Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

Harry, Ron, and Hermione spend the next month living in Grimmauld Place with Kreacher and planning to steal the locket from Umbridge. They learn from the Daily Prophet that “Severus Snape [has been] Confirmed As Hogwarts Headmaster” (225). Hermione realizes that Snape could spy on them through the portrait of Sirius’s ancestor, Phineas Nigellus, so she stows the painting in her handbag. Suddenly, Harry has a vision of Voldemort searching for Gregorovitch and attacking a family with children. The next day, Harry, Ron, and Hermione infiltrate the Ministry of Magic by disguising themselves as Ministry workers. Inside the Ministry, Harry notices a new statue at the center of the main hallway: a “vast sculpture of a wizard sitting on ornately carved thrones” (241-242), but when he looks closer, he sees that the thrones are actually “mounds of carved humans: hundreds and hundreds of naked bodies, men, women, and children” (242). Hermione comments that the sculpture depicts “Muggles [...] [i]n their rightful place” (242). On the elevator, Ron is approached by a Death Eater, Yaxley, who orders Ron to take care of a maintenance emergency in his office. Ron is separated from Harry and Hermione, and as they try to figure out how to keep their plan from falling apart, the elevator doors open, and Dolores Umbridge stands before them.

Umbridge takes Hermione with her to interrogate a witch about her Blood Status, and Harry is left on his own. He puts on his Invisibility Cloak and goes to Umbridge’s office to search for the Horcrux locket. Harry finds Umbridge’s workers producing pamphlets that warn of the dangers of “Mudbloods.” He sets off Decoy Detonators to distract the workers while he slips into Umbridge’s office. He searches for the locket but can’t find it. Instead, he comes across Rita Skeeter’s book, The Life and Lies of Albus Dumbledore, and when he opens to a random page, he sees “a full-page photograph of two teenage boys,” one being Dumbledore and one with “a gleeful, wild look about him” (253). The new Minister of Magic, Pius Thicknesse, enters the office, and Harry has to make a quick getaway under his Invisibility Cloak. Harry heads for the courtroom to find Umbridge and Hermione, and he walks past “petrified Muggle-borns brought in for questioning” (257) and feels the chill of dementors in the air. He sneaks into the courtroom and watches as Umbridge interrogates a witch, protected by her cat Patronus. Harry rejoins Hermione, and as they watch the courtroom proceedings, they spy the locket on Umbridge’s neck. Harry attacks Umbridge, and as the dementors bear down on them, Hermione grabs the locket, and Harry casts a Patronus to ward off the dementors. He encourages the witch who was being interrogated to “grab [her] children” (263) and escape the country if need be. He orders all of the gathered Muggle-borns to do the same. Ron rejoins Harry and Hermione, and as they try to Disapparate back to Grimmauld Place, Yaxley grabs Hermione. Harry sees “the door of number twelve, Grimmauld Place,” then there’s “a scream and a flash of purple light” (267), and everything goes dark.

Harry, Ron, and Hermione are transported to a forest, and Ron is injured. Hermione explains that Yaxley saw Grimmauld Place, and although she “forced him to let go with a Revulsion Jinx” (271), Grimmauld Place isn’t safe anymore. Hermione puts protective enchantments around camp, and Harry sets up a tent from Hermione’s bag. They turn their attention to the Horcrux locket, and as they discuss how to destroy it, they sense “something beating inside the locket, like a tiny metal heart” (276). The locket refuses to open, and Harry doesn’t know how they will hunt down the remaining Horcruxes, let alone destroy them. He has another vision in which Voldemort demands that Gregorovitch give him something. Voldemort looks into Gregorovitch’s memories and sees “a young man with golden hair” (280) stealing something from Gregorovitch long ago. Gregorovitch swears that he doesn’t know who the young man was, and Voldemort kills Gregorovitch. Harry tells Ron and Hermione about the vision and how the unknown thief “stole whatever You-Know-Who’s after” (282).

The next morning, Harry, Ron, and Hermione relocate their campsite. Harry is fearful, moody, and hopeless, and Hermione points out that Harry is still wearing the Horcrux locket. When he takes it off, he feels “free and oddly light” (286). They decide to take turns wearing the locket, so no one wears it for too long and falls victim to its evil, oppressive energy. Before long, Ron and Harry begin to fight more often, and Ron is impatient to find more Horcruxes. Harry “[begins] to suspect that Ron and Hermione [are] having conversations without, and about, him” (291), questioning his plan and his leadership on this mission. One night, they hear people moving around outside their campsite, and they listen to a few goblins, Ted Tonks, Dean Thomas, and an ex-Ministry employee, Dirk Cresswell. The group is running from the Ministry, and Dirk mentions “the kids who tried to steal Gryffindor’s sword out of Snape’s office at Hogwarts” (297), including Ginny Weasley. Snape had the sword moved to Gringotts, but the goblins laugh and explain that the sword is a fake, and that “wherever the genuine sword of Gryffindor is, it is not in a vault at Gringotts bank” (298). Once the group clears out, Hermione pulls out Phineas Nigellus’ portrait, and they ask him about the sword of Gryffindor. Phineas Nigellus tells them that the last time he saw it was when “Professor Dumbledore used it to break open a ring” (304). They realize that the sword can destroy Horcruxes, and as Harry and Hermione try to figure out where the real sword might be, Ron explodes with anger. He complains about the lack of a plan and criticizes Harry’s leadership. Ron takes the Horcrux off of his neck and leaves, much to Hermione’s distress.