COS Chapter Three: "The Burrow"

[for-diddled.livejournal.com]

* Aww, c’mon, Jo, do we have to go with Harry to the Burrow? Couldn’t we go to Malfoy Manor with Theo Nott instead?

* Would Arthur really know about Harry’s reprimand, given that it’s got nothing to do with his department? “He works in the Ministry” often seems to be another way of saying “A wizard did it”.

 * So none of the neighbours noticed a car hovering in mid-air next to Harry’s bedroom?

* Fred’s “We feel they’re skills worth learning” is probably meant to make him sound all tolerant and pro-Muggle. Unfortunately the effect is undermined somewhat by the fact that he only seems to be interested in learning how to steal things.

* BTW, I just think it’s nice that the twins are using their skills here in service of a good cause, rather than to bully the Slytherins or make mischief for the hell of it. It’s a shame they don’t do this more often.

* Given the WW’s rather lax regard for animal rights, Hedwig’s probably lucky that nothing worse has happened to her than almost being left behind.

* I’d have thought that Vernon would be happy to see Harry escaping, given that he seems to hate the boy.

* They let Hedwig out to fly alongside them. Pity they won’t think of this when they have to escape in DH.

* Malfoy doesn’t like Harry. Malfoy’s the sort of person who’d have a house-elf. Therefore, Malfoy’s the one who sent Dobby. QED! Obviously elementary logic isn’t on the Hogwarts curriculum. (Well, we wouldn’t people learning to question old Twinkly, would we?)

* Fred and George seem perfectly happy to repeat everything their dad says about the Malfoys. This shows that they are tireless fighters for Good, as opposed to Draco, whose willingness to repeat everything his dad says about Muggleborns shows that he’s an evil bigot who deserves to get hexed into unconsciousness by Harry and friends.

* Note that the fact that Harry’s always beating Draco, rather than vice versa, in no way alters the fact that Harry’s the underdog in this story.

* Draco, the boy who sometimes makes snotty comments about Hagrid and the Weasleys, makes Dudley, the boy who spent eleven years physically abusing Harry and his friends, look like a kind, thoughtful and sensitive boy. Right.

* If house-elves are set free by being given clothes, how would one be able to help Mrs. Weasley with the ironing? And given all the stuff that wizards can do with magic, I have great difficulty believing that nobody’s invented an ironing spell yet.

* Actually, given that pretty much any household chore can be done using magic in a few seconds, I’m surprised wizards need servants. Still, I suppose we have to have some way of showing how privileged the Malfoys are.

* If the Weasleys’ owl collapses on deliveries, mightn’t it be better to get a new one?

* Percy’s been spending most of his time in his room, polishing his, ahem, Prefect badge. Because obviously, a sixteen-year-old boy wouldn’t spend time in his bedroom for any other reason.

* Come to think of it, though, “I’ve just got to go and polish my Prefect badge” sounds like one of the euphemisms from that Saturday Night Live sketch with Lindsay Lohan as Hermione.

* That’s right, Arthur, wipe their memories! They’re only Muggles, after all, so you can pretty much do anything you want to them.

* The kids’ idea to pretend Harry arrived in the middle of the night has got to be one of the dumbest plans I have ever heard.

* Note how Fred gets all resentful about “perfect Percy”, even though Mrs. Weasley referred to Bill and Charlie, too. Yep, you can tell Percy’s a valued member of this family, alright. I can’t imagine what made him decide to align himself with the Ministry instead of his family.

* For a poor family, the Weasleys seem to have no difficulty in looking after Harry for however many weeks it is that he stays. It seems like they’re only poor when Ron needs to angst about not having enough money; when actually being poor might inconvenience one of the characters in any practical way, they’re fine.

* It might have made sense for the Weasleys to have difficulty looking after seven children (although it would rather call their judgement into question), but now that two have left home, four are at a free boarding school for most of the year, and one is about to start said boarding school, their financial situation really should have improved.

* How exactly is Mr. Weasley too soft with the gnomes? Is it that he insists on just throwing them away, rather than killing them or whatever?

* Mr. Weasley’s just as prejudiced, in his own way, as the Malfoys are. It sometimes seems as if the only distinguisher between the good guys and the bad guys in these books is whether they talk about Muggles as if they were children, or whether they talk about Muggles as if they were animals.

* Arthur’s been using his position to deliberately make loopholes in the law so that he can continue tinkering with Muggle stuff. Why do I get the impression that, if Lucius did such a thing, it’d be treated as a sign of his irredeemable evilness?

* Silly backwards Muggles, with their theatre and their literature and their television and their films and their opera. Wizards have got The Adventures of Martin Miggs, the Mad Muggle, which is obviously far superior in every respect.

* The part about the gnomes sneaking back into the garden made me chuckle.

* I love Ron’s waiting for Harry’s opinion of his room. It’s just so natural and realistic and sweet.
 

Comments

[sunnyskywalker]

The Twins used to have moments where they actually seemed to care about others' welfare, albeit briefly. In PS/SS they helped Harry get his trunk on the train before they knew who he was - he was just some random scrawny first year as far as they knew. What happened to those guys? Fred and George getting more callous, and then getting a rude awakening when their weapons-dealing helped DEs invade Hogwarts and rethinking their lives, would have been an interesting subplot, but unfortunately it stopped with "getting more callous." Are we meant to think that's a lovable foible?

The Dursleys are in quite a bind, it seems. They don't want Harry around, but they don't want him hanging out with wizards even more. Or showing them up by escaping.

At least wizards have Martin Miggs comics. Otherwise we'd have to wonder whether Beadle's tales, Celestina Warbeck, and the Weird Sisters were the only wizarding entertainment in existence. (Okay, and Lockhart's supposedly non-fiction tales of adventure.) This shows some evidence of popular reading material.

Not only does Percy have good emotional reasons for leaving the Weasley family, but logical ones too. The whole family follows Dumbledore without considering whether being powerful and against Voldemort is enough qualification for leadership. Percy could well conclude that he wanted to be on Team Good and oppose the various criminals and former DEs that caused trouble, but that Dumbledore and co. were ineffective and/or causing more harm than good. The Ministry might have flaws, but at least they didn't depend on a cult of personality and so had hope for improvement. (And Percy's too trusting about other people's intentions, but for crying out loud, he's still practically a kid and that's understandable.) The Ministry really can point to successes, from incarcerating DEs to making sure cauldrons meet standards so they don't melt and hurt people. What about Dumbledore? Failed to protect the Potters, failed to defeat Voldemort, failed to protect Hogwarts from all manner of monsters, sabotaged school unity with blatant favoritism, failed to so much as keep his groundskeeper out of Azkaban... If he can't convince anyone for fifty years that a big spider does not kill people without leaving a mark, or even to check Hagrid's memories to see that his pet was a spider, either he's incompetent or didn't try. Percy might not know the details, but wouldn't he wonder why, if Dumbledore is sure Hagrid isn't the culprit, he was unable to find any convincing evidence to clear his name? For fifty years? We know he does wonder things, like why Dumbledore didn't explain why the third-floor corridor was off-limits.

[oryx_leucoryx]

We also know he cared about Ron and Ginny - even when he was already working for the Ministry. (I love the image of officially dressed Percy running into the lake to help Ron out.) And both suffered (Ron repeatedly) from Dumbledore's various schemes or acts of incompetence. So why not conclude that aligning with Dumbledore was a bad move for a Weasley?

[sunnyskywalker]

It is a great image! Considering how much he tries to appear dignified in front of... well, everyone, it's also a pretty good indicator that he cares about Ron quite a bit, as does writing to Harry Potter's official best friend while the Hogwarts mail was potentially being read by third parties. He was also perfectly willing to charge into battle against the DEs at the World Cup, so we know he's willing to face dangers that are clearly happening. Deciding not to trust the guy who's repeatedly endangered an entire school (including his siblings) when the guy makes a huge claim with basically no supporting evidence doesn't sound out of line. Even with his doubts, Percy apparently trusted Harry and Dumbledore enough not to think maybe Harry killed Cedric and Dumbledore was covering it up, so he isn't just determined to believe the worst. Sounds like he's making considered decisions to me.

[seductivedark.livejournal.com]

But, questioning is bad. One must follow without question or be consigned to the dump heap of Potterdom.

[sunnyskywalker]

Very true. Maybe this is why he was punished for dissing Bagman for not looking for Bertha Jorkins by not discovering Crouch was Imperiused. (Not that anyone else looked for Jorkins or noticed anything wrong with Crouch before he started staying home, not even his long-time colleagues or anyone at the first task.)

[condwiramurs.livejournal.com]

I love your recap of Percy, by the way. He makes so much sense he could almost be Muggle. :) Which is probably why Rowling hates him so much... Also, he is one of the few in the series who seem to value actual loyalty (not to be confused with kissing Dumbledore's ass), fair play and hard work.

Good point. Maybe this is why I love Snape/Percy. :)

[sunnyskywalker]

Oh, the content is wretched. I'm just saying at least there are some wizards with enough creativity to create such a thing as a comic book. We still don't know of any novels, radio dramas, etc., but it's a start.

Poor Percy. He actually seems to know the difference between loyalty and mindless obedience, and somehow that gets him tagged as less insightful and capable of following the "right" person. I guess he doesn't have that miraculous hero's intuition that would drop Horcruxes and backstory into his lap if he needed. And now that you mention Muggles, he actually advised Harry that Muggle Studies was a useful class. Hm...