Chapters 211–220
I Want to Make a Memory
The title of these chapters refers to the song “You want to make a memory” by Bon Jovi.
Good Ones
Part 2 of “I Want to Make a Memory”, extra-chapter.
Morituri Te Salutant
“Morituri te salutant” – those who are destined to die greet you; the gladiators in ancient Rome greeted the emperor with these words before they fought and died.
The Best Laid Plans of Mice and Men
“The best laid plans of mice and men (gang aft aglay)” is a quote from the Scottish poet Robert Burns.
At the Close
The title of this chapter is of course a reference to “Deathly Hallows” and the key to opening the Snitch – “I open at the close”. The way Severus talks Harry through the procedure is a reminiscence of Harry’s first Occlumency lesson in “The Order of the Phoenix”. Only without the anger and the hatred.
Avra Kehdabra
“Avra Kehdabra” or “Abracadabra” is Aramaic for “I create as I speak”. “Avada Kedavra” is said to have been fashioned after that ancient spell, using the Latin word for corpse “cadaver”.
The scenes in the Realm of Death in this chapter are a backwards depiction of Ursula K. LeGuin’s poem “The Creation of Éa” (basically a more poetic version of “Abracadabra”):
Only in silence the word,
only in dark the light,
only in dying life:
bright the hawk’s flight
on the empty sky.
A Time to Die
“A time to die” and the lines that Death quotes are from Ecclesiastes chapter 3, verse 1 and 2, King James version.
“Stairway to Heaven” refers to the song by Led Zeppelin.