Chapters 241–250, Epilogue
Sin
Psalm 51: 1-3 in the Vulgata Clementina reads:
“(1) Miserere mei, Deus, secundum magnam misericordiam tuam ; et secundum multitudinem miserationum tuarum, dele iniquitatem meam. (2) Amplius lava me ab iniquitate mea, et a peccato meo munda me. (3) Quoniam iniquitatem meam ego cognosco, et peccatum meum contra me est semper.”
The English translation, King James version of Psalm 51: 1-3 is:
“(1) Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness: according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions. (2) Wash me throughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. (3) For I acknowledge my transgressions: and my sin is ever before me.”
The Hour that Sleeps the Swan
The title of this chapter refers to a quote from the song “A Pillow of Winds” by Pink Floyd:
“Now wakes the hour that sleeps the swan
Behold a dream, the dream is gone”
“Nihel” means “champion” and “Servais” is derived from the Latin word “servare” – “to save”.
The Beginning of Peace
The title of the chapter refers to a quote by George Bernard Shaw: “It is a curious sensation: the sort of pain that goes mercifully beyond our powers of feeling. When your heart is broken, your boats are burned: nothing matters any more. It is the end of happiness and the beginning of peace.”
Summer Sadness, Summer Joy
Since “Apprentice” is very much AU, names and birthdates of the children of Harry & co do not necessarily match canon or JKR’s interviews.
A Dream Within a Dream
The title of this chapter refers to a quote from Edgar Allan Poe: “All that we see or seem, is but a dream within a dream.”
Although not even the Trappistines take a formal vow of silence, there are a few monasteries left where communication in daily life is conducted with sign language, while the spoken word is reserved for prayer, lecture, and the singing of hymns. And there is a monastery somewhere in Italy where the strict observance of silence was lifted for the internet.
The river and the swans already appeared in chapters 137 and 146.
The scene, as it is written in this chapter, contains textual allusions to the following poems:
Naming The Stars
by Joyce Sutphen
This present tragedy will eventually
turn into myth, and in the mist
of that later telling the bell tolling
now will be a symbol, or, at least,
a sign of something long since lost.
This will be another one of those
loose changes, the rearrangement of
hearts, just parts of old lives
patched together, gathered into
a dim constellation, small consolation.
Look, we will say, you can almost see
the outline there: her fingertips
touching his, the faint fusion
of two bodies breaking into light.
Stars, Songs, Faces
by Carl Sandburg
GATHER the stars if you wish it so.
Gather the songs and keep them.
Gather the faces of women.
Gather for keeping years and years.
And then …
Loosen your hands, let go and say good-by.
Let the stars and songs go.
Let the faces and years go.
Loosen your hands and say good-by.
“Vitae Summa Brevis Spem Nos Vetat Incohare Longam”
(The brief sum of life forbids us the hope of enduring long – Horace)
by Ernest Dowson
They are not long, the weeping and the laughter,
Love and desire and hate;
I think they have no portion in us after
We pass the gate.
They are not long, the days of wine and roses;
Out of a misty dream
Our path emerges for a while, then closes
Within a dream.
The Heart of the Labyrinth
This final chapter brings us (nearly) full circle back to Severus’ and Hermione’s honeymoon in Chartres in chapter 74, where they walked the labyrinth, too.
Hermione’s last words allude to the short passage by Orson Welles quote from his last movie “F for Fake” that Severus quoted to Hermione in Chartres: “A fact of life … we’re going to die. ‘Be of good heart,’ cry the dead artists out of the living past. Our songs will all be silenced—but what of it? Go on singing.”