#and then i said wait let's check if anybody in da shares his name. and it was Wynne's first apprentice.

[catebees]

Very minor NPC but I like him: Aneirin? :)

I realized too late he'd probably be a bit older than what I drew him as but well. Have a young Aneirin!

[hufflly-puffs]

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

Chapter 30: The White Tomb

“The moment the door had closed behind her, Hermione leaned forwards towards Harry with a most Hermione-ish look on her face.” – At this point we know Hermione so well that we can all exactly picture what Harry means by a Hermione-ish look.

“This mantra seemed to pulse through Harry’s mind as he fell asleep at night, and his dreams were thick with cups, lockets and mysterious objects that he could not quite reach, though Dumbledore helpfully offered Harry a rope ladder that turned to snakes the moment he began to climb …” – Wait, isn’t this how ‘Snake & Ladders’ works?

“‘Yeah, that fits,’ said Harry. ‘He’d play up the pure-blood side so he could get in with Lucius Malfoy and the rest of them … he’s just like Voldemort. Pure-blood mother, Muggle father … ashamed of his parentage, trying to make himself feared using the Dark Arts, gave himself an impressive new name – Lord Voldemort – the Half-Blood Prince – how could Dumbledore have missed –?’” – Maybe Dumbledore just wasn’t that much into Literary Criticism and missed this obvious parallel? And obviously Harry does not see the parallels between him and Snape: Harry is a half-blood himself and just as Snape grew up in an abusive household. What makes them different are the choices they made and I think Harry is someone who defines himself and others as well based on their actions, not their heritage. It does not matter where someone comes from, but what they do; their actions show who they really are.

“‘I should’ve shown the book to Dumbledore,’ said Harry. ‘All that time he was showing me how Voldemort was evil even when he was at school, and I had proof Snape was, too –’ ‘“Evil” is a strong word,’ said Hermione quietly.” – I think there is a difference between someone who is truly evil and someone who does evil things. It might look the same, but characters like Snape, like Draco, are more complex, are redeemable, unlike Voldemort. The memories Dumbledore had of Voldemort as a child and teenager show that he had always been like that, that he was a lost cause from the beginning. It makes him less human, almost abstract, like a monster who has no other choice than to do evil things. Snape is different; he had a choice and in some ways this makes his actions worse.

“Downstairs he found the mood in the Great Hall subdued. Everybody was wearing their dress robes and no one seemed very hungry.” – I thought Dress Robes means they are very elegant, not in particular black or suitable for a funeral. But perhaps there are different traditions in the Wizarding World, maybe you just wear your best robes, despite the colour.

“Harry had not spared Malfoy much thought. His animosity was all for Snape, but he had not forgotten the fear in Malfoy’s voice on that Tower top, nor the fact that he had lowered his wand before the other Death Eaters arrived. Harry did not believe that Malfoy would have killed Dumbledore. He despised Malfoy still for his infatuation with the Dark Arts, but now the tiniest drop of pity mingled with his dislike. Where, Harry wondered, was Malfoy now, and what was Voldemort making him do under threat of killing him and his parents?” – I think this is the first time Harry sees a Death Eater and in particular Draco as a victim. He does not justify what Draco did, he still let Death Eaters into Hogwarts. But he understands the reasons why, the pressure Draco is under, how frighten he is and that he made a choice in not killing Dumbledore, even though he had the chance. He is not a good person, but he is not evil either.

“[…] some people whom Harry merely knew by sight, such as the barman of the Hog’s Head […].” – I wonder how many people actually know that this is Dumbledore’s brother. Clearly none of the students.

“The crowd continued to swell; with a great rush of affection for both of them, Harry saw Neville being helped into a seat by Luna. They alone of all the DA had responded to Hermione’s summons the night that Dumbledore had died, and Harry knew why: they were the ones who had missed the DA most … probably the ones who had checked their coins regularly in the hope that there would be another meeting …” – I just love the development of these two and their relationship with Harry. In year 5 Harry had first been a bit ashamed to be associated with them and later on they had accompanied him without question into the Ministry to save Sirius. We started this year with Harry appreciating them, calling them his friends, and again they are the only ones apart from Hermione, Ron and Ginny who came to help Harry. Twice they risked their lives for him. They might not be as close to him as the other three but I think he deeply cares about Neville and Luna just the same.

“A little tufty-haired man in plain black robes had got to his feet and stood now in front of Dumbledore’s body. Harry could not hear what he was saying. Odd words floated back to them over the hundreds of heads. ‘Nobility of spirit’ … ‘intellectual contribution’ … ‘greatness of heart’ … it did not mean very much. It had little to do with Dumbledore as Harry had known him. He suddenly remembered Dumbledore’s idea of a few words: ‘nitwit’, ‘oddment’, ‘blubber’ and ‘tweak’, and again, had to suppress a grin … what was the matter with him?” – I’ve attended quite a few funerals in my life and those speeches hardly ever have anything to do with the person who just died. They merely summarize someone’s life, listing facts (what was their job, when did they marry etc), always at a distance, and it hardly ever feels like the truth. Life is more than that and words can hardly ever capture that.

“Harry wondered where Dumbledore had learned Mermish. There was so much he had never asked him, so much he should have said …” – It is funny that we only really get to know Dumbledore after his death, that is then when he becomes more human. Harry only got to see a very small, very controlled glimpse of Dumbledore. The persona Dumbledore had created, not the actual person. And I think that in the role Dumbledore had played in Harry’s life, as a mentor and protector, it was necessary to remain that way. Harry needed to believe in Dumbledore and for that Dumbledore needed to remain almost abstract.

“And Harry saw very clearly as he sat there under the hot sun how people who cared about him had stood in front of him one by one, his mother, his father, his godfather, and finally Dumbledore, all determined to protect him; but now that was over. He could not let anybody else stand between him and Voldemort; he must abandon for ever the illusion he ought to have lost at the age of one: that the shelter of a parent’s arms meant that nothing could hurt him. There was no waking from his nightmare, no comforting whisper in the dark that he was safe really, that it was all in his imagination; the last and greatest of his protectors had died and he was more alone than he had ever been before.” – As I wrote before this marks the final loss of childhood and innocence. Harry sees the parental figures in his life as people who died for him, who gave their life in order to protect him. As long as Dumbledore was there he could give in into the illusion of safety, though even then part of him knew that Dumbledore could not always protect him, that terrible things had happened still. Harry always had to carry a greater burden than most people his age and his need for a parent was always someone to lift that burden for him, to help him, support him, protect him. He does not want to share this burden with his friends however; he feels like he is all alone in this, not wanting to risk yet another loved one to die for him. He is of course wrong in this. Both Ron and Hermione are old enough to decide for themselves and they have always been stronger united.

“‘I never really gave up on you,’ she said. ‘Not really. I always hoped … Hermione told me to get on with life, maybe go out with some other people, relax a bit around you, because I never used to be able to talk if you were in the room, remember? And she thought you might take a bit more notice if I was a bit more – myself.’” – I always liked that about their relationship, how they both were able to see the other for who they really are. Harry never noticed Ginny until she started to behave like herself around him. Ginny is the one who, apart from Ron and Hermione, knows Harry the best. At first she is intimidated by his fame and reputation, but she gets to know him better and is not afraid to call him out when he acts stupid. Harry can be sure she likes him for who he is, the real Harry, not the famous name. And what else is love than truly knowing each other?

“‘But you’ve been too busy saving the wizarding world,’ said Ginny, half laughing. ‘Well … I can’t say I’m surprised. I knew this would happen in the end. I knew you wouldn’t be happy unless you were hunting Voldemort. Maybe that’s why I like you so much.’” – You know it must be incredibly hard to be in love with someone who is always at the risk of dying, who is willing to give his life to save others. Throughout the entire next year Ginny and Harry have no way to communicate with each other, she has no idea what he is doing, just knows that he is in anger, always anxious. Everyone she loves is constantly in danger, there is no escaping.

“‘He will only be gone from the school when none here are loyal to him,’ said Harry, smiling in spite of himself. ‘My dear boy … even Dumbledore cannot return from the –’ ‘I am not saying he can. You wouldn’t understand. But I’ve got nothing to tell you.’” – Of course there are some magical ways how someone can return somehow from the dead – portraits, ghosts, etc – but this is not what Harry means. He is still loyal to Dumbledore, still acts on his orders, despite his death, despite everything he will learn about him after his death. Dumbledore’s man, through and through. And as long as Dumbledore’s memory is kept alive he is not truly gone.

“‘You said to us once before,’ said Hermione quietly, ‘that there was time to turn back if we wanted to. We’ve had time, haven’t we?’” – Forever one of my favourite quotes and such a nice callback to the first book. Both Ron and Hermione proved that they are with Harry, for better or worse. It seems impossible that they wouldn’t be with him on this journey. And it is what Harry had always set apart from Voldemort: that he is surrounded by people who love him, who would die for him, just as he would die for them.