Summary: Chapter Twenty-Three: Malfoy Manor
Hermione points her wand at Harry’s face and causes it
to swell so that he’s unrecognizable, just before the three friends
are seized by a gang of Snatchers. Harry can’t see, but he recognizes
one of the voices menacing Hermione as belonging to Fenrir Greyback,
the werewolf. Questioned about their names, Harry claims to be Vernon
Dudley, Ron to be Barny Weasley (after having been caught in the
lie that he was Stan Shunpike), and Hermione to be Penelope Clearwater.
As the Snatchers go to check their names against lists
of wanted persons, leaving the prisoners bound together, Harry and
his friends discover that Dean Thomas, their fellow Gryffindor,
is bound with them. Dean tells them that these Snatchers are merely
looking for truant Hogwarts students to sell to the Ministry for
gold.
The Snatchers return, not having found the names they
gave on their lists. Harry is able to lie convincingly that he is
a Slytherin and that his father works in the Ministry, but the Snatchers
realize who they’ve actually caught when they match Hermione to
a picture of her in the newspaper, which states that Hermione is
known to be traveling with Harry Potter, then discover the Sword
of Gryffindor and Harry’s glasses. Throughout this ordeal, Harry
has trouble staying in the present moment, as he keeps having visions
through Voldemort’s eyes of Voldemort flying to the top of a black
fortress—Nurmengard. The Snatchers decide to take the prisoners to
Malfoy Manor, Voldemort’s base of operations, and as they go there,
Harry has visions of Voldemort interrogating Grindelwald in his
cell at Nurmengard.
At the manor, Narcissa and Lucius Malfoy try to get Draco
to positively identify Harry, whose face is still unrecognizably
swollen, but Draco, fearful and reluctant, won’t commit. Narcissa
and Lucius think it is Harry, because they can identify Hermione
and Ron, but they don’t want to contact Voldemort without being
sure. Bellatrix Lestrange enters the room, and though at first she
seems ready to contact Voldemort herself and end the dispute, when
she discovers the Sword of Gryffindor, which she had thought safe
in her own vault at Gringotts, she tells Narcissa and Lucius that
they are all in mortal danger, and she has Harry and Ron thrown
into the dark basement so she can interrogate Hermione and plan
her next move.
As Bellatrix tortures Hermione to learn where they got
the sword, accusing her of breaking into Bellatrix’s Gringotts vault, Harry
and Ron discover that the basement also holds Luna, Ollivander the
wandmaker, Dean Thomas, and Griphook, a Gringotts goblin. Luna has
a nail that she uses to untie them, and Ron uses his Deluminator
to light the basement. As they hear Hermione screaming in pain,
Harry desperately looks for a way to escape. Finding none, he empties
his pouch, looking for something that might aid him, and he finds
the shard of Sirius’s magic mirror. Dumbledore’s eye is looking
out of it at Harry. Harry asks the eye for help, and it disappears.
The prisoners hear Hermione claiming that the sword is
only a fake, and then Bellatrix stating her intention to question
the Gringotts goblin. Harry asks Griphook to lie and say the sword
they were carrying is a fake, then they turn out the lights, just
as Malfoy comes down to bring Griphook to Bellatrix.
