From the Files of Dr. Dumbledore
The Case of Harry P., Week 5
I received a phone call from Lily P. She said she didn't feel that my sessions with Harry were helping him at all, and she wanted to discontinue the therapy. After a very lengthy conversation, I managed to convince her to let the sessions continue.
But she is nervous. Very nervous. There is something she does not want me to discover.
I have begun to notice a more sinister mood in Harry's hallucinations. His delusions are now suffused with imagery of suffering, martyrdom, and death. I feel deeply uneasy about this.
Dementors come to Number 4, Privet Drive, where Harry lives with the Dursleys. They attack Harry and Dudley, but Harry is able to defend them both. But he wasn't supposed to use magic outside Hogwarts, so he faces a disciplinary hearing at the Ministry of Magic. Aunt Petunia reveals that she knows what dementors are – how does she know about the wizarding world? Wizards try to keep their world a secret from Muggles, from the non-magical population.
The borders between the magical world of Hogwarts and the ordinary world of the Dursleys are beginning to blur in Harry's imagination; the two realities are beginning to overlap. Perhaps the boundaries between Harry's hallucinations and his real life are beginning to dissolve as well. I thought it was a particularly good sign that he wishes to rescue Dudley from the terrifying dementors. Perhaps Harry's feelings towards his little brother are becoming less hostile. He wants to protect him from the dark forces… If only I knew what these dark forces are!
And how interesting, how very interesting, that Petunia, his mother's alter ego, knows more than she is letting on.
The Dursleys live at Number 4, do they? We encounter yet again that curious idea of the number four consisting of a trinity plus one outsider: Petunia, Vernon, and Dudley as the ideal nuclear family, and Harry as the intruder…
Harry is rescued from the Dursleys by members of The Order of the Phoenix, a secret order devoted to stopping Voldemort, founded by Dumbledore. The secret headquarters of the Order is at Grimmauld Place, Sirius Black's ancestral home. Harry is reunited with his godfather, and learns of the Black family's dark history. He sees Sirius' family tree on a tapestry, and learns that Sirius' dead brother, Regulus, was a death eater. Sirius' name was removed from the family tree, but Harry sees that Sirius is related to the Malfoys, Draco's family, and to the Lestranges, who are death eaters.
Ah, the phoenix, the ancient symbol of death and resurrection, of hope and new life! In Harry's mind, I am the founder of the order named after this fantastic creature – perhaps because our sessions are offering him the hope of a new life? That is an encouraging thought.
But there is something quite disturbing about the grimness of Grimmauld Place, the Grim Old Place, the home of the Black family. The Blacks cast Sirius out of their family, much like Harry's own father kicked Reggie Black out of their home. Reggie. Regulus! Regulus seems to be Sirius' double, the dark aspect of his soul. The death eater. But his name, Regulus, signals who this character really is: Reggie Black, the charming godfather with the shadow side, Sirius-Regulus, the Gryffindor and Slytherin in one! I wonder what makes Harry think his godfather had a dark side. Yes, I wonder… And now Regulus is dead.
I wonder what did happen to Reggie Black?
The Black family is related to the Malfoys, Harry tells me. And so is Harry's own family, in a symbolic sense… The Malfoys. The Dursleys. The Malfoys are the Dursleys!The pure-blood wizarding family and the stubbornly non-magical Muggles are curiously alike, two sides of the same coin. Each family consists of father, mother, and beloved son. The father is dangerous, evil. The mother is wrapped up in her obsessive love for her odious son. Both sons are Harry's rivals. Petunia. Narcissa. Lily - three mothers with flower names! A narcissus is a type of lily, I believe? It seems to me that the Malfoys, like the Dursleys, represent Harry's own family. But is Draco then simply a symbolic representation of Harry's jealousy of little Dudley? Or is he the dark side of Harry himself? The Harry who is sorted into Slytherin? Draco, "the dragon". Or the serpent? Perhaps Draco is Harrys's Slytherin potential.
At the hearing, Dumbledore intervenes, and Harry is cleared of all charges. Arthur and Molly Weasley treat him like their son. He discovers that Mrs. Weasley's boggart, the personification of her greatest fear, is the loss of one of her children, or of Harry.
Harry's feelings towards his parents are deeply ambivalent. His love for them, and their love for him, is evident is his lovely vision of the Weasley family. Molly Weasley is the warm and caring side of his mother, the part of her that worries desperately about her son. And Arthur Weasley is the deeply concerned father that dwells in James… But why does Harry's loving mother visualize his death? Perhaps all parents, deep down, fear the death of their children, or perhaps there is more to Molly Weasley's boggart than meets the eye.
When they arrive at Hogwarts, Harry is horrified to see that the school carriages are pulled by thestrals, dark skeletal horses, invisible to those who have not seen death. He befriends the eccentric student Luna Lovegood. He is frustrated to learn that the other students are reluctant to believe his story about Voldemort killing Cedric.
Harry sees something that others can't see, knows of a secret that others deny. What is that terrible truth that the others refuse to face? Thestrals, only visible to those how have seen death… I do not like the sound of this at all.
Luna Lovegood's name evokes both the moon and lunacy. Is she perhaps a personification of Harry's own madness? If so, it may be a good sign that he perceives his madness to be "Lovegood", that which loves the good. Perhaps his illness will lead to good, once we discover what lies at the root of it?
A sinister new teacher arrives, Dolores Umbridge, a seemingly sweet lady, surrounded by lace and doilies, who enjoys torturing Harry for saying that Voldemort is back. She makes him write lines as punishment, but the words he writes are painfully inscribed in blood on his hand. Several people seem to believe that Harry is a liar, or mentally disturbed. Umbridge is appointed High Inquisitor at Hogwarts, and she wants to make sure the students don't hear about Voldemort or the Dark Arts.
Dolores Umbridge. A more dreadful version of Aunt Petunia, and perhaps of Lily as well? Dolores Umbridge – her name evokes the Latin dolor and umbra, pain and shadow. The lady of pain and shadow… She inflicts suffering on Harry, pain, martyrdom. Harry's symbolic martyrdom is underscored both by his bloody hand, reminiscent of Christ's stigmata, and Umbridge's title as High Inquisitor (torturing those who stubbornly refuse to confess to her faith). Is Umbridge Lily's grim shadow self? Could Lily inflict pain and suffering on her own son? Or is Lily the one in pain, the Mary-like mater dolorosa, the suffering mother who observes her son's martyrdom, his necessary sacrifice? The cruciatus curse that causes unbearable pain reminds me of the term crucifixion. Crucio – "I torture". Or "I crucify"? There is something here I cannot quite grasp, but it chills me to the bone. I am convinced that Lily, like Umbridge, does not want to hear the truth about Voldemort, whatever or whoever he represents. How exactly did Harry get his scar?
Harry, Ron, and Hermione organize a secret student order, Dumbledore's Army, devoted to Defense Against the Dark Arts. Harry's scar is hurting, and he dreams of a windowless corridor. He talks to Sirius' head in the fire. Arthur Weasley is attacked by Nagini, Voldemort's serpent, but Harry sees it in a vision and is able to get help. Harry is disturbed by the knowledge that in his vision, he was the snake that attacked Mr. Weasley. Harry and the Weasley children visit Mr. Weasley in the hospital. They meet their friend Neville, who is visiting his parents. Neville's parents were tortured to insanity by the death eaters, and now they can no longer communicate with him.
Neville appears to be Harry's alter ego. How interesting, then, that his parents are unequivocally good, but so tortured by their encounter with the dark forces that they are no longer able to speak to him. I am certain that Lily and James know, on some level, what the terrible secret at the heart of Harry's illness is. But whatever it is, they are so tortured by the thought of it that they have lost their ability to communicate, just like Neville's unfortunate parents.
But the secret will out. Arthur Weasley, who represents the very best side of James, is attacked by the serpent. Nagini is oddly reminiscent of the Basilisk, the hidden monster that rises from the depths. The hidden secret will not leave them alone. But why does Harry see this scene through the snake's eyes? Is he the serpent? Is he Voldemort? Is this yet another symbolic manifestation of his unconscious wish to kill his father?
Umbridge finds out about Dumbledore's Army, and she replaces Dumbledore as Head of Hogwarts, instigating a reign of terror. Fred and George leave Hogwarts after setting off a series of fireworks, including Catherine's Wheels. Hagrid introduces Harry and Hermione to his half-brother, the wild giant Grawp.
Ah, yes, Lily did want me replaced at the "head of Hogwarts", as the doctor treating Harry's illness! I seem to be somewhat more stubborn than my wizard counterpart, though. I am still here, thank you very much!
I am beginning to develop a fondness for the imaginary Fred and George, the pranksters who rebel against the repressive Umbridge. George. Isn't Saint George a legendary dragon slayer, a serpent slayer? We need one of those in this fantastic dream world where serpents and dragons abound! But strangely, Fred and George's wild rebellion also evokes martyrdom and suffering, in the form of Catherine's Wheels. Oh, I know that St. Catherine's Wheels are a kind of fireworks, but still: St. Catherine was tortured to death on a wheel, wasn't she? Most disturbing.
Hagrid's love for his half-brother Grawp is quite endearing. Grawp, the run amok wild creature who is struggling to form words, may indeed be a representation of Harry's own brother, Dudley, as a young child. Many older siblings are startled by the uncivilized nature of their little brothers and sisters… Hagrid's insistence on protecting his brother reflects, I believe, Harry's own growing attachment to Dudley.
Harry dreams of Sirius being tortured, and he flies to London on thestrals, along with his friends, to rescue Sirius. At the Ministry of Magic, they find a prophecy in the Department of Mysteries, represented as a small glass sphere. But the Death Eaters arrive, and Sirius is killed by Bellatrix Lestrange, who loves Voldemort. Voldemort himself appears, but Harry is saved from the killing curse by Dumbledore. Dubledore is reinstated as headmaster, and Dolores Umbridge is carried off by centaurs in the Forbidden Forest. Harry learns the contents of the prophecy about him and Voldemort, made by the eccentric divination teacher, Sybill Trelawney: 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.
Sirius is dead! Yet another father figure is murdered! Does Sirius' death simply represent Reggie's unexpected disappearance from Harry's life, or is there another, more sinister meaning to this?
Sirius is murdered by Bellatrix, whose name means "female warrior". Who is this fierce female warrior? Why did Bellatrix kill Sirius? Out of devotion to Voldemort? Who, or what, is she, she who loves the Dark Lord?
I am happy to hear that I am again reinstated as headmaster of Hogwarts in Harry's mind. I wonder why I lost that position momentarily? Was it because Lily threatened to discontinue our sessions?
There is something hidden in the aptly named Department of Mysteries. Sybill Trelawney has made a prophecy, an enigmatic truth statement, hidden within a fragile ball of glass. Sybill, named after the ancient Greek prophetesses, the sibyls. Didn't one of the sibyls live at Delphi, where the god Apollo killed the terrible serpent Python? Serpents seem to be woven into the very fabric of Harry's hallucinations.
But what is the meaning of the bizarre prophecy? Neither can live while the other survives. There seems to be some deeper significance to this phrase, although at the moment it eludes me. The Dark Lord will mark him as his equal. Mark him how? Through the scar, perhaps, that scar whose origins Harry's parents are so very elusive about?
Who is the Dark Lord? Voldemort. Vol de mort in French, "flight from death". From whose death? Who is Voldmort, and why does he so desperately want Harry dead?