Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

Chapter Twenty-nine:
The Lost Diadem

"Wit beyond measure is man's greatest treasure."

Notes by Michele L. Worley
Page editor Belinda Hobbs

U.S. hardcover edition: pages 571 - 588
U.K. hardcover edition: pages 460 - 473
Timeframe: ? May 1998

In which Neville escorts HRH through the passageway from the Hog's Head to the Room of Requirement, where Dumbledore's Army recaps the situation in Hogwarts and the Ravenclaws tell Harry about Ravenclaw's diadem. Luna escorts Harry to the Ravenclaw Tower to look at its representation on Ravenclaw's statue, and Alecto Carrow ambushes them in the Ravenclaw common room.

Interesting facts and notes about the text of this chapter:

Seamus is worse.

Since Seamus' father is a Muggle (PS7), it's surprising that he isn't on the run.

Apparating directly into the bar

Presumably - since nobody can Apparate into or out of Hogwarts without the headmaster's cooperation, such as during Apparition lessons in the Great Hall - this refers to the members of Dumbledore's Army who turn up later from outside the school. But in the last chapter, we just established that the Death Eaters have anti-Apparition spells up, so that the trio would have had to wait until the Caterwauling Charm was lifted in the morning to walk out of Hogsmeade into the mountains, to get clear of the spell. This seems to be a contradiction.

We're up on the fifth floor

Hmm. Let's see if we can get some idea of where the entrance to Ravenclaw Tower is then.

By the way, the Room of Requirement is ordinarily found on the seventh floor.

watching Filch moving away from them

I was wondering whether Filch, as a Squib, would have been kept on by the Death Eaters, no matter how much he loves corporal punishment of the students.

through squares of moonlight upon the floor

Passing windows, it sounds like.

past suits of armour

Not very specific. There are a lot of suits of armour just standing around on their own in Hogwarts Castle.

pulling him toward a spiral staircase.
They climbed in tight, dizzying circles.

Since they started on the fifth floor, the entrance to Ravenclaw Tower is at least on the sixth floor.

a bronze knocker in the shape of an eagle

Ravenclaw's symbol.

view of the surrounding mountains

Not the lake or the forest, in other words. This is consistent with Ravenclaw Tower being on the opposite side of the castle from Gryffindor Tower.

It was not unlike the tiara Fleur had worn at her wedding.

Nice red herring, that.

'Wit beyond measure is man's greatest treasure.'

Luna quoted this during her first conversation with Harry (OP10).

Characters introduced in this chapter:

• none

Characters returning in this chapter:

• Boot, Terry

• Brown, Lavender

• Carrow, Alecto

• Corner, Michael

• Dumbledore, Aberforth (as "Ab")

• Filch, Argus

• Finnigan, Seamus

• Goldstein, Anthony

• Granger, Hermione

• Jordan, Lee

• Longbottom, Neville

• Lovegood, Luna

• Macmillan, Ernie

• Patil, Padma

• Patil, Parvati

• Potter, Harry

• Riddle, Tom (Voldemort, You-Know-Who) (in Harry's vision)

• Thomas, Dean

• Weasley, Fred

• Weasley, George

• Weasley, Ginny

• Weasley, Ron

Characters mentioned in this chapter:

• Carrow, Amycus

• Chang, Cho

• Crabbe, Vincent

• Dawlish

• Delacour, Fleur

• Dumbledore, Albus

• Flitwick, Filius

• Goyle, Gregory

• Longbottom, Alice

• Longbottom, Augusta

• Longbottom, Frank

• Lovegood, Xenophilius

• Peeves

• Ravenclaw, Rowena

• Snape, Severus

• Umbridge, Dolores

Settings and locations introduced or returning in this chapter:

• Gaunt house (in Harry's vision)

• Hog's Head Inn

• Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry

  • Ravenclaw Tower

  • Room of Requirement

Settings and locations mentioned in this chapter:

• Azkaban

• Gringotts

• Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry

  • Astronomy Tower

  • Great Hall

• St. Mungo's

Exceptional character moments:

• The members of Dumbledore's Army and their resistance activities against the Death Eaters.

• Augusta Longbottom's escape from the Ministry and the Death Eaters.

Spells:

• Apparition

• Caterwauling Charm

• Crucio (as the Cruciatus Curse)

• Protean Charm

Links and Resources:

• Bestiary

  • dragons

  • phoenix

  • Wrackspurt

• blood status

• Dark Arts

• Death Eaters

• detentions

• Dumbledore's Army

• ghosts

• Hogwarts classes

• Hogwarts houses

• Hogwarts teachers

• items and devices

  • armour

  • Horcruxes

  • Marauder's Map, the

  • portraits

  • tiara

  • wands

• passwords

• Quibbler, The

• Transfiguration

Memorable lines:

• "You've saved our lives twice."
  "Look after 'em, then," said Aberforth gruffly. "I might not be able to save 'em a third time."

• "Blimey, Neville," said Ron, "there's a time and a place for getting a smart mouth."

• "Little old witch living alone, they probably thought they didn't need to send anyone particularly powerful. Anyway," Neville laughed, "Dawlish is still in St. Mungo's and Gran's on the run."

Strictly British:

• blimey

• bloke

• common room

• first-year

• kip

• mate

Timelines/Calendar:

Immediately after the preceding chapter, on the same May evening in 1998.