PoA Chapter Nineteen

[sistermagpie.livejournal.com]

Oh good, more interesting backstory. This is usually the best part of the book. Even Dumbledore’s DH backstory is pretty good in itself. Too bad it’s told five times and has nothing to do with the plot. (And that we apparently only get the censored hets-only version.)

Snape announces right away that Lupin forgot to take his Potion, but neither of them seem to think it’s urgent that he get on that.

Lupin calls Snape a fool for letting a schoolboy grudge put an innocent man in prison. I’m going to stick up for Snape a little here. From his pov this isn’t a schoolboy grudge. He’s got every reason to think Sirius is guilty and so is Lupin. It’s not just that he’ll be happy to see them put in jail. This is one of the few times Snape isn’t letting his schoolboy grudge push him into doing something stupid.

Hermione timidly asks Snape if it would really hurt to hear what they have to say. Snape forgets to reply that actually yes, the one thing that could hurt them all right now is hanging around waiting for everyone to tell a story. Even though he just mentioned the forgotten werewolf potion.

Snape seems beyond reason—but one can hardly blame him given how everybody’s still carefully speaking in such a way as to not give him a reason to change his mind.

It’s like everybody feels bound to tell the story from the beginning or not tell it at all.

Harry, catching on to this plan, jumps in front of Snape and starts talking about how Lupin could have killed him during his secret Defense of the Dark Arts lessons, and then brings up Snape’s wanting revenge for school…honestly people, nobody’s telling the guy anything. You all sound just as unreasonable as he does.

LOL! Harry says if Lupin wanted to kill him he could have done it any time during the year and that means he’s not trying to kill him. Actually Harry, having read the whole series, not killing you for the whole year is practically proof that he is planning to kill you. That’s how they do in your universe.

Harry calls Snape pathetic—and he may be correct, but the evidence here from Snape’s pov still points to him being correct about catching these two. Harry himself took far longer to go from “I will kill you with my bare hands you filthy murderer!” to the state he’s in now than Snape’s had since his entrance.

Not that Snape notices this. He immediately sinks to Harry’s level so the two can CAPSLOCK at each other about who ought to be on their knees thanking who. This might take a while.

Meanwhile, the moon’s just taking its time getting into the sky. No rush.

The Trio all become masters of Snape’s wand. Not sure how that will work. Luckily we won’t know about it until DH.

Hermione whimpers that they’ve attacked a teacher and will be in so much trouble. Nice to know that this part of Hermione’s ethical sense stays true throughout the books.

After knocking Snape out, Harry says he still doesn’t believe Lupin. Sure he’ll insult the Slytherin for not believing Lupin and attack him over it, but that’s just school spirit.

Lupin gets to his feet and starts calmly planning a demonstration with Scabbers. You’d think Lupin would be a little more aware of FULL MOON nights, wouldn’t you?

Ron still hasn’t quite gotten up to speed on the rat thing. It’s really not that difficult Ron. You know Animagi exist and since YOU can recognize Scabbers apart from other rats, so can Black. It doesn’t really matter how he figured out where he was.

The Weasleys were on the front page of the Prophet? Okay, I take it back. It really must have been a slow news day.

Harry’s brain feels like it’s sagging under the weight of all this info. This wouldn’t be funny if it weren’t Harry where you really do know he can’t hold all this in his head.

Harry suddenly jolts back into “And Peter faked his death because you were going to kill him because you killed my parents!” Something he forgot ten minutes ago when he was knocking Snape out for trying to get Sirius punished for…killing his parents.

Harry CAPSLOCKS that Sirius already admitted he was the Potters’ secret keeper and he killed them. Sirius explains that he only meant he as good as killed them. Hey, Sirius finally realizes, maybe I should have made that clear 12 years ago!

The moral here is: Don’t speak metaphorically when being interrogated by police.

Having gotten through every second of backstory, we can finally just turn the rat into a man which we probably should have done a while ago, when Ron still had all his fingers. A transformed animagus is worth a thousand words, after all. Though these guys would obviously take the thousand words any day!

Lupin and Sirius turn Peter into a man together. Because up until the end they have to drag this out.

They don’t say anything to transform him. Are they both supposed to be performing the same wordless spell?

At this point I’m shocked they’d avoid explaining the spell before they do it.

Remus’s interrogation of Peter would be completely made of awesome if he wasn’t blatantly forgetting that the moon’s rising and he really needs to get their asses to safety.

And also if Snape wasn’t lying on the floor here all this time. Really, the guy hasn’t done much wrong here and nobody has felt at all badly for injuring him. I’m not saying you have to rush him to safety (though that would have the added bonus of GETTING THE WEREWOLF TO HIS POTION) but nobody cares at all they’ve knocked him unconscious.

Remus assures Peter that no one is going to kill him until they’ve sorted a few things out. If there’s one thing you can trust, Peter, it’s that they won’t do a single thing until they’ve sorted a few things out.

After which Remus will most likely kill him along with everyone else in the room when he TURNS INTO A WEREWOLF!

Sirius makes the Death Eaters sound a lot scarier and more intelligent in his speech than they actually are. Granted, that’s not hard.

Sirius wonders why he didn’t see Peter as a spy from the start. Having seen the flashbacks in OotP I think we’re all wondering that Sirius.

Seriously, it doesn’t say much for the Marauders that they had this guy in their gang.

I love that Sirius explains they made him the Secret Keeper because everybody knows he’s so pathetic they would never guess they’d put faith in him. This is the reason I can’t ever really hate Peter when the worm turned.

Also it’s not that great of a plan. Voldemort probably would have captured Peter to torture him for some information at some point, even if he never thought they’d be so stupid as to make him the secret keeper.

Correction: Even if he never thought anyone would be so stupid as to not make themselves their own secret keeper, which you can apparently do according to DH. That crash you heard was the entire Potters backstory, and thus the premise of this whole book, collapsing.

I love how Hermione has completely slipped into “bright student” mode during this exchange, to Lupin’s appreciation.

Of course, it’s too bad she doesn’t timidly remind Lupin that there’s a full moon a-rising.

Hermione calling Sirius “Mr. Black” and his reaction to it is pretty touching. Though I suspect it’s partly that he’s not used to being old enough to be called Mr. Black. (Unlike the Twins he probably didn’t start ordering anyone he could to call him that when he was 17.)

Hermione asks how Sirius got out of Azkaban without using “Dark Magic.” WTH is Dark Magic? Why would it be the only way you could get out of Azkaban? Half the things I can think of off the top of my head that would help escaping from prison are spells they use all the time.

Sirius keeps stressing that it wasn’t a happy feeling but an obsession that got him out of Azkaban. Obsessions are the most powerful force in this series, for all they say about love.

Sirius is pretty awesome in his story here. If only he’d thrown himself on Dumbledore’s mercy and allowed him to talk him out of jail and give him a position teaching Sirius would have lived a long and happy life. But no, he had to wrestle his own demons, break himself out of Azkaban, swim the English channel and steal Dumbledore’s thunder entirely. He’ll pay for that.

LOL! Sirius was thin enough as a dog to slip through the bars at Azkaban? Is there a bar shortage in the WW? He’s a big dog!

Peter should tell them all that Dumbledore ordered him to reveal the Potters’ location as part of Dumbledore’s own bigger plan and Sirius messed it up by not telling the truth or something. Let’s face it, it’s totally something Dumbledore would do. What was the point of telling the enemy about the 7 Potters plan?

Peter claims James would show mercy. I half expect Snape to wake up and start ranting about James going after him 4 against one and not knowing the meaning of the word mercy. Unfortunately, Snape’s still lying unconscious gathering brain damage on the floor. Maybe he can rant and rave about James in his sleep at this point.

Not that it really bothers me, but Harry’s line about reckoning his dad wouldn’t want Sirius and Lupin to become killers is pretty out of left field.

They’ll revive Snape when they get to the castle. That way he won’t have time to wake up and scream, “ASD;FLKASD;FLJASDF WEREWOLF POTION!”

Things that happen twice:
When you’ve attacked someone violently and hurt them, the hero will worry about getting in trouble.
Peter cut off his own finger before he transformed. That’ll be good practice for the next book.
Ron joins the ranks of pet owners who refuse to believe their pet could do anything wrong.
Peter, meanwhile, framed Crookshanks just like he framed Sirius. And just as people kind of keep implying the Malfoys are framing Buckbeak even though Buckbeak actually did it.
Snape’s injury is of even less interest to our hero’s as Draco’s.
Everybody thought there was a spy during the first war. People will vaguely talk about a spy in DH, though nothing ever comes of it. I mean, we know the “spy” is Snape and Dumbledore manipulating things that don’t need to be manipulated, but it doesn’t cause this sort of mistrust. How can it when nobody on the good side’s actually doing anything?
Post-HBP Harry’s random instinct that James would be upset at his friends “becoming killers” makes more sense. No soul damage!
Lupin waits to revive Snape until they’re at the castle since it’s more convenient. I can’t help but think of all the information the good guys didn’t pass on about Montague for the same reason.
And in a way, they pay for it the same way. I doubt Snape wouldn’t have noticed the time by now and pointed out the moon.
Peter and Draco are both given jobs based on their being completely unsuitable for them, and both Peter and Draco turn expectations on their heads, and try to jump sides, directly effecting victory.

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

Lots of Death Eaters out there biding their time, ready got kill Peter…
There must be a whole interesting faction of people on the other side who’ll come into play later!
Status: Dud. The only DEs with anything like personalities are neutralized early on.

Dark Magic
Can’t wait to find out what this really is!
Status: Dud. It’s spells invented by evil people or something.

Remus the Spy
There were some theories that we’d find out why this is.
Status: Dud. It seems Remus was thought to be the spy because he’s spineless. He’s just hiding it well in this book.

Weapons you can’t imagine
Voldemort sounds really scary when Peter describes him. I wonder what those weapons are?
Status: Dud. Still wondering. The only trick up his sleeve Voldemort has are Horcruxes.





Exploitation Filmmakers’ Credo
Think, everyone. What was one of the first things Snape said when he came in? Something about the reason he went to Lupin’s office…

James Bond Exposition Rule
Even if the heroes are doing it. Instead of giving the good guys a chance to escape, they’re giving the villain a chance to escape.

McGuffin
So basically, kids, this whole story about Sirius chasing Harry was a McGuffin of sorts. It gave Harry a reason to think about him.

Misdirected Answering
No, really, let’s keep talking about how Scabbers couldn’t be Peter instead of just pointing a stick at him to see if he is.

Jabootu Score: 4

Comments

[oryx_leucoryx]

What seems to have happened that he became so obsessed with finally finding a wand that could kill the Potter boy that he couldn't be bothered about any other act of archvillainy. But since we didn't get enough information that hangs together about the first war we have no idea what he was like before he became so obsessed, so we have no idea if the public fear was based on anything but propaganda. However Trelawney's prediction about him being more terrible than before fell completely flat (unless she was referring to his looks). Also, by the time he returned all of his supporters but Bellatrix (and perhaps some of the other prisoners) have proven their hearts aren't really in it. Yes, the Carrows used the situation for their personal sadism but they too preferred the times Voldemort was gone. Things may have been different before they learned their Master was vulnerable.

For a story with a more realistically villainous Voldemort see for instance Caeria's Pet Project. Alas, it is a WIP that hasn't been updated since September 2009. It was started before HBP so no Horcruxes. SS/HG, though in 37 chapters the romantic relationship isn't there yet (poor Severus is in denial, and Albus' manipulation is making things worse because he thinks an emotional attachment for Severus would be bad for his plans). Intelligent discussion of Dark Arts. Original use of Arithmancy. Harry driven to obsession with Dark Magic. Intelligent Ron. Voldemort's nefarious plans start surfacing in chapter 31. Oh, there is also an OC house-elf with his own fandom.