her core subject as well as offshoots like ornithomancy (literally bird-watching) and heptomancy (which I have to guess is something to do with lizards).

Thus we are able to experience the centaur view of astrology when Firenze comes to replace her, a strange and inprecise practice yet concerned overall with the wider wheels of destiny rather than tiny impertubations such as whether you’ll burn yourself on the stove because of Mars. Thus we learn that even the stars show that, “in the past decade, the indications have been that Wizard-kind is living through nothing more than a brief calm between two wars. Mars, bringer of battle, shines brightly above us, suggesting that the fight must break out again soon.” We also get a new approach to pedagogy, moving beyond the basic Remember/Understand/Apply rote lesson format already so familiar to the more complex Evaluate domain in Bloom’s Taxonomy of Educational Objectives. In this sphere, “his priority did not seem to be to teach them what he knew, but rather to impress upon them that nothing, not even centaurs’ knowledge, was foolproof.” This critical epistemology or ’seeking knowledge about knowledge’ is also similar to the subversive goal of the original Sophists, who sought by arguing both sides of any idea that truth was far more fungible and nuanced than commonly accepted (an early form of relativity). Alas, their powers of rhetorical persuasion became corrupted in time by arguing for fees, becoming perhaps the archetypes of coercive lawyers out for their own enrichment instead of the pursuit of true justice. Firenze’s own banishment from his herd for lowering himself to the task of teaching humans is at once a sort of counterculture reaction in resisting a dominant society, and an example of the secrecy typically surrounding esoteric teachings. Just as the other schools in book 4 sought to protect the ’secret’ of their particular lessons, so the centaurs view stargazing as a practice to be kept among their kind, like in our history with mystical rites, martial art schools, and secret societies such as the Freemasons.

Finally we have an occasion, not of augury like we have had with all prior forms of divination (where some external symbol acts as intermediary to communicate secret meaning to the augur), but of pure prophecy. Seers, it must be said, have a mixed history. While primitive societies relied upon their shaman or witch doctor to interpret signs (often with psychotropic aids), and empires like Rome and Sparta looked to their priests and augurs to give direction and provide blessings for their endeavors,they generally had the benefit of some kind of omen, portent, or sign to help prop up their predictions. Not so prophecy, where a practitioner is taken over by a greater spirit and unveils hidden wisdoms thereby. The Oracle at Delphi inhaled vapors, while Sibyll Trelawney would seem to prefer a cheap sherry. Compared to predecessors - such as Cassandra, cursed not be believed; Caesar’s soothsayer, who warned futilely of the Ides of March; and Agnes Nutter, and her “Nice and Accurate Predictions” that indeed predict the apocalypse with humorous results - Trelawney’s words are given remarkable veneration. And let’s examine those words:

“The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches…born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies…and the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal, but he will have power the Dark Lord knows not…and either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives…The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord will be born as the seventh month dies.”

This has some of the hallmarks of classic predictions. First, it is notably vague rather than specific. Second, it uses unusual phrasing to further curtail direct reading. Third, it has no particular timeline. The easiest predictions to disprove are those that give a fixed date, like “the UFO will come at midnight of the turn of the 2nd millennium AD.” Oops. However, some of its initial ambiguity has since been resolved. With Voldemort only having part of the message (sort of like the Nazis having only part of the Staff of Moses when trying to find the Ark of the Covenant), he makes an incorrect inference as to the identity of his predicted nemesis, and seeks out Harry rather than Neville, the other qualifying July baby. In doing so, he collapses the implied waveform that had existed, like Schrödinger’s Cat, between the two of them. Further, he commits the common mistake in creating a predestination paradox, causing the prophecy to be true precisely by acting as if it is (cf. Oedipus Rex, Neo becoming the One). Again in the domain of multiple worlds, it’s intriguing to wonder what would have happened had he chosen Neville instead of Harry, or simply bided his time rather than rush into attempted infanticide. But having made his choice, and ‘marked’ Harry as his equal via the lightning bolt scar, the die is cast.

The possible outcomes of the prophecy are still left up to chance. It does not say which will triumph over the other, how soon the struggle must be resolved, or - perhaps most telling - even that one will remain when the other is gone. While Harry may indeed have both “the power to vanquish the Dark Lord” and “power the Dark Lord knows not” (the latter suggested to be the capacity for love), it does not immediately follow that he will vanquish the Dark Lord, or that if he does so he can live on happily, only that “neither can live while the other survives.” And from that we can at least infer that each will remain fixed on overcoming the other until at least one is defeated ultimately, rather than simply walk away and live separately in peace. (One alternate theory is that more than just Harry is implicated in the wording, for the opening line’s “approaches” might apply to those who overheard the prophecy rather than those named in it by birth, but the repetition of the final line makes this suspect.)

One last quick note about prophecies is how many religions rely on them to ground their origins. Time will tell if this is meant as an allusion to any other established tale of a savior from prophecy with a message that love conquers all.

Before turning finally to the remaining clues in book 5, I first want to highlight some of its emotional swells (not necessarily happy moments, just powerful ones). Previously this has usually happened once or twice a book for me, e.g. when Harry gets pictures of his parents as a gift from Hagrid in book 1. But book 5 has at least three that still overpower me a bit even re-reading:

1. When Harry, Ron and Hermione meet in the Hog’s Head, and suddenly 25 people join them at the prospect of learning DADA from Harry. The list seems endless.
2. At 12 Grimmauld Place, after Arthur Weasley is attacked, and they all sit up waiting for news. “If Harry had ever sat through a longer night than this one he could not remember it.”
3. At St. Mungo’s, after meeting Neville and his grandmother, and Alice gives Neville a gum wrapper. “But as they left, Harry was sure he saw Neville slip the wrapper into his pocket.”

Sigh…okay.

Let’s start with dispensing with those questions that (probably) get answered by the time book 5 ends.

• “Remember my last, Petunia” - We learn Dumbledore refers to the first letter left with Harry, which either has some hold over Aunt Petunia or simply reminds her of the consequences of putting Harry out of doors.
• “As she took hold of him to examine the words now cut into his skin, pain seared, not across the back of his hand, but across the scar on his forehead. At the same time, he had a most peculiar sensation somewhere around his midriff” - Initially considered a possible sign of an Imperius Curse on Umbridge, Harry later decides he was feeling Voldemort’s elatement, not so different from his feelings around Cho. Besides, Umbridge acting under anything than according to her own perverse motivations undermines just how mundane evil can be.
• “The veiled witch sitting alone shifted very slightly in her seat.” - We learn this is Mundungus Fletcher in disguise for the Order, while another of the cloaked forms is Willy Widdershins, the toilet-hexer.
• “We will need…a warning” - Fawkes’ feather would seem to indicate that they are watching for Umbridge to come in search of Harry and the Weasley children.
• “But Kreacher did not answer the summons.” - Indeed, he had left the house to go to the Malfoys and do such damage as he was capable while remaining under geas to Sirius.
• The Pensieve appears to be aid in Occlumency, whereby removing troubling or powerful memories you can further armor your mind against penetration by Legilimency. This works against Snape insofar as Harry actually sticks his nose into Snape’s worst memory, but can help explain how he can act as an effective spy for the Order without risking as much of their own secrets.

The next is a bit more complicated. Sirius is felled by a “jet of light” of indeterminate color. Both Stunning (red light) and Killing (green light) curses are being thrown around with abandon during the melee. Some hope desperately that a combination of it having been (1) only a Stunner and (2) the veil not being true death will allow him to return. However, the evidence is definitely against this. First, Dumbledore seems soberly convinced of his death, to the point of confirming it to his ancestor’s portrait, Phineas Nigellus. Second, Dumbledore calls the archway’s location the “Death Room,” and as we saw in other rooms at the Department of Ministries, each seems to hold one aspect for study - Time, Love, Thought, Fate, and Death. Finally, his death has great significance to the series - Harry must face the loss of someone he cares for (vs Cedric, who was just a student and a rival at that), loses the protection of a father figure, and must face future challenges that much more alone. Were Sirius to suddenly reappear, as anything other than a shadow echo a la the Prior Incantatem, it would undermine this and rob the event of all of its poignancy. Good people die, as much as we wish it not to be so, and the death of Sirius is not the last to come. One other question remains about the archway, other than the obvious (”what is the veil?”) - if it represents a gateway between the living and the dead, it makes sense that Harry, Neville and Luna all hear voices through it, just as they can see thestrals. But why is Ginny similarly entranced?

Quik Quotes

Some of these are clues themselves, others reinforce past themes.

First, I was struck by how Harry’s “thought of the long essay on giant wars and the [ache in his right temple] stabbed at him sharply” was a fair approximation of what I felt when I first surveyed my notes for book 5. I think I have safely now spent more hours writing these impressions about it than I spent reading it, and it is hardly a quick read.

Just to hammer home that the books are no longer about school, but just take place there, no less than that devoted student Hermione suggests forming a DADA club and defiantly pronounces, “But this is much more important than homework!” Several times later, Harry finds himself almost sleepwalking around Hogwarts while life goes on as normal for others, when all he can focus on is, “There they were, talking about homework and Quidditch and who knew what other rubbish, and outside these walls ten more Death Eaters had swollen Voldemort’s ranks…”

Snape snarls at Harry when he equates Legilimency to mind-reading, retorting, “You have no subtlety, Potter…you do not understand fine distinctions. It is one of the shortcomings that makes you such a lamentable potion-maker.” Which is on its face true about Harry, who does tend to lump people and things into general categories - Friend, Girl, Bad - and treat them thereafter according to that broad brush. He is also not one to forgive or forget, or consider evidence against his bias, which will haunt him ever more come book 6. It is also a good reminder that fine distinctions - about people, loyalties, principles - do make a difference.

We receive several more depictions of the connection between Harry and Voldemort: “He had the horrible impression that he was slowly turning into a kind of aerial that tuned in to tiny fluctuations in Voldemort’s mood.” / “I guessed fifteen years ago…when I saw the scar upon your forehead, what it might mean. I guessed that it might be the sign of a connection forged between you and Voldemort.” One that I thought was particularly veiled, if I’m interpreting it correctly, is during a visit to the Headmaster’s office after Harry envisions the attack by Nagini on Arthur Weasley. He consults one of those spindly silver instruments we have heard described but never used, which produces a green plume of smoke that forms a snake. His question and its response are, “Naturally, naturally…But in essence divided?”at which point the smoke splits into two serpents. If this is a way for Dumbledore to scan Harry for possession, the answer seems to be that the serpent - Voldemort’s essence - is divided between Harry and Nagini, or otherwise diluted, so that he is not totally in control of Harry’s mind. Whether this means Dumbledore suspects a different kind of connection, or is the inspiration for some of his investigations come book 6, remains unclear.

In their confrontation, Dumbledore and Voldemort spar with words as well as spells. Foremost of interest is this exchange - “There is nothing worse than death, Dumbledore!” snarled Voldemort. “You are quite wrong, ” said Dumbledore…”Indeed, your failure to understand that there are things much worse than death has always been your greatest weakness.” Here we have a capsule summary of Voldemort’s fear of death, and Dumbledore’s wisdom about moving beyond it. This, as with the fate of Nicholas Flamel, paint a very different view of the nature of life and what is worth most. And we have Dumbledore’s answer as to what might enable us to overcome our fear of death, and act in a more noble fashion:

“There is a room in the Department of Mysteries…kept locked at all times. It contains a force that is at once more wonderful and more terrible than death, than human intelligence, than forces of nature. It is also, perhaps, the most mysterious of the many subjects for study that reside there. It is the power held within that room that you possess in such quantities and which Voldemort has not at all.”

That love is more wonderful is well established, from the protection from Harry’s mother to his repelling Voldemort’s possession simply by possessing it in such great amounts. That is also terrible we feel through the minor heartbreak of frustrated romance, the devastation of finding that the pure love for one’s parents is tainted by their humanity, and then the great outcry that follows Sirius’ death, and Dumbledore’s recognition that “you care so much you feel as though you will bleed to death with the pain of it.” Thus we receive Dumbledore’s confession, of his failing to act for the harsher good in the future at the expense of the comfortable present:

“For I see now that what I have done, and not done, with regard to you, bears all the hallmarks of the failngs of age. Youth cannot know how age thinks and feels. But old men are guilty if they forget what it was to be young…I cared about you too much…I cared more for your happiness than your knowing the truth, more for you peace of mind than my plan, more for your life than the lives that might be lost if the plan failed. In other words, I acted exactly as Voldemort expects we fools who love to act.”

So we see love, that many-splendored thing, has barbs as well. But the final conflict of Life vs Death, Hate vs Love has been established. Now we will see what more we can learn of these in book 6.

Oh, and the book ends, as did book 4, with yet another beginning. The final chapter? “The War Begins” And so it goes.

Vital Stats
Pages: 870 (Scholastic Hardback)
Chapters: 38
Starts: 4 Privet Drive
Defense Against the Dark Arts Teacher: Catatonic following Captivity by Centaurs
Dumbledore Explains Everything In: Headmaster’s Office
House Cup: unspecified
Exams: O.W.L.s completed but not scored
Ends: Platform 9-3/4

Final Score: Harry - 3, Voldemort - 2