Harry Potter and the deathly hallows (some activities)

1. Read the following fragment from the first chapter of the book and circle the option you consider is the right one.

The drawing room was/were full of silent people, sitting at/on/in a long and ornate table. The room's usual furniture/ usual furniture's room had been pushed carelessly up against the walls. Illumination came from a roaring fire beneath a handsome marble mantelpiece surmounted by a gilded mirror. Snape and Yaxley lingered for a moment on/at/in the threshold. As their eyes grew accustomed to the lack of light; they were drawn upward to the strangest feature of the scene: an apparently unconscious human figure hanging upside down over/on the table, revolving/revolveing slowly as if suspended by an invisible rope, and reflected in the mirror and in the bare, polished surface of the table below. None of the people seated underneath this singular sight was looking to/at it except for/by/from a pale young man siting/sitting almost directly below it. He seemed unable to prevent himself from glanceing/glancing upward every minute or so.

“Yaxley. Snape,” said a high, clear voice from the head of the table. “You are very nearly late.”

The speaker was seated directly in front of the fireplace, so that it was difficult, at first, for the new arrivals to make out more than his silhouette. As they drew nearer, however, his face shone through the gloom, hairless, snakelike, with slits for nostrils and gleaming red eyes whose pupils were/was vertical. He was so pale that he seemed to emit a pearly glow.

“Severus, here,” said Voldemort, indicating the seat on/in/at/to his immediate right. “Yaxley - beside Dolohov.”

The two men took their alloted places. Most of the eyes around the table followed Snape, and it was to him that Voldemort spoke first.

“So?”

“My Lord, the Order of the Phoenix intend/intends to move Harry Potter from his current place of safety on/at/in Saturday next, at nightfall.”

The interest around the table sharpened palpably: Some stiffened, others fidgeted, all gazing at Snape and Voldemort.

“Saturday... in/at/on nightfall,” repeated Voldemort. His red eyes fastened upon Snape's black ones with such intensity that some of the watchers looked away, apparently fearful that they themselves would be scorched by the ferocity of the gaze. Snape, however, looked calmly back into face's Voldemort/Voldemort's face and, after a moment or two, Voldemort's lipless mouth/ lipless mouth's Voldemort curved into something like a smile.

“Good. Very good. And this information comes/come -”

“ - from the source we discussed,” said Snape.

“My Lord.”

Yaxley had leaned forward to look down the long table at Voldemort and Snape. All faces turned to/at him.

“My Lord, I have heard differently.”

Yaxley waited, but Voldemort did not speak, so he went on, “Dawlish, the Auror, let slip that Potter will not be moved/will not is moved until the thirtieth, the night before the boy turns seventeen.”

Snape was smiling/was smileing.

“My source told me that there are plans to lay a false trail; this must be it. No doubt a Confundus Charm has been placed upon Dawlish. It would not be the first time; he is known to be susceptible.”

“I assure you, my Lord, Dawlish seemed quite certain,” said Yaxley.

“If he has been Confunded, naturally he is certain,” said Snape. “I assure you, Yaxley, the Auror office will play/will plays no further part in the protection of Harry Potter. The Order believes/believe that we have infiltrated the Ministry.”

“The Order's got/The Order've got one thing right, then, eh?” said a squat man sitting a short distance from Yaxley; he gave a wheezy giggle that was echoed here and there along the table.

Voldemort did not laugh. His gaze had wandered upward to the body revolving slowly overhead, and he seemed to be lost in thought.

“My Lord,” Yaxley went on, “Dawlish believes an entire party of Aurors will be used to transfer the boy-”

Voldemort held up a large white hand, and Yaxley subsided at once, watching resentfully as Voldemort turned back to Snape.

“Where they are going/are they going to hide the boy next?”

“At/In/On the home of one of the Order,” said Snape. “The place, according to the source, has been given every protection that the Order and Ministry together could provide. I think that there is little chance of taking him once he is there, my Lord, unless, of course, the Ministry has fallen before next Saturday, which might give us the opportunity to discover and undo enough of the enchantments to break through the rest.”

“Well, Yaxley?” Voldemort called down the table, the firelight glinting/glintting strangely in his red eyes. Will the Ministry have fallen/ the Ministry will have fallen by next Saturday?”

Once again, all heads turned. Yaxley squared his shoulders.

“My Lord, I have good news on that score. I have – with difficulty, and after a great effort – succeeded in placing an Imperius Curse upon Pius Thicknesse.”

Many of those sitting around Yaxley looked impressed; his neighbor Dolohov, a man with a long, twisted face, clapped him on the back.

“It is a start,” said Voldemort. But Thicknesse is only one man. Scrimgeor must be surrounded by/for our people before I act. One failed attempt on the Minister's life/ life's Minister will set me back a long way.”

“Yes – my Lord, that is true – but you know, as Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, Thicnesse have/has regular contact not only with the Minister himself, but also with the Heads of all the other Ministry departments. It will, I think, be easy now that we have such a high-ranking official under our control, to subjugate the other, and then they can all work together to bring Scrimgeour down.”

2. Put in a sequential order these paragraphs so as to continue the part of the story you have just read.

“He will not do either,” said Snape. “The Order is eschewing any form of transport that is controlled or regulated by the Ministry; they mistrust everything to do with the place.” ( )

Again, Voldemort looked up at the slowly revolving body as he went on, “I shall attend to the boy in person. There have been too many mistakes where Harry Potter is concerned. Some of them have been my own. That Potter lives is due more to my errors than to his triumphs.” ( ) 

“As long as our friend Thicknesse is not discovered before he has converted the rest,” said Voldemort. “At any rate, it remains unlikely that the Ministry will be mine before next Saturday. If we cannot touch the boy at his destination, then it must be done while he travels.” ( )

“All the better “, said Voldemort. “He will have to move in the open. Easier to take, by far.” ( )

“We are at an advantage there, my Lord,” said Yaxley, who seemed determined to receive some portion of approval. “We now have several people planted within the Department of Magical Transport. If Potter Apparates or uses the Floo Network, we shall know immediately.” ( )

3. Discuss in class the following questions based on the story.

A. Describe on your own words the drawing room where Voldemort and the Death Eaters

are gathered.

B. What news does Snape bring to Voldemort?

C. Whast does Yaxley's version differ from Snape's?

D. Why does Voldemort need the Ministry to have fallen before next Saturday?

E. What are Yaxley's plans to take over the Ministry?

F. What is Yaxley and Snape's attitude towards Voldemort?

G. What is Voldemort thinking to do to attack Harry?

H. Who are Dawlish and Pius Thicknesse? What is their relevance in the story?

4. Read the following definitions corresponding to some vocabulary found in the previous reading, and complete with the terms they go with.

It is a sort of shelf which goes over the fireplace   M _ _ T _ L _ _ _ C _

It is the way we called the whole of beds, tables, cupboards and chairs we have at home

   _ _ R_ _ T_ _ E

To stop for a while to observe or do something    L _ _ G _ R

We call an object that way when its surface is brilliant and smooth    P _ _ _ S_ E _

When we we do not let another person do something    _ _ _ V _ N _ F _ _ M

To understand or try to make sense of something   M _ K _ O_ _

Darkness   G _ _ O _

Living room in British English   _ _ A _ _ _ G R _ _ M

To have the intention to do something. To mean something    _ _ T _ N _

To stare at something or someone    G _ _ E

To continue or to keep doing something   G _ O_

To tell something you were supposed not to or you must not   _ E_ S _ _ P

Very. Completely   Q _ _ T _

To give something to someone. To supply someone with something    P _ _ V _ _ E

To strike the palms of the hands together. To strike slightly someone with the palm of the hand  C _ _ P

To make something or someone fall or disappear    _ R _ _ G D _ W _

To impede someone's plans or actions    S _ _ B _ C _

There is a low degree of probability for something to happen     U _ _ I _ E _ _

Valid at present. In progress    _ _ R _ _ NT