PoA Chapter Ten

[sistermagpie.livejournal.com]

Ginny brings Harry a get-well card that sounds far too adorable to have been made by the chick who shows up two books from now as Harry's ideal girl.

Harry now remembers the Grim as accompanying near-fatal accidents. If you’re as confused as me about the first one, Harry now remembers himself being almost run over by the Knight Bus as a near-death experience. There is a lot of examples in the book of how people make this prophecy stuff work, I will say that. Which is weird given it turns out this entire series turns on a bunch of people following a prophecy.

Malfoy’s now doing imitations of Harry falling off his broom until Ron throws a crocodile heart at his face. Okay, that makes me laugh. (The crocodile heart.)

Hmmm. Ginny will be doing imitations of Harry falling off his broom in HBP. She’s definitely studying Malfoy for tips on how to get Harry’s attention. (Note that Ginny will do her imitations after yelling at Dean for laughing at Harry’s fall to begin with.)

When Lupin returns, the class erupts in complaints about Snape having the gall to give homework as a substitute. The really are being ridiculous about this here. They might as well complain that Snape had the gall to teach instead of entertain them making balloon animals all period.

Remus naturally dismisses the assignment he gave. If they doubted that he was one of them.

Seeing the Hinkeypunk, a little wispy creature in a box that squeaks, I can see why the kids were disappointed in having to study werewolves.

Why exactly is Dumbledore so mad about the Dementors on the Quidditch field? I know he’s trying to keep Harry safe so he can kill him in his own time, but it’s not like Harry doesn’t risk a fatal fall every time he plays Quidditch. Maybe he should yell at those guys whose job it is to bash iron balls at his head while he’s 50 feet in the air.

Btw, the Dementors were at the Quidditch field at the same time Sirius was and thus were kind of doing their job.

In case it wasn’t clear already, Lupin assures Harry that the Dementors affect him more than anyone else because he’s had all these horrors in his past. Horrors he’s far too young to remember, actually. I have to say that what happened to Neville’s parents was worse. In fact, if one were making a case for Harry having faced a lot of horror, I'd say it was at the Dursleys.

People recently claimed that we didn’t know how old the characters were when the movies were cast, but this chapter keeps stressing how young Lupin is. Though I don’t know how Harry manages to figure out he’s young despite the grey hair and lines.

Lupin says most prisoners at Azkaban go mad within weeks. A shame that after this book people will come bopping out of the place no worse for wear all the time. Sure Bellatrix is a nut but she appears to have been that way before Azkaban as well.

Lupin says Sirius must have found a way to fight the Dementors. I wonder if he’s considering that Sirius might be innocent?

Hermione’s looking forward to shopping for her parents’ Christmas gifts at Hogsmeade. Not that she’s going home to see them for Christmas. And the thing is, I would never see this as being a bad thing (of course we want her at school) except that it actually does culminate in Hermione mind wiping them both.

Btw, I saw a still from DH where Hermione's in her Muggle room. It makes me nervous they might actually include the mindwipe.

Harry’s been riding a school broom since he lost his. It’s slow and jerky. It’s kind of strange to me the way Quidditch really is a game about equipment, and JKR both gives Harry the best of it and frowns on the Slytherins for their own brooms.

I mean, if Harry's having this much trouble on a school broom shouldn't he feel a bit silly about beating all those other kids who are forced to ride it? It's hardly fair.

Fred and George give Harry the Marauders map since they "know it by heart." Um, guys? It changes every time you look at it. The people in it move.

Don’t suppose they thought to use it to look for Sirius Black at all.

Harry briefly considers whether he should use a map since he can’t tell where it keeps its brain, he naturally decides to use it. I’m proud of Harry for considering it for a second, though.

Once in Honeydukes, Harry thinks about Dudley’s piggy face if he could see where he was. I’m going to give Dudley the benefit of the doubt and say he prefers candy that doesn’t sound like it was all designed to cause internal injury or nausea.

Ron mistakenly thinks Harry’s learned to Apparate. You can’t Apparate from Hogwarts, Ron!

I do kind of love the fact that if Sirius really was trying to kill Harry he probably would have been in that passage since he does know about it. Harry's using a map Sirius himself made to find it, innocently thinking that means Sirius could never ever know about it.

Ron points out that Harry is safe in Hogsmeade because there’s all these other people around, even though Sirius’ big crime was killing a whole bunch of people on the street in broad daylight to get to one person.

Hermione then brings up the far bigger reason Harry shouldn’t be in Hogsmeade. He hasn’t got a signed form!

Typically, Harry has come to Hogsmeade without a coat.

Rosmerta is a "curvy sort of woman" with a pretty face. Ron, at least, probably isn’t looking at her face.

The hardest thing to believe in this chapter is that any of these relatively normal people would want to go for a drink with Hagrid.

Finally people have a discussion about Sirius that includes that they’ve all known him since he was 11. Oddly, no one brings up that his whole family are Slytherin dark wizards and that his younger brother was also a DE.

Luckily, Madam Rosemerta doesn’t know how a Fidelius charm works. Don’t hold it against her. JKR isn’t quite clear how it works either. It changes in every book.

Dumbledore was still worried when Sirius offered to be Secret Keeper, because you know how angry Dumbledore gets when he’s not the keeper of every single secret ever told.

It still annoys me that Hagrid took Harry since he had orders for Dumbledore even though Sirius was apparently Harry’s legal guardian.

McGonagall now feels a little bad about being impatient with Peter. Not so bad she won’t be just as bad to Neville.

Btw, Peter was fat. Which I’m sure has nothing to do with his moral character. But everything to do with his lack of talent.

Fudge worries about Voldemort with his most trusted servant and shudders to think of it. You’re right to shudder, Fudge. Voldemort + Peter + Barty = a villain the entire British WW will have to work hard to keep in power.

Things that happen twice
Harry deals with a second object that can interact with people--and he (or JKR) actually remembers the warnings he gave about it.
I think we’ve got a competitor in the race for "most convenient eavesdropping moment" here, but DH is still in the lead.
Harry gets a second singing card from Ginny, which is presumably validation that the first one was from her too, if that wasn’t already obvious. This is the way Ginny I showed affection.
Apparently the Whomping Willow also gravely injured people. Clearly the same mind that decided to plant that on school grounds hired Hagrid and vouched for him having no responsibility whatsoever for the time that animal went after a student.


It’s a gun. No it isn’t! It’s Chekov! No it isn’t!

It's the Grim!
Status: Fired. Nicely woven back in here!




Jabootu Score: 0

Shocking, I know, but it’s mostly because nothing really happens, but Harry gets two really important things so you have to appreciate that.

Comments

[elanor-x.livejournal.com]

Harry briefly considers whether he should use a map since he can’t tell where it keeps its brain, he naturally decides to use it. I’m proud of Harry for considering it for a second, though.
My first thought was he had slight misgivings due to knowing a mad murderer was after him, so the cause of his considerations was disappointing and strange. Lupin has great lines in this book: "Your parents gave their lives to keep you alive, Harry. A poor way to repay them - gambling their sacrifice for a bag of magic tricks." But, is he wrong here too since Harry should be the kind of person to gamble to prepare for the ultimate sacrifice?

Ron points out that Harry is safe in Hogsmeade because there’s all these other people around, even though Sirius’ big crime was killing a whole bunch of people on the street in broad daylight to get to one person.
He says "He'd have a job spotting Harry in this", that Harry will disappear in the crowd.

I am sure Sirius's family hasn't been invented yet. Bellatrix will appear only in GoF. May be JKR made her Sirius's cousin while writing the forth book.

Luckily, Madam Rosemerta doesn’t know how a Fidelius charm works. Don’t hold it against her. JKR isn’t quite clear how it works either. It changes in every book.
I am now recapping "The Wandmaker", in which Bill casually mentions he and his father are Secret-Keepers at their hiding places. It's SO jarring as to seem unreal. How could both JKR and her editor miss it? The entire series is centered around that fateful night and Peter's betrayal. In DH JKR even gave us the scene of that night and dealt with Peter, how could she forget? It could only happen if she wasn't thinking of the logic and was in a hurry.

[sistermagpie.livejournal.com]

I wonder how much of Sirius's family JKR had worked out here. Even if she had the basics she'd want to hide it until OotP. Or else she may have had something very different in mind.

Oh god, yes. Bill and his father being Secret-Keepers. It's like...did no one tell the Potters of this possibility?

[madderbrad.livejournal.com]

Oh god, yes. Bill and his father being Secret-Keepers. It's like...did no one tell the Potters of this possibility?

It's one of the biggest flaws of DH that destroys the entire series.

Although I suppose one possible defence - a "but this is a way to get around it and save Jo!" theory by a Jo apologist - would be, maybe, that the notion that one could be one's own Secret Keeper was a relatively new development in spell craft, only discovered/determined after 1981?

[va32h.livejournal.com]

I hate fanwanking. If the freaking author cannot be bothered to expend any time or effort to make sense of her own freaking plot why should we?

That's probably the thing that keeps fueling my bitterness after nearly three years. That Rowling has such condescension and contempt for her readers that she didn't even feel the need to come up with something remotely plausible.

[jodel-from-aol.livejournal.com]

Given the international preponderance of sayings like "Three can keep a secret if 2 of them are dead." You would think that being your own Secret Keeper would be the *obvious* procedure.

I suppose James just had to make a grand gesture of loyalty and Lily mindlessly cheered him on...

[madderbrad.livejournal.com]

Hey there! You're the author of 'Do Over', right? Thanks for your reply to my review of your story back, gosh, almost two years ago now. I have great admiration for someone like you who can not only analyse Rowling's work and highlight the mistakes but also go one better and write a superior ending!

I hate fanwanking. If the freaking author cannot be bothered to expend any time or effort to make sense of her own freaking plot why should we?

Amen! It's so bloody frustrating when the Jo apologists go to such lengths - desperately inventing theories to try and hold up the canon - rather than concede that Rowling simply had no talent in writing the end game to her series. You've probably seen some of their hysterical attempts to explain away the biggest inconsistencies in the books. My favourite sheaf of theories are those which try to make all the crazy new wand lore consistent. Thinking wands! An Elder Wand that didn't know that Harry was its master when Voldemort 'killed' him in the forest ... but decided to switch allegiance when Harry made the simple claim that he was its new boss in the melodramatic showdown! A wand that selectively aimed its Killing curse at one soul fragment but not another! (Which I think is Rowling's own post-publication explanation to try and prop up her story). And so on.

That's probably the thing that keeps fueling my bitterness after nearly three years. That Rowling has such condescension and contempt for her readers that she didn't even feel the need to come up with something remotely plausible.

Yes. By the time of the last two books she really didn't have to worry about the commercial success of her work. The HP juggernaut was so huge she was able to insist on minimal editing - driven by the uber secrecy of the book plots - and her pride prevented her from seeking assistance.

I'm undecided, though, if Rowling fully comprehended the flaws of her work. The 'oh, maths!' mentality isn't suited to discerning the logical mistakes and errors that proliferate DH. And it's painfully evident that she never had a clear idea of how the series was going to end; so much was whipped up out of thin air, with no precedent or foreshadowing, in the last book. The Rowling who's on record as writing "something I would like to read myself" just wasn't *interested* in logic and such. She just didn't care about such things when she started the series, throwing in the bits and pieces of popular western culture that caught her fancy into the early books without consideration of how they might back her into a corner later down the track.

What drives ME crazy is how she's awarded such adulation (and commercial success) for a series that she was unable to finish properly. Many fans defend their overall worship o' Jo by focussing on the first 4-5 books. But if an artist or creator isn't going to be held accountable for turning out a properly finished work ... well, I know nothing about building bridges, but if no-one's going to care if the end product actually WORKS then I'll happily start building one, make it look all nice and pretty and fabulous at the start, accept all the praise for its cosmetic aesthetics and design. Just as long as no-one complains when the two sides of the bridge actually fail to meet up in the middle!

[jodel-from-aol.livejournal.com]

One thing Rowling did do was throw the fans an embarassment of material to work from to roll their own. A lot of the fanfics work so well *because* they left out the bits that didn't make sense for the purposes of the story they were telling. I'm not sure that after the 3-year summer Rowling ever managed to get a proper grip on just what story she *was* telling.

One of my own favorites (probably because I've done some beta work on it) is Arsinoe de Blassenville's do-over; "The Best Revenge" over on ff.net. After getting the worst of the bile out of her system with "The Golden Age" (which is pretty strictly canon), she has started over from the beginning of the series and redoing the whole story so it makes better sense (and the grownups act like grownups, mostly).

[lissa2.livejournal.com]

Is there no danger in "do overs" being sued for copyright infringement though?

[jodel-from-aol.livejournal.com]

Shouldn't think so. Maybe if someone thought they could *sell* one, or charge people to read it. But a do-over is just the same as any other sort of fanfic when you come right down to it.

And at that, I'm pretty sure if you filed the serial numbers off (i.e., took out all the specifically Potter references and names) and managed to sell it to a publisher, no one would be able to say anything worse than that it was derivitive. Even if it was widely *known* that it started out as a piece of fanfic.

People *have* done that, after all.

[madderbrad.livejournal.com]

Oh, 'The Golden Age' was brilliant ... even if it left me on the edge of my seat at the end.

You say 'The Best Revenge' is a happier story, huh? I'll have to read it some time, thanks for the referral!

[jodel-from-aol.livejournal.com]

It reminds us all of just what a splendid array of things we so *liked* about the start of this series.

She's finished the first adventure and is now just getting into the opening of the 2nd. I suspect this one may go slower, since she had the first one 2/3 written before she started posting, and was able to keep up a faster update schedule until the holidays and some health issues delayed her.

OT, but

[light-maiden.livejournal.com]

reading happily through the snark, I noticed madderbread saying that you'd written a do-over. This sounded like an excellent idea, and so I tracked it down and immersed myself very happily. It's already starting to make sense, and I can feel logic slipping happily into place around the myriad faults of book seven, and I am enjoying it greatly. There's only one problem - the link to chapters 10+ seems to be broken. Have you by any chance got another one, of could you even send me the file? I really want to keep reading!
Many thanks

Re: OT, but

[va32h.livejournal.com]

Sorry, it's all on fanfiction.net. Just search for my name or the fic title.

[oryx_leucoryx]

Lupin has great lines in this book: "Your parents gave their lives to keep you alive, Harry. A poor way to repay them - gambling their sacrifice for a bag of magic tricks."

And a poor way of being their surviving friend is to be around their son while transforming into wolf-form. (At the very least Remus should have remained in the Shack when the rest left for the castle.)

But, is he wrong here too since Harry should be the kind of person to gamble to prepare for the ultimate sacrifice?

But only at the right moment! (ie only when he is facing Voldemort, because otherwise how does 'either must die at the hand of the other' come true?)

Re: Fidelius Charm: One attempt at reconciliation I have seen is that the Potters didn't have the Fidelius on their home but on themselves - they were invisible and unthinkable to anyone that was not in the secret, as long as the secret held. This matches Filius' description. If so they had to have someone else as a Secret Keeper because if it had been one of them it would have been hard to share the secret. (Still possible via note, but notes are more risky than telling directly.)

[ioanna-ioannina.livejournal.com]

Re: Fidelius Charm...
But if so, then Voldemort could not ask Peter to tell him about them...

[oryx_leucoryx]

Voldemort told Peter he wanted the Potters long before the Charm was performed. Then Peter showed up and volunteered the Secret. Yes, if it works this way then all that Peter had to do was never to mention anything about the Potters in Voldemort's presence and he wouldn't have even known he was after them, but that's consistent with Peter going to Voldemort at the end of this book, rather than going to Australia and living there under a fake identity or living as a rat behind some restaurant or in the wild.

[jodel-from-aol.livejournal.com]

And how precisely did Peter telling Tom where the Potters werre manage to *break* the charm when the SK can tell everyone he pleases abut the secret and just bring them into the club?

[oryx_leucoryx]

I always had trouble with this part. Until DH my view was that the secret was on the house (and Flitwick's explanation wasn't accurate), and the destruction of the house was what ended the charm. But after DH nothing makes sense. Last time I asked the same question the response was that since this particular Fidelius was intended to protect the Potters from Voldemort the spell was designed to break if he came to learn the secret. But really Rowling shouldn't have made Bill the Secret Keeper of Shell Cottage. It's OK for Arthur to be Secret Keeper of Aunt Muriel's home, and he could have been the Secret Keeper of Shell Cottage as well.

[aasaylva.livejournal.com]

Rowling shouldn't have made Bill the Secret Keeper of Shell Cottage
Ah - but then what would have shown his newly wed status of pater familias? Fleur had her apron to show she'd become a proper woman and wife, after all.