Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Chapter 35
Chapter 35: King’s Cross
Well, that was unexpected. Harry ends up in heaven’s waiting room, with the mutilated soul of Voldemort and with Dumbledore. It feels a little like cheating for Harry to get a chance to have end-of-the-book summing up chat with Dumbledore even after he’d died, and we don’t really learn much that we didn’t know or suspect.
In fact, the main thing we learn is the reason that Harry isn’t dead: Voldemort used Harry’s blood to rebuild his body, which means that Voldemort shares Lily’s protection, which somehow means that Harry can’t die while Voldemort lives. So, Harry is (was, rather, since the killing curse seems to have destroyed the V-soul fragment) Voldemort’s Horcrux, and Voldemort is (sort of) Harry’s.
Let’s hope that the Lily’s blood effect doesn’t work both ways: Voldemort tethers Harry to life, but let’s hope that Voldemort (once the snake is dead) can be killed.
We also get an “explanation” for the golden fire-y thing Harry’s wand did: the wand had some Voldemort power in it as a result of the graveyard confrontation.
Is it all in Harry’s head? Is it really the shade of Dumbledore talking to him, or just a memory? Where is Harry, exactly? Why King’s Cross, precisely? I’m guessing we won’t get these questions answered, but that’s OK.
Back to the forest, Harry!
No spoilers for later chapters in the comments!
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Rowling said in an interview that she thought maybe Harry “picked” King’s Cross because to him it represents a boundary between two worlds, two phases of his life/existence.
I’m sorry to say this was my least favorite chapter. I wanted it to feel like everything clicking satisfyingly into place, but instead, if I think really really hard about it, I can only sort of figure out the whole killing/sharing blood and souls/connectedness of their living and dying, but then it’s gone again and I’m not sure I ever really got it at all. And certainly I can’t make the prophecy make sense. And I think that the revealing of Dumbledore’s faults does not seem central enough to be a major part of this scene.
All in all, a bit disappointed after the powerful previous chapter.