Now that Deathly Hallows is finished, it is time for us to begin a new journey with the Alchemy thread: part 7. All the pieces are laid out. Let's analyze!

Here is the previous Alchemy discussion.

Fawkes28
LL Mod

Well, Harry has to be seen as a Christ figure hasn't it ?
Yung speaks of the lapis-christ, which, following the tradition, the Christ is the hook to catch the Leviathan : see here
Lilly was the mother who gave the saviour of HP series. And the snake has fallen in the trap. Yung spoke about it in his analysis of the "aurora consurgens".

I find it amusing that this is part 7 incarnation of this thread.

[spoiler]Anyways I've been told that our Red Stage was in fact Rufus Scrimjeor, it seems from Harry's POV that Scrim gave his life to Harry and didn't rat on him. So my hats off to him.

I also wonder now if it was Tonks and Lupin that were the White/Red because they were the ones that got married first and with child first, is Teddy the golden child?

I believe that Harry actually did become the Master of death, for about the length of his discussion with Dumbledore, it would make sense to me that he saw DD because he had the ressurection stone. All the Hallows were together, imo, Harry had the cloak and stone while LV had the wand. So when he let go of all that, he became "Normal" he wanted to live his normal life with Ginny. [/spoiler]

I wonder now if the Philospher's stone was just a red herring? Considering the importance of the Hallows.

New to this topic, and only got through the first page of the last Alchemy thread, so I hope I'm not repeating anything. This response got pretty long, so I broke it down into two parts.

As the opening quote on the last thread, it mentioned that the Chemical Wedding between Bill and Fleur was surprising. I always found that Fleur's name was very interesting in itself. Fleur's name: Fleur Delacour, means Flower of the Court (perhaps a reference to the Fleur De Lis in the French coat of arms?), according to JKR. Interestingly enough, change the spelling slightly to add an "e" between O and U making it Delacoeur, makes the translation to roughly read: Flower of the Heart, which refers to the realized soul aspect in alchemy. The word "coeur" (heart) is masculine which would represent the groom in the wedding party, but the soul aspect is the bride. When Bill (material aspect) was transformed physically by the werewolf, Fleur had already "captured" his heart and knew who he really was, so his physical transformation, no matter how "ugly" would mean nothing to her, since she was already "at home" in his heart.

Names have often been changed purposefully and unintentionally through the generations due to a variety of reasons, including when the significance of a name is lost, or when holding a certain name would likely cause trouble. In Fleur's case, she has her father's surname, but her Veela heritage was through her maternal grandmother. It seems that this might be some sort of indication that her heritage might bear some resemblance to a Grail quest.

I did a little more research on Beauxbatons which brought me a little closer to the alchemy connection between Bill and Fleur. The school had no suits of armor, but statues of ice which flanked the halls. A "cold heart" can prevent the soul from shining through, which would offer protection to the school and its inhabitants - if you can't see or feel what you are missing, a treasure would not be recognized for what it is. Madame Maxime is a formidable guardian of her charges, but in her interaction with Hagrid, we see the matching soul blossom to his open and trusting heart. When the students are outside of the school, they are perceived by men to be irresistable, but seem cold and aloof to other women, and other females feel threatened by their presence. Why might that be? In alchemical terms, the material (male) aspect is always in search of its soul (female) aspect. The Veelas are "pure soul" so to speak, so they hold an unbridled attraction to any male. Every female has a bit of "Veela" in her, but in varying amounts which might not always be so obviously present to the males that interact with her on a regular basis. The jealousy that Mrs Weasley and Ginny regard Fleur with by calling her "Phlegm" is merely a misunderstanding that because of Fleur's beauty, she could not be faithful to Bill. The Veelas had a reputation of "loving and leaving" unsuspecting men, which might be true or untrue. It isn't until Bill's handsome features are lost, and Fleur stays true and defends her committment, that Mrs Weasley finally sees the real love that binds her son and his fiance, and is able to accept and rejoice in it.

The wedding scene when Fleur is walking down the aisle with her father, she shares the glow and beauty of her happiness with every other person present: "While her radiance usually dimmed everyone else by comparison, today it beautified everybody it fell upon. Ginny and Gabrielle, both wearing golden dresses, looked even prettier than usual, and once Fleur had reached him, Bill did not look as though he had ever met Fenrir Greyback" [ Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Scholastic, p.144] The golden dresses, and the golden "sun" robes worn by Luna and her father, also represent this transformation into something untainted, pure and "whole".

Fleur's "soul connection" can also be seen later on, when Harry apologizes for all the work she has to do while he is staying at Shell Cottage. She replies "'Arry, you saved my sister's life, I do not forget." [ibid, p510]. She is, of course, referring to the Triwizard Tournament when Harry saved Gabrielle from drowning underneath the lake. The soul is our "memory keeper", and its beauty is determined by and reflects that which it has been able to transform to "good" from "bad". We were never given a real reason why Fleur was not capable of completing that task, but it would seem that a soul cannot save another soul, that is needs a material aspect (in this case Harry) to pull it from the depths. Also note, that she said that Harry saved her sister's life, not her sister. For a soul that hasn't yet been "realized", life is the only way that it can be achieved. Harry saving Gabrielle's life, though it wasn't his task to do so, gave her the opportunity to find her own "heart". As an aside, that Viktor was the one to pull Hermione from her "suspended animation" shows that the beauty of Hermione, which might have been overlooked before, was brought to the surface for all to see, through him.

! think the main reason we thought that Bill and Fleur were symbolic of the chemical wedding was because of the fact that Ron and Hermione were frankly just too young to get married. We had a candidate for Red and white staring us righ in the face! But the wedding itself is vitally important. what many of us had said all along was that something vital will happen at the wedding. Why? Because of the fact that at the wedding of mercury and sulfur, or the red and white Royals, "all obscurity wil become clear" (I am paraphrasing) Interestingly, Harry finds out alot of interesting information at the wedding, doesn't he?

As far as Harry being gold..I found it very interesting that Harry's essence in the Polyjuice potion was gold in color. We see him reach enlighenment and perfection when he has his last conversation with albus Dumbledore.. What is Harry but scar free and not in need of glasses! he is perfect and enlightened!!

]

I agree that the wedding was vitally important to the Alchemical elements to the story. My point was in reference to it being a surprise that it would end up being Bill and Fleur's event. Making the "royal" connection of this union can be further strengthened by the "colors" they embody by merits of their "houses" or schools. Bill was in Gryffindor, making him red and gold. Fleur's "uniform" was blue. Red + Blue = (Royal) Purple One can easily imagine that a joining of these two elements, bound and embroidered with gold thread is highly symbolic.

I think you're absolutely right... Harry had the potential within him all along to achieve gold, but it didn't happen until he chose to walk into that arena, no weapon in his hand, head held high. He had to choose it. I think that leads right into what memyslfnI was saying about how he appeared at King's Cross, with no scars or glasses -- his perfect form.

I agree with M that Ron and Hermione were just too young yet. Bill and Fleur fit the Red King/White Queen motif perfectly. And there are other signs early on in the book that the Royal Marriage would create something big:

p 118


And on page 120:


And as for Lupin and Tonks, they are the Old King/Young Queen. I think that was from the Chemical Wedding?

And on the wedding cake, there was a pair of phoenixes.

The whole wedding chapters were chock full of seventh stage alchemical rubedo symbolism. Yikes!

I do not believe that Rufus Scrimgeour was the marker for the final stage. His name might mean "red", but 1) he certainly hadn't been with Harry from the beginning and 2) Harry didn't even like him. And 3) we never found anything at all that said Hagrid had to die. We never did.

So where is the Red Stage Ari?

It's most of the book. There is a purpling before the red stage, then gold, which usually happens very quickly.

Can someone suggest an introductory book on the subject of alchemy? This thread is fascinating.

I agree Ari, hagrid has always shown the mark of the red stage. How does Rufus make Harry grow to gold? The only evidence I ee that makes him a candidate is that he was the one to give Harry Ron and Hermione the gifts, but he was trying to keep them from him!!

Hagrid was the one to take Harry THE REAL Harry from the burrow, he was present when Harry entered limbo, and he was the one to carry him away from the forest. Plus we never figured out that the red stage is ended by death. Hagrid still seems the most likely candidate for the red stage

Part of this is a repeat from a post in Kristen's blog.

Victor Hugo? A friend suggest that Rose was really for Lavender Rose! Ha!

Bill and Fleur's child is named Victorie! Victory! Great name choice.

It is sweet that the Red King and his queen gave each other a Rose. We find out about this at the end when Rowling finished her Great Work!

Regarding Green Lion: Snape was obviously Vitriol. His bravery matched by the comment of Dumbledore that perhaps Snape was sorted too soon, seem to cinch that.

Nagini put the bite on Green Lion, Vitriol, Snape. Neville, the herbology Green Lion, put the slice and dice on Nagini.

The trio was the Hallows in a way. Harry was the stone. (duh)

Hermione was the cloak - seeing how she cloaked them during the camping trip. Also, a tent is usually a triangle shape.

If you think spear of destiny, wand of destiny, (Ron the name of King Arthur's spear) then Ron is the elder wand. That's why he is tall and lanky.

The king in alchemy goes into dissolution, a drowning. This is Ron's wilderness experience. His heart's desire is the love and respect from Harry, Hermione, and his family. He lost his faith in Harry and Dumbledore and falsely interpreted Hermione as choosing Harry. So he stormed out. People with abandonment issues do this a lot; I'll walk out on you before you walk out on me.

Obviously, to me anyway, Harry is the soul, Hermione is the Mind and Ron is the body within the trio.

This is why the body character voices the discomforts of the trip so much. Hermione is in her mental world sorting and figuring. Harry is on the spiritual plane. This leaves Ron by himself staring at a few mushrooms, none of which are morels!

(Remember when Ron accidently turned a mushroom into the size of a dinnerplate in his OWL exam! Too bad he couldn't remember how to do that one again!)

They start the wilderness experience with Ron splinched and in so much pain he faints. So he doesn't even have all his body available to start with and is not in the best physical form.

Hermione wears the locket outside her sweater. I wonder if Ron wore it inside his sweater so he wouldn't look all girly? Touching the body, close to the heart? I can't remember what Harry did while wearing the locket.

As the horcrux does its stuff on him, Ron himself is splinched from the trio. During this splinching is when Harry has his wand broken. They can now only accomplish mental fact-finding. With the broken phoenix wand, their ability to Do is limited. The trio is broken. Ron is broken.

Harry, a king, is in danger of drowning by the locketcrux. The body (Ron) returns and rescues the soul (Harry) from going to the beyond. It is a type of resurrection for Harry.

The Harry and Hermione Riddle Locket crux then tried to convince Ron that he was unworthy to exist. Had Ron gave in to it, that would have been another drowning of a king in all his worst memories. Voldy is like a dementor here. Locketcrux would have moved into a red-headed body that, as an amazing coicidink, was holding the Sword of Gryffindor and Harry would have gotten the chop by VoldylocketcruxthatwasformerlyknownasRon.

So how do you fight dementor types? With patronus light, of course.

Ron is the keeper of the light. So is Severus in this case.

Ooh, those are good ones Weasle Diva!

Ravenclaw, you might want to google The Chemical Wedding of Christian Rosenkreutz for a crash course in some of the symbolism and terms that pop up in most alchemy texts, as well as give you some background.

We spoke of this before WD!!

We have many drowned kings in the book

We have DD with the potion in the cave
Ron in th lake at the tri wizard tournement
Harry in the pond in the Forest

It would be interestin gto see how these drownings are resurrections for each character!

I just have to say to M and WeasleDiva...GREAT JOB!! You guys called it about the child's name! Even if it was Ron and Hermione's daughter and not Bill and Fleur, that's okay--Ron and Hermione were also a Great Marriage.

I also want to say to theredwitch and M: Great call on the Spear of Destiny and associating it with Grindelwald!! That was awesome! And that Voldemort would want Grindy's wand to counter the twin cores!

Did anyone notice how many "hanged men" are in this story as well?

Harry's gold occurs very quickly. While he and Voldemort are dueling, the sun comes out and turns all to gold.


And Harry does almost drown, literally. When he is going into the lake after the sword (Arthurian legends, anyone??), Ron rescues him.

I'm wondering if it is correct to say that the body rescues the soul. This looks more like searching 'the hidden gold in the ashes', or rescuing Proserpine from the hell, like in the chamber of the secrets where Harry saved Ginny.

On another site, I proposed to use the 'four parts of human beeing' theory rather than the tria one. (see the site here).

body : is called saturn, the black load, earth element.
Moonsih body : the animal soul, place of passions and vices. Liquid element
Mercurish body : called the mercury but also called the soul (the spiritual one, not the animal one). Air element.
Sun : the fire of the fire, the fire of the stone, the real eternal part.

This description is concerning inner alchemy, which, as we spoke before, is used especially in the five first books. So I wonder if there is possibility to apply to the characters.

This would may be make ore connection with the astrology aspect of the characters.
Is Ron is Pisces, he could be the moonish body, full of passions and appetite.

It is easy to rely Hermionne on the Mercury, the spiritual soul. If Harry is the fire of the fire, it explains why Hermionne is hugging him so many times, like the mercury embrace the fire of the fire in the description of Agrippa : the mercurish body contains the fire, and is like the so called double-mercury.

So would be Ginny also the fire of the fire (saved by Harry in the chamber of secrets), and the equal of Harry, and JKR seems to gather characters which are equal, or becoming equal.

Ron is becoming a moonish body which is more and more confident, especially in Quidditsh. As a water character, he is saved by Harry in the GoF from the lake, and that's why Ron saved Harry from the lake too. So Ron is getting as close to the fire than Hermionne, and both are becoming mercurish. The they can be joined as one. That would explain why we see only the two couples H-R and H-G, why they all survived, and why Hagrid survived too. He is the fire of the fire as well.

I expected Luna and Neville to be the new two moonish character who migth join together but it is not the case. It is Dean and Luna, both lost one of their parent. Dean was boyfrend of Ginny, and Luna was very closed to Harry. Difficult to say, but JKR said she was going to tell more about this Dean.

Pat, I'm still a little confused about this. Where is the earth element, if the body is water?

Could Regulus be a king, too? He drowns, and he was a seeker.

The body is the body, earth, and the moonish 'body' is supposed to be the animal soul linked to the body itself, while the mercurih body is surrounding the fire of the fire.

QUOTE(Clueniffler @ Jul 25 2007, 10:29 PM) [snapback]1347990[/snapback]

QUOTE(Weasle Diva @ Jul 24 2007, 07:10 PM) [snapback]1342824[/snapback]

The king in alchemy goes into dissolution, a drowning.

Could Regulus be a king, too? He drowns, and he was a seeker.

Apart from the obvious meaning in his name - "little king" or Basilisk, which is the king of the serpents - yes, I think Regulus was a Seeker. I think he achieved his own quintessence, in a way, by striking back against LV. A long way back in the thread, there was a theory about Regulus having the "heart of a lion" and I think that's a pretty accurate analysis, given what we know now.

Yes! Regulus is another example of a drowned king. It is a good bet that the body from the water that stirred first in the cave was his.

This fits, too, with Dumbledore's comment to Snape: "Sometimes I think we Sort too soon." Regulus and Snape are two examples of Slytherins who may not have rightfully belonged there, given events later in their lives. People change, and to expect kids to remain the same and hold the same values they do when they're 11 is ridiculous and narrow-minded. At that age, their beliefs are based on those of their parents. They are not their own.

I agree about Regulus being a "drowned king."

I just had to bring this up! I was re-reading the scene where Snape gets fed to Nagini (and he did not deserve to die that way), and I noticed something. The protective spell that LV put on her has her floating in a sort of glass bubble--the object that is on one of the covers. M blogged about this:



I mentioned in the RG and at another site about the importance of Elder (alder) and its connection to St. John's Eve, the summer solstice, and resurrection.

This protective casing around Nagini allowed Voldemort to kill Snape (who might have lived if he'd been just a little quicker on the draw). I'm wondering if there is anything else significant about it.

In the same scene, Harry receives the memories of Snape, and then has the vision of his direct future. The souvenirs of Severus gave him the final decision to face Voldemort at his risks.

When the sun started rising during Harry's return from death and then the flash of gold happened when he went to fight....I could have died!

You guys made that story come to life for me, even more so than it would have. Thank you so much for keeping my head above the murky silver of the alchemy waters!

The Harmonians are having a conniption and saying no alchemy was used. But it went almost exactly how we said it would!

Did anyone else freak out when the Hawthorne Wand became so important? The Fisher King did have something needed to get the grail after all!

Is it possible to get an overview of Alchemy and Harry Potter? I am very late to this subject and very intrigued, however, I know nothing about Alchemy as you guys are referencing it.

If you have any sources I could read up on regarding Alchemy, I'd love to know.

Question: who's Polyjuice was turquoise? I remember reading it and now I don't know who it was.

Hi Indigoink !

In the section Scribullus, there are many essays written on the subject. We also mentionned websites like http://www.levity.com/alchemy/home.html or http://hdelboy.club.fr/plan_alchimie.htm, as well the book of Lyndy Abraham : a dictionary of alchemical imagery.

Good one, Pat. I hadn't thought of that. I was so focused on the spheres and what they could mean. I never imagined JKR would use that as Nagini's protection.


Ah, so now they're saying NO alchemy was used at all? They know they screwed up, and they're humiliated. But I guess we shouldn't gloat too much. We didn't get everything right, either.

I loved the hawthorne wand thing. That was awesome the way she wove that in there.

I was having a hard time reading without picking out the alchemy symbols. I really tried not to do that the first time around, but it was so, so hard.


Hi indigoink, and

I thought it was Strengthening Solution that was turquoise, not Polyjuice?

I hate to pop up in a thread in which I am woefully ill prepared to participate. However, I wanted to thank all of you for much wonderful reading material over the last few months. I have to say that I almost lost it when, following the wedding of Bill and Fleur:


Thanks, again, to all of you!!!

Sorry if this has been discussed already...

Is it possible the red stage is Dobby's death? I just knew Hagrid was going to die, and was glad I was wrong.

Yes! Thanks you to all you alchemists out there...it did enhance my reading. When the Harry polyjuice potion turned gold I about fell out of my chair!

Is there any meaning to Charity=Victory? Charity being in the first chapter and Victory in the epilogue? Does Charity...being charitable equal victory in being immortal and having a afterlife?

I love that.

This is probably unrelated to alchemy, but "Charity" is the word chosen by the translators of the King James Version of the Bible for the Greek term Agape as it appears in I Corinthians, chapter 13, even though there is another Greek term Xaris (charis) that makes the issue more complex. Agape translates as love, but there are several other words that translate as love also. Agape is selfless love, love that asks for nothing in return. Charis is a word that means an unearned gift. The translators of the KJV thought it was important that folks understand that the idea of Love in I Cor. 13 was not just emotional romantic love, so they used "Charity" rather than "love." Other Translations use the word love.

Given the idea that at the end of the story Harry willingly laid down his life for all those he loved, and in so doing conquered the Dark Lord, your idea that Charity = Victory is very appropriate. The romans said amor vincit omnia--loves conquers all. But Amor is a less precise idea than the Greek word agape. Agape nike esti--love is victory.

We saw red stage already starting at the end of book VI. And the seven is continued with the multiplication of Harry, with blood everywhere. Dumby was engraved under a white stone, so this is not very red.

I can't believe that in the hundreds of pages of this thread, this hasn't been mentioned, but I didn't find it when I used the search. Snape was the vitriol, but there was more to his role in Harry's journey.
From Asphodel Wormwood, Aug 12 2005, 01:12 PM

According to Alchemy Lab Dictionary (and not dissimilar from M's!):

QUOTE
Vitriol was the most important liquid in alchemy. It was the one in which all other reactions took place. Vitriol was distilled from an oily, green substance that formed naturally from the weathering of sulfur-bearing gravel. This Green Vitriol is symbolized by the Green Lion in drawings. After the Green Vitriol (copper sulfate) was collected, it was heated and broken down into iron compounds and sulfuric acid. The acid was separated out by distillation. The first distillation produced a brown liquid that stunk like rotten eggs, but further distillation yielded a nearly odorless, yellow oil called simply Vitriol. The acid readily dissolves human tissue and is severely corrosive to most metals, although it has no effect on gold. White Vitriol is zinc sulfate; Blue Vitriol is copper sulfate.


To me, what does this say?

It says that Snape (as Vitriol) is the base, the reason, the pivot for the other alchemical reactions. Without him, (and I'm playing Devil's advocate here), Sirius would (perhaps) not have gone to the MoM and died (at least in Harry's eyes). Without Snape, Dumbledore would not have died. Without Snape, therefore, Hagrid will not survive -- Snape is the base for all of this.

But once the rubedo stage has been completed, Vitriol is not needed. This means that once Hagrid is dead, Snape will not be needed -- needed for what?

Teaching Harry. Harry is the alchemist. He is the one involved in all of the reactions (think of his closeness to Sirius, Dumbledore and Hagrid).

The journey for Harry is to break down and overcome (solve et coagula). Firstly, the body, then the mind, then the soul. Without Snape, he cannot do this. This adds weight to my conviction that Snape is Harry's guide, the one to learn from.

We've also looked at the symbolism behind people's names, but what about Severus? Sever is very similar to solve. I think Snape was more than the vitiol; he was a key part of Harry's breaking down. Sorry if someone already said this.

indigoink!

Besides the other links people have given, this is also a great resource from our own HP 101 on Alchemy.

Except that Hagrid didn't die (and I'm very glad he didn't). At the end of the reaction, the only thing left is the sulfuric acid (vitriol) and natron salts. Snape could have gone either way, and he would not have been changed one bit at the end. Even if he'd lived, he'd still be the same mean, ascerbic, vitriolic man he'd been through all seven books.

We considered that meaning of Snape's name, but that might not be exclusively alchemic. She may have had other reasons for giving him that name, and we didn't really want to draw that parallel if it fact it didn't exist.

I agree that if Snape had lived he wouldn't have been much changed, but I've been thinking about this some more, and it seems to me that the fact that he died shows that he wasn't strictly a catalyst. (From what I understand from reading lots of old posts, the role of the vitiol is catalytic, and it remains after the reaction is complete.) I remember from chemistry lab that the definition of a catalyst is that it survives the reaction.

I know I'm new to this thread and you all have done a lot of thinking about all this. I have been really impressed by the accurate predictions you have made and the way you have made sense out of some things that didn't really make sense to me before. You've made me think about things more deeply, and this is just what's come to my mind.

Pretty sure the reference to Victoire was a reference to Boudica (Victoria is a form of her name) whose ghost is said to be seen at Platform 9 3/4 at King's Cross Station.

No doubt she was so named after the events that transpired at Hogwarts.

I don't know, maybe you're right, I just thought the name Charity was appropriate to the woman because she showed so much of it in defending Muggles during that time.

Relatively unchanged, yes. But let's not forget that Rowling has creative license; she doesn't have to follow it exactly. I would say Draco is also a vitriol, but he didn't have the influence on Harry that Snape did. It wasn't Malfoy who got Harry to understand that he had to die--Snape did that, albeit through a Pensieve.

I don't think it's Malfoy. I think it is Snape--his relationship with Harry drove the story and without him, Harry could never have progressed through the stages. Only in the final stage, when the seeker finds gold, does vitriol cease to have an effect on him. Vitriol is corrosive to all metals except gold. It is the same here--only after Harry reaches gold does he come to understand Snape and even respect him.

Snape's role as vitriol is certain. Without Snape overhearing the prophecy and reporting it to LV, there never would have been a story and Harry wouldn't have made this particular alchemical journey. Snape played both sides. He was the one to alert DD about the threat to the Potters too. Even Snape's hatred of James is only offset by his love for Lily.

Okay, you're right about that. I take back my previous statement.

I have a question about vitriol.

For something to act as vitriol, it is necessary for the vitriol itself to remain unchanged, is that correct? And-when the vitriol's work is finished, in an alchemical sense, what happens to it? Does it disappear? Does it "die", too?

Can we see the way JKR wrote Snape as a reflection of the role of Vitriol?

PP

From what I understand, nothing happens to it. It remains the same, virtually unchanged. It is one of the few things left when the reaction is over. It's a catalyst the reaction absolutely needs to proceed.

Using that explanation Arduinna, Snape's memories became an integral part of Harry's being...most pronounced in the naming of his son: Albus Severus!

I have learned an enormous amount reading all of these alchemy threads!


Speaking of JKR's creative license...

Hagrid=Essential Red

But (perhaps not wanting to kill off all of Harry's father figures!)--

I think F(red) took over the dying part of Red.

Ooooooooooooo That is an excellent theory!

That does make sense, Fred died during Harry's last fight. His last foray into the red, embattled stage before entering gold. Gold being where he sacrificed himself.

Thanks! Glad I could finally contribute after nine solid months of lurking!

Think of it as "delivering" a healthy new idea.

I have to agree with F(red) too. I was absolutely convinced it would be Hagrid -- and honestly relieved when it wasn't Hagrid. But Fred's death comes at the height of the red stage, when the Weasleys are finally complete by the return of Percy, and they are all fighting side-by-side in the battle. Really, the stage belongs to all of them, doesn't it?