A friend of mine who is only about half-way through her reading of the book keeps wanting to talk with me about it. This is hard, because she keeps mentioning various parts of the story, wondering aloud about other parts, and of course fretting about Harry (bless her!). When she was just a few chapters in, a couple of days ago, she tossed off a comment that really got me thinking. What she said was: "7 Potters, 7 Horcruxes."
Hmm. I've been thinking a lot about this ever since. I don't think Rowling chose the number 7 at random (she obviously likes it, given that there are 7 books in the series). And I think that, in actuality, we end up with 8 horcruxes unless I'm miscounting, since Voldemort didn't know that Harry was one: Diary, Ring, Cup, Diadem, Locket, Snake, Harry, and the piece left in Voldemort himself. Still, Tom Riddle thought he was making 7, since 7 is the most magically powerful number.
So why 7 Harrys in the scene where they leave the burrow?
I really like the contrast. If you remember from the essay I wrote in June, I talked about what made Harry tremble as opposed to what made Riddle tremble, when they were both eleven and were given the news that they were wizards. Riddle trembled at the thought of power and control; Harry trembled when someone showed him love. The contrast is here again: Riddle has split himself into seven pieces, attempting to control his destiny and buy an earthly immortality that isn't really possible. He immobilizes parts of himself, locking them away in (mostly inanimate) objects. Harry, on the other hand, remains whole and complete, even thought it looks as though there are multiple versions of himself in the one scene. The versions are, however, six friends who are willing to take on Harry's likeness (his flesh, if you will) in order to try to keep him safe and protected. Stasis and death versus movement and life; power and control over against incarnated love, love in action, one more time.
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Ooh, I really like that contrast. So much of Harry's strength lies in his powerful friendships with others, which Voldemort has never had. At times it seems he may have some affection for Bellatrix, but his treatment of her on other occasions negates that. And there's that line somewhere in there about how trusting people only ever caused him problems.
That's a strange chapter, because it starts off incredibly light-hearted, as we meet all these old friends and half of them morph into Harry and Fred and George pull the old switcheroo for the last time, but then it quickly disintegrates into something horrible...
You're right, Erin, about that being a strange chapter. I just read it aloud to Dana a couple of nights ago, and the tone switch feels abrupt when read aloud too. It helped me to think through why she might have included such a chapter.
We really understand Harry's need for community, more than we ever have before. And they truly come through for him in DH!
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