PoA Chapter Six

[sistermagpie.livejournal.com]

The first thing Harry notices the next day is that Draco Malfoy is doing impressions of him fainting to laughing crowds. I know this joke will soon get old and people will stop laughing? But I can’t believe they’re even laughing at it now. Either Draco Malfoy is a comic genius and we just don’t hear the routine that goes with the fainting, or wizards have been seriously warped without TV, literature or theater. What teenagers would find this funny?

I mean, as much as I hate to defend HBP!Ginny, her impression of Harry falling off his broom at least had a context to explain why it was funny. The joke was that Harry was bellowing at people when he got socked in the head with a metal ball that should have killed him. Nobody saw Harry faint and there was nothing funny going on at the time.

Pansy Parkinson has a face like a pug. And totally deserves it.

Harry consoles himself with the fact that the only time he and Malfoy faced each other at Quidditch, Malfoy definitely came off the worst. I’ll bet he feels even better when he remembers that the same is true for just about anybody stupid enough to play Quidditch with Harry.

How was McGonagall expecting Hermione to keep this secret about the Time Turner, btw? Even if she doesn’t really have any friends besides Harry and Ron, it’s not like she doesn’t make herself noticeable in class. Don’t tell me that not once during the year did two students not complain about her in conflicting classes to each other and figure it out.

My canon is now that the whole school except Harry and Ron knew that Hermione was using a Time Turner. Several of them even stole it a few times to do something fun.

Oh god, here comes Hagrid swinging a dead polecat. Because he only likes giant predators.

On their way to Divination they pass a painting that’s kind of a Don Quixote rip-off.

I don’t care what anyone says. I like the way Trelawney decorates her room.

The fog in the room makes Harry feel sleepy and stupid. Which might be the most self-aware Harry has ever been.

Harry predicts Ron might work for the MoM. He could be right. Maybe Ron’s just got 3 jobs instead of the 2 he gets in post-DH interviews.

Once again Hermione randomly decides that something is illogical while accepting that she can turn a frog into a teacup by waving a stick over it. And naturally she’s kind of right.

Or not. If Trelawney's seeing a big, black dog in Harry’s tealeaves, she’s right. And in HBP she was batting something like .397.

McGonagall then announces that Trelawney’s an idiot and Divination is worthless. Harry Potter: So awesome he makes useless subjects true!

Seriously, all Trelawney's true predictions center around Harry. Which I guess validates the centaurs views as well.

McGonagall also says Trelawney predicts a student’s death every year. Ron must be silently resenting why she had to pick Harry this year, stealing what he’d think was his one chance to be the center of interest.

I do like the implication that Hermione really does dislike Divination because she can’t be good at it, but since it really does seem to be a crock, I can’t like it that much. It seems to basically just be a class for poseurs who like putting on an act.

Ron and Hermione aren’t speaking to each other now. I'm sure the crazy hot make-up sex is the heart of their marriage.

Oh god, give me a second to gird my loins for Hagrid’s dumb class.

If you’re waiting for any parallel to be drawn between Draco’s attitude towards Hagrid and Hermione’s attitude towards Trelawney, stop. They’re exact opposites, because Hagrid’s a noble drunk and Trelawney’s a useless drunk. Or something. Also Hagrid’s a half-giant and Malfoy’s a jerk.

Yup, Malfoy’s a total jerk, even calling into question Hagrid’s being qualified to teach class.

Hagrid leads up the animals and introduces them by saying the first thing to know about ‘em is that they’re proud, so don’t insult one or it’s the last thing you’ll do. Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle are whispering in an undertone, the same way Harry and Hermione and Ron have done a dozen times before. Only it’s totally different to do it in this class, so what happens is totally their fault.

I have to go off on this here, because in the past I’ve gotten in tons of long, detailed lectures on how peoples’ riding instructors gave speeches on how dangerous horses were where they made sure everyone was paying attention, and made everyone show they knew the rules, and watched everyone carefully and if they did anything wrong they made them sit out for the day. Only it’s given as an explanation for how Malfoy is wrong here, as if that’s not exactly what Hagrid doesn’t do, and his whole schtick isn’t not getting how dangerous animals are so treating them as if they’re not.

Hagrid’s class isn’t really going over well, so Harry has to step in to back him up. I guess to repay Hagrid for all those times he almost got Harry killed or got Harry in trouble and felt no responsibility for it.

For all the stuff about hippogriffs being proud, apparently they’re okay with Hagrid dumping a kid on their back and slapping them on the ass. I guess since it’s Harry it’s a compliment.

Harry has a big ride full of wonder, proving that if you’re a Gryffindor all animals are glorified taxi services.

Now that Hagrid’s demonstrated proper behavior by treating the hippogriff really carelessly, he sends all the kids into the paddock en masse. What would he have done if they’d all had a chance to take off?

Luckily Malfoy calls Buckbeak a “big ugly brute” (much the way one would probably speak to a beloved pit bull) and the thing rips a big gash in his arm, probably heading off a greater catastrophe. Neville was inches from a meltdown with his own animal.

The Slytherins yell about Hagrid being sacked, proving they suck. These are the type of people who would complain about their kid being petrified in school instead of seeing it as character-building. Probably like child proof medicine caps as well.

The Gryffindors, with Malfoy’s blood still wet on the grass, say it was his fault. Okay yeah, obviously the thing was reacting to Malfoy insulting it like he wasn’t supposed to, but could their little black hearts be smaller or stingier? It’s not even like Malfoy gets sympathy until his dad calls for the animal to be put down (since nobody actually cares about the animal besides Hagrid anyway). They immediately blame the victim.

Harry’s had far worse injuries healed by the nurse. All Harry’s injuries are worse, really, because Slytherin injuries don’t count. You have to have a soul to feel.

“Trust Malfoy to mess things up for [Hagrid],” says Ron, which would be okay if that didn’t seem to be the official reading of the scene. To review: the dozen things Hagrid did to create an obviously crazy unsafe environment for 13-year-olds and wild animals are mistakes any new teacher would make. Malfoy’s mild snottiness and acting like a 13-year-old is unforgivable, indicative of his evil nature and deserving of severe punishment.

In fact, obviously he planned to be attacked to hurt Hagrid. Just like he’ll intentionally force Harry to attack in OotP. Buckbeak and Harry are the real victims here. Draco’s just a master of making people hurt him.

Back at dinner, Harry thinks the Slytherins are cooking up their own version of how Malfoy got injured. Which must be where the whole “Malfoy lied” story always comes up, but I don’t see why Malfoy has to lie (even if he’s malingering, the injury speaks for itself so they can check it).

Note we never exactly hear this “Slytherin version” yet there’s always this vague implication that it’s ruining everything for poor Hagrid. Even though the attack had a dozen witnesses, one of whom was Harry Potter, and pensieves exist.

Hagrid deals with the challenge by drinking—-all the more reason his teaching job should be protected apparently.

Why is it that weakness is so often treated with total contempt while Hagrid sits crying in his beer and blaming his troubles on other people and still sits in the center of the inner circle? I think it’s because Hagrid’s like a pet or a baby so has special license to be pathetic.

Naturally the Trio’s all ready to back Hagrid up. It’s Malfoy’s fault he wasn’t listening. Just like it was Ron’s fault for getting bitten by Hagrid’s dragon. And every student’s fault they didn’t know to stroke their books.

The only reason I can even read this annoying chapter again is that at least I know JKR wrote Hagrid as an unpopular teacher that even the Trio eventually admit is terrible.

Also, weird as it sounds, Malfoy spends the rest of his school career listening very carefully in CoMC. Which I’m sure is a sign of cowardice? But is actually one of the book’s only examples of someone learning something from a mistake!

To review, since obviously this scene bugs me, I don’t have a problem with Malfoy getting a lesson in what happens when you don’t listen in class, or when you dick around with wild animals. (Even if what he did couldn’t actually be considered dicking around in any real sense of the word.) But the way Hagrid immediately gets turned into this innocent victim we’re supposed to rally around so he never has to learn anything drives me nuts. And then people wonder why there are fans who think Slytherins might as well be jackasses since the only time the heroes aren’t happy to watch them die is when they see a chance to dramatically rescue them for their own egos.

Things happening twice:

Ron points out Hermione is scheduled for 3 classes at once. Later she and Harry will be in two places at once.
McGonagall mentions Animagi and turns into one, just like Sirius will. Also transformation turns Lupin into a wolf and Peter into a rat.
Ron has a Great Uncle Bilius and that turns out to be his middle name.
Draco’s attitude in Hagrid’s class, though condemned, is pretty parallel with Hermione’s at Divination.
Harry rides the hippogriff, because he’s going to have to do that again later.
Buckbeak’s slashing will be totally outdone by Harry’s own slashing of Malfoy in HBP.
Also in sixth year Draco will again wind up in a pool of his own blood due to a combination of his own behavior and a Gryffindor’s actions, and again the Slytherins will be seen as making Harry’s life hard by caring.
We meet Sir Cadogan here because he’s going to fill in for the Fat Lady later.
Harry barely listens in Transformation and Malfoy barely listens in CoMC, but everyone knows the first is normal and the second is idiotic because WILD ANIMALS!

It’s a gun. No it isn’t! It’s Chekov! No it isn’t!.
Trelawney’s prediction to Parvati
Beware a red-haired man!
Status: Dud. If only it had been Lavender!
McGonagall’s lesson
Status: 20 gun salute. Harry barely listens to McGonagall telling them that Animagi are wizards who can transform into animals, and barely watches her demonstration as she does it herself, because it’s going to be really important.




Designated Hero
We can tell they’re the good guys because they have no compassion for kids whose injuries either benefit, amuse, bore or cause problems for them and their friends while the compassion they show to innocents is lovingly highlighted.

IITS
How come Divination is arbitrarily the one kind of magic that doesn’t really work? It’s in the script.

"Watermelon, watermelon, cantaloupe, cantaloupe"
I’m sure there were a lot of angry watermelons and cantaloupes coming from the Slytherins in that last scene.

Jabootu Score: 3

Comments

[the-bitter-word.livejournal.com]

If you’re waiting for any parallel to be drawn between Draco’s attitude towards Hagrid and Hermione’s attitude towards Trelawney, stop. They’re exact opposites, because Hagrid’s a noble drunk and Trelawney’s a useless drunk. Or something. Also Hagrid’s a half-giant and Malfoy’s a jerk.

I've been reading the discussion about the parallels between Trelawney's and Hagrid's classes, and Hermione/Draco, but I haven't been sure how to jump in. I'm not sure that Hermione Granger is supposed to be correct that Divination is worthless. I think she is still supposed to be an annoying swot and a hypocrite at this point in the story. She is taking way too many classes and taking at least one she disapproves of no doubt out of hysterical fear that she will be found lacking in magical knowledge. She still hasn't had her "books and cleverness," total Gryffindor moment.

Meanwhile, Trelawney actually does have the Inner Eye, but she doesn't have it all the time and she isn't even aware of it when it takes over. All she knows is that Dumbledore hired her, so he must have seen something in her. She's trying to impart some of what she thinks Divination is, and with books and what-not, she's probably doing a good enough job. She might not think her subject is a con job, even though she uses the tools of con artist fortune-tellers and psychics. They are the same tools that anyone who believes in divination might use.

We thought that Dumbledore was keeping Trelawney around to protect her or keep her Inner Eye from Voldemort. But, like so many of the misfits he allegedly protects, he essentially dumps her in the squid-infested waters of Hogwarts and says, "You're on your own. Swim." With the other misfits, he also makes sure they know, "You owe it all to me, so when I come around to ask you for something, jump," at the same time he throws them to the wolf. Trelawney doesn't have that much value to him, and after DH, it appears he wasn't even protecting her, as hearing the Prophecy was no longer a plot point. Dishearteningly, we see Trelawney in DH chucking crystal balls at Death Eaters, the only use for them she's really able to master. She doesn't even use magic to fight. But by this time, she's heard other teachers put her down and Dumbledore fail to defend her (which is probably why she stays in the tower) and she's retreated to the bottle to cope, so she's probably just thrilled to be playing a part in DH.

As for Hagrid, making him a teacher was another instance of Dumbledore's lack of care for Hogwarts. Hagrid was loyal to Dumbledore, and that's what Dumbledore rewarded. It didn't matter if Hagrid was qualified to teach -- how many teachers were qualified? Their relationship with Dumbledore was all that mattered.

Making Hagrid a teacher was also a chance for Dumbledore to tweak people like Lucius Malfoy, who disapproved of the way Dumbledore ran the school. Draco probably parroted what he heard from his dad when he talked about Hagrid. Dumbledore's supposed championing of Muggleborns and oddities like werewolves and centaurs made him a sentimental favorite of readers, but when you step back and coolly evaluate Dumbledore's performance as Headmaster, Lucius Malfoy was essentially correct about how poorly Dumbledore ran the school. Malfoy just got the reasons wrong. And, stepping back, it is obvious that we were set up to believe that Draco was an obnoxious, spoiled, all-mouth no-action brat who got what he deserved, when he actually tried to be friendly to Potter, tried to please a demanding father, put effort into studying and achieving, put himself on the line a couple of times, and was generally mistreated more than served justice.

Wow, second part

[the-bitter-word.livejournal.com]

At one point, I liked the way JKR seemed to confound expectations. You'd think Divination was BS, because the Granger mouthpiece said so, but look again! there are actual prophesies that come true. You'd think Hagrid was a good-hearted, simple, lovable giant loyal to the good side, but look again! he's a sentimental drunk with little intelligence who compromises the good side repeatedly and endangers students. In DH, however, the switcheroo was such a disappointment in every way. You'd think Harry Potter was a competent, coming-of-age hero destined to struggle with himself in order to save the world, but... no, he just sits around in confusion and self-righteousness and then walks to his death, not even struggling much with that decision. You'd think the cataclysm in the Wizarding World would result in fundamental changes, or at least a recognition of the need to work through the "Slytherin problem," but... no, Potter was married with children, one of whom was headed for Gryffindor, and all was well.

[sistermagpie.livejournal.com]

I think you're definitely right that the worthlessness of Divination is at least in question. For me the thing that makes Hermione clearly right in this instance is that Harry and Ron make up stuff for class and get good marks, so the class at least is a joke. As a subject it might not be totally fake, but Hermione is the one person in the class showing a little realism when she points out a lot of the fakeness of the prophecies. For instance, that Lavender wasn't dreading the news of her bunny dying, and the bunny didn't die the same die as she got the news. I think it's kind of an extra joke that Trelawney is often right--and that Ron gets the line about Hermione not being able to be good in the class is pretty great because I think he's supposed to be right. But Hermione's right that the class seems to be pretty useless, because how else could Ron and Harry literally make stuff up homework?

But then, I should give props to the fact that it really is the same way with Hagrid's class and it's more interesting that it's not so black and white in either case. I mean, Draco and Hermione are both right, but that doesn't mean Trelawney and Hagrid aren't good with predictions and/or animals or that the subject or the classes are 100% stupid. Divination is kind of fascinating the way it's about being fake and deadly serious at the same time. Lots of real life things have that sort of grey area around them.

I think part of the genius of JKR's writing is that most of the ethical problems are totally realistic, like the way the Trio makes it a point of honor to defend things that they shouldn't just because "one of their own" is doing it. There's a lot of lovable foibles. Like with Hermione, her strict rationalism doesn't always make sense, even if the argument against it is usually kind of mushy and deus ex machina (like with Luna--she's obviously a character who's good and it's good that she believes things that have no proof, it's just not really clear why it's good except that a good person is doing it). So you've got copies of real life disagreements, they're just not argued well and it doesn't matter. Like here, Hermione's not necessarily right about Trelawney, but she has the back up of McGonagall and Dumbledore and never has to admit she's wrong. But otoh she's right about the uselessness of the class.

[montavilla.livejournal.com]

I agree with you about the whole general "wooliness" (to use Hermione's word) about Divination. And I think it's interesting. It reminds me that I had this idea to do an HBP POV from Parvati Patil in which her story is all about trying to deal with Divination as a subject and sort through the contradictions.

And it all really comes from that line about Parvati being disappointed that she's studying with Trelawney in sixth year, instead of Firenze. I know that in the book, that's supposed to a dig at horse-crazy girls, but I read into it this whole story of how fifth-year Divination woke Parvati up to a whole sense of prophecy as not being a joke where you can make stuff up and the more dramatic it is, the better your grade.

Instead, it's something Parvati does have a gift for, but lacked the right teacher. So, anyway, in the story she would go to Firenze and beg for extra study (like Harry with Lupin) and embark on a whole spiritual quest about how a human (as opposed to a Centaur) would go about developing that talent. And in the meantime, she would still have to attend Trelawney's class and try to shift through that for some small nuggets of guidance.

But it would a very Zen sort of quest, since if there's anything JKR is saying about Divination at all, it's that you can't do by trying to do it.

Hmm. Maybe if I ever spork HBP, I could put it into DVD extras. I would be fun to explore, but it's beyond my ken to write it as a complete story.

[ioanna-ioannina.livejournal.com]

Please, please, try to write it... it sounds excellent...

[oryx_leucoryx]

For me the thing that makes Hermione clearly right in this instance is that Harry and Ron make up stuff for class and get good marks, so the class at least is a joke.

But notice that some of their specific fake prophecies was actually true. See my first post for prophecies made in this chapter, but also see chapter 14 of GOF. Harry was in danger of burns - that Monday from the skrewts, and later on from the dragon. And he did get stabbed in the back by someone he thought was a friend - when Ron believed he cheated with the Goblet of Fire (as well as by 'Moody' when he put Harry's name in the Goblet). Ron indeed was in danger of drowning that year. OK the timing was wrong but there's a lot of foreshadowing of that year's plot in the predictions. So maybe Ron does have the inner eye but doesn't know it?

But otoh she's right about the uselessness of the class.

Yes, because one doesn't know what predictions mean until after the fact.

[ioanna-ioannina.livejournal.com]

I am playing with a thought that if a wizard makes a (real) prediction, it cannot be false. Or he sees something, or he does not. When he sees something, then it is there. The rest lays in understanding, and this is the biggest part of the work.

So when Ron makes up his "predictions" and uses his "inner eye" / subconscious, even without knowing it, the predictions are true.

Maybe it is stupid thought and it will not work... :-)

[oryx_leucoryx]

You know, Percy has an OWL in Divination. I doubt he'd be one to make predictions up, he would follow Trelawney's instructions all the way.

[lynn-waterfall.livejournal.com]

But Hermione's right that the class seems to be pretty useless, because how else could Ron and Harry literally make stuff up homework?

Well, they were making stuff up, but it isn't clear that making predictions all that those assignments involved. Here's Ron and Harry going through an assignment in GoF, making stuff up:

"Next Monday," he said as he scribbled, "I am likely to develop a cough, owing to the unlucky conjunction of Mars and Jupiter."

[...] Okay, Tuesday, I'll... erm..."

"Lose a treasured possession," said Harry, who was flicking through Unfogging the Future for ideas.

"Good one," said Ron, copying it down. "Because of... erm... Mercury. Why don't you get stabbed in the back by someone you thought was a friend?"

"Yeah... cool..." said Harry, scribbling it down, "because... Venus is in the twelfth house."

So, it looks like they have to explain the basis for their predictions, as well. Now, as long as they're making up the predictions, they aren't getting any practice in making them, but they could still be demonstrating a grasp of the principles involved.

Of course, if they're making *that* up, too -- either because the reasons don't support the predictions, or because the planets aren't in the positions they said -- then that's another problem . But as long as their reasoning is sound and they're demonstrating that they understand the subject, partial credit would be appropriate.

Whether that understanding is useful is another matter. Still, it could help you evaluate someone else's predictions for plausibility, even if you couldn't make your own.