Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

Chapter Thirty-Five:
King's Cross

"Of course it is happening inside your head, Harry, but why on earth should that mean that it is not real?"

Notes by Michele L. Worley
Page editor Belinda Hobbs

U.S. hardcover edition: pages 705 - 723
U.K. hardcover edition: pages 565 - 579
Timeframe: ?+1 May, 1998

In which Harry awakens in what seems to him to be King's Cross station, where he encounters a fragment of Voldemort's soul, now powerless, and Albus Dumbledore, who explains what has just happened. Harry has the choice between going on or going back, and chooses to go back.

Interesting facts and notes about the text of this chapter:

'King's Cross station!'

According to JKR, this happened "[f]or many reasons. The name works rather well, and it has been established in the books as the gateway between two worlds, and Harry would associate it with moving on between two worlds (don't forget that it is Harry's image we see, not necessarily what is really there)" (BLC).

At last he knew what Dumbledore would have seen when he looked in the Mirror of Erised, and why Dumbledore had been so understanding of the fascination it had exercised over Harry.

Because Dumbledore saw what Harry saw - that is, "his family alive, whole, and happy" (BLC).

Characters introduced in this chapter:

• none

Characters returning in this chapter:

• Dumbledore, Albus

• Potter, Harry

• Riddle, Tom

Characters mentioned in this chapter:

• Dumbledore, Aberforth

• Dumbledore, Ariana (as Albus' sister)

• Dumbledore, Kendra (as Albus' mother)

• Dumbledore, Percival (as Albus' father)

• Fudge, Cornelius

• Gaunt family

• Granger, Hermione

• Grindelwald, Gellert

• Malfoy, Lucius

• Ollivander

• Peverell, Ignotus

• Potter, James

• Potter, Lily

• Scrimgeour, Rufus

• Snape, Severus

Settings and locations introduced or returning in this chapter:

• King's Cross station

Settings and locations mentioned in this chapter:

• Azkaban

• Godric's Hollow

• Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry

  • Great Hall

  • Room of Requirement

• Little Hangleton

  • churchyard

  • Gaunt house

• Nurmengard

Exceptional character moments:

• What Albus Dumbledore would have seen in the Mirror of Erised.

Spells:

• Avada Kedavra (as the Killing Curse)

• blood protection

• curses

Links and Resources:

• Bestiary

  • house-elves

  • Inferi

• items and devices

  • Deathly Hallows

  • Horcruxes

  • Mirror of Erised

  • wands

• Ministry of Magic

Memorable lines:

• "...the true master does not seek to run away from Death. He accepts that he must die, and understands that there are far, far worse things in the living world than dying."

• "Of course it is happening inside your head, Harry, but why on earth should that mean that it is not real?"

Strictly British:

• twiddled

• village

Timelines/Calendar:

In the small hours of the morning, later in the same day than the preceding chapter and immediately following it.