COS Chapter One: "The Worst Birthday"

[for-diddled.livejournal.com]

* I've liked reading these entries so much, I thought I'd have a go at writing my own. Enjoy! :)

* COS is probably my favourite book in the series. It will be interesting to see whether this is still true when I've finished snarking about it...

* The Dursleys spend most of the first page talking about food, just so no-one forgets that they’re fat, and therefore evil.

* Note that Dudley asking for more bacon is entirely different to Harry eating several portions of food when he’s at the Weasleys’.

* Gosh, the Dursleys really don’t like Harry talking about magic, do they? Not that I blame them, given what happened to Dudley the last time they met a wizard.

* Harry’s being treated “like a bomb that might go off at any minute”. That would seem to imply that they tiptoed around Harry, terrified lest they upset him, rather than yelling at him at the slightest provocation. Apparently the Dursleys think that bombs will deactivate if you shout at them loud enough.

* Harry’s worried that he’ll be thrown off the Quidditch team, conveniently forgetting that he’s a world-class player without even trying. Gotta keep that underdog status!

* It’s odd that Harry’s only skill is in sports, and that he’s skilful without having to work at it all. For a former teacher, JKR can come across as remarkably anti-intellectual and dismissive of hard work sometimes.

* The narrative voice briefly gets all judgemental about the Dursleys being ashamed to have a wizard in the family, whilst forgetting to mention how wizards treat their Muggle relatives (*coughGrangerscough*).

* I quite like Harry’s “I’ll be in my room, making no noise and pretending I’m not there.” It’s nice to see JKR actually showing Harry as a put-upon underdog, rather than simply telling us that he is whilst showing him on the receiving end of multiple displays of blatant favouritism.

* Harry’s only enjoyment comes from threatening Dudley. Remember folks, this is the boy whose amazing power is the ability to love.

* Remember the days when we hadn’t seen Voldemort fail to defeat three rather dim seventeen-year-old children, and could still hear someone say that he was “still terrifying, still cunning” without laughing? Man, I miss those days.

* “‘Well done,’ said Harry. ‘So you’ve finally learnt the days of the week.’” For a boy who thinks “U-No-Poo” is the height of wit, this is almost funny.

* If Dudley’s so fat, why are his trousers in danger of falling down?

* Whipped cream and sugared violets sounds quite unappetising to me. I suppose this lack of taste is meant to illustrate the Dursleys’ evilness or something.

* Harry goes upstairs to bed, and our blissful unawareness of Dobby’s existence is cruelly shattered.

Comments

[jodel-from-aol.livejournal.com]

His faults are all blatant Ravenclaw faults. Indeed there is precious little of the Gryffindor about him. One wonders about the "they" who keep saying he was one.

[oryx_leucoryx]

The only 'they' are whoever Hermione got it from. Chinese whispers may have been involved. Perhaps there was a confusion because Aberforth Dumbledore was indeed a Gryffindor (at least he matches the House traits better). I doubt 11 year old Hermione knew Albus had a brother.

[jodel-from-aol.livejournal.com]

That would certainly work. None of us knew that Albus had a brother until Albus made a point of mocking him in public. And no one seems to make much of a point in associating the two of them, even though Abe lives right there in Hogsmeade.

[oryx_leucoryx]

The other alternative is that the Hat wanted to place him in Ravenclaw and he asked to be placed somewhere else - his father's House, his mother's House or the House Doge just got Sorted into a few seconds previously. If he asked to be placed in Gryffindor he never really acquired the culture himself but he learned what other Gryffindors appreciated.

The only canon supporting Gryffindor!Albus is: rumors Hermione heard, a griffin doorknob (on the Doylist level it might be one of Rowling's little jokes, on the Watsonian level the doorknob may have been the same since the founding of the school) and his ability to use the sword of Gryffindor to destroy the Horcrux (if indeed only a Gryffindor under terms of need and valor can actually use it - a Slytherin can certainly carry it around).

[sharaz-jek.livejournal.com]

How would that enchantment even work? Seeing as how Snape can carry it, would he be incapable of moving it in a stabby or slashy way? COuld he even defend himself with it?

Or is it reinforcement of "sometimes we sort too soon"? But then that ignores the "under need and valour" clause...