Please forgive my tardiness here. I sent impassioned and thoroughly pathetic pleas for more time to Hans Friday, and again Saturday morning, and, like the compassionate captain he is, he graciously granted my requests (well the first one, anyway). I hope we’re still speaking if he survives this lengthy introduction.
As usual, once I’ve started reading a JKR chapter closely, I’m overwhelmed by the intricacy and artistry of it. I see so much going on here that I’ve had an extremely hard time marshalling my observations, and I’m sure I’ve barely
scratched the surface.
Synopsiss
The chapter opens with the trio, undercover of the Muffliato spell in Charms class. An exhausted Harry recounts his previous night’s adventures (covering most of the
previous two chapters) with Felix Felicis and Professor Dumbledore. Ron is awed and distractedly waves his wand at the ceiling producing snow.
Harry notices that Lavender’s eyes are red, and Ron tells him they’ve split up; he doesn’t regret it. Hermione says Ginny and Dean have split up too. Harry doesn’t regret this news, but tries to hide the fact that his insides are “suddenly dancing the conga” from Hermione. The triggering event behind each split turns out to have been Harry’s leaving the Gryffindor common room under his invisibility cloak after ingesting Felix prior to embarking on his latest two-chapter
adventure.
Professor Flitwick approaches the group and urges Harry and Ron to try to turn their vinegar into wine (Hermione has already done so). Harry’s vinegar turns to ice and Ron’s flask explodes leaving Professor Flitwick picking shards of glass out of his hat.
After class Ron and Hermione are both very cheerful for reasons unstated, but Harry is suffering an internal battle between his desire to pursue Ginny and his loyalty to Ron. Lost in his own
war Harry barely notices that the Gryffindor common room is sunny, and Katie Bell, the only still-missing member of the Gryffindor Quidditch team, has finally returned.
As Harry welcomes her back, thoughts of Ginny are driven out of his mind by his curiosity to find out if Katie can give any information about her attacker. She can’t; but because the attack occurred in the ladies' room at the Three Broomsticks, Hermione believes the attacker must have been female. Harry, points out that it could have been a polyjuiced male, as they’ve figured out that Draco Malfoy’s pals, Crabbe and Goyle have been using polyjuice to become little girls to stand guard for Draco previously in Chapter 21.
Harry considers using his remaining Felix potion to try (again) to catch Draco in the Room of Requirement. Hermione warns him that it would be wasting Felix to do so. Ron wonders if they can’t make some more Felix Felicis potion, but Harry examining his Half-Blood Prince-annotated Potions text book discovers that it takes at least six months to make Felix.
As Harry puts his Potions book away, he notices a previously marked page listing the Sectumsempra
spell in its annotations. He wants to find out what the spell does, but doesn’t want to do so in front of Hermione. He considers trying it on Cormac Mcclaggen.
Harry senses that Dean Thomas who’d been filling in for Katie on the Quidditch team is feeling a little mutinous toward him, but Quidditch practices are going very well with the team back together. Ginny doesn’t seem at all upset about her break-up with Dean.
Harry’s internal battle regarding
his attraction toward Ginny and friendship with Ron continues and intensifies. He wonders whether Ron would consider a pass at Ginny “base treachery.” Still, Harry finds himself “longing” for luck with Ginny, and is tempted to use his remaining Felix potion to facilitate a relationship with Ginny.
Ron and the rest of the school are obsessed with the upcoming Gryffindor-Ravenclaw Quidditch match. Students are boasting, bullying each other and getting sick over the upcoming match. Harry wonders if a good Gryffindor performance at the match would produce enough euphoria to mitigate any objections Ron may have about Harry’s dating Ginny and facilitate his longed-for relationship with her.
Together with his other preoccupations (Ginny and Quidditch) Harry continues to try to keep tabs on Draco Malfoy. A few days before the match, when, Harry finds himself alone for a few minutes, he checks his map to find Draco. At first he can’t find him, but then sees Draco in the sixth floor boys’ bathroom; he’s not with Crabbe and Goyle, but with Moaning Myrtle. Harry finds this “unlikely coupling” too intriguing to pass up without further investigation and proceeds to the sixth floor.
In the boys’ room, Harry sees Draco looking very ill, shaking, and to Harry’s shock, crying. Draco catches sight of Harry behind him in the cracked mirror he’s facing. Draco immediately draws his wand and attacks Harry, and in the ensuing duel, one of Harry’s curses shatters a cistern spreading water all over the bathroom floor. Myrtle is (more) distraught (than usual) to see Draco and Harry fighting, and is screaming. As Draco attempts to launch an unforgivable curse toward Harry, Harry “wildly’ (while slipping on the wet floor) throws the Sectumsempra spell he’s been so curious about, back to Draco.
The effects of the
Prince’s spell (“for enemies”) are immediate and drastic as blood spurts from Draco’s face and chest. Harry, horrified, staggers over to Draco, who’s splashed to the floor. Draco’s face is shining scarlet and his hands are white as they flail at his gushing chest. Myrtle begins to scream “Murder!”
Snape immediately bangs into the bathroom, his face livid, and pushes the kneeling Harry out of the way; kneeling over Draco’s bleeding body himself. He begins to trace Draco’s wounds with his wand using an almost musical chant. As he traces the wounds three times, blood flow slows and they begin to “knit” back together.
Snape props Draco up to take him to the hospital, ordering Harry to stay put. Harry doesn’t even consider disobeying. He stands shaking in a pool of water and crimson, bloody flowers, enduring Myrtles sobbing enjoyment.
On Snape’s return he dismisses Myrtle. Harry begins to explain that the results of his use of the spell on Draco were unintentional. Snape demands to know where Harry learned the spell. Harry fumbles with a lame lie, which Snape immediately detects. Try as he might, Harry can’t keep an image of his Prince annotated
Potions book from swimming into his mind as the bathroom seems to shimmer before his eyes.
Snape demands that Harry bring him all his school books immediately. Harry sets off from the bathroom at a run to fetch them, contemplating the likely results if knowledge of his reliance on the Prince this year gets out. Students stare at Harry’s bloody, soaked appearance.
In the Gryffindor common room Harry ignores Ron’s questions as he demands Ron’s Potions
book. Ron hands it over and Harry dashes toward the Room of Requirement, which, finally opens to Harry’s need to hide his own (the Prince’s) book.
Harry is shocked again, as he enters a huge “cathedral,” lined, rowed and piled with “generations” of forbidden Hogwarts objects. Among the junk, he sees rusty swords and even a bloody axe. He dashes down an alley of debris and turns right past the broken vanishing cabinet to find an acid-etched cupboard. The cupboard contains a five legged skeleton, behind which Harry hides his (the Prince’s) book. To mark the location of his hiding place Harry stacks the chipped bust of a warlock, with a wig and a tarnished tiara on the cupboard, and sprints back toward the
door.
Harry has a searing pain in his chest as he reenters the sixth floor boys’ room with his books (and Ron’s book). Professor Snape examines the books, Ron’s especially, and demands to know why “Roonil Wazlib” is written inside its front cover. Lying again, somewhat more adroitly, Harry declares this to be his nickname. Snape repeats Harry’s words in disbelief and Harry, rather sarcastically, begins explaining the concept of nicknames to Snape, who cuts him off, concluding that Harry is both a liar and a cheat, and sentencing him to a long series of weekend detentions. Snape leaves Harry contemplating his own reflection in the cracked mirror and feeling sicker than
ever.
Moaning Myrtle, Pansy Parkinson, and Snape waste no time publishing Harry’s crime. Professor McGonagall calls Harry on the carpet and declares that he’s very lucky she’s not expelling him. Hermione belabors the subject. She can’t resist pointing out that she’s been right about the Prince, but Harry refuses to agree.
Harry contemplates the thought of that he will not play in the upcoming Gryffindor-Ravenclaw match, and that even if the match goes
well, Dean may now benefit from any euphoria produced, as Harry had hoped to, by reuniting with Ginny. The thought goes through him like an icy knife.
As Hermione continues to nag Harry about his mistakes, Ginny snaps at her, causing a never before seen rift between the two girls, and giving Harry an undeserved dose of cheer. His joy is short-lived, however, as he endures his own team’s anger, and heads for the dungeons instead of the sunshine, team banners and rosettes of the match, for his detention with Snape.
Snape’s dungeon office contains its usual dead things preserved in colored jars; it also has many “cobwebbed” boxes full of cards for Harry. The boxes contain records of students’ past misdeeds at Hogwarts for Harry to recopy. Snape directs him to boxes that include his father’s and Sirius’ crimes, causing Harry’s stomach to boil periodically as he works and making him bite his own tongue.
When Snape finally releases Harry, he climbs the stairs back to the main floor of the castle, his ears straining for noise of the match, but there’s only silence. He hesitates in front of the Great Hall, but
turns up the marble stair case toward the common room instead. In answer to Harry’s “Quid vadis?” the Fat Lady cryptically answers “you’ll see.”
As her painting swings aside however, Harry is greeted by a roar of cheers and Ron brandishing the silver House Cup. Harry’s team has managed to pull off a huge win without him. Ginny runs toward him with a “blazing” look, and Harry kisses her in front of everybody for what may be as long as “several sunlit days.” When they finally break apart, Harry sees Dean shatter his glass. Romilda Vane is glaring, but Hermione is beaming. Ron’s dumbstruck, but finally jerks his head in grudging assent to the relationship.
Discussion
This Chapter seems to me to be a broad yet intricate web of themes and ironies. I’ll do my best to tease out what I see, but I’m sure I’ve missed much and, as you’ll see, I have more questions and loose ends than definitive answers.
I see two major themes.
Cutting
Title
Like Harry, I’ve never formally studied Latin. I found an on-line translator that interprets the title of this Chapter to mean ”to cut always,” which seems appropriate and calls to mind many themes within the chapter, the book and the series. Has Harry, actually learned some Latin by the end of the Chapter when he queries the Fat lady (does he really understand his question?), or is “Quid vadis?” just the pass word?
Motifs
Shattered containers
In the opening scene of the chapter we have both shattering glass and (another) symbolic decapitation, this time of Professor Flitwick as he picks the shards of Ron’s vinegar filled flask out of his hat. Later on, we have a cracked mirror and exploded cistern in the sixth floor boys’ bathroom scene, and finally, a glass is cracked by Dean Thomas in the Chapter’s last paragraphs. This shattering punctuates the chapter beginning, middle and end, three
times.
Severed Ties
We also have severed romantic relationships at the beginning of the chapter (Ron and Lavender and Ginny and Dean), and severed friendships, (potentially) between Harry and the Half Blood Prince, and (temporarily) between Ginny and Hermione.
Betrayal
The Prince’s apparent betrayal of Harry, as well as Harry’s contemplated betrayal of Ron, is also a kind of cutting. I was awed by JKR’S comparison of the Prince’s betrayal of Harry to that of a beloved pet turning on its master. I had a dream, well, really a nightmare, once containing the very same image, which turned out to be about a betrayal.
Irony
Finally, the repeated and profound ironies throughout the chapter, which I’ll try to note as appropriate, seem to be another cutting motif.
Action
In HPFS post # 2472, Deborah actually speculated that Harry is “like a sword.” The violent physically severing results of the Harry’s and Prince’s spell on Draco are a very real cutting. Ironically Harry has nearly become a murderer himself while attempting to track a would-be murderer.
What is the nature of all this Cutting?
In HPFS # 2375 Deborah also speculated as to whether Sectumsempra may be some variant of a surgical spell, prompting me to wonder if some of this cutting is really necessary surgery on bad and/or stagnant relationships, as in the beginning of the chapter (Ron and Lavender for sure; Ginny and Dean, maybe). If so, some of the cutting must, on the other hand, be obvious malpractice as with Harry’s spell on Draco.
However, I’m not sure I can accurately characterize the attempted surgery on Harry’s relationship with the Prince through betrayal. Though the Harry-Prince relationship seems to be growing
unhealthy, per Hermione’s repeated assessments throughout the Book, and has treacherous results for Harry and Draco, Harry continues to defend the Prince, by hiding him for safety, toward the end of the chapter.
Characters
Professor Snape
Of course, we now know the “Half -Blood Prince” to be Severus Snape, a very cutting character. His name indicates cutting, as do his sarcastic nature and his ironic position in this chapter, Book VI, and the series in general. (HPFS # 2275, Christina) Is Snape, the cutter, a surgeon or a sadist? Is he both?
Professor Snape’s Ambiguity
The Prince (Severus) seems to have betrayed Harry in the chapter, but Harry ironically (and fruitlessly really) attempts to hide the Prince from him(self) (Severus). This foreshadows the fact that Severus (the Prince) appears to have perpetrated the ultimate betrayal upon Albus Dumbledore by the end of the book. Through out the series Severus has turned out to be loyal to Albus, despite Harry’s distrust. Again, the question is raised by circumstances here: will Severus, ironically, turn out to be a traitor in the series, despite Dumbledore’s trust?
As has often been discussed here and in many forums the oily, yet acidic (HPFS #2272, Seanaldo) Snape is the series’ most ambiguous character, not only because his motives can’t be discerned through his occlumency, but also because, of his slowly revealed potential to have more than one side to his nature.
Healing
Unions (Some Unlikely)
The other major theme of this chapter, healing, is also reflected in relationships, and possibly, ultimately in Harry’s and Ginny’s eventual achievement of a romantic relationship at the end of the chapter. I read the vinegar to wine exercise in charms at the beginning of the chapter to be a possible reference to Christ’s first miracle in the New Testament – which takes place at a wedding. (Gospel
of John, Chapter 2) Is this what the vinegar to wine exercise symbolizes?
While there are many split relationships, particularly in the beginning, there are also many united, if strange ones. Draco and Myrtle are a counter-point to Harry and Ginny and their “unlikely coupling” is what sets Harry on his road to disaster with Draco in this chapter. In addition, however, there are two pairs of girls mentioned: Ginny and Hermione and Ginny and Cho.
Androgyny
References to androgynous characters and images penetrate the chapter at least three times. Early on Harry and Hermione debate the probable sex of Katie Bell’s attacker echoing Harry and Hermione’s argument over whether the Prince must be male. This discussion leads Harry to picture Crabbe and Goyle in their teeny-bopper drag. Toward the end of the chapter, Harry creates an androgyne by placing a dusty wig and tarnished tiara on the bust of an old warlock to mark the Prince’s hiding place in the Room of Requirement.
Dual natures - United? - Professor Snape as a Healer
Though we’ve had many hints of his talents before, this chapter shows Snape actively involved in healing for what I believe is the first time (somebody please let me know if I’m wrong about this). Ironically, he does this healing not in his usual
chemistry-set scientific and rational way, but on his knees using his wand and an incantation. Didn’t he refer to wand waving and incantations as “silly” in the opening pages of the first book (if it's just in the first film, please forgive me; it's a memorable line)? He performs his waving chant over Draco three times.
Snape as Vitriol
Several here have very convincingly argued that Snape represents the
essential oily, yet acidic vitriol in the alchemical process. (Again, HPFS #2272, Seanaldo). My review of definitions of Vitriol reveals that it is both oily and acidic, as well as essential to the alchemical process. Snape is certainly both oily (as JKR has repeatedly reminded us in the series) and acidic as frequent demonstrations of his bitingly sarcastic wit prove. (Finally his ESO - ever-so-oily - hair makes some sense to me; Yay!) Is his “oily” side at all soothing or healing as a balm, or is he strictly a surgeon and pharmacologist?
Snape as the Green Lion
If Snape represents the vitriol of the series, then as I understand it, he represents the Green Lion of alchemy, and may be a symbol of healing
in of himself, as a union of the opposite elements water and fire. (Again, HPFS #2272, Seanaldo; HPFS # 2280, Hans)
Harry, Prince and Snape in the Contexts of Healing and Cutting
Harry Healer, Healed, Healing?
Harry as Healer
Does Harry’s role parallel Snape’s? (Again, HPFS # 2472, Deborah; again, HPFS #2272, Seanaldo). In Chapter 14 of this book, after all, we saw Harry (also for the first time – I think) acting as a healer toward a member of the Gryffindor Quidditch team.
Harry’s Relationship With the Prince
What about Harry’s close, if not necessarily healthy, relationship with the Prince in this Book? As we now know, the Prince is Snape.
Harry as the Red Lion
Are indications that Harry is/will be the alchemical fire and water Red Lion (to Snape’s Green Lion) accurate? (Again, HPFS #2272, Seanaldo & subsequent discussion). He has conga dancing insides on hearing that Ginny and Dean have split in the opening scenes of the chapter and a roaring creature in his chest when he finally gets together with Ginny at its close.
Harry’s Friends, Enemies, Partners and Doubles
Interestingly, just as we find pairs of women in this Chapter, we find a trios of men: Harry, the Prince and Snape (perhaps really a duo, but Harry doesn't know this) and Harry Draco and Snape. At the risk of causing some controversy, I submit that in this chapter, the individuals of each trio are somehow be blurring together. In Chapter 21 of Book VI, which sets Chapter 24 up (we first meet the delightful Mr.Wazlib here, for example), Harry has a (foreshadowing?) dream about another trio of males, Draco, Slughorn and Snape turning into each other. In addition, in this chapter, Snape becomes a healer to Harry’s cutter and Harry becomes the
sick and shaking Draco.
Harry as Cutter – His Very Real Shadow
Harry’s questions about his own nature, as much as ours about Snape, have, have also pervaded the books. As Harry has wondered in Book II about whether he’s more properly a Gryffindor or a Slytherin, I believe that we too (again at the risk of causing some controversy) are now forced to really
wonder about his nature in this chapter, almost moreso than in any other (except perhaps a few in Book V). More and more, in the chapters of this book we see evidence of a very dark shadow side to Harry. Can Harry be considered to be a Snapian “cutter” in any sense besides his action in literally cutting Draco?
Addictive Harry?
In Chapter 21 of Book VI, which, as noted above sets up Chapter 24 almost completely (it’s well worth a re-reading in conjunction with this chapter) we see Harry developing an unhealthy dependence on the Half Blood Prince. In fact, he refers to the Prince’s book whenever he’s feeling frustrated (opening paragraph Chapter 21). Is he becoming equally dependent in his cravings to use more Felix Felicis potion in Chapter 24? (See the Chapter 14 discussions in our group regarding the nature of Felix here also!) Does Harry have an addictive side to his personality?
Obsessive
Harry?
I’ve generally admired Harry’s perseverance in the previous books. (Even his chase to the Ministry while he’s convinced that Sirius is in danger in Book V seemed very forgivable to me.) But now, this quality is beginning to seem more like plain old pigheaded stubbornness.
Harry’s continued defense of the Prince despite Hermione’s warnings and the Prince’s apparent betrayal of Harry in Chapter 24, which also mirrors his obsession with Draco
throughout Book VI, and his obsession with getting into “The Unknowable Room” the moment he realizes Draco’s been visiting there in Chapter 21 of Book VI, start to seem downright aggravating. Why can’t he give it a rest? Does Harry have an Ahab-like (Moby Dick) obsessive side?
Unconsciously Acting-Out Harry?
Isn’t it ironic that Harry’s apparently darker and darker shadow grows as he has had Draco shadowed by the House elves? His eventual break into the “unknowable” Room of Requirement in Chapter 24 comes under ironically desperate circumstances: He’s fleeing, not tracking.
Other “cutting” ironies Harry suffers or creates are reflected in Harry’s shaking, as Draco is when he finds him in the sixth floor bathroom, and Harry's sensations of illness, as his guilt and anticipation of his inevitable punishments for wounding Draco set in (see above). Even his “longed” for luck in getting together with Ginny is delivered to him here by Professor McGonagall when she refrains from
expelling him from Hogwarts. Does Harry deserve some of the corrective “surgery he gets in this Chapter? (And Do we need to re-examine Felix’s nature as well?)
Harry’s Ambiguity
Harry’s “luck” has been awfully fickle in this chapter. At its end of with the unlikely Harry-less win of the House cup, Harry is, after
all, united with Ginny. This final piece of luck in the chapter again reflects the theme of unions and healings, but seems as if it’s somehow fallen from the sky to me. Again, is this an example of a healing for Harry? If so who’s done the healing? Harry? Felix? Some kind of grace, or the dictates of an alchemical literary formula? What has Harry done to deserve it?
Does Harry’s unification with Ginny reflect a sound, expected alchemical result as with a Green or Red Lion? Or, is it as unlikely a pairing as Draco and Myrtle seem? Will it last, or must it, too be surgically excised?
JKR’s Knitting Patterns
In contemplating this introduction I first pictured this chapter as the profile of a square white ambulance with a big read cross on its side, wildly whizzing up a treacherous alchemical path on grippy black tires. I hope you’ll bear with me a bit longer (and with this strained metaphor) while I mention a few other notable, albeit, somewhat loose, threads of the web that is this chapter.
Tricky and Healing (and Artistic?) Spiders
Spider imagery
JKR describes Snape’s healing chant over Draco as
knitting his wounds. This chapter, as many others in book VI has its spider images, here and in the cobwebbed boxes of Harry’s detention. Personally, I found the five legged skeleton in the acid-etched cabinet where Harry hides the Prince evocative of some kind of (deformed) spider as well.
Who are the Series’ Spiders?
There has been considerable group discussion of the theme of spiders in the last few months as
well, including, but not limited too, Hans’ fascinating theory. (HPFS #2162, Hans) In addition, Hans says, notably, that he believes the spiders may be another Green Lion image. (HPFS #2280, Hans). So is Snape a(nother) spider in the series? Harry developed some spidery trickster elements in Chapter 14. Are/can Red Lions also be spiders?
JKR
Loath as I am to
compare JKR to a spider, try, if you will, to picture a very elegant, artistic and even beautiful arachnid, as I address a few more points. (I just can’t help myself. She’s too damned good.)
Colors of the Web/Tapestry
The colors mentioned in the chapter, with the exception of Snape’s penetrating black eyes, are
various shades (if that’s possible) of white and red, with touches here and there of gold. Ron creates white snow at the chapter’s beginning. Draco is pale while he faces the cracked mirror weeping and shaking, and his hands are white as he clutches at his chest wound. Snape is livid when he discovers Draco in the bathroom with Harry, and Harry’s contemplation of the possibility of Dean and Ginny reuniting cuts through him like an icy knife.
Lavender’s eyes are red at the beginning of the chapter. Draco’s wounded face is scarlet. Crimson flowers of Draco’s blood float across the boys’ bathroom floor at Harry’s feet. Harry is soaked in blood and water. (I believe the Biblical reference here may be to the wound in
Christ’s side in the New Testament. Are there any others that fit?) Harry sees rusty swords an a bloody axe in the Room of Requirement. He contemplates his missed team rosettes as he heads toward the dungeon too, instead of heading off to lead his team in the match.
The common room is sunny though Harry’s almost too absorbed in other matters to notice it at the beginning of the chapter, and the day of the crucial Quidditch match is sunny as well. Harry kisses Ginny for what may be several sun lit days at the chapters’ end, and Hermione “beams.”
Roses
These colors, particularly the red as manifested in the bloody flowers vividly recalled Hans’ post about Rosicrucianism’s three roses, white, red and gold to me. (HPFS #2329, Hans); if you missed it, please go back and read it; it’s excellent) I think we certainly had a foreshadowing of the red roses’ sacrifice here, if not of the sacrifice itself. Draco seems to undergo a symbolic death, and is only healed at all by a thrice repeated chant.
The Hag, the Healer and the Mimbulus Mimbletonia
There’s also been a lot of speculation in recent months about Snape’s possible (probable I think) role as the Black King at Harry’s Alchemical Wedding. In my opinion the theory that this is another of Snape’s true roles is powerfully reinforced by theories that his mother is, in fact, Irma Pince, in hiding. (HPFS #2335, Orna; HPFS #2336) As Deborah ALSO reminds us in HPFS #2343, Mme Pince appears at Dumbledore’s funeral in a veil. Chapter 21, as explained above is very much a companion
to and forerunner of Chapter 24, and contains a reference to Ron's Hag, Healer, Mimbulus... joke made as he tries to impress Mme Rosemerta. I’m not sure what role Mimbulus Mimbletonia will play, but I think we have found the Hag and the Healer.
The Unknowable Room
Chapter 21 is titled the “Unknowable Room” and, in it, Harry discovers that Malfoy has been spending his
time missing from the Marauder’s Map in the room of Requirement. This title seems to link the Room of Requirement to the only other “unknowable” room we’ve encountered in the series: the Room of Love in the Ministry of Magic’s Department of Mysteries. (HPFS #2434, Orna) In Chapter 24, when Harry finally succeeds in getting into the Room of Requirement, it turns out to be an awe-inspiring ”cathedral” of forbidden junk.
Deathly Hallows anyone? While I doubt JKR’s recently released title for Book VII refers to this particular room or the objects hidden there, you’ve speculated in recent months about whether the Hallows are a site, or objects, and what such site/objects may be. (Please see Bill’s HPFS posts
beginning December 21st for the most comprehensive analysis.) It certainly seems that Harry’s preoccupation with the room in these chapters and the revelation of its quasi-religious nature are good candidates for some kind of to be foreshadowing. I’d love to hear any ideas.
The Width and Quality of the Web
As we approach the end of the series in
general, I find myself awed and transfixed by the structure JKR’s created, and can’t wait to see its remaining hidden aspects. I just wanted to point out one of her finer threads in the context of this chapter (I promise I’m almost done here!).
The pivotal scene between Harry and Draco (with Moaning Myrtle providing her share of background and sound effects) in Chapter 24 takes place in the boys’ bathroom on the sixth floor of Hogwarts. JKR has alerted us that Book VI is closely related to Book II, COS, of her series, so I’m sure we’re all watching for and have spotted many connections and parallels in the two books.
Did anyone else spot this one? In Book II, the trio originally meets Moaning Myrtle in the girls’ bathroom on the second floor of Hogwarts, where they spend a lot of time brewing polyjuice potion that year. Here, In book VI, Harry meets Myrtle on Hogwarts' sixth floor in the boys’ bathroom. (There is splashing on wet floors and there are “swimming” books in both bathrooms in both books!)
In other words, from Book II to Book VI in Harry's journeys, we’ve traveled from floor II to floor VI of Howart's, from a soggy girls’ room to a soggy boys’ room, for
pivotal events. It’s not just beautiful! It’s a perfectly symmetrical! In fact I think JKR deserves some kind of Golden Loom Award in Literature for her incredibly skillful weaving.
I also believe the scriptural and poetic term for this device may be called something like “chiasma.” My dictionary doesn’t offer a poetic definition so this may be a misspelling. I’m hoping our Torah expert can enlighten me. My (probable) misspelling does offer this (intriguing) definition of chiasma: “a structure of the central nervous system formed by the crossing over of fibers from either side to the other.” Maybe Hans can help me here?
Fortunately for all of us, that’s all the research I’ve had time to do on this subject.
I will be re-reading all the texts from the beginning soon and will be paying particular attention to these structural aspects of the series. I’d love to know if anyone else here is interested in this very architectural topic.
For now, and for anyone who’s managed to make it through this long introduction, I hope this in part extricates me from the web of my bad
karma created by my tardiness. I’m abjectly sorry, and I hope that cuts it with you.
I very much look forward to any and all questions and comments.
Candy
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