PoA Chapter Eleven

[sistermagpie.livejournal.com]

Harry asks a question I’ve been asking for a while: why hasn’t anyone told him his parents died because their best friend betrayed him? I love it when I can identify with Harry.

Yes, Harry never asked. But you’d think that would be a big part of the story, especially once Sirius becomes front page news. We know why the people charged with being his handlers haven’t told him, but you’d think it would be gossip.

I guess the WW rumor mill is like the Hogwarts one. Very respectful of plot surprises!

The Trio don't talk about it during dinner because Percy is near them. I never noticed how much of a negative thing Percy is even in PoA. It's like the same thing that makes him so misguided and awful in the next three books is supposed to be clear now.

Meanwhile, Fred and George have set off dungbombs because they’re in high spirits. Fifteen years old.

I'm probably not supposed to be thinking now about that poor guy to whom they gave boils this year while he's stressed out about his OWLS.

Harry looks at his photo album and for the first time wonders about the best man. That is some impressive tunnel vision there, Harry. You never wondered that before, really?

A hatred such as Harry had never known is coursing through his veins. We will become very familiar with this feeling of Harry's in his future. It's his amazing power of love!

Peter resembles Neville in Harry’s imaginings, because he didn’t think to look for Peter in the album too, even though he obviously would have been there.

Come to think of it, there is a parallel there. Neville and Peter are both dismissed for being pudgy and uncool. Both are completely underestimated yet wind up being the most impressive people on their respective sides. And both continue to basically be dismissed as hangers on that make the cool people look good for being nice to them.

Harry starts to lecture Hermione and Ron about what they would do if their parents were killed by a guy...I might as well out myself here and say that if that were me I really don’t think I’d have any desire to strap on a gun and going looking for the guy myself. That’s why I’m a coward.

Ron tells Harry that Pettigrew’s mother only got a finger of him back. This is presumably to remind us about the missing finger but more importantly, did Ron just admit that he’s known more of the story than he’s ever told all along? Whoa!

Double whoa—Peter has a mother? I suppose she must have been killed off.

Just realized that Harry’s talking about Lucius giving Draco information on Sirius because he was in Voldemort’s inner circle when really it’s family history for Draco.

Hermione tearfully tells Harry his parents wouldn’t want him looking for Black. Harry says he’ll never know what they wanted because thanks to Black he’s never spoken to them. Excellent use of the orphan card there, Harry. Bravo.

Just then there’s a nice little moment of Crookshanks flexing his claws and Ron’s pocket quivering. That’s the good thing about rereads.

Ron suggests they visit Hagrid. WTF, Ron? Are you trying to make everything worse? Thanks a lot. I’d rather have Hermione read us whatever essay she’s writing.

I just realized that Herimone’s having her homework spread out over 3 tables is probably supposed to show that she’s got three timestreams worth of homework.

I’m sorry, who on earth decided that Hagrid had no responsibility for the attack in question? Of course he had responsibility. He’s the frigging teacher.

Oh wait, I see, it’s Dumbledore who told them he had no responsibility. Hagrid could have fed somebody to the hippogriff and he’d still have no responsibility as far as Dumbledore was concerned.

Sirius, not so much. If you’re going to go being more loyal to your friends than Dumbledore, what do you expect?

Dumbledore must really want Buckbeak executed so he’s pretending it’s out of his hands.

Yes, the animal's going to be "executed" to make it as clear as possible that we’re supposed to be seeing Buckbeak tried like a human for a crime. A crime for which he is innocent because the author cleverly made "I attacked him because I didn’t like his pointy ferret face when he insulted me" an animal instinct.

But Hagrid said Buckbeak wasn’t a bad hippogriff, Ron says. Yes, because Hagrid is a great judge of good and bad hippogriffs.

Btw, what does that even mean? Sorry, this whole thing just obsesses me. Usually in that context he'd be saying this was OOC for Buckbeak, but of course that's not true. He absolutely can be counted on to attack people if they say something insulting. But in this series it seems to just hook into the whole "good kid" vs. "bad kid" set up. When he attacks people he has a good reason and it's not a sign of a bad character.

Buckbeak, it turns out, has been lying in the corner all this time without anyone noticing. Okay. How big is this thing? Big enough to fly two people around.

Hagrid explains he couldn’t leave him tied up in the snow for Christmas, probably thinking that the Christmas part is what would really make the wild animal sad.

The Trio doesn’t see any particular harm in Buckbeak just because they saw him attack someone for calling it a "big, ugly brute" while petting it. Iow: He didn’t hurt any of us. What harm could it be? WTF is up with Lucius making an official complaint about him?

Hagrid announces the guys who decide these things are all in Lucius's pocket, as they always seem to be even though it never pans out for Lucius. Who does Lucius think he is favoring his stupid only child as much as Hagrid cares about one of his pets?

Hagrid really is supposed to be right of course. The only reason anyone would have for executing Buckbeak is that they’re DE-sympathizers or being bribed or caving to the first two groups.

Harry can’t bring himself to berate Hagrid about Sirius now that he sees how sad he is. Figures it would be at exactly the same moment I wish somebody would suggest Hagrid suck it up for once and not blame everything on the nearest kid handy.

Hagrid’s killed all the flobberworms. But this isn’t a tragedy, as they aren’t interesting. Nor have they performed any special liking for our heroes.

Wow, think about that. In his funk over somebody thinking of killing his one animal he wipes out a whole pack of other animals through irresponsibility and general neglect.

Hagrid moans about his days in Azkabanand mentions the day he had to let Norbert go as one of the saddest in his life. Yeah, remember that day when Hagrid was being stupid with animals and Harry and Hermione got detention for it? Hagrid’s just always the victim.

The narrator reminds us that Norbert was the baby dragon Hagrid won at cards. It fails to remind us that wasn’t it also in the game of cards where Hagrid blabbed about Fluffy? Or am I remembering that wrong?

Everybody starts helping Hagrid in his defense, because naturally Hagrid won’t be doing it himself.

Funny that nobody ever considers Hagrid’s defense to just be Hagrid taking responsibility for the whole thing, which you’d think would help, wouldn't it? The animal should be found innocent because his owner put him in a dangerous situation, gave shoddy safety instructions and wasn't watching carefully.

The kids don’t manage to find anything where a hippogriff got off in this sort of case, probably because people usually do put down animals that attack people. Damn. You’d think there would be some special book out there full of cases where animals savaged people everybody kind of wanted to savage themselves. I’m sure they’d find a precedent there.

Props to Sirius for being classy enough to give Harry his broom for Christmas instead of flying it in through the dining hall.

Not sure where Sirius got the money to buy this thing. Can he just walk into the bank and withdraw from his own account without anyone being suspicious? Did he do it in dog form?

Ron thinks Dumbledore sent it anonymously because if he openly spent hundreds of dollars on a student "some git like Malfoy" might "think" it was favoritism. I’m not ready to believe that JKR doesn’t mean that to be ironic, but the jokes about favoritism do kind of sit on the idea that favoritism towards our favorites is okay.

It’s great the way Ron has a whole list of people at the school he honestly believes would spend a ton of money on a broom far better than Harry needs just because poor Harry Potter broke the one he had and has plenty of money to buy another.

Look, Harry shouldn't have to ride a broom without mysterious sentimental value.

Ron happily announces Harry’s broom costs more than all the Slytherins' brooms put together. You remember, those brooms we were supposed to look at with disgust because they were vulgar display of wealth. Harry wins again!

Hermione keeps looking darkly at Harry’s broom as if it, too, had been criticizing her cat. LOL. Just had to write that because it’s funny.

I can’t imagine why Trelawney doesn’t usually come to meals when McGonagall spends the whole time making snarky remarks about her second sight.

::sigh:: Why doesn’t somebody do that to Hagrid?

A first year goes red at being addressed by Dumbledore—a rare treat for any student not a close personal friend of Harry’s.

Ha ha. Hermione’s right. The broom was indeed sent to Harry by Sirius Black.


Things that happen twice
Hagrid again depends on the Trio to help him out of his problems.
Harry gets yet another top of the line racing broom from an anonymous donor.
Baby’s first hatred greater than he’s ever known before coursing through his veins. Get used to that feeling, Harry.
Not the last joke about Harry being favored and it being cool sometimes.


It’s a gun. No it isn’t! It’s Chekov! No it isn’t!
Peter and Neville are totally connected! Neville will be a traitor.
Status: Put that gun away and apologize to Mr. Longbottom.

Three tables of homework
Status: Fired in three timestreams!

Know what Pettigrew’s Mother got back?
Status: Fired. She got back an important way to distinguish Scabbers as Peter Pettigrew.

Thirteen at a table! Ron will die! Harry will die!
Status: Well, Harry did dramatically go off to his suicide and Ron got poisoned. Basically the usual thing where it depends on the interpretation.

Malfoy knows...he says if it was his family…
Status: Fired, if with blanks. Malfoy kind of would do exactly what Harry did in a similar but not as righteously heroic situation. Only not heroically.




Designated Hero
Yeah, I feel really sorry for Hagrid here. Luckily the heroes have taken on the quest to make sure he suffers no consequences for what happened in his class at all.

Idiot World
Do I even want to know how one mounts a defense for a hippogriff? Wouldn’t you just watch Draco’s memory—or Hagrid’s memory—and decide that Draco deserved it?

Misdirected Answering
Harry might be distracted by Hagrid’s animal woes, but I’m not.

Spring-Loaded Cat
We’ll be seeing a lot of these.

The Stealth Monster Rule
Oh, there’s a giant hippogriff in the room and we just didn’t notice until it started loudly slurping up blood.

Jabootu Score: 5

Comments

[oryx_leucoryx]

Ron tells Harry that Pettigrew’s mother only got a finger of him back. This is presumably to remind us about the missing finger but more importantly, did Ron just admit that he’s known more of the story than he’s ever told all along? Whoa!

Indeed! Fudge made no mention of which fragment was sent to Mrs Pettigrew! (Did Scabbers talk in his sleep or something?)

Double whoa—Peter has a mother? I suppose she must have been killed off.

The father must have been gone by 1981 though. (I used to wonder if he was dead or a Muggle that he was not mentioned as recipient of the medal and body part.)

Just realized that Harry’s talking about Lucius giving Draco information on Sirius because he was in Voldemort’s inner circle when really it’s family history for Draco.

As far as Draco was told, Sirius was another relative that went too far, just like Aunt Bella.

Not sure where Sirius got the money to buy this thing. Can he just walk into the bank and withdraw from his own account without anyone being suspicious? Did he do it in dog form?

In the last chapter, in his letter to Harry Sirius says Crookshanks took the order to the Owl Office for him. IOW he did it by mail. Maybe the letter was charmed to confirm his identity or something.

Ron happily announces Harry’s broom costs more than all the Slytherins' brooms put together. You remember, those brooms we were supposed to look at with disgust because they were vulgar display of wealth. Harry wins again!

Argh! Not favoring Harry (whether by characters, author or readers) is so unfair!!

Thirteen at a table! Ron will die! Harry will die!
Status: Well, Harry did dramatically go off to his suicide and Ron got poisoned. Basically the usual thing where it depends on the interpretation.

If Scabbers was in Ron's pocket all the time then Trelawney was the 14th at the table, and Dumbledore was the first of 13 to rise when he summoned a seat for her. Of course he was the first of those 13 to die. So this looks like subtle brilliance. Except in OOTP there is another meal shared by 13 (Harry's first meal at 12GP), and while Sirius is the first to rise at the end of the meal, Molly gets up a bit earlier to bring dessert. Some fans spent a lot of time trying to reconcile the two instances in order to determine the validity of Trelawney's superstition. But again, this is a case when even if Divination is true it isn't helpful. Suppose you know Dumbledore was fated to be the first among those 13 to die, so what? All it tells you is that as long as Dumbledore is still alive so are the other 12. Er yes?

[aasaylva.livejournal.com]

Hermione tearfully tells Harry his parents wouldn’t want him looking for Black.
Course not. They'd want him to commit suicide by proxy! Come to think of it - IF Sirius had been the mad DE everybody thought he was and HAD killed Harry - would that have taken care of the Harrycrux?
As to the orphan card - Harry is lucky he's a Gryffindor. draco would have been such a wimp if he had done the same in his position.

Aah, the idea of executing an animal annoyed me even back then when I really liked the series as a whole. Either a being is self-aware and responsible or not. If it is, then how come the good guys treat Buckbeak like an animal who cannot be held responsable for his doings? If it isn't then how can it be tried? Treating the hippogriff like an animal (for the aawww factor) while at the same time calling it execution (for the oooh cruel justice system! factor) smacks of authorial manipulation to a rather sickening degree.

Hagrid explains he couldn’t leave him tied up in the snow for Christmas, probably thinking that the Christmas part is what would really make the wild animal sad.
Oh no. What he means is it would have made hagrid sad. That's what counts, after all.

Wow, think about that. In his funk over somebody thinking of killing his one animal he wipes out a whole pack of other animals through irresponsibility and general neglect.
See above. Hagrid reminds me of nothing so much as of people who keep animals under the most inopportune circumstances (e.g. big dogs who need lots of exercise in tiny flats)because they luuuurve them so much...

[lissa2.livejournal.com]

"Ron tells Harry that Pettigrew’s mother only got a finger of him back. This is presumably to remind us about the missing finger but more importantly, did Ron just admit that he’s known more of the story than he’s ever told all along? Whoa!"

Why Yes he did-"Listen, you know what Pettigrwe's mother got after Black finished with him? DAD TOLD ME..."
*Headesk* *headesk* *headesk*

"Just realized that Harry’s talking about Lucius giving Draco information on Sirius because he was in Voldemort’s inner circle when really it’s family history for Draco."
Well Harry had no way of knowing that, but how could Ron not know that?? oh right...we're in Potterverse.

[oryx_leucoryx]

So Arthur knew about the Sirius/Peter confrontation. Did Arthur know Sirius was Harry's godfather and that he personally (supposedly) betrayed the Potters? Because the general public apparently did not (at least Rosmerta didn't).

[sunnyskywalker]

You know, if it's so easy for an escaped convict to have a cat mail-order a broom, why didn't Oliver Wood tell Harry to order his own damn broom the minute Harry woke up after that match instead of mucking around with the school brooms? Since at this point Harry hasn't thought of being an Auror, professional Quidditch looks like his best career bet, so a new broom would be an investment in his future. Plus there's the fact that he has piles of gold and only uses enough to buy textbooks and a robe or two once a year. And he's gotten some of his schoolbooks free two years in a row, and actually doesn't seem to go robe shopping for about four years. So why not get himself a broom? (And how expensive is this broom, exactly? Is it like buying a nice racing bike or like buying a race car?)

Of course, then you have to ask why all the players aren't required to use the same school brooms, since standardized equipment is pretty common in real sports. Correct me if I'm wrong, but you can't eg use any bat you want in baseball, right? Otherwise we'd have a bat arms race.

I am not sure why discovering that the wizarding justice system has criminal trials for animals but not for all people doesn't bother the kids. Hermione at least still remembers enough of the Muggle world to recognize that there's something off about that. Maybe she's just too stressed to think clearly. Otherwise she'd set up a cot in a closet somewhere and use that time turner to get a few extra hours of sleep.

[oryx_leucoryx]

You know, if it's so easy for an escaped convict to have a cat mail-order a broom, why didn't Oliver Wood tell Harry to order his own damn broom the minute Harry woke up after that match instead of mucking around with the school brooms?

Supposedly because he and Harry can't make up their minds about which broom to buy. As if they didn't know the Firebolt was the best.

[madderbrad.livejournal.com]

So this looks like subtle brilliance.

Oh my goodness, were people really analysing things like that back then, when Rowling was implying that she had a brilliant master plan all ready to be unveiled? Wow.

*sobs for the colossal waste of brainpower expended by Potter fans across the planet*

Where did the '13 at the table' thing get mention by Trelawney anyway, please?

[madderbrad.livejournal.com]

Come to think of it - IF Sirius had been the mad DE everybody thought he was and HAD killed Harry - would that have taken care of the Harrycrux?

I'd say so. No 'shared blood magic' malarky to keep him rooted to our earthly plane.

But remember, in DH Dumbledore said that it was "essential to teach him, to raise him, to let him try his strength" ... even though it really wasn't, he was destined to be sacrificed all along. It was only 'essential' that Harry live to be 17 so Rowling could squeeze seven books out of his life.

Yes, if Harry had been killed now, it would have gotten rid of the Harrcrux ... he'd already destroyed the diarycrux ... and Harry didn't *directly* eliminate any of the other horcruxes.

[madderbrad.livejournal.com]

I guess the WW rumor mill is like the Hogwarts one. Very respectful of plot surprises!I

Oh boy, that's a neat way of putting it!

Harry looks at his photo album and for the first time wonders about the best man. That is some impressive tunnel vision there, Harry. You never wondered that before, really?

Ditto. "respectful of plot surprises". I'm going to remember that phrase, if you don't mind.

Ditto again for all of those books about himself that Harry never read, I guess.

We will become very familiar with this feeling of Harry's in his future. It's his amazing power of love!

THERE IS NO SUCH THING!!!

Or at least ... Harry shows no more 'love' than any of his other brave/noble/good peers.

Neville and Peter are both dismissed for being pudgy and uncool. Both are completely underestimated yet wind up being the most impressive people on their respective sides. And both continue to basically be dismissed as hangers on that make the cool people look good for being nice to them.

I thought there was grounds for thinking that Neville outshone Harry - put him a bit to shame, made him look tarnished as the supposed 'hero' - by the end of the seventh book even before I read fanfic stories like "Dumbledore's Army and the Year of Darkness".

Don't forget we have Luna, also, to make Ginny look good in the sixth book, otherwise known as "Ginny Weasley and the Year she was Made Over to be Awesomely Awesome". Wonderful comments like this:

oh, look, he's lost the Quaffle, Ginny took it from him, I do like her, she's very nice. ..

and

Ginny's been nice, though. She stopped two boys in our Transfiguration class calling me 'Loony' the other day

We *needed* Luna to remind us that the brutish Ginny was really awesomely cool and nice and a good character.

Hagrid’s killed all the flobberworms. But this isn’t a tragedy, as they aren’t interesting. Nor have they performed any special liking for our heroes.

Wow, think about that. In his funk over somebody thinking of killing his one animal he wipes out a whole pack of other animals through irresponsibility and general neglect.

Well, I'd say Flobbereworms are on the low scale of animal life, much less interesting and worthy than the noble Buckbeak. Seriously, I don't have a problem with that; a typical muggle worm isn't really sentient or self aware, is it? Not like a dog or a hippogriff.

Funny that nobody ever considers Hagrid’s defense to just be Hagrid taking responsibility for the whole thing, which you’d think would help, wouldn't it? The animal should be found innocent because his owner put him in a dangerous situation, gave shoddy safety instructions and wasn't watching carefully.

You're certainly firing on all cylinders with your critique of the whole Buckbeak thing; you must have put up at least a dozen points as to how the whole thing was artificial, contrived or otherwise didn't make sense. I am in awe. Why did it take HBP before I woke up to just how fake and phoney Rowling's plots were? *hangs head in shame*

I thought you had a good point with the above statement ... but then again, in our world, if a dog mauls a human, it will get put down regardless as to whether or not the owner is judged liable, won't it?

[horridporrid.livejournal.com]

There are times I think back to how I (badly!) misread these books, expecting lessons to be learned and Draco and Harry to become friends, or at least work together to bring down Voldemort. And I think, man was I stupid.

But then I look at this reread you're doing and I think, how could I have not thought that?!? Because it seems so obvious that the attacks on Draco are unfair, and often castigating him for behavior Harry turns around and does as well, and of course our hero would pick up on that. Right?

(Really, I just have no idea how JKR's mind works. None.)

It’s a gun. No it isn’t! It’s Chekov! No it isn’t!
Peter and Neville are totally connected! Neville will be a traitor.
Status: Put that gun away and apologize to Mr. Longbottom.

Oddest character connection ever. Seriously, why did JKR put that connection in there? I thought it was because we were supposed to pity Peter, but... I don't think we were.

[seductivedark.livejournal.com]

Seriously, why did JKR put that connection in there?

On a generous day I would say she was mirroring the two - they're alike but there is a substantial difference that makes one a Good Guy and one a Bad Guy - Good and Evil twins. Or, to think of it another way, Peter was Bizarro to Neville's Superman.

I wish it really had turned out that way. What a good way of showing that looks don't matter.

[horridporrid.livejournal.com]

*nods* I think the mirror may have been her intent. But boy did she do it badly! Other than looks (I guess? were Neville and Peter physically similar in book canon?) they're really nothing alike. Neville never seems to care a bit about fitting in with anyone and is perfectly content to go his own way. He never seemed to need Harry (except in the way this 'verse needed Harry).

I'd have picked Ron as more closely mirroring Peter, frankly.

[oryx_leucoryx]

Where did the '13 at the table' thing get mention by Trelawney anyway, please?

When Dumbledore invites her to the table.

"I dare not, Headmaster! If I join the table, we shall be thirteen! Nothing could be more unlucky! Never forget that when thirteen dine together, the first to rise will be the first to die!"

People were trying to look for clues as to who will die in book 7. They were cataloging all mentions of people who 'stopped dead' and similar phrases.

[sunnyskywalker]

Considering how we never hear of any other brooms even coming close to competing with the Firebold... yeah, that's just a ridiculous excuse to make sure Sirius orders it instead. Maybe Wood was in on it.

[jodel-from-aol.livejournal.com]

The comparison was all in Harry's mind and only lasted until he *met* Pettigrew.

What set it off was the story of Poor little Peter standing up to Evil Sirius Black and being hopelessly outclassed, and remembering Neville standing up to the three of them over their insistance on going out and raiding the Labyrinth and being hexed for it by Hermione.

I'll agree that the parallel makes sense exactly when and how it was brought up. But it was the readers' fault for hanging onto it one minute after it was made clear that the story was false.

[sistermagpie.livejournal.com]

I agree w/Jodel here--it's all part of setting up the switch at the end that Harry builds a story in his mind where Peter's not as good as the others but stands up bravely to Sirius. But it's uses of misdirects like that that did set us up to think that one day Harry would figure out that he had some bad instincts in that direction.

[sistermagpie.livejournal.com]

OMG, the Crookshanks explanation makes it all just perfect. Why doesn't Crookshanks get any other things to do if he's smart enough to mail things to the post office? He might have been writing a novel for all we know.

Good call on the prophecy. It's like arithmancy!

[sistermagpie.livejournal.com]

Looking back, yeah, it looks like Harry could totally have been killed by Sirius and it actually would have gotten them one step closer to Voldemort being dead. Of course, it's good having Harry around because of the Voldie vision, but since they don't actually take advantage of that...

The Buckbeak story just completely blew my mind the way it covers so many things. There's the whole execution of an animal while still defending it through it's animal-ness. Then there's the way that the animal's technically actually guilty. I mean, it's unclear what the argument is.

Hagrid totally keeps animals like that. Here he's still sad about giving up his dragon that he never should have had.

[sistermagpie.livejournal.com]

I almost expect Harry to say something about it when Ron said that. Like...um, when did your dad tell you this, Ron? Did he tell you anything else?

And yeah, Ron probably should know something about Draco's family. Not only are they part of that little Pureblood clique but they hate each other's families. You'd think they'd know them just for taht reason.

[sistermagpie.livejournal.com]

You know, if it's so easy for an escaped convict to have a cat mail-order a broom,

I just had to quote that because it's the best opening to a sentence ever. Whatever point you're making must be brilliant.

The Firebolt thing is about to get so OTT in your face it's hard to believe. It's like Harry might as well be an Olympic athlete playing against toddlers.

[sistermagpie.livejournal.com]

But Brad, hating intensely is a sure sign of amazing love!

Yes, I love when Ginny and Harry bond over being the awesome cool people who stand up for the outcasts. It's so blatant it's hilarious. Also going down the checklist: They're both Quidditch stars, they're both wanted by everyone, and now this!

I'm not sure about the dog...it would depend on the circumstances. If it was abused in a dogfighting ring, it might go to a shelter that would care for it forever. But usually it probably would be put down because it would be dangerous. They kill animals in zoos that attack people, I think. Or what about that whale at Seaworld that recently killed somebody?

[lynn-waterfall.livejournal.com]

When Luna was saying nice things about Ginny, could she have been being sarcastic?

Would people be able to *tell* if she was being sarcastic?

[lynn-waterfall.livejournal.com]

Well, the Firebolt is insanely expensive; Harry wasn't considering that as an option. He didn't think he could afford it. (Although he didn't actually know the price; the sign said "price available upon request.")

Apparently Sirius *could* afford it, but even he said "Please consider it as thirteen birthdays’ worth of presents from your godfather," not "please consider it a belated birthday present."

That line about how "some git like Malfoy" might "think" it was favoritism really is mind blowing, though. Yes, he might. It takes a Gryffindor to not think that. As long as they're the ones being favored.

[madderbrad.livejournal.com]

When Luna was saying nice things about Ginny, could she have been being sarcastic?

I'd like to think she was, but of course we know that wasn't Rowling's intent; she thinks that Ginny is ... well, not perfect, but perfect for Harry and so forth. And Harry's not perfect but the closest thing to it in Rowling's world.

I think one could make a case that Ginny and Luna aren't nearly the friends they're supposed to be. After all, despite Luna's telling us that Ginny "stopped two boys in our Transfiguration class calling me 'Loony' the other day", we shouldn't forget that Ginny was just as nasty (albeit behind Luna's back) the very first time we meet the Ravenclaw:

'What are you talking about?' said Ginny, who had squeezed past Neville to peer into the compartment behind him. 'Thereʹs room in this one, thereʹs only Loony Lovegood in here —ʹ

... and then Ginny 'suppresses a giggle' at something the girl says just moments later. Respect and peer friendship, not.

I think Luna being Ginny's 'Neville' - someone to be pitied a bit, looked down on, helped out in fits of benevolence - is supported by the canon text. However we know for sure that Luna genuinely likes Ginny - we have that 'friends' montage that she painted on her bedroom ceiling as proof of that. Just nothing but behaviour that could be viewed as patronising going the other way.

[madderbrad.livejournal.com]

But Brad, hating intensely is a sure sign of amazing love!

Hmmm ... I'd say that Rowling's #1 sign of AMAZING LOVE is jealousy - the books are riddled with it. The only real sign of any 'anvils' signifying Ron's attraction to Hermione was his jealousy of Krum. In book #6 they both use other people to try and make the other jealous. Harry's lust for Ginny is born from jealousy of Dean. And Ginny spends all of book 7 jealous of any female who might smile at Harry.

It's something I've really detested of Rowling's work; she really seems to have no idea of how to portray romantic love other than by jealousy.

So I'll put that above Harry-hate as the first sign of amazing love. :-)