Summary: Chapter Four: The Seven Potters
Harry looks around at the house, remembering sadly his
younger self and the life he led in that place. Suddenly, an unexpectedly
large contingent of wizards arrives in the backyard to escort Harry
to his new place of safety. Hagrid is there, as well as Ron, Hermione,
Fleur Delacour, Mad-Eye Moody, Fred and George Weasley, Bill Weasley, Arthur
Weasley, Remus Lupin, Tonks, Kingsley, and Mundungus Fletcher. Moody
announces that they’ve had to change plans because Pius Thicknesse
has gone over to Voldemort and all Ministry-regulated means of transportation
are dangerous to them.
Moody’s new plan is to send Harry to Tonks’s parents’
house while six decoys go to other houses. Ron, Hermione, Fred,
George, Fleur, and Mundungus will take Polyjuice Potion to disguise
themselves as Harry, and each of them will fly with one escort.
Harry protests at putting his friends in danger by using them as
decoys, but since everyone accepts the risk, he reluctantly agrees.
Harry provides hairs for the potion, which the six designated decoys
take, changing them into copies of Harry. Harry gets into the sidecar
of a flying motorbike driven by Hagrid, and the entire party rises
into the air.
Almost immediately, Harry and Hagrid find themselves surrounded
by at least thirty hooded Death Eaters. They flee, with the Death
Eaters in hot pursuit, shooting Killing Curses at them, one of which
kills Harry’s owl, Hedwig. Harry tries to fend their pursuers off
with spells, but when Hagrid shoots dragon fire out of the back of
the motorbike, the sidecar splits off. Harry recognizes Stan Shunpike
as one of the pursuers, and a Death Eater whom he does not recognize
somehow identifies Harry as the real Harry Potter. The Death Eaters
immediately depart, but quickly return with Voldemort himself, who
is intent on killing Harry personally. Hagrid leaps onto a Death
Eater’s broom and crashes to the ground. Threatened by Voldemort
at close range, Harry feels his wand hand come up involuntarily
and deliver a warding spell he doesn’t even recognize or know how
to cast, shattering Voldemort’s wand, then Harry crashes the bike
into a pond.
Summary: Chapter Five: Fallen Warrior
Harry wakes up, the injuries he sustained in the chase
healed. He finds that he’s at Tonks’s parents’ house, and that Ted
Tonks has healed both him and Hagrid. The protective charm on the
house kept Voldemort and the Death Eaters from following them inside
its boundaries. Harry promises to send Mr. Tonks word when he finds out
what happened to Tonks (the daughter), and they use a Portkey to
travel to the Burrow, the Weasley family home.
Hagrid and Harry find an anxious Mrs. Weasley awaiting
them at the Burrow. None of the others who helped transport Harry
has arrived yet. Lupin arrives with George Weasley, who has had
his ear cut off by a curse from Snape, who was among the attackers.
Realizing that they must have been betrayed, Lupin tests whether
Harry is who he appears to be by asking what animal was in the room when
Harry first met him in his office. Harry answers correctly that it
was a grindylow. Lupin and Harry discuss how Harry must have revealed
to the Death Eaters that he was the real Harry when he cast a Disarming
spell on Stan Shunpike, not wanting to do mortal harm to a pursuer
who may be under mind control. Lupin urges Harry to stop pulling
punches, particularly when Disarming seems to have become Harry’s
predictable signature spell. Kingsley and Hermione arrive safely,
then Mr. Weasley and Fred, then Ron and Tonks, then Bill and Fleur.
Bill and Fleur describe how they saw Mundungus Fletcher panic and
Disapparate, leaving Mad-Eye to die by Voldemort’s curse, right
at the beginning of the chase.
The entire party discusses how their plans might have
been betrayed to Voldemort, noting that Voldemort apparently did
not know of the plan to use the six Harry decoys. Harry wants to
leave the Burrow, frustrated that his presence puts his allies in
danger, but his friends won’t hear of it.
