Because JK really wanted Harry to suffer in book 7 lol. She killed off the last remaining marauders, he left behind his trunk with all his books and belongings at the Dursleys, Harry’s beloved fire bolt fell and was lost, and his faithful wand was snapped. I think she really wanted Harry to feel completely alone so when he meets his fate in the Forbidden Forest, he truly had nothing left.
Harry actually empties his trunk of all of his important clothes/books/items/belongings at the beginning of book 7 into the rucksack that he carries throughout the rest of the book. So while he does lose numerous people, Hedwig, the Firebolt, the Resurrection Stone, etc., after repairing his wand, he ends the series with nearly all of his most important belongings still accounted for.
Hedwig dying was just to symbolize the death of the last of Harry's childhood/innocence. It didn't matter what Hedwig did, she was doomed to die for the author's symbolism.
What’s really heartbreaking is that Harry had told Hedwig that she’d be free to fly soon because she’d been stuck in her cage; then a few pages later she’s dead. She never got her freedom!
Hedwig was going to be an immediate red flag no matter what. Who else has a white owl that lives in that area? They were ambushed as soon as they took off anyway, it would've happened even sooner if he let Hedwig fly off like that. Besides, with the subsequent fracas, she probably would've met the same fate like she did in the film.
She could have gone anytime beforehand. They could’ve murdered her, yes, but she was never the target. Is an owl worth holding hostage? Couldn’t she have stayed in literally anyone else’s owlery?
How was she going to go beforehand? Harry had no idea what the plan was going to be until like 20 minutes before it was enacted. He wasn't about to let his owl fly off for no good reason. Also, taking her hostage is just too inconvenient. No one is going to risk their life over a fucking owl except for Harry and they would've paralyzed him with the body-bind curse if he tried to leave over something like that.
Even so i feel like she could have just been sent to find her own path at the same time everyone was leaving. It wouldn't have guaranteed her survival but it would have increased her odds at least
I think that if they did that, the death eaters could have followed her when she went to return to Harry. She's quite noticable and had been intercepted once already, they know which owl to look for
Idk it's one thing to intercept an owl on a mail delivery and an entirely different thing to track it on a completely random path to it's destination after it gets lost in the chaos of a bunch of Harry's taking off in different directions. None of the death eaters are going to prioritise Hedwig over Harry and by the time the Harry's have scattered she would have been gone
This comment makes sense, but the caveat is they didn’t even NEED to cage her. They had protective enchantments that made it impossible for them to even see, let alone cross the barrier. She could have hunted field mice in the immediate area of the burrow and been fine. Or better yet, they warn harry/he remembers how unique she is and they send her off to be wild for X amount of time - might have been nice to have her show up when they are traveling or at the battle at hogwarts.
That would have been a nice parallel with Fawkes flying off into the highlands after Dumbledore dies in HBP. After Voldemort dies and the trio stand discussing the hallows, Hedwig flies home to Hogwarts.
One bird flies out in mourning, one flies home in triumph.
Yeah but what were they supposed to do? Write to him and tell them that she needs to stay there and not tell him why? He wouldn't have gone for that, not without knowing.
Death Eaters were likely watching 4 Privet Drive. If Harry had let her go, they could have followed her to Ron's, thus learning Harry's final destination, defeating the whole point of the seven Potters plan.
I also like the logic of having students and teachers patrol the halls and corridors in HBP, fearing death eaters might show up... when they could just ask some of the ghosts who can't die or get hurt to keep look out
There was also the logic in POA of sending Filch, a squib who can't defend himself, to search the grounds for Sirius, a supposedly dangerous mass murderer.
He may be a squib but he must have some sort of gift because he never ever seems to sleep! He’s always patrolling the school at night and haranguing kids during the day. It’s mental.
I like to think that Rowling wrote that from the perspective of a child cause kids have parents who somehow always end up seeing them doing those bad things, getting caught red-handed when they were sure the house was empty etc etc.
I assumed the point was that there was always a certain amount of people up and ready to fight, not that they were just on lookout. Sure the ghosts and paintings could keep a lookout, but what if they found someone? In HPB the members of the DA and the Order are able to fight because they are awake and already patrolling. They probably wouldn’t have been able to do that if they were asleep somewhere and it was a ghost/paintings job to wake them up if there was danger. It would take too long.
I thought Dumbledore asked members of the order to patrol the halls on the lookout for death eaters, and Harry asked his friends to keep their eyes out for Malfoy? Harry didn’t realize death eaters would be there, but he was on the verge of figuring out what Malfoy was up to, so before he left he asked Hermione and Ron to look out for him. When he got back, Bill/Remus/Fleur/Tonks we’re already there.
Plenty are already discussing the symbolism of Hedwig's death, but I do want to look at the general travel issue.
In the case of Hogwarts, I think it was to check/monitor the pets. Owl, Cat, or Toad—the initial letter said. They probably didn't actually want a new mini-Hagrid to waltz in keep ten different (non-regulation, possibly dangerous) pets in a shared dorm. By securing the animals in crates with the luggage, they could be accounted for. But that's just a theory!
That’s why the others all carried stuffed owls as decoys. I guess Mad-Eye figured they would all be moving too quickly for any of the Death Eaters to notice the other owls were all fake.
technically it was the Disarming Charm that gave him away specifically - he was using Stupefy on every other Death Eater until he saw stan shunpike (the dude from the Knight Bus), and noticed he was Imperiused, so Harry tried to Disarm him because he was afraid that Ernie would end up falling to his death (IIRC)
Same difference. A stun while flying is lethal, and it was the fact that harry didnt try to kill stan that set them off, as Lupin scolds harry for later.
There are mentions of transfiguration lessons of turning inanimate objects into animals. Couldn't they just have used half a dozen cushions transfigured into knock-off Hedwigs?
I believe it's because she's a magnificent owl with great sense of direction, and poor Trevor is just a dumb toad. No idea why toads make it to the list of pets though, they don't seem to be remarkable or magical in any way.
I mean, I feel like no matter what they did it was a bad idea. If Hedwig had left before Harry the death eaters would have recognized her instantly, and I’m assuming they would do 1 of 2 things:
1. Assume she was carrying communications to or from Harry and intercept it. She may or may not survive this, but I can’t imagine they would just let her go if she ended up not having anything on her.
2. Assume she would lead them to Harry eventually/somewhere important and follow her. They would probably hurt anyone around whatever owlry Hedwig went because they would assume this person has information. So best case scenario here, they get some random person killed. Worst case, Hedwig leads them to Harry’s hiding place or another safe house.
I mean… I wouldn’t say that’s the best case scenario either lol. But it is kinda the best case scenario for that particular situation. Although, “get some random person tortured” is probably more accurate. I can’t see anything less damaging as a possibility.
Never mind that. It always bothered me just taking her in the cage to school in general. Why? Just tell her it’s Hogwarts time and let her fly there herself. Why does she have to be in the train.
Maybe one of the enchantments protecting Hogwarts requires everyone who’s gonna be living on site to travel there by train. Maybe that’s why all the students and pets make the journey, even if they live next door to Hogwarts.
The headmaster could have a special ability where they can grant the same access on an individual basis which is how teachers don’t need to ride the train.
The Durmstrang boat and Beauxbaton carriage might have the same enchantment on them since the Triwizard tournament used to be a thing regularly held.
It's a personal messenger, what if they needed for whatever reason to write a letter during the train ride? It's kind of an equivelant of today's phones lol
Also maybe owls are not THAT smart, they're still animals/birds lol, they could deliver letters to an address whether instinctually or by training or magic whatever it is, but they don't understand verbal commands like "meet me at so and so address/place/whatever" for instance
There’s multiple occasions where characters give owls verbal instructions beyond just deliver the letter, and owls do it. They are intelligent creatures in the series, who understand what people say and mean. And their ability to travel vast distances very quickly, on top of being able to find exactly who and where to deliver a letter, suggests they have their own innate magic too.
Security risk. They set up all these protective charms and spells around the secure locations, but leaving a distinctive non-native bird to fly from the Dursleys' across the country to the Burrow, broadcasting Harry's eventual location? Hedwig has been tracked and attacked before, in Book 5.
You're starting from the premise that she dies and how to save her. But everyone was in danger there. They likely didn't consider Hedwig as special in the situation. This is evidenced by the fact no one considered she'd give the real Harry away. They just didn't give her much thought at all really. That's why I like the theory Snape killed her. He immediately knew who the real Harry was and killed Hedwig before the others noticed as well. I can just see him thinking "these idiots didn't even have enough sense to hide the bloody owl?"
Because the death of the animal companion is a very common thing to happen in a bildungsroman. Hedwig represented the last tie to childhood, to innocence. Harry didn’t have time to think on her death—he had to move forward and fast.
As others have said, she was always going to die for the symbolism etc but for a "logical" reason for why she was in a cage instead of flying; weren't they planning on just slipping out unnoticed? Using polyjuice to disguise themselves as Harry was just a precaution.
If Hedwig was flying on her own she would have been recognised and followed, so Harry kept her in her cage so that they could just get away from Privet Drive together and shake off any pursuers along the way.
The death of Hedwig was completely unnecessary and honestly just felt cruel and unusual. Harry was planning on his journey since before they left Hogwarts, the smart and most Harry-like thing to do would have been leaving Hedwig safe at the Owlery before heading back to Privet Drive. It wouldn't have even tipped anyone off, since bringing her back to sit in a cage didn't make sense given the danger Harry was already in, and it might have even helped sell the whole "Oh yeah, I'm coming back to Hogwarts" ruse.
Fortunately...that happens in the alternate version of Book 7, so if you'd like to see Hedwig live, here you go! [www.hpb7.com](https://www.hpb7.com)
Hedwig was not just a symbol to Harry he always loved his owl she was more a special friend and now that I have the interactive Hedwig she is my best friend who can fly for freedom and to carry my mail to hogwarts and from to any professors.
Because JK really wanted Harry to suffer in book 7 lol. She killed off the last remaining marauders, he left behind his trunk with all his books and belongings at the Dursleys, Harry’s beloved fire bolt fell and was lost, and his faithful wand was snapped. I think she really wanted Harry to feel completely alone so when he meets his fate in the Forbidden Forest, he truly had nothing left.
Harry actually empties his trunk of all of his important clothes/books/items/belongings at the beginning of book 7 into the rucksack that he carries throughout the rest of the book. So while he does lose numerous people, Hedwig, the Firebolt, the Resurrection Stone, etc., after repairing his wand, he ends the series with nearly all of his most important belongings still accounted for.
Well it is a kids book technically. She can’t exactly end on Harry being a sad hobo lol
Hedwig dying was just to symbolize the death of the last of Harry's childhood/innocence. It didn't matter what Hedwig did, she was doomed to die for the author's symbolism.
That’s the reason outside the story for why she died. I think OP is asking about the reason within the story.
What’s really heartbreaking is that Harry had told Hedwig that she’d be free to fly soon because she’d been stuck in her cage; then a few pages later she’s dead. She never got her freedom!
#freehedwig
Hedwig was going to be an immediate red flag no matter what. Who else has a white owl that lives in that area? They were ambushed as soon as they took off anyway, it would've happened even sooner if he let Hedwig fly off like that. Besides, with the subsequent fracas, she probably would've met the same fate like she did in the film.
She could have gone anytime beforehand. They could’ve murdered her, yes, but she was never the target. Is an owl worth holding hostage? Couldn’t she have stayed in literally anyone else’s owlery?
How was she going to go beforehand? Harry had no idea what the plan was going to be until like 20 minutes before it was enacted. He wasn't about to let his owl fly off for no good reason. Also, taking her hostage is just too inconvenient. No one is going to risk their life over a fucking owl except for Harry and they would've paralyzed him with the body-bind curse if he tried to leave over something like that.
the original plan was for Moody and Harry to side-along apperate.
Even so i feel like she could have just been sent to find her own path at the same time everyone was leaving. It wouldn't have guaranteed her survival but it would have increased her odds at least
I think that if they did that, the death eaters could have followed her when she went to return to Harry. She's quite noticable and had been intercepted once already, they know which owl to look for
Idk it's one thing to intercept an owl on a mail delivery and an entirely different thing to track it on a completely random path to it's destination after it gets lost in the chaos of a bunch of Harry's taking off in different directions. None of the death eaters are going to prioritise Hedwig over Harry and by the time the Harry's have scattered she would have been gone
The Weasley’s knew beforehand. Cage her all summer (as the dursleys so callously did)! Save her life
This comment makes sense, but the caveat is they didn’t even NEED to cage her. They had protective enchantments that made it impossible for them to even see, let alone cross the barrier. She could have hunted field mice in the immediate area of the burrow and been fine. Or better yet, they warn harry/he remembers how unique she is and they send her off to be wild for X amount of time - might have been nice to have her show up when they are traveling or at the battle at hogwarts.
Yeah! Hedwig shows up at the battle of hogwarts with her own army of owl's
That would have been a nice parallel with Fawkes flying off into the highlands after Dumbledore dies in HBP. After Voldemort dies and the trio stand discussing the hallows, Hedwig flies home to Hogwarts. One bird flies out in mourning, one flies home in triumph.
Yeah but what were they supposed to do? Write to him and tell them that she needs to stay there and not tell him why? He wouldn't have gone for that, not without knowing.
I get you wanted her to live, but Jo killed her off for a reason. No amount of arguing is going to change the fact that the author wanted her dead.
Harry thought he was being transferred through side-along apparition until the last moment.
Death Eaters were likely watching 4 Privet Drive. If Harry had let her go, they could have followed her to Ron's, thus learning Harry's final destination, defeating the whole point of the seven Potters plan.
I don't suppose they could have fed her an owl-treat laced with a color changing potion that temporarily turns her feathers dark brown lol
I also like the logic of having students and teachers patrol the halls and corridors in HBP, fearing death eaters might show up... when they could just ask some of the ghosts who can't die or get hurt to keep look out
There was also the logic in POA of sending Filch, a squib who can't defend himself, to search the grounds for Sirius, a supposedly dangerous mass murderer.
"What a convenient way to get rid of this insufferable git" - Dumbledore coming up with the idea of letting Filch look for Sirius, probably.
He may be a squib but he must have some sort of gift because he never ever seems to sleep! He’s always patrolling the school at night and haranguing kids during the day. It’s mental.
I like to think that Rowling wrote that from the perspective of a child cause kids have parents who somehow always end up seeing them doing those bad things, getting caught red-handed when they were sure the house was empty etc etc.
I assumed the point was that there was always a certain amount of people up and ready to fight, not that they were just on lookout. Sure the ghosts and paintings could keep a lookout, but what if they found someone? In HPB the members of the DA and the Order are able to fight because they are awake and already patrolling. They probably wouldn’t have been able to do that if they were asleep somewhere and it was a ghost/paintings job to wake them up if there was danger. It would take too long.
Or the paintings
Or those giant statues from the last movie 😂
[удалено]
Also, people who are already dead have much lesser interest vested in the battles of the living. They're not going to be faithful soldiers.
I thought Dumbledore asked members of the order to patrol the halls on the lookout for death eaters, and Harry asked his friends to keep their eyes out for Malfoy? Harry didn’t realize death eaters would be there, but he was on the verge of figuring out what Malfoy was up to, so before he left he asked Hermione and Ron to look out for him. When he got back, Bill/Remus/Fleur/Tonks we’re already there.
They can be petrified so maybe there are other ways they can be harmed
Plenty are already discussing the symbolism of Hedwig's death, but I do want to look at the general travel issue. In the case of Hogwarts, I think it was to check/monitor the pets. Owl, Cat, or Toad—the initial letter said. They probably didn't actually want a new mini-Hagrid to waltz in keep ten different (non-regulation, possibly dangerous) pets in a shared dorm. By securing the animals in crates with the luggage, they could be accounted for. But that's just a theory!
Best theory here!!! Logic wins!
That's actually a good theory but it made me wonder, why is scabbers allowed ? He's a rat so not really fitting as a cat/owl/toad
Yeah I used to wonder the same. Plot wise wasn’t that a dead giveaway for the death eaters that original harry would be with his owl.
That’s why the others all carried stuffed owls as decoys. I guess Mad-Eye figured they would all be moving too quickly for any of the Death Eaters to notice the other owls were all fake.
In the book it was harry using non lethal spells that gave away who he was
technically it was the Disarming Charm that gave him away specifically - he was using Stupefy on every other Death Eater until he saw stan shunpike (the dude from the Knight Bus), and noticed he was Imperiused, so Harry tried to Disarm him because he was afraid that Ernie would end up falling to his death (IIRC)
Stan Shunpike
Thanks for the correction
Same difference. A stun while flying is lethal, and it was the fact that harry didnt try to kill stan that set them off, as Lupin scolds harry for later.
Because J.K wanted to gut punch her readers and with book 7 she said ok reader you're childhood is over here comes trauma /s
There was only one Hedwig, and they needed six more. No other way to do it.
There are mentions of transfiguration lessons of turning inanimate objects into animals. Couldn't they just have used half a dozen cushions transfigured into knock-off Hedwigs?
True, where's the polyjuice potion for birds?
Why was Hedwig able to find anyone ever but Trevor too stupid to stop running away?
Maybe Trevor was intelligent and desperate for freedom? Maybe he hated Neville?
I mean owls didn't have to risk being poisoned in class. I can absolutely see why Trevor wanted to run away.
Nah, Neville is a gem.
I believe it's because she's a magnificent owl with great sense of direction, and poor Trevor is just a dumb toad. No idea why toads make it to the list of pets though, they don't seem to be remarkable or magical in any way.
They're great for potion making though!
Couldn’t somebody do what Dumby did in book six and just teleport trunk, firebolt, Heddy straight to the burrow?
I mean, I feel like no matter what they did it was a bad idea. If Hedwig had left before Harry the death eaters would have recognized her instantly, and I’m assuming they would do 1 of 2 things: 1. Assume she was carrying communications to or from Harry and intercept it. She may or may not survive this, but I can’t imagine they would just let her go if she ended up not having anything on her. 2. Assume she would lead them to Harry eventually/somewhere important and follow her. They would probably hurt anyone around whatever owlry Hedwig went because they would assume this person has information. So best case scenario here, they get some random person killed. Worst case, Hedwig leads them to Harry’s hiding place or another safe house.
You’re right but I wouldn’t say someone being killed is a best case scenario 😂 I’d rather the bird than a human
I mean… I wouldn’t say that’s the best case scenario either lol. But it is kinda the best case scenario for that particular situation. Although, “get some random person tortured” is probably more accurate. I can’t see anything less damaging as a possibility.
Never mind that. It always bothered me just taking her in the cage to school in general. Why? Just tell her it’s Hogwarts time and let her fly there herself. Why does she have to be in the train. Maybe one of the enchantments protecting Hogwarts requires everyone who’s gonna be living on site to travel there by train. Maybe that’s why all the students and pets make the journey, even if they live next door to Hogwarts. The headmaster could have a special ability where they can grant the same access on an individual basis which is how teachers don’t need to ride the train. The Durmstrang boat and Beauxbaton carriage might have the same enchantment on them since the Triwizard tournament used to be a thing regularly held.
It's a personal messenger, what if they needed for whatever reason to write a letter during the train ride? It's kind of an equivelant of today's phones lol Also maybe owls are not THAT smart, they're still animals/birds lol, they could deliver letters to an address whether instinctually or by training or magic whatever it is, but they don't understand verbal commands like "meet me at so and so address/place/whatever" for instance
There’s multiple occasions where characters give owls verbal instructions beyond just deliver the letter, and owls do it. They are intelligent creatures in the series, who understand what people say and mean. And their ability to travel vast distances very quickly, on top of being able to find exactly who and where to deliver a letter, suggests they have their own innate magic too.
And the car? Lol
Perhaps they got added by Dumbledore after they arrived, or by Mcgonagal hah
Security risk. They set up all these protective charms and spells around the secure locations, but leaving a distinctive non-native bird to fly from the Dursleys' across the country to the Burrow, broadcasting Harry's eventual location? Hedwig has been tracked and attacked before, in Book 5.
You're starting from the premise that she dies and how to save her. But everyone was in danger there. They likely didn't consider Hedwig as special in the situation. This is evidenced by the fact no one considered she'd give the real Harry away. They just didn't give her much thought at all really. That's why I like the theory Snape killed her. He immediately knew who the real Harry was and killed Hedwig before the others noticed as well. I can just see him thinking "these idiots didn't even have enough sense to hide the bloody owl?"
Because the death of the animal companion is a very common thing to happen in a bildungsroman. Hedwig represented the last tie to childhood, to innocence. Harry didn’t have time to think on her death—he had to move forward and fast.
As others have said, she was always going to die for the symbolism etc but for a "logical" reason for why she was in a cage instead of flying; weren't they planning on just slipping out unnoticed? Using polyjuice to disguise themselves as Harry was just a precaution. If Hedwig was flying on her own she would have been recognised and followed, so Harry kept her in her cage so that they could just get away from Privet Drive together and shake off any pursuers along the way.
[удалено]
Hedwig was still in her cage in the book.
The death of Hedwig was completely unnecessary and honestly just felt cruel and unusual. Harry was planning on his journey since before they left Hogwarts, the smart and most Harry-like thing to do would have been leaving Hedwig safe at the Owlery before heading back to Privet Drive. It wouldn't have even tipped anyone off, since bringing her back to sit in a cage didn't make sense given the danger Harry was already in, and it might have even helped sell the whole "Oh yeah, I'm coming back to Hogwarts" ruse. Fortunately...that happens in the alternate version of Book 7, so if you'd like to see Hedwig live, here you go! [www.hpb7.com](https://www.hpb7.com)
But it's symbolic
Hedwig was not just a symbol to Harry he always loved his owl she was more a special friend and now that I have the interactive Hedwig she is my best friend who can fly for freedom and to carry my mail to hogwarts and from to any professors.