Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 1/Tear Jerker

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Tear Jerkers in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 1 include:

  • Hermione putting a memory charm on her parents to keep them safe. This was one of the saddest parts of the film adaptation, where Hermione magically edits herself out of the seventeen years' worth of family photos sitting on the Grangers' mantel after she erases her family's memories.
  • When Dobby dies. Also, when Harry goes to visit his parents' grave with Hermione.
    • Oh God, it's so much worse in the film. Originally, he just said "Harry...Potter...", but they gave him a few more lines while Harry was holding him. And how he weakly whispered that the Shell Cottage was a wonderful place to be with friends, which is basically his way of saying "I'm with the ones I love, so I'm OK with dying"... *SNIFF*
      • And don't miss that Harry kinda gives him a little cuddle. He's holding him in arms and he kind of bends his head down as if to hold him closer. Just kill me now.
    • The opening itself. Hermione wiping her parents' minds, watching her disappear from every photograph from every stage in her life is extremely sad. Special mention should also be given to the death of Hedwig, since the film version depicts it as being closer to a Heroic Sacrifice. The owl had a chance to fly away and be free (possibly tricking some viewers whom had read the book into thinking she'd be Spared by the Adaptation), but chose to remain by Harry's side and help him, only to be hit by the curse... suddenly go limp... and drop from the sky...
    • Perhaps it was the timing (right next to Hermione's scene), but seeing Harry go back into his closet for one final time as he prepares to leave it and his childhood home behind forever, was a bit hard to watch in the film. Especially if you have read the books and know that, for all the bad memories associated with it, it was the one place where he was completely safe from Voldemort's grasp to that point. The fact that, the last time the films visited that closet, Harry was an innocent, ten-year-old boy with no clue of his origins and is now a young man who has seen acquaintances, close friends, and mentors die in front of him several times and is now poised for a showdown with the cause of most, if not all, of his suffering, only starting with his parents dying, being shipped off to the Dursleys', and forced to sleep in the closet in the first place... GAH.
    • When Hermione is being tortured by Bellatrix. Doubles as Nightmare Fuel due to how the whole scene is set up to look like a rape.
      • And then you see that actually was carving the word "mudblood" into her arm with a knife. Holocaust parallel, anyone? And though that only happened in the movies, in the book Hermione said she was proud to be a "Mudblood." This troper put the two together together and bawled.
    • Fred first seeing his injured twin George.
  • A scene that made me absolutely lose it was when Harry gets Hermione to dance with him in the tent after Ron has left and things are looking pretty bleak. The abruptness of the scene really struck a cord; they start to dance, Harry goofs around a bit, Hermione starts to smile and, for a minute, everything seems like it's going to be okay.... and then she puts her head on his shoulder and they just stand there and you realize it's hopeless. Add to that the fact that they set the scene to the song "O Children" by Nick Cave (the first time they've used any bit of modern music in the films) and you've got yourself some pretty heavy material there. And while I'm pretty supportive of all the canon pairings, that was just such a sublime scene that encompassed all the fear and tension and complete tragedy of their situation only to contrast it with the fact that they're just teenagers and they don't know what to do. Gahh... it still makes me sad.
    • The song just made the whole thing that much more tragic. The song itself is about the loss of innocence and death, and really, that's what Part 1 was about for the most part.
    • This scene just came off as a them way to keep the Harmony ship afloat and actually pissed me off, and came off as a [Non Sequitur Scene]], since it's an OOC moment for them both. The moment in the books was much more powerful (to me), since Harry gave Hermione Ron's blankets, which contained her third Amourtentia scent, and essentially let Ron comfort her, because Harry could not, as he is not Ron. This scene just came off as trying to keep Harry/Hermione going as long as possible.
      • By the end of the scene though, it's clear that she still misses Ron. Harry made her forget for a little while, but when they were dancing closely together it seemed that she suddenly remembered Ron and wished she was holding him instead.
  • During Dobby's death scene, the part where Harry asks Hermione to help him gets this Troper every time. Hermione has always been able to help him in the past, and the look on his face when he realizes she can't is heart wrenching.
    • Even moreso the look on her face. She's never failed to find an answer before to help the team, and the one time that she can't, she has to watch an ally die right in front of her.
    • But Harry as well. Most of the people close to or associated with Harry had died in a quick although shocking manner (usually by way of Avada Kedavra) - or outside of Harry's presence (like Moody). But not this time; this is the first and (as far as the book canon goes) only time a friend of his literally bleeds out in his arms and his only option is to watch it happen - where he sees Death coming slowly but can do nothing to stop it.
  • As mentioned above, Hermione, at the beginning of the film. We see her in her room, being called down to tea. Then she enters the living room, and obliviates her parents. Her expression alone is enough to tear your heart out, and the slow fading of her from the photos... The more you think about what she'd need to do to make her parents not know they had a daughter, the more heart-wrenching it gets. And, yes, the more disturbing it gets.
  • In a deleted scene, Aunt Petunia shows that she may not have been as cold of a bitch as she let on.
    • Which is most likely what she was going to say at the end of the chapter in the book.
  • The scene after the trio escape from the Ministry. Ron gets splinched, nearly severing his arm. Harry is in some sort of shock while Hermione is in tears barking orders at him. Ron, on the other hand, is portraying the pain he is in in the most gut-wrenching way possible. Already knowing the outcome of said situation didn't help this troper from bursting into tears for the THIRD time already in the movie.