How It All Goes Down
The Pensieve
- Harry goes into Professor Dumbledore's office.
- Dumbledore, Fudge, and Moody are all inside.
- Dumbledore asks Harry to wait in his office while they go search the grounds.
- Harry sits stroking Fawkes, the phoenix.
- Harry sees a large basin with odd carvings around the edges.
- There's "silvery stuff" (30.20) inside, which Harry pokes with his wand.
- The silvery stuff inside the basin draws Harry into another place: a courtroom.
- He looks around at the crowd and at Albus Dumbledore, who is seated in the room.
- But no one in the room can see Harry.
- Harry watches a group of Dementors lead in a prisoner: a young Igor Karkaroff.
- Mr. Crouch is acting as judge.
- Karkaroff offers: "I wish to be of use to the Ministry. I wish to help. I – I know that the Ministry is trying to – to round up the last of the Dark Lord's supporters. I am eager to assist in any way I can ..." (30.43).
- Karkaroff starts listing names of Death Eaters he has known, but none of them seem that important to the Ministry.
- Finally, he accuses Severus Snape.
- Crouch answers, "Snape has been cleared by this council [...] He has been vouched for by Albus Dumbledore" (30.80).
- The memory ends with Professor Dumbledore promising, "[Snape] is now no more a Death Eater than I am" (30.84).
- Karkaroff is dragged back to Azkaban.
- The next trial is of Ludo Bagman.
- Ludo's defense is, "well – I know I've been a bit of an idiot –" (30.90).
- Everyone in the courtroom (except Moody and Mr. Crouch) seems charmed by his friendly, self-deprecating manner.
- One of the members of the jury stands up to say: "We'd just like to congratulate Mr. Bagman on his splendid performance for England in the Quidditch match against Turkey last Saturday" (30.101).
- So, obviously, this jury isn't exactly unbiased.
- Ludo Bagman is released, and Mr. Crouch is furious.
- The next trial is of four people, one of them "a boy in his late teens, who looked nothing short of petrified" (30.107).
- They're accused of using the Cruciatus Curse to torture Frank and Alice Longbottom.
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- The boy cries out, "Father, I didn't! [...] I didn't, I swear it, Father, don't send me back to the Dementors –" (30.112).
- But Mr. Crouch won't listen to his pleas.
- The crowd in the courtroom clap in "savage triumph" (30.116) at the verdict: life in prison for all four convicts.
- No matter how much the boy cries and fights, he cannot escape the Dementors.
- And then Harry hears a voice say, "I think, Harry, it is time to return to my office" (30.125).
- Harry comes back to himself.
- Professor Dumbledore explains that Harry has been looking at his Pensieve, a magical object designed to store thoughts and memories.
- Professor Dumbledore shows Harry another memory.
- It's of the young Bertha Jorkins, when she was at school at Hogwarts.
- Professor Dumbledore looks sad and careworn.
- Harry describes the dream he had in Divination.
- Professor Dumbledore offers a theory that Harry's scar "hurts both when Lord Voldemort is near [Harry], and when he is feeling a particularly strong surge of hatred" (30.164).
- Professor Dumbledore thinks that Voldemort is trying to rise to power again.
- Harry doesn't see how Voldemort can gather power when he doesn't even have a body.
- The disappearances of Bertha Jorkins, Mr. Crouch, and Frank Bryce (from way back in the first chapter) all worry Professor Dumbledore.
- Harry asks if Frank and Alice Longbottom were Neville's parents.
- Yes, they are.
- The Longbottoms were tortured for information after Voldemort's disappearance by his supporters. They were both driven insane with pain.
- The attacks on the Longbottoms after Voldemort's fall from power caused "a wave of fury such as [Dumbledore has] never known" (30.140).
- The Ministry was under huge pressure to convict someone – anyone – for this horrible crime.
- Professor Dumbledore says that neither Ludo Bagman nor Professor Snape have ever been accused of a crime since.
- Harry wonders, "What made you think [Professor Snape'd] really stopped supporting Voldemort, Professor?" (30.201).
- Professor Dumbledore will only say, "That, Harry, is a matter between Professor Snape and myself" (30.202).
- Professor Dumbledore swears Harry to secrecy about Neville's parents and wishes him luck on the third task.