Cue No. 21

Harry stands in front of the destroyed house that once was his home. Melancholy celesta accompanied by choir gives the moment a distant yet tender feeling. A quick flash to James and Lily's murder brings a sudden reprise of the orchestral jolt from the day Hagrid told Harry about that night. It ends almost as quickly as it begins, with the celesta playing the same dissolve heard in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (2001). 

Quiet, low, dark chords and little movement continue the cue. Bathilda Bagshot leads Harry and Hermione to her home. Very little happens harmonically until Harry sees a photo of the young man from his visions of Voldemort. Though his identity is still unknown, the Deathly Hallows Theme plays. Harry has no answer still. 

Bathilda leads Harry upstairs. Held notes in the strings bring tension, and claves quietly contribute an uneven heartbeat to the strangeness of the scene. Downstairs, Hermione finds a copy of the new Dumbledore book by Rita Skeeter. A very discreet rising statement of her theme is heard in the pizzicato cellos and basses. High strings and more claves raise the tension, and upstairs, the mid-strings shiver a separate uneven heartbeat within the orchestra. 

Bathilda looks at the locket, and the 3-Note Motif plays. To the surprise of the audience, she speaks to Harry in Parseltongue, something Harry does not recognize in the moment. Four dark chords ebb and flow until they hold on Bathilda beginning to twitch behind Harry. Dissonance builds, muted horns and percussion come in, and Harry turns around to find in horror that Voldemort's snake Nagini is emerging from the animated corpse of Bathilda Bagshot. 

Brass and percussion enter loudly alongside twisting strings and aleatoric winds. The action music in this scene is less tightly choreographed than previous sequences in the film, maintaining the dread that precedes it. The tempo is much faster and there are flourishes coming from the winds, but a relentless rhythm is unmoved through the entire sequence until Hermione finally enters and shoots a spell at Nagini. 

The music holds. There is a quick shiver when Hermione grabs Harry's wand from the middle of the floor. Everything decrescendos to silence. Suddenly, Nagini leaps out from the staircase, the music comes to a violent conclusion, and Harry and Hermione apparate after jumping out the window.